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Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, between 2017 and 2021, saw a significant amount of legislation and actions that flew in the face of protecting the environment. He rolled back, or derailed, as many as 125 environmental safeguards that ranged from infamously pulling the United States from the Paris Agreement, to reversing emissions standards set by previous administrations. There is skepticism that his second term won’t feature proposing more legislation and signing executive orders that go against efforts to combat climate change and safeguard the oceans.
With that context, the Biden administration recently announced a ban on offshore drilling along the entire U.S. Atlantic coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the coasts of Washington, Oregon and, California, and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea. If you’re keeping track, that covers every inch of U.S. coastline that touches the ocean. The ban will span 625 million acres of ocean by preventing oil companies from leasing the waters for new drilling and it’s being invoked under a safeguard meant to prevent Trump from reversing it when he’s sworn in later this month.
“I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said in a radio interview. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”
That will be a challenge, though. Biden’s ban has been enacted under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 (OCSLA). That “empowers the Secretary to grant leases to the highest qualified responsible bidder on the basis of sealed competitive bids and to formulate regulations as necessary to carry out the provisions of the Act.” Through this, a president can withdraw areas for mineral leasing and drilling. It does not allow presidents to undo prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling after Trump attempted to undo former president Barack Obama’s protection of 125 million acres of Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. So now, Trump would need to enlist the help of lawmakers in congress and the U.S. judicial system in order to overturn the current ban.
Nonetheless, the OCSLA has been amended several times since its inception 70 years ago. According to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 saw the most recent changes to the OCSLA. That amendment required the BOEM to hold at least one oil and gas lease sale and offer a total of at least 60 million acres for oil and gas leasing.
We’ll have to wait and see how the new administration handles the ban. More court proceedings could certainly be on the horizon.
