President Biden Bans New Offshore Oil And Gas Drilling Along Coastline

Biden said drilling of these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places and is unnecessary to meet the nation's energy needs.

President Biden has banned new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coastline.

The order will protect around 625 million acres of ocean along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts as well as the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Bering Sea from “environmental and economic risks and harms.”

It is also an attempt to protect Biden’s climate legacy from the energy policy expected to be pursued by Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump.

Biden will use a provision of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which gives the president power to indefinitely withdraw unleased lands from the Outer Continental Shelf.

The president said drilling of these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places and is unnecessary to meet the nation’s energy needs. He added it is not worth the risks.