President Biden issued two Presidential Memoranda on Monday, banning future offshore oil and gas leasing in 625 million acres of U.S. ocean. Biden protected several areas, including the entire Atlantic Coast, from future offshore oil and gas leasing.
Almost a quarter of total U.S. oil production comes from federal lands and waters, according to the American Petroleum Institute. About 12% of national oil production and 11% of natural gas production came from federal lands.
“I will reverse it immediately, and we will drill, baby, drill,” President-elect Trump said during a press conference on Tuesday.
But that might be easier said than done — as Trump already knows. Biden issued two Presidential Memoranda that leverage his authority under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which states, “the President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the Outer Continental Shelf.”
This is not the first time a president, or even Biden himself, has invoked this power. Shortly before Trump took office in 2017, President Obama issued three Presidential Memoranda to protect the Atlantic Canyons, Chukchi Sea (Alaskan coast) and the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. Biden protected the North Carolina coast in the same manner in 2020, banning new leases until 2032.
In 2017, Trump issued Executive Order 13795 to expedite the sale of new oil and gas leases and revoke Obama-era withdrawals. The United States District Court for the District of Alaska overturned that section of Trump’s Executive Order in League of Conservation Voters v. Trump, signaling that a president would need Congressional approval to revoke another previous administration’s withdrawals.
Trump would also face the court of public opinion, according to Jenny Rowland-Shea, director of public lands at the nonprofit Center for American Progress.
“Governors, locals, workers — they don’t want to see their economies, their views, their beaches face the risk of oil and gas drilling,” Rowland-Shea said.
More than 12 million acres in the Gulf are under lease. The majority of those leases are unused, meaning oil companies aren’t actively drilling there.
In many areas, Biden’s new protections are somewhat redundant. There are some decades-old leases in Southern California and a few active leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. However, no active oil and gas development exists on the Atlantic Coast or in the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. Biden already banned new leases off the coast of North Carolina until 2032, though the new protections are indefinite.
Rowland-Shea said these protections are more than symbolic in light of the incoming administration.
“Under the first Trump administration, they did plan 47 lease sales that would be up and down both coasts, all over the place, off the coast of Alaska,” Rowland-Shea said.
Those 47 new lease areas included nine along the Atlantic Coast, and three specifically in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes North Carolina. With the current memo in place, it would be much harder for Trump to enact a similar plan during the next four years.
