Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- President Joe Biden announced a ban on future offshore drilling in several U.S. waters.
- Industry representatives criticized the ban as harmful to oil and gas development.
- The ban's future is uncertain, with potential legal challenges and congressional debates.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has announced prohibitions on future oil and gas drilling across parts of the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the Northern Bering Sea. This withdrawal of rights will not affect the majority of offshore drilling in the U.S., which takes place in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, according to E&E News. The federal government has not allowed drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico since the early 1990s.
In reaction, the Center for Western Priorities issued the following statement from its executive director Jennifer Rokala.
"This will protect hundreds of coastal communities from the dangers of oil and gas drilling," she said. "Now is the time to expand clean energy, not double down on fossil fuel extraction."
What industry has to say
"President Biden's decision to ban new offshore oil and natural gas development across approximately 625 million acres of U.S. coastal and offshore waters is significant and catastrophic. While it may not directly affect the currently active protraction areas in the Outer Continental Shelf and adjoining coastal areas, it represents a major attack on the oil and natural gas industry," said Independent Petroleum Association of America's Offshore Committee Chairman Ron Neal.
"This should be seen as the elephant's nose under the tent. The ban severely limits potential for exploration and development in new areas therefore choking the long-term survivability of the industry," he said.
Neal said the ban is part of a larger agenda to attack oil and natural gas extraction.
"This move is a first step toward more extensive restrictions all across our industry in all U.S. basins including the onshore. If the activists come for anything, they are coming for everything. The policy is catastrophic for the development of new areas for oil and natural gas, but the environmentalists will eventually look to also shut down offshore wind farms for most of the same reasons. President Biden and his allies continue to push anti-energy policies that will hurt Americans," he said.
Wind farms and their risk to birds
The National Audubon Society released a report Wednesday, addressing best practices when it comes to wind farms and protection of birds — which has been a point of controversy.
It noted potential impacts to birds from offshore wind farms can be avoided with proper siting and careful development that takes into account interruption of the ecosystem.
Impacts include:
- Dangerous collisions with turbines.
- Birds that avoid wind energy projects often do so at their own peril and thus lose valuable habitat.
- Ocean ecosystems are often interrupted by these wind energy projects and affect the ability for birds to find food.
Can the ban stand?
President-elect Donald Trump announced this week he would reverse the band on offshore drilling immediately after taking office later this month. That decision, however, could spark litigation or end up as a debate before Congress.
Biden issued the ban through a provision of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
This is not the first presidential sparring match over offshore drilling.
According to CNBC, during Trump's first term, he tried to issue an executive order to reverse President Barack Obama's use of the law to protect waters in the Arctic and Atlantic from offshore drilling. A federal court ruled that Trump's order was illegal, and reversing the ban would require an act of Congress.
With the GOP in control of both the Senate and House of Representatives, that could potentially happen.
