Biden To Block Drill, Baby Drill And It May Be Nearly Impossible For Trump To Reverse

President Biden is expected to rely on a 1953 law that gives him the power to ban new federal oil and gas leases in federal waters, thus sinking Trump's agenda.

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Biden To Derail Trump’s Offshore Drilling Agenda

A key piece of Donald Trump’s energy agenda has been to vastly expand oil and natural gas drilling on federal lands and waters. Even though such a policy would not lower energy prices for the American people because the oil and gas will belong to the energy companies and be sold on the open global market, Trump has sold the lie to his supporters and much of the country that this scheme is a viable energy strategy.

Joe Biden is still the president, and he is not about to allow Trump to wreck the planet to help his fossil fuel donors make more money.

The New York Times reported:

Mr. Biden intends to invoke an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, that would give him wide latitude to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing, said the people. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the policy publicly.

…

While section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act gives a president wide leeway to bar drilling, it does not include language that would allow Mr. Trump or any future president to revoke a ban.

That was tested after President Barack Obama banned offshore drilling in parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean. During his first term in office Mr. Trump tried to revoke the ban. In 2019, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Alaska ruled that Mr. Obama’s ban could not be undone without an act of Congress.

Biden cleverly plans to include the North Carolina through Florida coast in his ban, and that is Trump country. If Trump tries to reverse the ban, it will cause him and Republicans elected in that area massive political headaches heading into the 2026 midterm.

Joe Biden Is Trying To Trump-Proof America Before He Leaves Office

For his part, the president-elect has his own plan to deal with the law being in his way. On immigration, Trump is planning on breaking the law and daring the courts to stop him.