By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – A standoff emerged Tuesday between outgoing President Joe Biden and his incoming successor, Donald J. Trump, over his plans to expand offshore drilling.
Trump, whose “drill, baby, drill” mantra has energized the fossil fuel industry, condemned Biden for moving to ban new offshore oil and natural gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters.
It was seen as a last-minute effort to prevent the incoming Trump from taking action.
Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement.
“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren,” he stressed.
Biden’s orders would not affect large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico, where most U.S. offshore drilling occurs. Still, it would protect coastlines along California, Florida, and other states from future drilling.
BAN ‘RIDICULOUS’
However, in a radio interview, Trump branded the ban “ridiculous”.
“I’ll unban it immediately,” he pledged. “I have the right to unban it immediately.”
Trump has previously said he will reverse Biden’s conservation and climate change policies, arguing that the United States has been taken advantage of by heavy carbon dioxide, or CO2, emitting countries like China.
Yet analysts say Biden’s actions, which protect more than 625 million acres of federal waters, could be complex for President-elect Donald Trump to unwind since they would likely require an act of the United States Congress to repeal.
Trump himself has a complicated history of offshore drilling. In 2020, he signed a memorandum directing the Interior Secretary to prohibit drilling in the waters off both Florida coasts and off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina until 2032.
The action came after Trump initially moved to vastly expand offshore drilling before retreating amid widespread opposition in Florida and other coastal states. Biden’s ban covers the Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
It is the latest in a string of last-minute climate policy actions by the Biden administration ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is preparing for the possibility that an emerging U.S.-Iran agreement could pressure Jerusalem to limit its military campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, even as Israeli leaders insist the country must retain freedom of action against threats along its northern border.
Ukraine’s Pentecost Sunday was overshadowed by mourning after Russia used its hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile in one of the heaviest assaults on Kyiv and surrounding regions since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, killing at least four people and injuring about 100 others, officials said Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that President Donald Trump agreed any final agreement with Iran must dismantle Tehran’s nuclear enrichment sites and remove enriched nuclear material from Iranian territory, as Israeli defense officials voiced growing alarm over the emerging U.S.-backed diplomatic framework.
Iran has denied agreeing to surrender any of its enriched uranium stockpile under a proposed U.S.-brokered ceasefire framework, raising fresh questions over whether a broader peace deal can survive its most difficult issues: Tehran’s nuclear program, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran’s continued support for Hezbollah.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that his administration is in “no hurry” to finalize an end-of-war agreement with Iran, signaling caution after earlier indications that Washington and Tehran were nearing a framework deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and preserve a fragile cease-fire.
More than half of the federal budget will go toward benefits for Americans 65 years and older by 2036, and that percentage is set to only grow, a recent congressional report finds.
Two people were shot, including the suspected gunman, in a shooting outside the White House Saturday night.