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
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and fellow Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer used Jerusalem Day to issue some of the strongest public calls yet from sitting Israeli officials for expanded Jewish control on the Temple Mount — and, in Kroizer’s case, the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple.
Iran’s ability to threaten Israel, America’s regional allies, and U.S. personnel across the Middle East has been dramatically reduced, according to Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, who told a Senate committee Thursday that Tehran’s military reach has been severely weakened after recent U.S. operations.
Israel and Lebanon are set to resume negotiations Thursday in Washington, with Israeli officials describing the talks as a potential turning point in the long and violent struggle between the Jewish state and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror organization.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition has submitted legislation to dissolve the Knesset and send Israel to elections, moving to seize control of a fast-developing political crisis triggered by ultra-Orthodox anger over the government’s failure to pass a draft exemption law for yeshiva students.
The U.S. Senate, in a 54-45 vote, confirmed Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
A CIA whistleblower told Congress on Wednesday that agency scientists repeatedly concluded COVID-19 most likely originated from a Chinese laboratory, only to have those findings softened, delayed, or suppressed by higher-level officials before the agency later acknowledged the lab-leak theory as its leading assessment.
Japan’s prime minister confirmed Thursday that a Japanese supertanker emerged in the Gulf of Oman after apparently making a rare “dark transit” through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz without broadcasting its location.