Biden to block oil drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. waters

President Joe Biden will move Monday to block all future oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of federal waters – equivalent to nearly a quarter of the total land area of the United States, according to two people briefed on the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement is not yet public.
The action underscores how Biden is racing to cement his legacy on climate change and conservation in his last weeks in office. President-elect Donald Trump, who has described his energy policy as “drill, baby, drill,” is likely to work with congressional Republicans to challenge the decision.
Biden will issue two memorandums that prohibit future federal oil and gas leasing across large swaths of the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska, the two people said. The oil and gas industry has long prized the eastern Gulf of Mexico in particular, viewing the area as a key part of its offshore production plans.
Some details of the expected decision were first reported by Bloomberg News. The total acreage and the inclusion of the Northern Bering Sea have not previously been reported.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team, said in an email: “This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”
The move could have the biggest impact in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for about 14% of the country’s crude oil production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Industry operations there focus on a small sliver of federal waters off Louisiana’s coast.
The decision would have little effect on a stretch of the Atlantic from North Carolina to Florida, where no drilling is underway. There is weak industry interest in the region, and lawmakers from both parties have raised concerns about possible oil spills devastating local beaches and tourism.
In fact, Trump imposed a 10-year moratorium on offshore oil exploration off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina when courting voters there during his 2020 campaign. “This protects your beautiful gulf and your beautiful ocean, and it will for a long time to come,” Trump said as he announced the election-year reversal during an appearance at a lighthouse in Florida.
The Northern Bering Sea, off the coast of western Alaska, is home to migrating marine mammals including bowhead and beluga whales, walruses and ice seals, which are hunted by many Alaska Natives. In 2016, President Barack Obama issued an executive order that prohibited oil and gas exploration across more than 112,000 square miles of marine habitat in the Northern Bering Sea and called for tribal comanagement of the protected area.
Environmentalists praised Biden’s plans, saying they would prevent future oil spills that threaten coastal communities and marine wildlife.
“No one wants an oil spill off their coast, and our hope is that this can be a bipartisan historic moment where areas are set aside for future generations,” Joseph Gordon, climate and energy campaign director for the conservation group Oceana, said in a phone interview.
The industry has defended its safety record and several industry groups blasted the expected decision. Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents the offshore oil and wind industries, said areas with little interest today could become important to national security in the future.
“Even if there’s no immediate interest in some areas, it’s crucial for the federal government to maintain the flexibility to adapt its energy policy, especially in response to unexpected global changes like the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Milito said in an email. “Blanket bans only serve to shift energy production and economic opportunities abroad, benefiting countries like Russia at our expense.”
Biden plans to invoke the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which gives the president broad powers to withdraw federal waters from future leasing. A federal judge ruled in 2019 that such withdrawals cannot be undone without an act of Congress.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, the new chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, suggested that he would seek to overturn the decision using the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to nullify an executive action within 60 days of enactment with a simple majority vote.
The expected move is “yet another attempt by the Biden administration to undercut the incoming Trump administration and ignore the will of the American people – who decisively voted to reverse this war on American energy,” Lee said in an emailed statement, adding, “Senate Republicans will push back using every tool at our disposal.”
Biden and his deputies have been working to finalize several conservation policies during his final days in office. The Interior Department proposed restricting energy development across more than 260,000 acres in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Biden will travel to California to designate two national monuments on lands sacred to Native American tribes – the roughly 644,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California and the roughly 200,000-acre Sáttítla National Monument near the Oregon border.