Biden bans oil, gas leases off NC and other coasts. Trump calls it ‘ridiculous’
President Joe Biden on Monday permanently banned oil and natural gas leasing off North Carolina’s coast, part of a sweeping effort to prevent offshore fossil fuel development.
With a presidential memorandum, Biden permanently withdrew 625 million acres from future oil and natural gas leasing, the largest such action in United States history. That includes federal waters off of the entire U.S. east coast; in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico off Florida and part of Alabama; and in the Pacific Ocean from California to Washington.
Offshore drilling in those locations is not worth risking a spill like 2010’s Deepwater Horizon, which gushed more than 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico before being capped 87 days later, Biden wrote in a statement.
For North Carolina, Biden’s actions make the temporary protections then-President Donald Trump enacted in the run-up to the 2020 election permanent. And they likely require Congressional action to unwind, based on a federal judge’s decision in a 2019 case.
“We do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low. Those are false choices,” the outgoing president wrote.
Federally controlled waters on the Outer Continental Shelf largely cover seafloor that starts three nautical miles off of the coast and extends to 200 nautical miles.
In September 2020, Trump used presidential power from the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to ban oil and gas leasing in the Atlantic Ocean off of North Carolina from 2022 to 2032, as well as to issue temporary protections for waters off of Georgia, South Carolina and the eastern coast of Florida.
Biden used that same authority to make the bans permanent.
Trump, now the incoming president, called Biden’s actions “ridiculous” in a Monday appearance with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt.
“It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately. I will unban it. I have the right to unban it immediately,” Trump said, vowing to expand oil and gas exploration and calling fossil fuels the nation’s greatest economic asset.
Those remarks appear to directly contradict an Alaska U.S. District Court judge’s 2019 decision that found that while the law gives presidents the power to withdraw parts of the ocean from leases, it does not allow them to overturn withdrawals enacted by previous presidents.
Such an action would require action by Congress, the federal judge ruled.
The 2019 case was spurred by Trump’s efforts to unwind oil and gas bans Barack Obama took in the waning days of his presidency. Obama used the same section of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to ban new offshore drilling leases in 115 million acres of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off of Alaska, as well as 3.8 million acres in the Atlantic Ocean.
Trump tried to overturn Obama’s action via executive order, leading to legal action by several environmental groups.
Reactions to Biden ban
From Calabash to Dare County, many North Carolina coastal governments have long opposed efforts to drill offshore and have opposed the seismic tests that are used to determine the extent of oil and natural gas under the ocean. At least 45 North Carolina local governments have passed resolutions against exploration in the Atlantic Ocean, typically opposing both offshore drilling and seismic exploration
“Healthy, clean oceans are the foundation for our thriving coastal communities’ livelihoods and our economies,” Michelle Bivins, a field campaign organizer for environmental nonprofit Oceana, said in an interview the day of Biden’s announcement.
Gov. Josh Stein, who opposed offshore drilling and seismic exploration while attorney general, praised Biden’s actions Monday.
“North Carolina is home to beautiful beaches that help drive our state’s economy and bring our people joy. We cannot tolerate oil spills damaging the Outer Banks and our other barrier islands. I commend President Biden for protecting our coast and its economy,” Stein wrote.
There is no ongoing oil or gas exploration or drilling in the Atlantic Ocean off of the Eastern United States. There are more than 12 million acres under lease in the Western and Central Gulf of Mexico, with less than 20% producing oil and gas, according to the U.S. Department of Interior.
Still, industry officials met Biden’s announcement with wariness and pledged to work with the Trump Administration to unwind the withdrawals.
“The decision to unilaterally block areas from future offshore oil and gas development is a strategic error, driven not by science or voter mandate, but by political motives,” Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, said in a written statement.
Even if there is no immediate interest in the areas where lease sales are being prevented, bans could make it more difficult for the energy sector to respond to unexpected changes in supplies, such as occurred when Russia invaded Ukraine, Milito said.
“This move directly undermines American energy consumers and jeopardizes the vast benefits tied to a thriving domestic energy sector,” he said.
This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. If you would like to help support local journalism, please consider signing up for a digital subscription, which you can do here.
This story was originally published January 6, 2025 at 5:57 PM.