USA’s Biden to ban offshore drilling in low-stakes areas

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 6, 2025 – US President Joe Biden has moved to ban offshore drilling in large but low-stakes areas, Reuters reported on Monday.

While the areas affected are vast in size – totalling 2.53 million square kilometres – they do not contain current drilling operations or significant prospects.

The White House characterised the areas as “prime habitat for seals, sea lions, whales, fish, and countless seabirds.”

“Today President Biden will take action to protect the entire US East coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska from future oil and natural gas leasing,” the White House said in a press statement.

” President Biden has determined that the environmental and economic risks and harms that would result from drilling in these areas outweigh their limited fossil fuel resource potential.”

The outgoing president will use his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to issue memoranda protecting the federal waters.

Following the news, American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers voiced his opposition to the move, saying it contravenes American voters’ message of support for domestic energy development in the latest election.

Around 14% of US crude output comes from the country’s offshore.

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