Biden to issue broad offshore oil and natural gas leasing ban

The withdrawals have no expiration date, says the White House, and prohibit all future oil and natural gas leasing in the areas withdrawn...According to the statement, the action will safeguard three distinct ocean and coastal regions:

The entire eastern U.S. Atlantic coast and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. President Biden is protecting approximately 334 million acres of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) from Canada to the southern tip of Florida, and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. There are currently no active oil and natural gas leases in Federal waters off the eastern Atlantic coast. The southern section of this withdrawal matches a previous Congressional withdrawal enacted by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006, and a subsequent time-limited 12(a) withdrawal issued by the previous administration that would have expired in 2032 without today’s protections. Today’s withdrawal builds on those prior withdrawals and helps safeguard the multi-billion-dollar fishing and tourism economies in these states The Pacific Coast along California, Oregon, and Washington. This withdrawal protects nearly 250 million acres of Federal waters off the West Coast of the mainland U.S. that are prime habitat for seals, sea lions, whales, fish, and countless seabirds. The State of California has had a moratorium on issuing new leases in its state waters since 1969, and the last Federal lease sale in the area being withdrawn was offshore of Southern California in 1984. The Governors of these states have called for full protection of their coasts for decades.

The remaining portion of the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area in Alaska. This withdrawal, says the White House, will protect 44 million acres of the Northern Bering Sea in far northwest Alaska that is home to fish, sea birds, and other wildlife and where there are no existing oil and gas leases. The Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area was established in 2016 and includes one of the largest marine mammal migrations in the world – beluga and bowhead whales, walruses, and seals travel the funnel of the Bering Strait each year to feed and breed in the Arctic. This is an area where oil and gas development would pose severe dangers to coastal communities, and where the health of these waters is critically important to food security and to the culture of more than 70 coastal Tribes, including the Yup’ik, Cup’ik, and Inupiaq people who have relied on these resources for millennia. The Alaskan Congressional delegation has opposed previous proposals to allow oil and gas leasing and drilling in the area.

National Ocean Industries Association president Erik Milito issued the following statement in response to the news: “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. This move directly undermines American energy consumers and jeopardizes the vast benefits tied to a thriving domestic energy sector.... “NOIA will work with the incoming Trump administration and Congress to reverse this ill-conceived policy, advocating for a balanced, pragmatic approach to offshore energy that promotes both our energy independence and economic growth.”