Biden’s coastal ban may lay low Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ swagger. Here’s why

In an effort to protect U.S. coastal area from future oil drilling, Joe Biden in his final stretch as U.S. president invoked his authority this week under a 71-year-old federal law to ban all oil drilling in 625 million acres of waters.

The ban underscored Biden’s aggressive record to protect the environment and focus on clean energy during his term. It also stood in direct conflict with the incoming president’s support of oil and gas drilling. Donald Trump, who is not a believer in climate change, touted his slogan of “drill, baby, drill” as a rallying cry during his campaign.

By using a federal law, as opposed to an executive order, Biden’s decision is final, despite President-elect Trump’s vow to undo it. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act was written for the permanent authority of the president, without any instructions on how a future president could reverse any past uses of the law. Likely, the only path forward is for Congress to change the law entirely. Republicans have only a slim majority in Congress, making this route precarious and uncertain in its outcome.

“Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told E&E News.

Biden’s ban is unprecedented. Consider the areas included in the ban:

• Over 8 million acres of water in the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico, including the spot of the 2010 BP oil spill;
• 334 million acres in the Atlantic Ocean;
• 250 million acres of waters off the west coast; and
• 44 million acres of water off of the coast of Alaska.

Still, unsurprisingly, the American Petroleum Institute published a less than favorable response to the announcement, saying, “We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”

In 2024, U.S. oil production skyrocketed from 2023’s 12.9 million barrels of oil produced per day to 13.25 million barrels a day through Dec. 13. And while API and Trump’s team bemoan Biden’s move to block oil leasing, the Department of the Interior announced Jan. 8 that there were no bids from oil companies to lease land for oil production in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Additionally, the price for oil in 2024 saw a 3 percent decline, with the International Energy Agency predicting a surplus in the market in 2025.

Trump’s insistence for a reversal of Biden’s ban is not based on any precedent. In fact, Trump failed to undo President Barack Obama’s similar action of protecting waters in the Arctic Ocean from drilling during his first term. Nonprofit environmental law group EarthJustice sued Trump for this attempt and won, with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirming in 2019 that the waters protected by Obama will never allow leasing for oil or natural gas drilling.