Biden bans new offshore drilling in much of U.S. coast

President Joe Biden has banned new offshore oil and gas drilling along a large part of the U.S. coastline. The ban will cover the entire Atlantic coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast of California, Oregon and Washington state, and part of Alaska’s Bering Sea. “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden announced. Offshore drilling can also negatively affect wildlife by disturbing habitat and causing oil spills. President-elect Donald Trump declared he would reverse the ban. But Biden took his action under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953—a law that allows U.S. presidents to revoke areas from resource exploration and drilling. A 2019 court ruling decided that other presidents can’t revoke these decisions without an act of Congress.

Read more at BBC.