KENT NISHIMURA / Getty Images via AFP
Joe Biden, here on October 4, 2024, is expected to announce on January 6, 2025 that he is banning drilling along the US coast.
UNITED STATES – A final gesture for the environment and against Donald Trump, a few days before he leaves power. While the Republican repeated during his electoral campaign that he wanted « lining, lining, lining » (« Drill baby, drill »), Democratic President Joe Biden announced this Monday, January 6, a ban on all new oil or gas drilling « offshore » over a maritime area covering more than 250 million hectares along the American coasts.
The ban, which has no end date, will apply along the Atlantic coast of the United States and the Pacific coast, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, in Bering Strait.
Caring for future generations
“Now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren”justified the outgoing president in a press release, adding: “It is clear to me that the relatively minor fossil fuel potential of the areas (concerned, off the east and west coasts, in Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico) does not justify the risks for the environment, for public health and for the economy that new concessions and new drilling would pose. »
“We do not have to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy; or between preserving our oceans, our coasts and the food they produce, and keeping energy prices low. These are false alternatives”he denounced.
The message is clearly aimed at the Republican president-elect, who during the campaign promised to drill with all his might to lower the cost of gasoline, while the production of hydrocarbons in the United States is already at record levels.
A decision to mark his political legacy
According to the American press, it could be difficult for the 78-year-old billionaire to reverse the decision of his Democratic predecessor. As explained by New York Times, Joe Biden invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prevent oil and gas companies from drilling at all costs. But this text does not expressly provide for the right for the president to reverse, without going through Congress, a decision to ban new drilling.
In detail, adds the American daily, section 12(a) of this law allows a president to stop drilling. On the other hand, it does not provide for the revocation of this ban, effectively preventing Donald Trump from overturning his predecessor’s decision once in the White House.
-The New York Times adds that Joe Biden is trying with this decision to be an active president on environmental issues as he leaves the Oval Office more unpopular than ever, particularly due to the price increase under his mandate. The Democrat had already wanted to make an impression by being the first sitting American president to travel to the Amazon last November.
“Political revenge”
The future spokesperson for the Trump administration, Karoline Leavitt, did not wait for the announcement to criticize on Sunday, via a message addressed to American newspapers, a “scandalous decision” and one “political revenge”.
Environmental NGOs, on the contrary, welcome the decision, before Donald Trump came to power, which contests the reality of human-caused climate change. “It’s a classic victory for the oceans”Joseph Gordon, for the NGO Oceana, has already reacted, anticipating the announcement.
As scientists point out, drilling is incompatible with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and therefore global warming. Climate skeptic and above all concerned about the economy, Donald Trump has no use for their warnings.
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