Biden bans new oil drilling in a huge maritime area

Biden bans new oil drilling in a huge maritime area
Biden bans new oil drilling in a huge maritime area

This decision comes a few days before ceding power to Donald Trump, who wants to boost American hydrocarbon production.

Joe Biden announced on Monday a ban on all new oil or gas drilling «offshore» over a maritime area covering more than 2.5 million square kilometers, a few days before ceding power to Donald Trump, who wants to boost American hydrocarbon production.

“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 to the environment, to public health and to the economy that new concessions and new drilling would pose.

“We don’t 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”denounced Joe Biden. 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.

According to the American press, it could be difficult for the 78-year-old billionaire to reverse the decision of his Democratic predecessor. Joe Biden is relying on a 1953 law giving authority to the federal government over the exploitation of seabed resources off the coast, the “Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act”. This text does not expressly provide for the right for the president to reverse, without going through Congress, a decision to ban new drilling. The future spokesperson for the Trump administration, Karoline Leavitt, did not wait for the announcement to criticize, via a message addressed to American newspapers, a “scandalous decision” and “political revenge”.



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