“It is clear to me that the relatively minor fossil fuel potential of protected areas does not justify the risks to the environment, public health and the economy that new concessions and drilling would pose.” he added.
“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.
A complicated moment awaits Kamala Harris this Monday
“Political revenge”
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 marine subsoil 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”.
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.
