Barely weeks to Donald Trump’s inauguration as the United States 47th President, the outgoing President, Joe Biden on Monday banned offshore drilling across an immense area of coastal water.
The ban looks like a direct policy against Trump’s pledge to massively increase fossil fuel production in an effort to cut down gas prices.
An analysis of the details of the ban shows that it encompasses the entire Atlantic coast and eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon, and Washington, and a section of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
A White House statement on Monday said the declaration protected more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares) of coastal water.
“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren,” Biden said in the statement.
“In balancing the many uses and benefits of America’s ocean, it is clear to me that the relatively minimal fossil fuel potential in the areas I am withdrawing does not justify the environmental, public health, and economic risks that would come from new leasing and drilling,” he added.
