Can Biden's Offshore Drilling Ban Be Trump-ed?

Donald Trump in an executive order on Monday revoked a ban that had been imposed by former President of the United States Joe Biden on new offshore oil and gas development along most of the country's coastlines.

It is highly likely that Trump will face certain challenges on his authority to do so.

What Did Biden Do?

Joe Biden, the Democratic former President on January 6, used his authority to withdraw all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and parts of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska from oil and gas drilling, under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

According to Biden, this move aligned with his efforts to fight climate change, saying, "drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation's energy needs."

Trump had previously committed to expand oil and gas development. Therefore, he revoked the offshore drilling ban on Monday, one of the many actions taken by Biden that Trump repealed on his first day in office.

Additionally, he revoked an earlier action Biden had taken in March 2023 that prevented oil and gas drilling 2.8 million acres in the Arctic Ocean.

What Do Experts Think About This Move?

According to legal experts, the question of whether a president can revoke a predecessor's decision to invoke the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and withdraw areas from mineral leasing and drilling remains legally convoluted.

While the law gives Presidents the rights and the authority to set aside lands, the 1953 measure is silent on whether they can revoke decisions that were previously taken.

Background

The environmental groups that were sued after Trump, in April 2017, issued and executive order designed to revoke a similar decision by the former President Barack Obama. He had invoked OSCLA abd put the Arctic's Ocean off the US East Coast.

US District Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage ruled Trump's order as unlawful in 2019. "Had Congress intended to grant the President revocation authority, it could have done so explicitly, as it had previously done in several (but not all) of its previously enacted upland laws," she wrote.

The Trump administration while defending his order had cited the OSCLA stating that a President may "from time to time" withdraw unleased lands, saying this carried with it an authority to revise withdrawal decisions taken previously.

(With agency inputs)