Biden announces ban on new offshore drilling for natural gas and oil across vast areas of the country’s coasts, including the Pacific Ocean near Washington, Oregon, and California, the East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and sections of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea, on January 6, 2025.

The White House emphasized that this action protects more than 625 million acres of U.S. ocean area from offshore drilling. Since over 40% of Americans live in coastal counties, the prosperity of these areas depends on healthy oceans. Biden underlined that defending these regions against oil spills and their dangers guarantees the health of marine ecosystems and coastal populations.

The ruling attempts to allay concerns that more offshore drilling will pose serious dangers to coastal ecosystems while making a negligible contribution to the country’s energy needs.

Legal Framework and Implementation

Biden announces a ban on new offshore drilling with the issuance of two Presidential Memoranda under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. These memoranda permanently remove all U.S. Outer Continental Shelf regions included in the announcement from future oil and natural gas leasing.

This action strengthens Biden’s previous acts under the same power. In March 2023, he completed safeguards for the U.S. Arctic Ocean by withdrawing 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea from future leasing and restoring protections for portions of the Northern Bering Sea in January 2021.

To provide clarity for ongoing activities, the most recent withdrawal is permanent but does not affect leases that are currently in place in the protected regions.

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Support and Context

Environmental leaders and organizations overwhelmingly supported the decision. The Sierra Club‘s executive director, Ben Jealous, hailed it as a major win for marine life, coastal communities, and the larger struggle for sustainability. Jealous underlined the significance of implementing initiatives to switch to sustainable energy, lessen dependency on fossil fuels, and establish green economy employment that can support a family.

With President Biden’s tenure ending in less than two weeks, this announcement represents one of the Biden-Harris administration’s last climate policy initiatives. It emphasizes a firm action to strengthen environmental safeguards before any policy changes under the next administration.

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