President Joe Biden has banned new offshore oil and gas drilling across a vast swath of federal waters, including the entire coast of California, Oregon and Washington, in a move seen as a last-minute effort to thwart actions by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.North Bay politicians and environmental activists expressed gratitude, relief and — in the case of one veteran anti-drilling activist — confidence that it will be extremely difficult for Donald Trump to undo the sweeping new strictures once he takes over the White House in two weeks.The ban, announced Monday, protects nearly 630 million acres in offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea.To withdraw those areas from future oil and gas leasing, Biden used his authority under a provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act — the same law that previous presidents have used to protect areas of the coast, including President Trump, who sought to safeguard a stretch of the Atlantic coast during his first term.“So we do not believe this can be reversed or undone. I feel entirely comfortable that today’s action is Trump proof,” said Bodega Bay activist Richard Charter, a senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation.In a statement Monday, Biden said his decision “reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs.”The new orders would not affect large swathes of the Gulf of Mexico, where most U.S. offshore drilling occurs, but it would protect a vast, unbroken stretches of the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines from future drilling.Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, the highest ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, celebrated Biden’s decision to “permanently protect much of our oceans, coastal communities, and local economies from Big Oil’s long record of exploitation.“Importantly, today’s action is Trump-proof; the courts have already defended the 12(a) authority against previous attacks,” Huffman said in a statement, referring to the legal provision used by Biden in the new ban.Read More
