WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Biden announced Monday that he is banning offshore oil and gas drilling in large swaths of federal waters, including 44 million acres off Alaska, in the Northern Bering Sea.
“In Alaska, dozens of Tribes have fought to protect the Northern Bering Sea, a vital ocean ecosystem that supports their traditional ways of life. Vice President Harris and I have listened,” Biden said in his announcement.
The ban doesn’t cancel any planned lease sales or shut down active development. It continues to allow drilling in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, where 97% of U.S. offshore production occurs.
In Alaska, Biden’s order builds on a 2016 offshore withdrawal then-President Obama made. He created the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area and closed about half of it to oil and gas drilling. Biden is closing the rest of the area, using a provision of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
It’s not clear that incoming President Donald Trump can reverse the ban without an act of Congress. The law doesn’t have a provision for reversing a presidential withdrawal. In 2019, a U.S. District Court judge in Anchorage struck down Trump’s attempt to reverse Obama’s Bering Sea withdrawal.
Alaska’s new congressman issued a quick denunciation of Biden’s order, and of the president personally. In a social media post, U.S. Rep. Nick Begich noted the importance of Cook Inlet gas to Alaskans. Biden’s closure doesn’t extend to Cook Inlet.