President Joe Biden on Jan. 6 said he is banning new oil and gas drilling in more than 625 million acres of U.S. ocean, including the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast and the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast.
Biden’s order, issued using authority from the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, also applies to portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the White House said.
The president said that the areas he is withdrawing from fossil fuel use show “relatively minimal potential” that does not justify possible environmental, public health, and economic risks that would come from new leasing and drilling….