Drill, baby, drill: Trump vows to reverse Biden’s ‘ridiculous’ offshore drilling ban

Trump, who is set to take office in two weeks, has repeatedly promised to roll back Biden’s climate change initiatives and restore American ‘energy dominance.’

By Matthew Xiao, The Washington Free Beacon

Affirming his pledge to ramp up domestic energy production, President-elect Donald Trump on Monday vowed to reverse President Joe Biden’s “ridiculous” ban on new offshore oil drilling and natural gas development across U.S. coastal waters.

“I see it just came over that Biden has banned all oil and gas drilling across 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory. It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Biden’s ban covers new oil and gas development on all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska, according to Reuters.

The move comes as Democratic lawmakers and environmental organizations have urged Biden to “maximize permanent protections” against offshore drilling in the final weeks of his presidency.

Trump, who is set to take office in two weeks, has repeatedly promised to roll back Biden’s climate change initiatives and restore American “energy dominance.”

“This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill.”

The White House said Biden is invoking his authority under the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which allows presidents to block areas from drilling and mineral leasing.

The ban may be difficult for Trump to reverse as the Lands Act does not grant presidents the authority to overturn prior bans, according to a 2019 court ruling.

“Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs. It is not worth the risks,” Biden said in a statement.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, slammed Biden’s decision as “politically motivated,” urging Congress to “use every tool at their disposal to reverse” the move and “restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”

Biden sold off nearly half of the U.S. oil reserve in 2022, with some going to the Chinese Communist Party and other foreign entities. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve now holds fewer than 400 million barrels, down from almost 600 million at the start of 2022.