What to know about Biden’s new offshore drilling restrictions
President Biden's move to bar drilling across the U.S.'s East and West coasts, while splashy, may not have significant climate or energy impacts in the years ahead.
Because very little oil and gas is drilled in these places to begin with, the move is mostly symbolic — at least in the near term.
On Monday, Biden barred new drilling off the East and West coasts of the U.S. and in a portion of Alaska and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. The move leaves the central and western Gulf of Mexico in play.
The action received significant political attention, garnering praise from environmentalists and being decried by industry and Republicans.
But its actual effects are expected to be limited because very little offshore drilling actually occurs outside the Gulf.
“I think the overall impact of the drilling ban on future U.S. production levels will be rather small,” said Andrew Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates, in an email.
He noted the Gulf of Mexico is the area “where oil producers want to drill since it is most likely to contain commercially recoverable amounts of oil and natural gas.”
Meanwhile, there is currently no drilling off the Atlantic Coast and some sparse drilling off the Pacific Coast.
Lipow said he believes the industry has little interest in drilling off the coast of California due to its “adversarial relationship with the oil industry” and noted that the hurdles for the East Coast are even higher.
“Even if the industry decided to drill in that area today, they must contend with building pipeline and receiving infrastructure to on shore facilities in states that already have significant local opposition,” he wrote.
In the near-term, the government does not have any plans to sell the rights to drill anywhere except for the Gulf.
While these plans are likely to be revised by Trump, it’s not clear whether he would plan to open up the areas blocked by Biden in the immediate future, or whether the industry has an appetite to drill there.
"The industry's near-term focus has been the Gulf of Mexico,” said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents both offshore oil and gas and offshore wind companies.
“We've got a lot of major projects coming online. We still have some running room for the Gulf of Mexico to discover more resources and bring more oil and gas online,” he said.
However, Milito said he opposes Biden’s move because in the long term, “you’ve got to find new places to find and discover oil and gas.”
“The Pacific is understood to contain massive amounts of oil,” he said. “We just want to make sure that we're not taking options off the table for the long term.”
For his part, Trump has condemned the move, vowing to “unban it immediately."
However, any bid to do so could face legal hurdles.
During his previous term, Trump tried to resume drilling in areas blocked off by former President Obama, but he was prevented from doing so in court.
In 2019, a judge ruled the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act gives presidents the right to block drilling in certain areas but not to reinstate it.
But it’s not clear whether any future court decisions will follow the same logic, with Trump and his allies saying the incoming president does have the right to reverse Biden.
“We don't see any reason why the president shouldn't have the authority to amend or rescind these types of decisions,” Milito said.