Why can’t Trump undo it? Read to know

As US President Joe Biden announced to ban on new offshore oil and gas development along most US coastlines in the closing weeks of his term in office, a US-based energy research firm said that President-elect Donald Trump would not be able to reverse Biden’s action. 

ClearView Energy Partners Director of Research Kevin Book told Newsweek, “Our perception is that it can’t be reversed by executive action”, adding that, this is not the same thing as saying that it cannot be reversed, however. 

Biden’s order comes amid Trump’s pledge to “drill, baby, drill” campaign slogan. His slogan has become synonymous with his plan to boost fossil fuel production in the US and reverse climate policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

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Trump, while seeking reelection in 2020, withdrew waters in parts of the South Atlantic coast for 10 years. However, an earlier showdown over offshore drilling in other waters provided a test of presidential powers, Book said. 

Biden used the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, a law that permits presidents to limit future drilling in federal waters. 

Trump and Biden, both have used the law in their terms, to temporarily withdraw offshore tracts where drilling was environmentally damaging or politically contentious.

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Earlier, Barack Obama also withdrew large stretches of waters from drilling. Moreover, in 2017, Trump issued an executive order to reverse Obama’s action and restore future drilling permits. 

However, later, the US District Court for Alaska found that Trump did not have the authority to reverse Obama’s action. But, before an appeals court heard the case, Biden took over the administration and reversed Trump’s policy. 

Noting the past actions on the law, Kevin Book noted that it would take an act of Congress to undo Biden’s latest action, withdrawing federal waters from future drilling permits.

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“Congress could pass a law reopening the withdrawn real estate, and Republicans might be able to do so on a party-line basis,” Book said.

Trump calls it ‘ridiculous’

After Biden announced a permanent ban on 625 million acres off the US coastline, including the entire East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, and parts of the Northern Bering Sea, Trump said it is “ridiculous” and he will “unban it immediately”. 

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He further accused President Biden of doing everything possible to make the TRANSITION as difficult as possible”. 

(With inputs from agencies)