Biden Locks Up Oil With New Lame-Duck Restrictions

President Joe Biden issued a lame-duck executive order banning new oil and gas projects across 625 million acres of ocean across the East and West Coasts , the Gulf of Mexico , and the Bering Sea .

Biden ’s use of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act means the last-minute executive order supposedly enjoys unique protections that cannot simply be undone by a reverse order.

The conservation leasing program represents a departure from the government’s “multiple use” mandate, which encourages residents to capitalize on and more freely recreate on public property. Most national forests, for example, allow timber harvesting and hold fewer regulations for recreation..