Congressional Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to withdraw permanently unleased areas off the US coast from potential oil and gas drilling before Donald Trump is sworn into office next year.

President-elect Trump has vowed to ramp up domestic fossil fuel production when he starts his second term, including increasing offshore drilling. Trump during his first term in 2018 released a five-year offshore drilling proposal to open up more than 90% of the Outer Continental Shelf, including parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic coasts to oil and gas exploration and development. The courts ultimately rejected that plan.

Language in the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which regulates offshore drilling and mining on submerged lands within the US, allows presidents to withdraw unleased areas from development.

The law directs the Interior secretary to prepare and release an offshore drilling plan every five years.
Hundreds of communities along the US Atlantic and Pacific coasts have opposed expansion of offshore drilling. Many Democratic and Republican lawmakers representing tourist-rich coastal areas have also rejected efforts to increase or begin offshore drilling in their districts.

Trump, Biden, and former President Barack Obama have all used the authority to protect certain areas from fossil fuel activity, including parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic oceans and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Trump used the authority in 2020 to exempt some areas from drilling until 2032, including the South Atlantic and Straits of Florida planning areas, as well as North Carolina.

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“A large-scale withdrawal of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Eastern Gulf would provide durable protections for these critical areas,” congressional Democrats, led by Reps. Frank Pallone (N.J.) and Raul Grijálva (Ariz.), wrote in the Nov. 15 letter to Biden. Pallone and Grijálva are the ranking members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Natural Resources panel, respectively.

The lawmakers noted that withdrawals under part 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act haven’t been successfully challenged in court.

“In 2017, President Trump reversed President Obama’s Arctic and Atlantic withdrawals, but Judge Sharon Gleason of the District Court of Alaska determined that 12(a) does not give the president authority to revoke prior withdrawals,” the letter stated.