Biden banned offshore drilling along the East and West coasts, totaling 625 million acres.

President-elect Donald Trump told Hugh Hewitt that he would reverse President Joe Biden’s ban on oil drilling along America’s coastlines.

Biden banned offshore drilling along the East and West coasts, totaling 625 million acres. He justified the move under Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Trump told Hewitt:

It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately. I will unban it. I have the right to unban it immediately. What’s he doing? Why is he doing it?

You know, we have something that nobody else has. I mean nobody has to the extent we have it and it’ll be more by the time we finish because I’ll be able to expand, you know, we’re going to expand our country and it’ll be more.

We have oil and gas and whether you manufacture widgets or gidgets or whatever you happen to be doing, some countries have to work very hard to do that and we do, too, and we will.

But we have oil and gas at a level that nobody else has and we’re going to take advantage of it.

When I see somebody saying he’s going to ban 625 million acres, he doesn’t know what that is. He doesn’t even know what 625 million acres would look like. And we can’t let that happen to our country.

It’s our greatest, it’s really our greatest economic asset and we’re not going to let that happen to our country.

You can watch the full 26-minute interview here:

Unfortunately, Trump cannot undo Biden’s executive order.

Section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), a law established in 1953, states, “the President of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the Outer Continental Shelf.”

Trump needs Congress to change the law. That could happen since the GOP controls the House and Senate.

No one can receive a lease to drill for oil, gas, or other minerals in those areas.

OCSLA lacks language that allows a future president to undo an executive order under Section 12(a).

Former President Barack Obama issued a similar executive order on December 20, 2016.

In April 2017, Trump signed an executive order to undo Obama’s order.

Activist groups challenged Trump’s order.

In 2019, US District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, based in Alaska, overturned Trump’s executive order, leaving in place Obama’s protection of the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea and the East Coast of America.

The post Trump Plans to ‘Unban’ Biden’s ‘Ridiculous’ Decision to Block Oil Drilling Along Coastlines first appeared on Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion.

[H/T Legal Insurrection]