Thursday, August 27, 2026
By Coastal Review on January 7, 2025
President Joe Biden has permanently closed off much of the nation’s coasts from prospective offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
The move, announced Monday as Biden wraps up his presidency, includes more than 330 million acres of the Atlantic outer continental shelf, from Canada to the southern tip of Florida, and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the West Coast, and the remainder of Alaska’s northern Bering Sea.
Everyone from coastal advocates to typically opposite-of-the-aisle politicians representing North Carolina coastal communities, which have overwhelmingly opposed offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling, lauded the president’s action. Wilmington City Councilman and Republican Charlie Rivenbark introduced a resolution opposing seismic airgun testing and offshore drilling off the North Carolina coast to fellow board members nearly 10 years ago.
The board unanimously adopted the resolution, aligning the Port City with dozens of other North Carolina municipalities and counties opposed to then-President Barack Obama’s administration’s plan to open waters off the Southeast coast to oil exploration.
“I would still be opposed to offshore drilling anywhere, particularly along the North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia coasts, and I’m glad President Biden’s doing this on his way out,” Rivenbark said Monday morning. “This to me is almost a nonpartisan issue. I grew up on the coast. I know the other side has got terrific arguments and reasons why, but I just can’t take a chance at an oil spill.”
That sentiment has resonated throughout not only coastal North Carolina, but also across the state over the course of the last several years.
Concerns about the potential for oil spills were specifically cited in the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s April 2019 resolution that opposes offshore drilling.
The resolution, which was adopted unanimously, pointed to impacts from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and several scientific studies that raise concerns about seismic testing on marine mammals and fisheries.
“Seismic surveys and offshore drilling are just not compatible with our coast,” North Carolina Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis said in an email response to Coastal Review Monday. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.
“Keeping our coast healthy, thriving and free of oil spills is crucial for the survival and prosperity of our communities, and is at the heart of our work at the Federation,” Davis said. “For decades now, North Carolina’s opposition to offshore oil and gas has been largely bipartisan. Even under ideal conditions, drilling operations release a number of dangerous pollutants into the ocean, not to mention the potential for larger spills that can devastate local tourism and fisheries.”
Governors of both Atlantic and Pacific coastal states pushed back on President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to expand offshore drilling during his first tenure in the White House.
In fall 2020, Trump announced he was withdrawing federal waters off the Atlantic Coast from Virginia to Florida from the possibility of drilling for oil and gas. The 10-year moratorium he established ends in 2032.
Michelle Bivins, Oceana’s Carolinas Field Campaigns representative, said Monday afternoon that Biden’s announcement “essentially codifies those protections and makes them permanent.”
“As for Trump reversing this policy once he’s in office, during his last presidency he protected the South Atlantic from the threat of offshore drilling for almost 10 years, following bipartisan support. He knows that coastal economies and businesses depend on healthy, oil-free oceans,” she said.
Shortly after the White House announced the ban Monday morning, the American Petroleum Institute, or API, released a statement calling for the reversal of Biden’s withdrawal the offshore areas from future oil and natural gas leasing.
“American voters sent a clear message in support of domestic energy development, and yet the current administration is using its final days in office to cement a record of doing everything possible to restrict it,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers stated in a release. “Congress and the incoming administration should fully leverage the nation’s vast offshore resources as a critical source of affordable energy, government revenue and stability around the world. We urge policymakers to use every tool at their disposal to reverse this politically motivated decision and restore a pro-American energy approach to federal leasing.”
Two separate but similar letters – one signed by members of the U.S. Senate, the other signed by House representatives – calling late last year for Biden to implement the ban pointed out that presidential withdrawals had not been successfully challenged in court.
Trump in 2017 reversed Obama’s Arctic and Atlantic withdrawals. A district court judge in Alaska ruled presidents do not have authority under the law, in this case the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to revoke prior withdrawals.
“A large-scale withdrawal of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Eastern Gulf from fossil fuel development while maintain the development of renewable energy solutions would provide durable protections for these critical areas,” according to the Dec. 19, 2024, letter signed by nine U.S. senators.
The areas included in the withdrawal encompass more than 625 million acres, the largest in the country’s history, according to the U.S. Department of Interior.
“President Biden’s actions today are part of our work across this Administration to make bold and enduring changes that recognize the impact of oil and gas drilling on our nation’s coastlines,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a release. “Today, the President is taking action that reflects what states, Tribes and local communities have shared with us – a strong and overwhelming need to support resilient oceans and coastlines by protecting them from unnecessary oil and gas development.”
The withdrawals do not affect rights under existing leases, of which there are about 30 off the southern California coast and about a dozen in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, according to the release.
In fiscal 2023, production in the outer continental shelf resulted in about 675 million barrels of oil and 796 billion cubic feet of gas. Almost all of that production is in the western and central Gulf of Mexico, “where industry has yet to produce on more than 80 percent of the 12 million acres already under lease,” according to the release.
The current leasing program that runs through 2029 includes three potential lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico planning areas. Those areas are not included in the withdrawal.
Read more at Coastal Review, coastalreview.org.
Comments
Bob
Not sure how you can call something “permanent” when it was written in pencil by executive order that can just as easily be erased and re-written by any future president.
Rick Caton
Just another outstanding blunder by the Biden “Mensuration”….I’ll be so glad when these idiots are gone
surf123
Permanent until it is not in a few weeks. We all need to get used to the fact we all need petroleum products and that is ignoring gasoline. If they have to drill then they will drill as no one is going to tolerate $5/gallon or higher gas. I do not disagree with the move to renewables but even it is being fought. I seem to remember the residents of Martha’s Vineyard fighting windmills and of recent I was just in Ocean City, MD where they are doing all they can to stop a company from installing windmills. The column I read in the local weekly paper had the county on record they are willing to imminent domain a dock area where the company involved with the windmills wants to buy. Has it really come to this. Thankfully it is highly unlikely this meets the reality of imminent domain following the hateful confiscation of land in New London, CT which was turned over to developers by the city.
Jeremy
Oil spills would’ve been great for the OBX beaches. That’s one way to alleviate your traffic problems: poison the well.
Jason Daniels
I can’t wait for them to start drilling offshore in NC. Finally some good paying jobs! Great news!
Let’s not forget the great dismal swamp oil patch that needs to be drilled as well.
Barbara Carlomagno
Joe has slapped every American in the face again. This is another poor policy he would like to invoke against America.
Sandflea
@ Rick Caron and Jason Daniel’s;
There is about 30 miles covered in oil over in Russia near Crimea from the two tankers that were damaged in rough seas spilling 3,700 tones of oil. In some places, the oil that has washed up is up to a foot thick. Don’t know if you guys even considered that.
So what do you think would happen to those “good paying jobs” if an oil disaster happened just off the coast here? What do you think would happen to the economy here for years? What do you think would happen to the fishing industry? What do you think would happen to the fish, shrimp, oysters, ducks, dolphins, osprey, etc, etc, etc? But Yee-Ha we gonna get us some good paying jobs! Smdh.
DS
You’ll find natural gas off the OBX coast, but not sure if there is enough to warrant drilling with the current processes and price of the products so there won’t be any oil spills to worry about there if if they drill. People should be more worried about an oil spill from a wind turbine off our coast as they have a transmission with lots of oil in it to keep it from overheating. Then there are all of the petroleum products found in the carbon fiber/kevlar/fiberglass blades, support post and wiring. Even worse, if concrete posts and pad are put in to suppport them as we all know what that does to the environment.
thomas
In 2023, the US exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported so if Gas goes to $5 per gallon it is not because we need to drill more oil it is to pay the CEO of Exxon just shy of $40 million per year. Yes you got that right, $40 thousand per day or $900,000 per month. How much does a driller oil hand make, you guessed it right about $26 bucks an hour and it is a very dangerous job. Not sure how anyone thinks this is a great paying job. You can do just as good working at Walmart and not lose a limb in the process or risk the destruction of all our great fishing grounds and crystal clear beaches that the Outer Banks is know for.
Travis
For those not paying full attention:
“Trump in 2017 reversed Obama’s Arctic and Atlantic withdrawals. A district court judge in Alaska ruled presidents do not have authority under the law, in this case the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to revoke prior withdrawals.” (from the article)
As the law is written, it (literally) would take an act of Congress to reverse this particular order of protection.
Also for those not paying attention to anything other than what they are spoon fed: The US has been the WORLD’s largest oil producer for the last 6 years. So all this “drill baby drill” talk is moot.
Kudos to Biden for this gift to our community and to others that depend more on tourism and a healthy environment than some oil derricks sitting offshore.
Greg Morton
@sandflea
So you must live on a sailboat? Ride a bicycle? Do you walk to work on foot? Cars bad..me no like oil! Everything you own and posses that’s tangible in life is brought to you by the petroleum industry. So stop being self absorbed and grow up. You sound like a 20 year old college student. Mr.Not in my back yard…
Jason Daniels
@travis
This is exactly whats wrong with America. Everyone loves to benefit from a natural resource, but thinks their area is to perfect or off limits to energy production. Sorry to inform you people in the tourism business, but that’s not a real business compared to the energy sector or national security.
Some of us care more about national defense and energy independence then you being able to rent your second home out on airb&b.
thomas
I am confused. We are one of the largest EXPORTERS of Oil in the world and have massive Oil reserves. In fact, we have so much Oil we must EXPORT to get rid of it all. Other than Oil executives who knock back $40 million a year, why do people advocate we drill for more Oil off the coast of the Outer Banks and risk destroying all our fishing grounds and pristine beaches? Tell the state of Hawaii the tourism business is not a “real” business or the restaurant and hotel owners on the Outer Banks they don’t have “real” businesses. Are we not already “energy independent” in regards to Oil to the point we are swimming in it? It the issue really based on pure spite and utter hated for Biden? I must be totally missing the point. Perhaps, Mark can clear this up for us all.
Mark Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice
The only thing I can tell you is that without the Outer Banks’ natural resources and attractions, we could just put up a “Gone Fishin” sign on our way out.
Wombatnc
@ Jason Daniels – lock those knees and pull your head out of the sand! Wally World is just little corporation that doesn’t do anything to help our econ? Although it won’t be happening -those high paying jobs would be going to execs and previously skilled positions that would be brought in – not locals
Rhett
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Google “Black Sea Oil Spill”, if you truly cared about the Outer Banks and have kids, why the heck would you want oil companies to start drilling off our coasts?
Notanisland
Greg, I bet he does live on a sailboat .
Myself, im gonna get one of those 26$ an hour jobs at Home Depot and hang out with Thomas. As soon as I find his crystal clear beach….