Trump Promises To ‘un-Ban’ Biden’s Huge Offshore Drilling Ban

In an interview with Salem Radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt Monday, President-elect Donald Trump called President Joe Biden’s last-minute move to implement a drilling ban across vast swaths of federal waters “the worst abuse of power I’ve ever seen.”

A Drilling Ban Bigger Than The Louisiana Purchase

The Biden White House announced earlier Monday the decision to set an area bigger than both the Louisiana Purchase and the states of Texas and Alaska combined - 625 million acres - off-limits from mineral development into perpetuity under the provisions of a 72 year-old law, a move that some believe is risky and could damage future U.S. energy security. The areas subject to the ban include most of the Atlantic seaboard, the Pacific coast from California to Washington, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and parts of the Bering Sea off the north coast of Alaska.

1803: Map showing the area covered by the Louisana Purchase. The land which was bought from France, virtually doubled the area of the United States, cost only 15 million dollars and gave the US security against development by the French. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)Getty Images

Tim Stewart, President of the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Oil & Gas Association, said in an email that, “30 years ago, we didn’t know how to unlock the vast oil shale or the ultra-deep resources. We may now think that some of these areas do not have economically viable resources, but technology changes so rapidly that we are likely wrong. Given how good we are at finding and extracting oil and gas from places that were once considered unthinkable – it is likely that we are wrong about many offshore areas that are now withdrawn, perhaps forever.”