The BBCUS President Joe Biden has announced a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America's coast, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.
During his campaign, Trump promised to “unleash” domestic fossil fuel production in an effort to lower gas costs, even though the US is already seeing record high production levels.
The ban announced by Biden covers the entire Atlantic coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast off California, Oregon and Washington, as well as part of the Bering Sea off Alaska.
It is the latest in a series of last-minute actions by the Biden administration on climate policy before Trump returns to the White House.
Biden said in a statement: “My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts can cause irreversible damage to the places we care about and is not necessary to meet the energy needs of our nation.
“It's not worth the risks.”
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