(Reuters) – President Joe Biden is set to block new oil and gas development on 625 million acres (250 million hectares) off the US coast, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
The ban, which will be announced on Monday, excludes the sale of drilling rights in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the report said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Biden leaves open new oil and leasing opportunities in the central and western Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for about 14% of the nation's oil production, the report said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside of business hours.
The ban will strengthen Biden's legacy in dealing with climate change and his goal to freeze the US economy by 2050.
I New York Times (NYSE:) reported that the piece of legislation Biden's decision relies on, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, gives the president broad latitude to block drilling and does not include language that would allow President-elect Donald Trump or other future presidents to withdraw. to be silenced.
Biden, Trump and Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, all used the law to block the sale of offshore drilling rights to some coastal areas.
Trump tried in 2017 to reverse the Arctic and Atlantic ocean withdrawals that Obama made at the end of his presidency, but a federal judge ruled in 2019 that the law does not give the president the legal authority to overturn the previous closure.