Jacob Montag
On Monday (January 6), the Biden administration announced an executive action banning new leases for offshore oil drilling on the Atlantic Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific Coast, and the Northern Bering Sea. The ban notably excludes the central and western Gulf of Mexico, the source of the overwhelming majority of U.S. offshore oil drilling and the site of the catastrophic 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Over the past four years, the Biden administration has developed an extensive track record of subservience to the oil and gas industries, despite campaign promises to protect the world’s ecosystem. In November 2021, Biden auctioned off 1.7 million acres of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil drilling. On public lands, the Biden administration increased the rate of oil and gas drilling permits at a monthly average higher than the Trump administration, despite promising “no more drilling on federal lands” on the campaign trail.
Among the most controversial oil and gas initiatives on public lands expedited by President Biden was the construction of the Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline in West Virginia, which was met with staunch opposition from environmental activists and legal challenges from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. The Willow Project, an oil drilling initiative in northern Alaska posing a significant threat to local wildlife and several native Alaskan communities in the area, was also approved by the Biden administration.
Despite pledging “no more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry” during his 2020 presidential primary debate with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the Biden administration also delivered several new federal subsidies to the oil and gas sectors. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed into law by President Biden, marketed as a “climate bill”, received widespread support from fossil fuel executives and included massive subsidies for the industry.
An analysis by Oil Change International found that the IRA resulted in a considerable increase in domestic oil and gas production in the U.S. In 2023, the United States set an unprecedented record for crude oil production at 13 million barrels per day, higher than any other nation at any point in history.
In the context of his atrocious record over the course of the past four years, Biden’s recent executive action regarding offshore oil drilling stands as a particularly cynical and farcical move. With the ultra-reactionary Donald Trump assuming office in just two weeks, the Biden administration knows that the ban will be quickly reversed, as Trump himself has already promised—the choreographed dance of two imperialist politicians trading off.
