Donald Trump, who wants to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico, told a fake news radio host on Monday that he will “unban” President Biden’s sweeping offshore drilling prohibition.
“I have the right to unban it immediately,” Trump told Hugh Hewitt, who is among the MAGA movements many media lapdogs.
Note on the “right to unban it immediately” thing: maybe he can, but it looks like, no, he can’t.
More on that in a sec.
There was a certain level of political genius to the move from Biden, who on Monday announced a ban on new drilling along 625 million acres of U.S. coastlines, encompassing the East and West coasts, the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump is saying he wants to change the name of to Gulf of America – why not Gulf of Trump, while we’re at it?
Of note here is that while Trump says he will “unban” the Biden drilling ban, it doesn’t appear that he can actually do that.
Back during his first term, Trump moved to reinstate drilling in areas that President Obama had blocked off, but a judge ruled in 2019 that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act gives presidents the right to block drilling in certain areas, but not to reinstate it.
The Trumper doesn’t like being told that he can’t do things, as we know.
“When I see somebody saying he’s going to ban 625 million acres, he doesn’t know what that is. He doesn’t even know what 625 million acres would look like, and we can’t let that happen to our country,” Trump told the toady Hewitt.
Fossil fuel spokesperson Mike Sommers, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, is pushing Congress, controlled, by slim majorities, by Republicans, to make reversing the “politically-motivated action” of Biden a top priority.
“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. 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,” Sommers said.
Basically, to the fossil fuel folks, it’s about the economy, but per Biden, in a statement issued by the White House on Monday, his move reflects the reality that “we do not need to choose between protecting the environment and growing our economy, or between keeping our ocean healthy, our coastlines resilient, and the food they produce secure and keeping energy prices low.”
“Those are false choices,” Biden said. “Protecting America’s coasts and ocean is the right thing to do, and will help communities and the economy to flourish for generations to come.
We got a joint statement from Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, supporting Biden’s ban.
“We’ve heard from Virginians in Hampton Roads and on the Eastern Shore who have expressed concerns about the risks of offshore drilling on their communities. This action is critical to protecting Virginia’s coastal waters from pollution and potential oil spills and supporting the region’s economy, which relies heavily on commercial and recreational fishing, aquaculture, tourism, and the Port of Virginia. We’ll continue to advocate for Virginia’s coastal communities to ensure they continue to thrive,” the senators said.
We also got this from Michael Town, the executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters:
“Offshore drilling poses a huge threat to our environment, public health, coastal communities and their economies, fisheries, and vital marine ecosystems. Today’s action from the Biden Administration will help ensure the long-term protection of communities in Virginia that would otherwise be in harm’s way from an incoming administration that has consistently put polluters’ interests and profits above our wellbeing,” Town said.
“Virginia’s energy future is clean, and drilling off our coast has no place in an economy that’s rapidly shifting away from harmful fossil fuels. We applaud this action from President Biden and hope he will do everything in his power to safeguard our environment before the end of his term,” Town said.
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Chris Graham
