President-elect Trump slammed President Biden's decision to block oil drilling across large swaths of the US coastline, saying he would “lift the ban.”
“That's ridiculous. We're lifting the ban immediately,” Trump said Monday in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
However, it is not entirely clear whether he will be able to do so. During his last term, Trump tried to restart drilling in areas blocked by former President Barack Obama, but was blocked by the courts.
In 2019, a judge ruled that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act gives the president the right to block drilling in certain areas, but cannot reinstate it.
Nevertheless, in his interview with Mr. Hewitt, Mr. Trump asserted that Mr. Biden's actions could be reversed.
“I have the right to lift the ban immediately,” he said.
“When you see somebody say ban 625 million acres, you don’t know what that is. We can't let that happen,” Trump added.
Biden's move to ban new drilling on more than 625 million acres would be the largest area ever blocked by a president.
But Biden's measure would also apply to areas with low, if any, levels of offshore drilling. It did not apply to the central and western Gulf of Mexico, where most of the United States' offshore drilling occurs.
