Obama Bans Future Leases in Swaths of Atlantic and Arctic

(January 9, 2017) President Obama in late December ordered federal waters in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans be placed indefinitely off-limits for further oil and gas leasing. The move was seen as a final fossil-fuel crackdown before he leaves office, and as a strategy to bind the hands of his successor, Donald Trump, who has promised to open more U.S.-owned lands and off shore areas to development.

Obama announced his actions in conjunction with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, not indefinitely, but subject to periodic review. The U.S. waters in the Atlantic now off-limits stretch from the coast of New England south to Virginia. The president used a 1953 provision that allows the nation’s chief executive to ban off shore leases in the Outer Continental Shelf permanently.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Coastal Commission have called for Obama to further use his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to prohibit the inclusion of any new oil and gas leasing along the Pacific Coast. Brown was joined by the governors of Oregon and Washington. “Clearly,” wrote Brown, “large new oil and gas reserves would be inconsistent with our overriding imperative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and combat the devastating impacts of climate change.”

The California Coastal Commission, noting that it has long opposed any new oil and gas lease sales, thanked Obama for the U.S. Department of the Interior omitting sales in its Pacific Outer Continental Shelf 2017-2022 OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Proposed Final Program. “However, we strongly believe that action…is needed to permanently withdraw California to shore waters from leasing for oil and gas activities and guarantee that future oil and drilling off shore California is prohibited.”