An order in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency has indefinitely banned oil and gas drilling along the coast of New Jersey, as well as much of the coastal United States.
New Jersey environmentalists and politicians praised the move on Monday, hours after Biden issued a Presidential Memorandum that prohibits future drilling across millions of acres of ocean floor along the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The memorandum also blocks drilling in parts of the Gulf Coast and Alaska within the outer continental shelf.
“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House on Monday. “It is not worth the risks.”
Along the Atlantic Coast, the memorandum places restrictions across 334 million acres, from the Canadian border to Florida.
It marked a “monumental victory” for New Jersey’s coastal environment, said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, an environmental organization based in Long Branch.
“For over 40 years, Clean Ocean Action led New Jerseyans from all walks of life to call for an end to offshore drilling and today, with a stroke of President Biden’s pen, it is done!” she wrote in a statement. “This marks the day we can finally retire all of those heartbreaking posters highlighting the horrific impacts from offshore drilling!”
But the ban may already be under threat, as President-elect Donald Trump promised to undo Biden’s executive orders on Monday, calling them “costly and ridiculous.” However, it’s a promise that will not be easy to realize, says one congressman.
Prohibiting offshore drilling off New Jersey’s coast has historically united New Jersey’s Republicans and Democrats. Rep. Jeff Van Drew and Rep. Chris Smith, both Republicans who represent central and southern New Jersey, have in the past opposed efforts to explore and produce gas and oil off the Jersey Shore.
Rep. Frank Pallone Pallone Jr., a Democrat who represents portions of Monmouth and Middlesex counties, said his first bill when he entered Congress in the late 80s was one that banned oil and gas drilling along the Atlantic Coast, including off New Jersey.
“I think I was elected because people saw me as the defender of protecting the ocean,” Pallone said during a news conference Monday, where he celebrated Biden’s drilling ban.
“If you live along the Atlantic Coast or the other areas where this new protection will be in effect, you realize that your economy, your very well being, could be seriously damaged by an oil spill,” Pallone said. “There’s no reason for anyone to believe that another spill like what happened with the BP (Deepwater Horizon) could not occur again if we had drilling in these waters off the Atlantic.”
The explosion of the BP Deepwater Horizon rig in 2010 killed 11 workers and the resulting environmental disaster spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The spill killed or sickened wildlife in its path and disrupted important Gulf Coast industries, like fishing and tourism.
A study by Virginia Tech in 2017 found the BP spill caused more than $17 billion worth of damages to the region’s natural resources.
New England Wildlife Centers’ staff clean oil from a duck coated during a spill in Muddy River, near Boston, in December.
Trump vows to reverse ban
But some in New Jersey’s business sector see the federal drilling ban as harmful to the state’s commercial interests and energy consumers.
“This action is a clear slap in the face to rate and taxpayers who made their voices heard in 2024 – they want more affordable domestic energy options, period,” said Michael Makarski, spokesman for Affordable Energy for New Jersey, an organization that promotes inclusion of methane and natural gas into the state’s pool of energy sources.
Makarski said Biden’s memorandum amounted to “nothing more than political virtue signaling to ban something that isn’t actually happening off the East Coast.”
On Monday, President-elect Donald Trump said he would reverse the ban.
“Fear not,” he wrote on his social media website TruthSocial.com. “These ‘Orders’ will all be terminated shortly, and we will become a Nation of Common Sense and Strength.”
During his first term as president, Trump issued an executive order to expand oil and gas drilling within the outer continental shelf.
Trump will have a difficult time undoing Biden’s drilling ban, said Pallone, noting a move by Trump during his first presidency to undo a measure by former President Barack Obama that banned oil and gas drilling in Alaska proved unsuccessful.
Pallone said Trump could urge Congress to abolish the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which includes Biden’s memorandum. However, the congressman did not believe the president-elect would find widespread support for the initiative.
Why is the outer continental shelf important?
New Jersey’s coastline and outer continental shelf are “invaluable” natural resources and critical habitat for various marine and bird species, said Anjuli Ramos-Busot, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, an environmental organization. The areas are also integral for New Jersey’s coastal tourism businesses and fishing industry, she said.
“The Sierra Club has fought offshore drilling for decades for its harmful pollution to our water and air quality, and threats to coastal communities and economies,” Ramos-Busot said in a statement. “Today’s federal protections from the Biden Administration secure a safe, fossil-free future for our oceans and for next generations to enjoy.”
In 2018, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bipartisan law that banned offshore oil and gas exploration and production in the state’s coastal waters, which extend 3 nautical miles from shore. Federal waters extend farther into the ocean, or about 200 nautical miles from shore for economic activity.
The new Biden Administration ban on drilling will limit American’s energy options, drive up prices and leave the nation more vulnerable, said Ray Cantor, deputy chief of government affairs for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.
“The U.S. needs an all-of-the-above energy approach,” Cantor said in a statement. “Without a mixed portfolio of energy sources, costs rise for customers and feasibility fails.”
Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 16 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Biden ban on offshore drilling called ‘monumental victory’ for NJ