Trump team blasts Biden for banning offshore, coastal drilling over 625 million acres

In an 11th-hour move before President-elect Donald Trump takes office that his team has dubbed a "disgrace," President Joe Biden issued an executive action that will ban drilling for oil on over 625 million acres of offshore as well as coastal regions.

Incoming White House secretary Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement, "This is a disgraceful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people who gave President Trump a mandate to increase drilling and lower gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden will fail, and we will drill, baby, drill."

The White House said of the decision in a statement that it "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." Reuters noted that much of the area covered under the action is not a priority for drillers.

The average gas price in Trump's first term was $2.477 per gallon and during the last four years of Biden's presidency, the average price per gallon of gas has been $3.446, nearly a dollar's difference, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.

Biden claimed that the country does not need to choose between "keeping our ocean healthy" and "keeping energy prices low," despite the increase in prices under his watch. The White House statement added that banning offshore and coastal drilling will "help communities and the economy to flourish for generations to come."

The executive action seeks to "withdraw from disposition by oil or natural gas leasing for a time period without specific expiration" in the following areas: The "North Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Straits of Florida Planning Areas of the Outer Continental Shelf," the "Outer Continental Shelf designated by section 104(a) of the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006," and the "areas designated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as the Washington/Oregon, Northern California, Central California, and Southern California Planning Areas of the Outer Continental Shelf."