Trump admin shelves vast expansion of offshore drilling

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images

President Barack Obama looks at Bear Glacier during a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park on September 1, 2015 in Seward, Alaska. Bear Glacier is the largest glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.

That means Obama’s indefinite ban on drilling in most Arctic waters and parts of the Atlantic Ocean will remain in place until they’re revoked by Congress. That is unlikely for the time being because Democrats took control of the House last year.

Prior to the ruling, the Interior Department was expected to vastly expand drilling opportunities beyond the Gulf of Mexico in its next five-year lease schedule, which offers the oil and gas industry the opportunity to bid on offshore blocks.

A plan released by former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke last year would have made 90 percent of the U.S. outer continental shelf available, though the final details of the plan were not certain.

The plan faced opposition from Democratic and Republican governors in coastal states. Bernhardt acknowledged in the Journal interview that opposition from those states remains an issue.

The announcement marks the latest setback in Trump’s efforts to expand U.S. fossil fuel production and roll back environmental regulations, which have faced a wave of lawsuits.

“Given the recent court decision, the Administration is right to set aside its plan, but it needs to go one step further and fully and permanently scrap its plan to open our coasts to unfettered offshore drilling,” Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of National Wildlife Federation, said in a statement.