Obama Blocks Trump When It Comes To Environmental Drilling
One of the big promises Donald Trump made during his campaign about oil exploration but it seems that President Obama is going to make that more difficult. The president recently planned a new way to ban Artic drilling using a 64-year old law.
Obama invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which presidents use to prevent leasing of lands. The law was made into effect through the acts of Harry Truman, the Supreme Court and Congress at the time. Truman made the declaration in 1948 and the previous year the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government, and not the states, had rights over the 3-mile Territorial Sea in the U.S. vs. The State Of California. Five years later, Congress created the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Earlier this week, the White House, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement that said the ban was indefinite.
“President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau are proud to launch actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem, with low-impact shipping, science based management of marine resources, and free from the future risks of offshore oil and gas activity,” the statement read. “Together, these actions set the stage for deeper partnerships with other Arctic nations, including through the Arctic Council.”
It’s not the first time that this law has been invoked as it has been used to ban oil exploration, however they mostly have expiration dates. But since Obama is going to use the law instead of using executive orders, something that he has done in the past, it could present a lot of complications for Donald Trump.
First and foremost, since it would be a law instead of an executive action, Trump would have a lot more difficulty to overturn it. It would take an act of Congress and Obama is under no obligation to give expiration date by using the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
The other issue is the White House believes that this should stonewall Trump due to the fact that the
“America’s incredible energy potential remains untapped. It’s a wound that is totally self-inflected,” Trump said back in May. “The government should not pick winners and losers, instead it should remove obstacles to exploration.”
Now, it seems that the current administration is developing more obstacles for Trump’s plans for drilling in the Artic and the Atlantic. Which could end up being a blow to what the President-elect hopes to accomplish in his first 100 days.