Obama Uses Old Law to Ban Oil Drilling in Most of US Arctic

U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, in what seems to be a direct confrontation with his Republican successor Donald Trump, whose energy transition team said he wanted to increase production in the areas.

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Obama used a 1950s-era law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling.

Environmental groups said it could mean Trump's incoming administration would have to go to court if it sought to reverse the move.

The ban affects 115 million acres, 46.5 million hectares, of U.S. federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea, and 3.8 million acres, 1.5 million hectares, in the Atlantic, from New England to Chesapeake Bay.

Trump, who succeeds Obama on Jan. 20, has said he will look to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. A recent memo from his energy transition team said his policy could increase production in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, as well as the mid- and south Atlantic.

“It’s never been done before,” Patrick Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law School, told The New York Times.

“There is no case law on this. It’s uncharted waters.”

The American Petroleum Institute, an oil industry group, disagreed about the permanence of the ban and said Trump could likely use a presidential memorandum to lift it.

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"We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy,” Erik Milito, API's upstream director, said according to Reuters.

The White House and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau jointly announced their move to launch "actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem." Canada will designate all Arctic Canadian waters as indefinitely off limits to future offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing.

While the joint move is being labeled as part of the two countries push against climate change, both Obama and Trudeau have been criticized over some of their friendly policies regarding fossil fuel and lack of action to stop global warming.

The news comes just a few weeks after the Obama administration finally listened to the demand of thousands of water protectors and native Americans who had been protesting for months against the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota.

The federal government had approved the pipeline but months of protests, which received national and international attention and support, forced Obama to withdraw the initial approval and deny the current route.

Also, in Canada in late November, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved two controversial pipeline projects despite the vigorous objection of many of the First Nations communities who are in the direct path of the projects.

Some environmentalist activists have also slammed the recent COP21 climate agreement, arguing the U.S. and other developed countries are shifting the burden of dealing with global warming away from themselves onto developing countries, who have contributed far less to climate change.