Biden’s last-minute executive action on offshore oil and gas drilling may have landed him in hot water as one energy expert is warning of the potential harm to American consumers. Mike Sommers, American Petroleum Institute president and CEO, called on Congress to fix Biden’s costly action after he announced a ban on new drilling and further oil and natural gas development on more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal and offshore waters.
'Unfortunately, these kinds of midnight regulations that are being put in place by the Biden administration are going to undermine American energy security and hurt American consumers. That’s not what America voted for,' Sommers stressed. Biden’s executive action comes two weeks before his term expires. '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,' the president said in a statement. 'It is not worth the risks. As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country, and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.' The president also invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, meaning President-elect Trump could be limited in his ability to revoke the action. Sommers revealed that Congress has a 'number of different options that they could pursue' to overturn Biden’s effort, arguing the new motorium is going to 'harm consumers.' 'The Congressional Review Act is certainly one of them. But they could also pursue this through the reconciliation procedures because of the royalties that would be gained in the offshore from developing these resources, because their federal resources would be tremendous,' Sommers explaine