Biden bans new offshore drilling along most of the U.S. coastline

The White House announced Monday that President Joe Biden would ban new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coastline.

The order will protect some 625 million acres of ocean along America's Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's Bering Sea from "environmental and economic risks and harms," the White House said in a statement announcing the move.

It is also an attempt to protect Biden's climate legacy from the energy policy set to be pursued by Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump's energy policy.

Biden will use an obscure provision of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which gives the president the power to indefinitely withdraw unleased lands from the outer continental shelf.

While former President Barack Obama used the act in 2016 to protect 119 million acres of land, Monday's move is much larger and will be viewed as a significant victory for environmental groups that have long argued further drilling is contradictory to the U.S. government's stated goal of slashing emissions that lead to climate change.

Last year was the hottest in recorded history.

"Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation's energy needs. It is not worth the risks," Biden said in a statement. 

"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," he added.

Biden's decision takes the total area of ocean he has protected to 670 million acres — higher than any other president — and could frustrate Trump's plans to gain an economic boost from doubling down on the increased