Biden Bars Offshore Oil Drilling in US Atlantic and Pacific (1)

President Joe Biden is indefinitely blocking offshore oil and gas development in more than 625 million acres of US coastal waters, warning that drilling there is simply “not worth the risks” and “unnecessary” to meet the nation’s energy needs.

Biden’s move is enshrined in a pair of presidential memoranda being issued Monday, burnishing his legacy on conservation and fighting climate change just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Yet unlike other actions Biden has taken to constrain fossil fuel development, this one could be harder for Trump to unwind, since it’s rooted in a 72-year-old provision offederal ...