With just a few days left in office, President Biden on January 6 made a final effort to shape U.S. energy policy and development by permanently banning new oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of coastal waters. Using an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Land Shelf Act (OCLSA), the president signed an executive order banning future drilling in federal waters off the Eastern Seaboard, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the West Coast and portions of the northern Bering Sea in Alaska. The ban is largely just for show, but in today’s RBN blog we’ll discuss why it might cause headaches for the “drill, baby, drill” Trump administration.
Canadian crude output is rising, requiring new export routes. As traditional pathways face constraints, the U.S. Rockies—especially the Guernsey, WY hub—are emerging as key corridors for moving Canadian heavy crude to downstream markets, including the Gulf Coast.
The authority for Biden’s order comes from the little-known OCLSA. In short, the 72-year-old law created a framework for balancing environmental concerns with offshore exploration and development. The law says explicitly that the president may, “from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the Outer Continental Shelf.”
Biden is not the first president to take significant action to limit drilling under that authority. In December 2016, then-President Obama made a similar order just one month before Trump took office eight years ago. Obama banned offshore oil and gas drilling in the “vast majority” of the U.S.-owned northern waters — including large areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans — using that same 1953 law. He declared these areas as “indefinitely off limits” to future leasing, a move intended to make the ban permanent. In 2017, newly elected President Trump sought to reverse Obama’s ban but a federal judge kept the restrictions in place and said the law allows presidents to withdraw areas from drilling but does not give them the sole power to reinstate previously withdrawn areas. (For more on the potential to reinstate previously withdrawn areas, see below.) Obama’s December 2016 executive order is still in place and impacts policy going forward.
In September 2020, then-President Trump issued an executive order to withdraw the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico along with the South Atlantic and the Straits of Florida (the waters between the Florida Keys and Cuba) from oil leasing for 10 years. This was intended as a political measure to sway swing voters in the Sunshine State. But Trump’s action was focused on a more specific area — water near Florida and the Southeastern U.S. (red-and-gray striped area in Figure 1 below) — and had a limited timeframe of 2022 to 2032.
Figure 1. U.S. Offshore Production Areas. Source: RBN
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About the song
“Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” was written by Jonathan Cain and Steve Perry. It appears as the first song on Journey's eighth studio album, Frontiers. Released as a single in January 1983, the record went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. Personnel on the record were: Steve Perry (lead vocals), Neal Schon (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jonathan Cain (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Ross Valory (bass, backing vocals), and Steve Smith (drums, percussion, backing vocals). The music video for the song was shot at a wharf and features the band rocking out on air guitars and drums. The video was later lampooned on Bevis and Butthead.
Frontiers was recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA, in the fall of 1982. Produced by Mike Stone and Kevin Elson, the album was released in February 1983. It went to #2 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and has been certified 6x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Four singles were released from the LP.
Journey is an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1973 by Neil Schon, Ross Valory, Gregg Rolie, George Tickner and Prairie Prince. They have released 14 studio albums, four live albums, eight compilation albums, one soundtrack album, two EPs, and 59 singles. Journey has sold more than 80 million records worldwide. Eighteen members have passed through the band since its formation. The lineup of Steve Perry, Neil Schon, Russ Valory, Jonathan Cain, and Steve Smith sold the most records and is the most well-known. They have 25 Gold and Platinum records and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. The band still records and tours, with dates in California and Tennessee scheduled for early 2025.
