Offshore Oil Drilling

[Carborendum]

Much has been made about Biden's move to ban offshore oil drilling.  Both sides seem excited by it --  for or against.

Here's what I understand about it.

• A law gives the executive branch authority to deem some locations too sensitive to allow for mineral leasing.
• Biden has exercised that right on an area equal to about a 9 mile strip of ocean all around the US.  This is the biggest ban in history.
• The law itself would need to be repealed if we want to ignore the ban.

Here's what is up for dispute:

• Once a ban is in place, can the executive (including the new one) simply "unban" it?  Or is it considered permanent?  I don't know.  But Trump seems to think he can just write a counter-order on day 1.  We'll see how that plays out in court.

I'm not sure if I care all that much.  Maybe some.

The 9 mile point is a rather interesting figure.  By adding this to the existing 3 mile mark, we have a 12 mile zone around the coastline.  That is enough that the average man can no longer see a 100ft tall drilling platform.  Most platforms are taller.  But they would appear as a tiny dot on the horizon that could easily be mistaken for a natural island.

The problem is that any drilling platforms have to be built with longer and longer legs to anchor into the continental shelf.  And the shipping (to and from the platform) is exponentially more expensive.

Trump complained and was given some heat about the fact that he instituted a ban around the Florida coast.  The rebuttal is that he did it in areas of commercial fishing and local tourism.  Biden did it virtually across the entire country's shorelines. That's a bit of a difference.  When it is across the entire nation, that indicates that this was indiscriminate use of authority rather than a considered, measured way to implement that authority.

That seems to be the hallmark of all these 11th hour actions of a lame duck President.  But this and the pardons/commutations he's been writing like it's going out of style is beyond anything in recent memory.  That chyl' ain't right.

Edited January 8 by Carborendum