Congress
Trump promises to undo Biden lame-duck drilling ban
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday vowed to quickly reverse President Joe Biden’s lame-duck push to ban oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coast.
Trump said in a radio interview that he plans to undo Biden’s policy “immediately” after he takes office later this month, although doing so would likely require help from Congress.
The incoming president slammed Biden’s offshore drilling ban Monday in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt. Biden announced earlier Monday — two weeks before Inauguration Day — that he was banning new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coastline.
“It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said. “It’ll be changed on Day One. I can change it immediately.”
Reversing Biden’s move would likely require an act of Congress, where Republicans hold majorities but where a reversal could face opposition from coastal lawmakers who oppose drilling off their home states’ shores.
Biden moved Monday to block offshore oil and gas leasing of 625 million acres where the White House said the environmental and economic risks of drilling outweigh their “limited fossil fuel resource potential.” The White House and environmentalists see the move as a way to bolster Biden’s conservation legacy as he prepares to leave office.
But Trump and his industry allies are furious about the outgoing administration’s move that could hamstring the incoming administration’s plans to expand domestic fossil fuel production.
The Biden team is “always saying, ‘Oh, no, we want to have a smooth transition from party to party,” Trump said Monday. “Well, they’re making it really difficult. They’re throwing everything they can in the way.”
Biden’s ban — including areas along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of the northern Bering Sea off the Alaskan coast — covers areas with minimal oil and gas production.
Still, industry groups and Republicans called for lawmakers to move quickly to unravel the policy that could tie the new administration’s hands on drilling in those areas.
“We call on Congress and the incoming Administration to use all available tools to reverse this policy,” said Christopher Guith, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute.
Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement Monday that Congress “will use every tool, including reconciliation, to restore and unleash these revenues, fueling conservation, coastal resilience, and energy independence, and ensuring America — not OPEC, Russia or China — leads the world.”
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the move is part of the outgoing administration’s work “to make bold and enduring changes that recognize the impact of oil and gas drilling on our nation’s coastlines.”
The climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement’s Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay praised the Biden ban as a “massive victory for our generation and for communities on the front lines of oil and gas extraction.”
Trump’s expected efforts to undo the drilling ban could lead to clashes on Capitol Hill or in the courts. A federal judge in 2017 struck down a Trump move to reverse Obama-era offshore drilling restrictions, finding that only Congress could do so.
As he prepares to take office in two weeks, Trump also assailed Biden administration spending on climate and clean energy programs — including wind turbines — in his radio interview Monday.
“They’re giving out trillions of dollars in nonsense and Green New Deal crap that isn’t worth a damn thing,” Trump said.
Trump, a longtime critic of wind turbines, accused the Biden administration of “putting windmills all over the place that are destroying every beautiful plain and field and mountain.
“It’s so sad when you fly over the country and you see all these horrible-looking structures, half of them are closed down, rusted and rotted. Their life is over. You know, they last a very limited period of time, and then everybody just leaves them,” he said. “They’re just destroying the beauty of our country. It’s hard to believe environmentalists like windmills.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) expressed disappointment Sunday morning that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) lost his primary last week.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Khanna said of his reaction: “Sadness, disappointment. Thomas is a real friend. He’s a good man.”
Khanna and Massie are very much on opposite ends of the classic left-right ideological spectrum, but they came together to introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, requiring the release of files in the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They also joined together to attempt, unsuccessfully, to block U.S. involvement in Iran.
Those efforts, as well as other votes, led President Donald Trump to repeatedly denounce Massie and campaign on behalf of Ed Gallrein, Massie’s challenger in their Kentucky congressional district. Gallrein won the primary last week with approximately 55 percent of the vote.
Speaking to host Kristen Welker, Khanna offered his analysis of Massie’s defeat.
“He was taken out for two reasons,” Khanna said. “One: He had the courage to go after some very powerful people in working with me to get the Epstein Transparency Act passed. As you mentioned, that’s historic bipartisan legislation that finally got justice for the survivors. And he had people spend millions of dollars and had the president of the United States after him.
“And second, he worked with me to stop this war in Iran. So for taking on the Epstein class and taking on war, he basically lost his state. And I admire his courage in taking those positions.”
With talk this weekend of a possible deal with Iran, Khanna said it is time for the war to come to an end.
“The answer to your question is yes. I do believe we need a negotiated deal,” he told Welker.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., whose two-and-a-half month disappearance has stoked speculation about his health and political future, has begun more actively communicating over the phone.
On Thursday, Kean began calling Republican county chairs in his 7th Congressional District, one of the most competitive in the country in this year’s midterms. The two-term Republican also gave a “lengthy” interview to New Jersey Globe on Thursday afternoon, the first he has granted since he last voted on March 5.
Kean did not respond to a text message from Blue Light News and his voicemail was full Thursday night.
But Kean, 57, gave no details to the Globe on his undisclosed illness, which has kept him out of public view since early March. He said he’s expecting to make a full recovery, that it would not affect his cognitive health, that he plans to run for reelection and that he will publicly discuss his health at an unspecified later date.
“My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” Kean told New Jersey Globe. “I understand the need for public transparency, and I appreciate the support of my constituents.”
Kean added that he plans to return to voting and campaigning in the next couple weeks. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told reporters Thursday he spoke to Kean and he will be back voting in June.
Kean’s lengthy absence has drawn national media attention, with reporters staking out his home in the wealthy 7th Congressional District, where he faces an extremely competitive reelection, with four Democrats competing in the June 2 primary to take him on in November. His campaign and office staff had repeatedly said that he expects to make a full recovery and would return to work “soon.”
But few people — even Kean’s two fellow New Jersey House Republicans — had recently reported speaking to him. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he spoke to Kean last month.
Kean called Republican chairs in his district on Thursday.
“He sounded good to me. Sounded just as normal as always,” said Carlos Santos, the Republican chair of Union County, where Kean lives.
Santos said that he did not ask Kean about his ailment, and that Kean did not disclose it. But he said Kean confirmed he’s running for reelection and that he has his support.
Tracy DiFrancesco, the GOP chair of Somerset County, also spoke with Kean.
“It was just a simple conversation. He sounded just like Tom always sounds. He sounded perfectly fine. He’s basically back. Hopefully we’re going to see him very soon,” she said. “I think he’s doing well and we’re excited to get back on his campaign.”
Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told reporters Thursday he spoke to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and he will be back voting in June.
Kean, a New Jersey Republican, has been missing from Capitol Hill since March 5 without explanation. Hudson, of North Carolina, said in an interview just a few days ago he hadn’t spoken to Kean in a while and only heard from Kean’s team that he could run for reelection.
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