There is one month to go until the day Barack Obama will cross the threshold of the White House for the last time, leaving the chair in the Oval Office to Donald Trump. For this reason, the decision taken on 20 December by the outgoing President of the United States on the subject of offshore drilling for hydrocarbons resembles a kind of environmental testament. The choice is indeed historic, as it introduces a total ban on hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities across vast areas of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.

Drilling stopped thanks to a 1953 law

Obama had, for that matter, already announced some months ago his intention to adopt new regulations capable of protecting these areas, which in many cases are home to endangered animal and plant species. At the time, however, the current American president had envisaged a five-year ban. The major novelty is therefore tied to the duration of the measure: thanks to a 1953 law — the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which grants the head of state the power to protect federal waters from oil and gas exploration — it has been possible to permanently block all activities linked to fossil fuels.

The entire Atlantic coast is affected by the new regulations, from Norfolk, Virginia, to Maine, on the border with Canada. This amounts to an area of 1.5 million hectares. Likewise, the measure decided by Obama covers almost all of the Arctic Ocean waters belonging to the United States, amounting to over 46 million hectares.
"These measures will protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that exists nowhere else in the world," Obama explained in a statement in which he also noted how such rules guard against the risk of accidents and hydrocarbon spills. A similar decision was also taken by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. "Together we have taken a historic step," the US president commented.

Read also: The Deepwater Horizon disaster. What happened, the causes and those responsible

Risk of legal challenges from the Trump administration

Great satisfaction was also expressed by environmental organisations. Michael Brune, director of the Sierra Club, explained that the new measures decided by the US "will prevent future administrations from destroying the waters and coastlines." "We will see whether President Trump, who has always sided with the oil industry, will now also stand against those millions of citizens around the world, and the indigenous communities of the American and Canadian Arctic, who have something better in mind for their land, and our Earth, than the tar and destruction promised by drilling rigs," declared Alessandro Gianni, campaigns director of Greenpeace Italia.

There is, in any case, a risk. A precedent serves as a reminder: in the 1990s, then-President Bill Clinton had adopted a similar provision, based, in that case too, on the 1953 law. His successor, George W. Bush, had launched a legal battle and ultimately succeeded in having the ban on oil extraction overturned in part of the areas concerned. It cannot be ruled out, therefore, that Trump may also decide to bring the matter before the federal courts.