Summary
President Joe Biden invoked the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect 625 million acres of U.S. offshore waters from future oil and gas drilling, blocking areas along the East and West coasts, Eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska’s North Bering Sea.
The move aims to prevent environmental damage and hinder Donald Trump’s plans to expand fossil fuel production upon returning to office.
Trump allies and the oil industry criticized the decision as politically motivated, while Biden emphasized bipartisan support for protecting coastal regions.
Depends. If there’s no preexisting law then yes, he can just cancel orders. But presidents aren’t supposed to be able to override the law.
If there’s a law and it has administrative requirements for revoking a particular status, then one president can order the agency administering it to consider putting something under that status, and the next one has to follow that same laws requirements on how to end that status - and it might not have a provision that next president can put to use.
Official act.