Biden ban puts more of Northwest off-limits to oil drilling

More Northwest waters are now off-limits to oil drilling, which is already prohibited by state law within three miles of the Oregon and Washington coasts.

A new ban from President Joe Biden prevents offshore drilling within 200 miles of the nation’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the northern Bering Sea.

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Environmentalists welcomed the new ban, though no one has proposed to drill in Northwest waters in decades.

“There really hasn't been a lot of interest in this region for offshore oil and gas drilling, at least in the past 50 years,” said marine scientist Ben Enticknap with the nonprofit group Oceana in Portland. “For the Pacific Northwest, I would really characterize this as a precautionary approach.”

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Oil, gas, and mineral exploration and production are prohibited within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which stretches 20 to 40 miles offshore from more than half of Washington state’s outer coast.

Oregon has a ban on pipelines and other infrastructure that would support drilling in federal waters.

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President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he would undo Biden’s ban on offshore drilling on “day one” of his presidency.

Reversing the ban would take an act of Congress.