<u+201c>the trump administration has the potential to do serious damage to our climate," tom steyer said monday in a statement.  | getty by esther whieldon 11/14/16 07:35 pm est updated 11/14/16 08:22 pm est billionaire democratic activist tom steyer is calling on president barack obama to invoke largely untested authority to permanently block offshore oil drilling in the atlantic ocean and arctic before donald trump takes office. the involvement of steyer's nextgen climate group ups the ante on an under-the-radar campaign environmentalists and democrats have been waging for months to get obama to invoke powers that would effectively allow to ban drilling in sections of oceans under federal control. story continued below "the trump administration has the potential to do serious damage to our climate <u+2014> but in the last few months of his presidency, president obama can take concrete steps to secure his environmental legacy," steyer said in a statement nextgen plans to release tuesday. "we will continue to support bold action by president obama to fight for our families, and we will keep pushing back against trump's dark vision and dangerous plans for our country." nextgen and white house officials have discussed the possibility of obama using his executive powers under a section of the law governing offshore drilling that allows him to "withdraw from disposition" any section of the outer continental shelf that has not already been leased for oil or gas drilling. and the group is asking its members to sign a petition calling on obama to do so. by dan diamond whether obama follows through before the end of his term remains to be seen, but the move seems more likely now that he will be handing power to trump rather than democrat hillary clinton. trump has boasted he will unleash fossil fuel development to accelerate growth and curb regulations on oil and gas development, which has environmentalists grappling with how to prevent him from opening up more areas for offshore drilling. they are hoping obama will build on his decision in march to propose withdrawing the atlantic and some of the arctic ocean from oil and gas drilling in the next five-year drilling plan. a final version of that plan is expected to be released soon, but trump could direct his administration to rewrite it after taking office. steyer's group says more permanent protections are available using section 12(a) of the ocs lands act. similar to the antiquities act, which presidents can use to create national monuments to permanently protect parcels of land from development, section 12(a)does not include language that allows future presidents to undo the withdrawal of offshore areas from future leasing. a nextgen climate america official who requested anonymity said the group has been in talks with the white house, which has said the idea was under serious consideration, but the official did not know where the white house is in that process at this stage. the official would not say when the conversations happened. white house by edward-isaac dovere whether trump would really be powerless to expand drilling in the face of such a decision from obama would have to be tested in court. "no president has ever rescinded an open-ended reserve under this, and so there's no litigation history," john leshy, a clinton-era interior official who now teaches at university of california's hastings college of the law, told e&e news earlier this year. he added, "nobody knows the answer because it's never been tried." obama has used the law before. in 2014, he made the waters of alaska's bristol bay indefinitely off limits to consideration for oil and gas leasing. and in 2015, he made parts of the beaufort and chukchi seas off limits. several environmental groups this year have called for permanent leasing bans in the arctic and atlantic, including the natural resources defense council, sierra club and league of conservation voters. maryland sens. ben cardin and barbara mikulski , and more than a dozen other democratic senators in october, called on obama to use the same law the permanently ban drilling. "using this authority to permanently protect these areas would ensure that important industries in our coastal states such as fishing and tourism are protected, that we do not despoil our beaches and coastlines or the sensitive ecosystem of the arctic ocean, and that we align our long-term federal energy decisions with a climate-safe future," they wrote in a letter to the president. by michael grunwald by bill scher by thomas wright by joshua zeitz
steyer calls on obama to ban offshore drilling in arctic, atlantic - politico
esther whieldon dan diamond edward-isaac dovere michael grunwald