Obama invokes 1953 law to indefinitely block drilling in Arctic and Atlantic oceans

Obama invokes 1953 law to indefinitely block drilling in Arctic and Atlantic oceans
Tom DiChristopher | @tdichristopher
26 Mins AgoCNBC.com

Obama Administration: Atlantic, Arctic drilling indefinitely frozen
45 Mins Ago | 01:48


President Barack Obama on Tuesday moved to indefinitely block drilling in vast swaths of U.S. waters.

The president had been expected to take the action by invoking a provision in a 1953 law that governs offshore leases, as CNBC previously reported.

The law allows a president to withdraw any currently unleased lands in the Outer Continental Shelf from future lease sales. There is no provision in the law that allows the executive's successor to repeal the decision, so President-elect Donald Trump would not be able to easily brush aside the action.

Trump has vowed to open more federal land to oil and natural gas production in a bid to boost U.S. output. Obama on Tuesday said he would designate "the bulk of our Arctic water and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing, though the prospects for drilling in the affected areas in the near future were already questionable.

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http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/20/obama-expected-to-invoke-1953-law-to-block-offshore-drilling.html