Joe Biden (or whoever is pulling his strings) seems determined to sabotage the incoming Trump administration in any way he can. In the latest outrage, he has signed an order banning offshore drilling for gas and oil along almost the entire U.S. coastline, including in Alaskan waters. President-elect Donald Trump, on Monday, reacted by saying he will "immediately" reverse the "ridiculous" ban on drilling.

But it may not be that easy.

Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed that, if elected, he would expand oil and gas drilling in an effort to bolster American-made energy.

However, Biden issued an 11th-hour executive order Monday morning to forestall such actions exactly two weeks before his term ends, announcing a permanent stop to most new oil and gas drilling across U.S. coastal and offshore waters in an area that spans about 625 million acres.

"It's ridiculous. I'll unban it immediately," Trump said on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" on Monday. "What's he doing?"

Here's the catch:

The executive order, issued under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), seeks to block future oil and natural gas leasing along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea.

Trump said that he "has the right" to reverse such an action, but given that Biden issued the order under a 1953 law that allows the president to enact bans on oil and gas development, he would not be able to simply reverse it.

The law in question is USC Chapter 29, Subchapter 3, "Outer Continental Shelf Lands." That would appear to preclude placing the bans back into the "OPEN" bin simply by reversing an earlier order. Furthermore, there has already been one judicial finding supporting that contention.

In 2019, during Trump's first term, a federal judge ruled that OCSLA does not permit presidents to overturn bans established by previous administrations. This means Trump would need congressional approval to reverse Biden's decision.

Biden may have managed to toss a chock under the Trump Energy Express's wheels. There will almost certainly be a court battle unless congressional Republicans pull the old establishment trick of burying congressional approval for the reversal in some typically Brobdignagian omnibus bill — sauce for the goose, as it were.

Here's the part that really makes Joe Biden look petty and vindictive, not that he didn't look that way already. The outgoing president cited concerns about climate change as a reason for signing the order. If that really was his concern — if he really wanted to shut down energy production on essentially the entire United States continental shelf because of climate change — why did he wait until two weeks before leaving office?

The answer is obvious: This order has nothing to do with the climate. It's all political backbiting and attempted sabotage, pure and simple.

See Related: Drill, Baby, Drill: AK Governor Calls on Trump to Roll Back Drilling Restrictions

Trump Spokeswoman Slams Biden’s Last-Minute Ban on Offshore Drilling: ‘Revenge on the American People’

When Biden announced the ban, Alaska's new Republican Congressman, Nick Begich III, took to X to express his displeasure in typically direct Alaskan fashion:

Joe Biden is a son of a bitch. Hundreds of thousands of Alaskans rely on natural gas from the Cook Inlet to heat and electrify their homes, churches, schools, and workplaces.

Actions like this should serve as a permanent reminder that the Democrat machine is more than happy to… pic.twitter.com/AeIViz7v2Z

— Nick Begich (@NickforAlaska) January 5, 2025

Nick is, of course, correct in his assertion. That's what Joe Biden is, and his deliberate attempt to increase American energy costs, cripple oil and natural gas production, and sabotage the incoming Trump administration proves that; his waiting until literally days before he leaves office puts the lie to the claim that he's doing it for the climate.