US President Barack Obama has announced an indefinite ban on almost all offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic in an attempt to secure his environmental legacy after he leaves office next month.
The move "is intended to help counter plans by [Donald Trump's] incoming administration to vastly expand energy extraction by fossil fuel companies", says the Los Angeles Times.
Invoking an obscure provision of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which protects coral reefs and life in marine sanctuaries, the new law could present "a difficult barrier for the incoming Trump administration should they decide to undo Obama's environmental legacy", says the Daily News.
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A senior administration official said the White House was "quite confident" the decision could not be undone, adding that the law specifies no provision for reversal. Legal experts have suggested overturning the act could require years of legal action, a federal amendment and the passage of a bill in Congress.
However, while environmentalists have lauded Obama's action as "heroic", "opponents decried the president for weakening national security and destroying jobs", says The Independent.
The move is one of many efforts by Obama to protect what environmental policies he can from a successor who has vowed to roll them back, says the New York Times.
While a Republican Congress in lock-step behind President Trump will be able to overturn some of Obama's recent environmental regulations, "because of new and legally inventive strategies, Obama and his staff may well have built firewalls around environmental policies that could hold off his successor or at least keep him at bay for several years", adds the paper.
Trump's authority to undo a permanent prohibition on offshore drilling may be "unclear", says the Washington Post, but he will still have several options open to him, such as getting Congress to "rescind the withdrawal of federal lands from oil and gas exploration".
Tom Steyer, the president of NextGen Climate action group, said: "President Obama's impressive legacy of climate action stands in stark contrast to president-elect Donald Trump, who only cares about climate change when it affects his golf courses."
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