More than 90% of Alaska’s federal water will still be open to drilling as well as the central and western Gulf of Mexico. The exempted regions are the most productive areas in the country for offshore oil and gas. The areas included in the ban are not central to U.S. oil production. There are currently no federal leases on the U.S. East Coast and there hasn’t been a federal sale off the California coast since 1984.
The move will only affect leases for new offshore drilling and not projects currently underway, so the ban is “not particularly consequential for U.S. exploration and production going forward,” Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, told CNN.
Nonethele
