The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee called on President Biden Friday to take action to permanently restrict drilling off U.S. coastal waters before leaving office in January. In the letter, Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raul Grijalva (D-Az.), joined by Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), called on Biden to invoke presidential authority under Section 12(a) of the 70-year-old Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permanently block oil and gas drilling in unleased parts of the outer continental shelf (OCS). The text of the law gives the president broad discretion to withdraw unleased areas of the OCS. President Biden previously issued withdrawals for portions of the Beaufort Sea and Northern Bering Sea off Alaska and portions of the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico, while then-President Obama issued three withdrawals in December 2016. “Protecting our waters from offshore drilling is widely popular, with nearly two-thirds of registered voters expressing support,” Grijalva and Pallone wrote. “More than 390 municipalities across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts have formally opposed the expansion of offshore drilling.” President-elect Trump has vowed to expand oil and gas drilling in office and in 2017 signed an executive order revoking former President Obama’s withdrawals of Alaska and Atlantic protections, as well as establishing a national policy “to encourage energy exploration and production, including on the Outer Continental Shelf.” Plans outlined by the first Trump administration, which were eventually blocked in court, would have opened about 90 percent of the OCS to fossil fuel development. However, late in his first term, the president-elect blocked exploratory drilling off Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida. Despite the rightward drift of Florida in recent years, offshore drilling off the Sunshine State has bipartisan opposition, with its Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, as well as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), all opposing it.