HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — In a powerful stroke of a pen, President Joe Biden banned offshore drilling in federal waters off the Atlantic coast, the majority of the Pacific coast and the eastern parts of the Gulf of Mexico. He used a provision of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelfs Act, which gives presidents the right to protect areas, but a new president can't reinstate it. The incoming Trump administration, however, has already said they intend to undo it — "I'm going to have it revoked on day one," Trump said at a news conference — and some petroleum experts are supporting them. "What we have is the 11th-hour surprise," aid Michael O'Connor with the Virginia Petroleum and Convenience Marketers Association. "That it's seeking to change the policy, the country, that will negatively impact those people that are just trying to make ends meet. "We've seen it time and time again. If you have international unrest, particularly in the Middle East, that's going to have an immediate impact on crude oil." The actual impacts of the current administration's move are expected to be limited for Virginia. The Commonwealth didn't have any active leases on potential oil drilling projects to begin with. The General Assembly also banned any drilling in state waters in 2020 — that disincentivized companies from exploring the opportunity. There's very little drilling that goes on outside the central and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico, but some say the ban is potentially harmful for a country that still relies on gas powered vehicles. "This is not only short-sighted," O'Connor said. "It's [also] going to hurt the people that they pretend to want to support the most." Clean energy activist Jay Ford of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation disagrees. He said this is the exact time to start shifting away from crude oil. "When you make an investment in in offshore oil and gas, you're talking about a decades-long investment," said Ford, the Virginia Policy Manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "Where we are as a country, and where we are as a state and Virginia, we can't continue to make decades-long investments in fossil fuels. We are rapidly pivoting towards renewables." It's not just the electric vehicle debate charging conversations. Petroleum experts are also concerned about gas prices. "You have to look at what happens when international unrest has interchanged with crude oil," O'Connor said. "Just look at what happened when the invasion of Ukraine happened. "Almost three years ago, we saw pump prices almost double overnight. And certainly we don't want to have dependance upon foreign oil. And that's just what this ban is going to do." Clean energy activists disagree."These were lands [on the Atlantic coast] that had a low likelihood of having a financially viable oil and gas project," Ford said. "The idea that these were going to drive down gas prices is sort of a misunderstanding of how the fuel economy works."