President Joe Biden issued an executive order which bans oil and gas drilling projects in American coastal waters weeks before President-Elect Donald Trump starts his second term.

The new order restricts drilling along the east and west coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the northern Bering Sea in Alaska, citing environmental factors and purported climate change while claiming such concerns exceed the “relatively minimal fossil fuel potential” of those areas.

“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses, and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden commented. “As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.”

The majority of offshore oil and gas drilling activity occurs in the western Gulf of Mexico. Trump previously proposed the allowance of drilling for all American coastal waters in 2018 but later backed a freeze on the projects for the eastern Gulf of Mexico in the fall of 2020.

Trump nevertheless rebuked the move from Biden in a radio interview about the new executive order, asserting that the mandate will “be changed on day one” and saying that he can “change it immediately.” The incoming commander-in-chief added that the United States possesses oil and gas reserves “at a level that nobody else has and we’re going to take advantage of it.”

Biden provoked accusations of preemptively obstructing the Trump administration with the oil and gas executive order, as well as with recent moves to auction away border wall materials.

“The administration is trying to sell it for five cents on the dollar knowing that we’re getting ready to put it up,” Trump reacted. “It’s almost a criminal act. They know that we’re going to use it and if we don’t have it we’re going to have to rebuild it and it will cost double what it cost years ago.”