Editors at National Review Online lament the outgoing president’s approach to offshore drilling.

[T]he effort of advisers to disguise President Biden’s declining mental health throughout his time in office, along with the media’s complicity, has been a historic scandal. While it is tempting to view the scandal as something in the rearview mirror now that Donald Trump is about to assume office, the reality is that for the next several weeks, Biden still retains all the powers of the presidency. And while the public still cannot be sure that he is competent to make his own decisions, he keeps taking irresponsible actions that please progressive activists.

Just before Christmas, Biden egregiously commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 death row inmates, dismissing years of careful work by prosecutors, judges, and juries. Yet in a PR move, he arbitrarily decided to keep the sentences of the three killers who committed the most high-profile crimes.

Now, Bloomberg reports that in an effort to cement his legacy with climate change zealots, Biden “is preparing to issue a decree permanently banning new offshore oil and gas development in some US coastal waters, locking in difficult-to-revoke protections during his final weeks in the White House.” The order, which according to the report is expected any day, would bar the sale of drilling rights in large portions of the outer continental shelf.

While Trump would no doubt attempt to reverse the decision, Biden officials are heartened by a ruling during the first Trump administration, when a federal court blocked efforts to undo Obama-era environmental regulations. …

… While the Biden administration issued more drilling permits than Trump did, the new permits were issued on land that had been leased out during the Trump administration, while Biden stalled the issuance of new leases.

The move to preemptively bar drilling in an additional area of U.S. coastal waters would be reckless. While we have no objections to the market extracting more energy from renewables without government assistance, the reality is that right now, despite decades of friendly regulations and tens of billions of dollars in subsidies, renewable energy accounts for only 9 percent of U.S. energy consumption.