WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — President Donald Trump signed on Friday a new executive order directing the Department of the Interior to conduct a review of existing plans for offshore energy development.
"Renewed offshore energy production will reduce the cost of energy, create countless new jobs and make America more secure and far more energy independent," Trump said.
The order directs the Interior Department to conduct a review of the existing five-year program for oil and gas development for the US Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), which was approved in the finals days of the Obama administration.
The OCS contains nearly 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable crude oil and 327 trillion feet of undiscovered, recoverable natural gas reserves.
The order also directs the Secretary of Commerce to refrain from designating any new marine monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act and to conduct a review of the last ten years of marine monument designations.
