President Biden's 11th-hour executive action to ban new drilling and further oil and gas development in coastal waters in the name of protecting the environment could end up causing environmental damage, experts who spoke to Fox News Digital said.

Earlier this month, Biden announce ban It would affect more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal and offshore waters while invoking the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which could mean President-elect Donald Trump's ability to reverse the action without Congress would be limited.

Biden Make a statement Defending his actions, he argued that “the relatively small fossil fuel potential of the areas I am withdrawing from does not justify the environmental, public health and economic risks that new leasing and drilling may pose.”

Experts interviewed by Fox News Digital said Biden's decision could end up hurting the environment rather than helping it.

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"President Biden's offshore oil and gas ban is not only harmful to our economy and national security, it also jeopardizes the future of U.S. environmental protection," Gabriella Hoffman, director of the Independent Women's Forum Energy and Conservation Center, told Fox News Digital. "

Hoffman noted that, among other issues, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is funded largely by $900 million in royalties from oil and gas companies.

“It’s a simple idea: use the revenue generated from the depletion of one natural resource (offshore oil and gas) to support the conservation of another valuable resource (our land and water),” the fund’s website states. Hoffman warned that the fund could lose those royalties as a result of Biden's decision.

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"President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act into law in 2020, permanently funding the LWCF," said Huffman. "Biden's recent actions will weaken this law and set back real conservation efforts by hundreds of millions of dollars." ten years."

Press release from Western Energy Alliance, a nonprofit trade association earlier this month Warns conservation funding will take a hit from Biden's drilling ban.

"President Biden's attempt to limit offshore access before even leaving his home also threatens precious outdoor spaces across the country. The president completely ignores the fact that the Soil and Water Conservation Fund is funded entirely by offshore oil and gas leasing and production," Kathleen Sgamma, president of the alliance, said in a press release.

"Almost every community across the country has a park or outdoor recreation facility that receives LWCF funding. National parks that are dilapidated and damaged by overcrowding also benefit from offshore revenue. These funds help protect waterways , supporting wildlife and building trails, President Biden’s executive orders put the future of these projects at risk.”

"Any existing leases (or royalties the U.S. Treasury receives from them) will not be affected, nor will the LWCF," a spokesperson for the Interior Department, which oversees the LWCF, said in a statement to Fox News Digital Influence." "

"LCWF is funded by the Central and Western Gulf and is not affected by the President's withdrawal," the spokesperson added.

Hoffman told Fox News Digital that Biden's directive "won't impact LWCF in the short term, and the long-term impact could see the $280 million in conservation funding, including from offshore charters, continue as Trump-era leasing policies continue." US$900 million in royalties).”

In addition, a decline in U.S. oil drilling could lead to a greater reliance on foreign oil resources, often in countries with less environmental protections than the United States.

"Biden's anti-oil and gas edict could undermine President-elect Trump's 'Drill for Babies' agenda and make us even more reliant on imports from foreign countries that don't respect the environment," Hoffman told Fox News Digital.

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Power The Future founder and executive director Daniel Turner expressed concerns about the environment and human rights to Fox News Digital.

"We are pushing responsible, ethical, environmentally sensitive resource development out of the United States and into developing countries, often run by Communist China, where pollution and slave labor are not controlled and accepted," Turner said. "In fact, these conditions often help improve profit margins, and we say 'these goods are cheaper to make in China' because of China's practices, and our standards have to force us to make a choice." "

Turner continued, "Saudi Arabia and Kuwait burn methane. In much of the United States, it's illegal. Coal is mined by children in China, Indonesia, and throughout Southeast Asia. Rare earths are mined by slaves in Africa, green activists say Ensuring this continues prevents this type of mining from being conducted ethically and responsibly in the United States."

Turner questioned how the Biden administration could argue that oil "irresponsibly produced in foreign countries and shipped on tankers burning millions of gallons of diesel" is considered "green."

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"If we truly want to go green, we will do everything we can to produce all of our energy and mine all of our raw materials in the United States," Turner said. "Not only is that more environmentally friendly, it's better for our economy and our national security."

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.

Trump has said he plans to immediately lift a ban on drilling along much of the U.S. coastline, but he faces significant obstacles under a 70-year, irrevocable law.

“This is a shameful decision designed to exact political revenge on the American people for authorizing President Trump to increase drilling and lower natural gas prices. Rest assured, Joe Biden It's going to fail, but we're going to drill, baby, drill," Trump spokesperson Carolyn Leavitt said in a statement.

Fox News Digital's Aubrie Spady and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report