Obama’s ‘Executive’ Chutzpah

On Monday, President Obama strongly urged Donald Trump not to rely too much on executive orders, suggesting the next president instead go “through the legislative process.” The next day, Obama issued one of the most egregious executive orders of his entire presidency.

The ban on offshore drilling in 120 million acres of federal waters in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans is just the latest in a string. In recent days, the lame-duck president has issued executive orders on everything from Planned Parenthood funding to failing schools to new criminal pardons.

One pundit described it all as frantically trying to nail down everything to the floor so it can’t be moved.

Obama claims his drilling ban is permanent and can’t be undone by Trump, because the obscure 1953 law he used says nothing about a president undoing such an order.

We’ll see: It’s never been tested in court, but previous presidents have partially lifted earlier bans under that statute.

Still, Obama likely has delayed any drilling for years while a legal battle ensues, unless Congress can amend the original law.

The order is a pure pander to the anti-fossil-fuels fanatics. Yet America’s — and the world’s — need for fossil fuels won’t vanish anytime soon. (Heck, China and India keep building coal-fired power plants.) Limiting US energy production won’t “heal the planet,” but merely sacrifice opportunities for American workers.

In any case, the rules for exploitation of federal resources are a matter for normal lawmaking — not for law-stretching action by a president out to tie his successor’s hands.

With his days in the Oval Office dwindling away, Obama should start heeding his own advice on executive orders.