Joe Biden is preparing to permanently ban new offshore oil and gas development in key U.S. coastal waters, which will be "difficult to revoke protections for sensitive marine areas."

This last-ditch effort to block President-elect Donald Trump's energy agenda is expected to be enshrined in an executive order, marking yet another chapter in Biden's war on American energy.

Sources familiar with the plan have revealed that Biden's order will leverage a 72-year-old law—the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act—to solidify protections that are notoriously difficult to reverse, Bloomberg reported.