Can Trump Reverse Obama's Arctic-Drilling Ban?

Updated December 21 at 2:45 p.m. ET

Not every crucial climate-change story begins with a protest, or a heroic scientist, or a melting ice cap. Some, alas, begin with a brief historical introduction to U.S. natural resources law.

In the autumn of 1948, President Harry Truman made an important declaration about who controlled the huge seams of oil and gas hidden beneath the seafloor around the coast of the United States.

The federal government—“aware of the long-range world-wide need for new sources of petroleum and”—would try to encourage the development of those resources, he said. It would do so by itself controlling and administering the seabed which would bring forth that black gold. The Supreme Court had set the stage for Truman’s proclamation a year earlier .