Biden invoked the 2010 BP oil spill, but his ban doesn’t include the area of the Gulf where the spill occurred.

Environmental groups applauded President Joe Biden’s decision on Monday to enact a sweeping ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coastline. But the ban had one glaring omission: It didn’t include the western Gulf of Mexico, where the country extracts most of its offshore oil.

Included are nearly 250 million acres of water off the West Coast that are prime habitat for seals, sea lions, whales, fish and seabirds, the officials said. Biden has determined the environmental and economic risks and harms that would result from drilling outweigh the potential for fossil fuel development,