Biden administration misses deadline to plan future oil and gas leases

682
3
Biden administration misses deadline to plan future oil and gas leases

The Biden administration didn't give an explanation after it missed its deadline to plan future oil and gas lease sales Thursday.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland promised to issue a legally-mandated program outlining proposed offshore lease sales over the next five years by the end of May 19 at a Senate hearing. On Wednesday, Interior Department DOI spokesperson Melissa Schwartz confirmed that the agency was on track to issue the plan by Thursday, according to E&E News.

Schwartz didn't say anything about the delay in response to a Fox News Digital inquiry. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

An announcement was scheduled to take place Thursday but was pushed back for an unknown reason, administration officials told Reuters on Friday.

President Biden is hell-bent on choking American oil and natural gas production, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso, R-Wyo. A statement was made by Fox News Digital. He hasn't done enough to follow the law and prepare a final five-year leasing plan by yesterday s deadline. That means the federal government won't offer any new offshore oil and gas lease sales this year. This will be the first year since 1958 that has happened. He said that the Biden administration has spent its time courting overseas dictators. Russia, Iran, and Venezuela have been asked for oil by the White House. It is an absolute disgrace. The DOI is required to issue five-year plans for offshore oil and gas lease sales under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The plans were issued on time by Democratic and Republican administrations and included more than 10 lease sales in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, Atlantic and off the coast of Alaska.

The most recent plan, which went into effect in 2017, expired on Thursday. Without a plan, offshore lease sales, which produced more than 1.7 million barrels of oil per day last year, can't be held.

The inability of Interior to meet the June 30th deadline to release the proposed program is another reminder of the administration failing to meet its statutory obligation to develop and maintain an offshore oil and gas leasing program. Interior had 17 months to release the Final Program, not just the Proposed Program that they promised would be out yesterday, according to National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito, who told Fox News Digital.

He continued, "No other administration has failed in this way." The key advantages of continued U.S. offshore oil and gas production that are achieved through an uninterrupted national leasing program have been recognized by every administration, whether Democrat or Republican. Milito said that the administration's actions were an intentional obstruction of U.S. energy development. He said they would lead to higher gasoline prices and negatively affect national security, global geopolitics, energy security and high-paying jobs across the country.

Since taking office, the Biden administration has held a single offshore sale that was tossed off by a federal court on environmental grounds. Three other sales listed in the plan were canceled by the administration.

The administration's climate agenda has been blamed for record high gasoline prices, according to Republican lawmakers and industry groups. The average price of gas hit $4.84 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA data.