The Biden administration on Friday finalized a plan to dramatically curb the number of offshore oil and gas lease sales over the next five years as it continues to aggressively push green energy development.
The Department of the Interior's five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program schedules just three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029, marking the fewest number of sales ever included in such a plan, which the agency is mandated to issue periodically.
"President Biden's approach to severely limit leasing significantly curtails access to a critical national asset," Erik Milito, the president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents both traditional and renewable offshore energy producers, said in a statement Friday.
OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS PERMITTING PLUMMETS TO 2-DECADE LOW UNDER BIDEN. Under the plan, the DOI's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will hold the three sales of parcels in the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, 2027 and 2029.
The administration signaled that it could have pursued an even more restrictive five-year program if not for the IRA. That legislation - Democrats' $739 billion climate and tax package signed by President Biden in 2022 - ties new offshore wind energy leases to new oil and gas leases, meaning the former could be threatened without consistent fossil fuel leasing.
Issuing a program with less than three sales - a possibility the DOI floated last year to the dismay of energy industry groups - may have jeopardized Biden's plan to ensure the U.S. develops 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.
APPEALS COURT FORCES BIDEN ADMIN TO HOLD OFFSHORE OIL LEASE SALE WITHOUT ECO RESTRICTIONS. "It's now clear without a shadow of a doubt that without the IRA, this Administration would have ended federal oil and gas development completely," Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
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