Biden Administration Cancels Drilling Sales in Alaska and Gulf of Mexico

The Biden administration is canceling oil drilling lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, causing furious responses from Republicans who are blaming President Biden's energy policies for high gas prices.

The planned sale of two leases in the Gulf of Mexico was being scrapped because of a lack of industry interest, according to a spokeswoman for the Interior Department.

The decisions are challenging for the Biden administration. On Tuesday, the average price for a gallon of gas in the US hit a new high. Mr. Biden said this week that he will be his top domestic priority.

The dilemma for Mr. Biden is presented by the leasing program. He promised that he would change the country's dependence on fossil fuels if he were elected. He called on the oil industry to pump more crude in order to bring down gas prices.

Republicans and oil industry leaders seized on the cancellation of lease sales to argue that Mr. Biden's actions were making consumers worse off.

The Biden administration's announcement that they will cancel new offshore oil and gas production approaches levels of irresponsibility and reckless stupidity never seen before.

Mr. Graves and other Republicans as well as oil industry leaders criticized the Biden administration for failing to issue a new five-year offshore drilling plan.

Federal law requires the administration to issue a new offshore leasing plan every five years to balance the nation's energy needs with environmental and economic factors.

Republicans, the oil and gas industry and some Democrats from fossil fuel states are worried that the current plan will not be renewed when it expires on June 30.

Frank Macchiarola, a senior vice president at the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group that represents oil and gas companies, said in a statement that he would urge the administration to end the uncertainty for the oil industry.

The decision to scrap lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska is becoming a pattern in the Biden administration.

The Cook Inlet lease sale would have opened more than one million acres for drilling. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management canceled lease sales in the area due to lack of interest from the industry.

Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans for the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice, called the canceled leases unnecessary and said they would work against the goal of turning the nation away from fossil fuels and toward solar.

The International Energy Agency said last year that countries should stop approving new oil and gas projects. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that the Earth is warming due to greenhouse gases produced when oil, gas and coal are burned.

Mr. Caputo said that new leases fly in the face of meaningfully addressing climate change and transitioning to the clean energy future we need.

The burning of fossil fuels from public land and federal waters accounts for 25 percent of the greenhouse gases generated by the United States, which is the planet's second biggest polluter. Scientists say global emissions need to be cut in half by the year 2030.

Mr. Biden wants to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by half by the end of the decade. He promised to stop new drilling on public lands and federal waters. In February 2020, Mr. Biden told voters in New Hampshire. He signed an executive order to stop the issuing of new leases.

His plan was battered by lawsuits from the oil industry.

Republican attorneys general from 13 states successfully challenged the pause in leasing. The Biden administration auctioned more than 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, a record amount, a move which had been planned during the Trump administration.

The lease sale was invalidated by a different court because the Biden administration did not take climate change into account. The Interior Department won't appeal the ruling.

A different legal brawl is complicating things. The judge ruled that the Biden administration cannot consider the damages caused by climate change when issuing regulations or other policies. As it appeals the ruling, the Biden administration temporarily paused a number of decisions, including lease sales for drilling.