“The Department also will not move forward with lease sales 259 and 261 in the Gulf of Mexico region, as a result of delays due to factors including conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales,” said an agency spokesperson.
Federal law requires DOI to stick to a five-year leasing plan for auctioning offshore leases. The department had until the end fo the current five-year plan – due to expire on June 30 – to complete the sales.
Within his first week in office, President Biden signed an executive order temporarily suspending new oil and gas leases on federal lands. The administration resumed the new leasing last month following court challenges against the ban. The administration is appealing a ruling in which Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee, struck down the ban. -Fox Business
In Wednesday remarks to Fox Business, former Trump-Pence EPA transition member Steve Milloy traced the lease cancellations to Biden.
“In Alaska, the problem was that the greens scared off virtually everyone,” he said. “It’s expensive to explore and drill, and the greens made it pretty clear, they were going to make it even more difficult.”
According to Milloy, pressure from climate activists scared oil companies away after former President Trump opened Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling - a move which attracted just three bidders, including the state of Alaska itself.
“I blame Biden for all lack of production. He has scared away investment,” he said. “I don’t trust him in court defending leasing.”
Frank Macchairola, a top official with the American Petroleum Institute - the country’s largest oil and gas trade association, called the cancellation “another example of the administration’s lack of commitment to oil and gas development in the US.”
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, sponsored by Miranda Devine’s LAPTOP FROM HELL for Thursday shows that 40% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Biden’s job performance. Fifty-eight percent (58%) disapprove.
Liberals think by Canceling leases everyone will buy Electric Cars. Now they have to figure out how to fund electric cars.