Posted on 03/19/2022 8:43:33 AM PDT by Mount Athos
The Biden administration’s policy on offshore oil and gas drilling leasing has set U.S. energy security back and could lead to significant negative impacts down the line, experts said.
Over the last 14 months, President Joe Biden’s Interior Department (DOI) has quietly taken steps to scale back long-term offshore and onshore drilling on public lands through a series of actions and inactions. Overall, the U.S. is set to again become a net importer of oil after briefly reaching net exporter status, government projections showed.
“Unfortunately, this is a situation that creates uncertainty that drives investment away from the U.S. and to other parts of the world when it comes to energy production,” National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “And it’s clear right now, we don’t want to be relying on other parts of the world.”
“We have a strategic asset in the Gulf of Mexico that could be producing 700,000, maybe 800,000 more barrels per day or more if we had good policies in place,” he added. “But we don’t have the policy support in place right now which leaves us where we are globally and having to rely on outside source.”
The U.S., which consumes about 20 million barrels of oil per day, produced about 9.5 million barrels of oil per day at onshore sites and another 1.7 million at offshore sites mainly located in the Gulf of Mexico in 2021, according to federal data. The offshore sites, though, are generally more oil-rich than onshore sites with their production having come from just 14 rigs compared to the 464 land rigs used in 2021.
Russia’s ongoing military assault of Ukraine has caused uncertainty in global energy markets, leading to higher oil and gasoline prices around the world. Russia, which exports most of the energy it produces, is a major global supplier of crude oil.
In response to the crisis, U.S. fossil fuel groups urged the federal government to open the door to more domestic energy production and reduce reliance on foreign nations for oil and gas. But the White House has turned to Middle Eastern producers, begging them for more output.
“If we want to get more from the Gulf, we’ve got to approve more leases,” Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy told the DCNF during a media briefing last week. “And we’ve got to more speedily approve the permits, to drill more on the leases that have already been let.”
“The administration is slow-walking it all,” he added.
‘An Essential Element Of United States Foreign Policy’ “I would call it regulatory hostility,” Steve Pavlick, the head of policy at research firm Renaissance Macro, told the DCNF. “Biden’s been very clear going back to the campaign that he wants to discourage fossil fuel production much more aggressively.”
“If you’re a company and you’re looking to get a return on your investment, you don’t do that based on today’s oil price, you do that based on what the forward projections are,” said Pavlick, who previously served as deputy assistant secretary for legislative affairs at the Treasury Department.
But days after taking office in 2021, Biden signed an executive order pausing new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters as part of his climate agenda.
“United States international engagement to address climate change — which has become a climate crisis — is more necessary and urgent than ever,” Biden wrote in the Jan. 27, 2021 order. “It is the policy of my Administration that climate considerations shall be an essential element of United States foreign policy and national security.”
In the same executive order, Biden ordered the DOI to issue a review on the federal leasing program, including its “potential climate impacts.” The department released its report in November, recommending that offshore leases should be hit with higher royalty rates “to monetarily account for the costs of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.”
The report stated that the federal oil and gas program fails to provide a fair return to taxpayers “even before factoring in the resulting climate-related costs.”
In a setback for the administration, a federal judge halted the president’s drilling lease pause in June. Still, the Biden administration has largely ignored the ruling, choosing not to hold mandated lease sales.
After the DOI was handed another loss on climate policy in February 2022, the administration said it would continue delaying or canceling leasing plans.
“Work surrounding public-facing rules, grants, leases, permits, and other projects has been delayed or stopped altogether so that agencies can assess whether and how they can proceed,” the administration wrote in a court filing.
‘Misguided’ Then, on Feb. 28, the administration announced it wouldn’t appeal a January ruling that nixed a major offshore lease sale. The sale, known as Lease Sale 257, of 308 tracts covering 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico generated more than $198.5 million in total bids from 33 companies, according to the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management.
A major fossil fuel industry group, U.S. oil corporation Chevron and the State of Louisiana filed separate appeals in the case, arguing the decision was “misguided.” But in its filing declining to appeal the decision, the DOI said it maintained the authority not to award the leases purchased in Lease Sale 257 even if the appeals court reversed the lower court decision.
“Interior agrees with the other parties that, in the event this Court reverses the district court’s vacatur, the expiration of the five year program on June 30, 2022, does not prevent Interior from awarding leases pursuant to Lease Sale 257 after that date—although, as discussed herein and in Interior’s response to the district court’s January 20, 2022, Interior has the authority to decline to award the leases at that juncture,” the agency wrote in the filing.
The Biden administration has also failed to make progress on a new five-year leasing program to replace the current one which expires in late June 2022, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report from December. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953 mandated that the DOI issue five-year plans detailing prospective offshore oil and gas lease sales.
“You’re taking future projected supply off the market, that’s not going to do anything to help in the near-term,” Pavlick told the DCNF when asked about the effects of not implementing a new five-year plan in time. “Again, if you were serious about trying to address the near-term challenges, there are a lot of things you could do to expedite the process.”
Developing the plans, which are necessary to outline all offshore lease sales within the stated five-year period, consists of months of lengthy legal and regulatory reviews. The administration isn’t on track to replace the current plan when it expires, The Washington Post reported.
“The Biden administration did not defend it in court,” Milito told the DCNF. “They were asked whether or not the lease sale should be invalidated or whether it should just go back to the agency to do some additional work on it based on the deficiencies that the court found. They basically said ‘we don’t care.’”
Milito added that environmental groups challenged the lease sale after the administration publicly acknowledged that its environmental review was lackluster.
“They highlighted in the press release the fact that they didn’t do a part of the environmental analysis,” he said. “So they announced to the world that we didn’t do this. What happened? The environmental groups saw that and they sued over that specific environmental analysis that they did not do.”
In addition, Biden’s DOI has dragged its feet on both Lease Sale 258, an Alaska sale, and Lease Sale 259, another Gulf of Mexico sale, that were scheduled for 2021 under the current five-year plan, the CRS report added. The government has shown no signs of moving ahead with Lease Sale 261 scheduled for 2022.
The most recent offshore lease sale was Lease Sale 256 which occurred in 2020 during the Trump administration.
The ‘policy’ the author cites is merely part of a comprehensive policy framing ‘war’ on fossil fuels.
At its core, said policy is treasonous and merits an appropriate response.
And we were doing so well. Well 15 or 16 months ago we were. Lucky for us that 30,000,000 acre Gulf of Mexico wind farm should make up for all the lost oil huh. Oh, it won’t? I’m shocked. Shocked I tell ya.
Who re embers “Environmental Al Gore” and his 14,000 sq ft home in Tennessee-—
Before he bought a second home in Montecito, Calif, near Santa Barbara????
Thatnis exactl ehat they want... to crush fossil fuels. They even came right out and declared that stating that we “must transition off,of,fossil.fuels” and declaring that “yes, it will necessarily be painful to transition”
Democrats have nothing but destruction as their agenda, and al. Their supporters are either too blind to see it, or,too,selfish to,care, thinking they have to “get theirs first, while,the getting is still good, before goods run out”
White House Press Sec real face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuGHxFGf2J8
BUT BUT BUT they have over 0000 leases and the oil companies are just so greedy they won’t use them....And besides, it’s Putin’s fault.
That’s dementia joe’s objective as per the pimps who own that whore. Stolen elections have consequences and, unfortunately, conservatives will pay the price. Liberals will also pay the price, but they deserve it.
It seems his whole plan is to crush the America economy and in fact the Republic and then Build Back Better into an ideal socialist slave colony.
Data provided in this post is from The EIA (US Government) statistics
Average on shore oil production in the US in 2017: 9,524 bbl/day. (President Trump's first year in office)
Average on shore oil production in the US in 2021: 11,175 bbl/day. (Resident Biden's first year in office)
Yes, Biden was telling the truth. But he was being deceitful. Of course he had to use the pandemic as part of his facts. We can do that too.
The pandemic hit America in 2020, President Trump's last year in office. This was the time when two weeks to flatten American small business occurred by Democrat governors and transsexual health secretaries. America was shut down.
Average on shore oil production in the US in 2020: 11,289 bbl/day. (President Trump's last in office). What was Biden's number's for 2021 again? 11,175 bbl/day. When I went to school, I actually learned mathematics. That was at a time when teacher unions were scarce and most teachers were not illiterates. Inequalities were taught as a math subject and not some leftist bLM propaganda. 11,298 > 11,175. Trump wins.
There is something to note. As mentioned before, it takes time to ramp up oil production. It takes very little time to slow or shutter oil production. Biden's policies had an immediate impact on oil production. We all know that Biden never had any intention of creating policies that went beyond what Trump had to stimulate oil production. That is hideous to think so.
Here is what Biden promised on January 27, 2021 with an executive order for climate policies. About 2m 46s into the video Biden states, "Today's executive order also directs the Secretary of Interior to stop issuing new oil and gas leases on public lands and in of off (eff'n senile POS can read) shore waters where ever possible. We are going to review and reset the oil and gas leasing program."
Share this with any leftist retards that you know.
Mr. Manbearpig cools that mansion with an a/c system used for shopping malls.
“Democrats have nothing but destruction as their agenda, and al. Their supporters are either too blind to see it, or,too,selfish to,care, thinking they have to “get theirs first, while,the getting is still good, before goods run out””
Look at the Democrat constituency. Blacks (14% of the nation) vote 90% Democrat in every election. They believe the Republican racism story fed to them daily in education system and in the mainstream media and perceive the Democrats are protecting them from the GOP allowing the Klan to run free.
Many lower income people of all races are on the federal entitlement gravy train and are not going to vote against Democrats for fear benefits will be cut. Federal employees comprise nearly 10 million people, who earn on average 27% more than their private sector counterparts in equivalent jobs. They are overwhelmingly Democrat in their voting. Again, they are voting their immediate self interest, and could care less about the big picture.
For the past 50 years the university system in this country has been turning out radicalized students who are committed Marxists. They have infiltrated every institution and are fully committed to the destruction of individual liberty in order to impost the dictatorial collective state. They happily vote for “destruction” because they truly believe communism will be better.
Add voters who don’t study issues, they only react emotionally to messages. They vote Democrat because they perceive Democrats “care” about what they care about - children, people of color, gays, transexuals, handicapped, fairness, the environment, etc. These people do not have reasoning skills, they simply want to be part of something bigger than themselves that “cares”. Democrats are masters at messaging to these people. Many of these people are financially well off, even wealthy so they aren’t supporting Democrats to get an economic benefit for themselves. Affluent middle class and upper middle class people who “care” are as committed to the the agenda of the Democrat party as those who receive financial benefits from the human welfare and corporate welfare programs the Democrats support.
Yep, this country is divided into 2 categories: 1 high info (those thst educate themselves about what is going on around d them) and 2 low info who vote based on indoctrination and greed. The gimmedat society is by and large liberal- and vote because they beleive the lies that the left have their best financial interests in mind. They of course couldn’t be more seen, but that mentality is what we are up agaisnt, and unfortunately more and more people are turning into “Gimmedats”. More and more people refuse to care about their country and making it better for everyone, they only care about themselves and thir immediate greed
Good,post by the way- spot on
This will do long-term damage to our drilling industry. The infrastructure that provides drilling equipment and supplies, offshore drilling rigs, etc — when they go bust from lack of business, it won’t be easy bringing it all back later.
Biden was selected for a reason he’s stupid enough to push the democrats plan.
Media approved
If Norway can safely extract oil for shale, why not the USA?
Nice going democrat voters...enjoy gas price!😀
“Yes, Biden was telling the truth.”
But out of context and therefore a filthy lie...as you explain.
What a shame you won’t call it the sabotage that it is. You are subtly backing it.
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