Washington — President Biden’s top aide is considering whether to ban the drilling of new oil and gas on the American coast.
The law requires the Home Office to announce plans for new oil and gas leasing in federal waters every five years. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has promised Congress that the draft Biden plan will be available by June 30.
Two government officials said the White House is planning for the government to be keenly aware that inflation and pump highs are weighing on voters ahead of the November midterm elections. ..
The inner circle of President Biden, including Chief of Staff Ron Klain and longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, said on anonymous terms that he was closely involved in the debate over whether and where to allow drilling. Persons are deliberated.
Sarah Loretto Gossman, a professor of environmental energy law at the University of Arkansas, said: “If the Home Office decides to abolish offshore leasing sales or offer only a few sales, it will do the right thing for the climate, but it also claims that President Byden doesn’t care about high gas prices. Give ammunition to fossil fuel companies to do. “
Some people familiar with the administration’s decision-making are likely to thwart new drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific in the face of widespread bipartisan opposition from parliamentarians and coastal state leaders. Said. Drilling has been banned in the eastern Gulf of Mexico since 1995.
Whether to continue to allow lease sales not only in parts of the Arctic Ocean, but also in the western and central parts of the Gulf of Mexico is still under consideration.
As a candidate, Mr. Biden has promised to complete new drilling in public land and federal waters. Environmental activists argue that offshore drilling has no place in the future of clean energy. They are pressing the administration to ban drilling holes across the outer continental shelf in order to reduce the United States’ contribution to climate change.
Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the environmental group Oceana, said:
Biden administration’s environmental agenda
President Biden is pushing for stronger regulation, but faces a narrow path to achieving his goals in the fight against global warming.
The International Energy Agency said countries must discontinue approval of new coal or oil and gas fields to keep global warming at an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. This is a threshold that greatly increases the likelihood of catastrophic heat waves, droughts, floods, and widespread extinction. Since the Industrial Revolution, the earth has already heated an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius.
If Biden issues a new drilling lease, he is at risk of alienating Democrats from climate-oriented voters who need to run for midterm elections this fall, Democratic strategist Tre Easton said.
“Joe Biden’s breach of major campaign promises and extension of new leases has nothing to do with the country’s energy prices,” he said. “It’s distracting and I really hope the White House will recognize it that way.”
The area available for leasing under the blueprint will be auctioned until 2027. It can take several years from the sale of a lease to the production of gas or oil from offshore drilling.
Still, the fossil fuel industry and Republicans have accused the Biden administration of record high gas prices, accusing it of delaying fossil fuel production.
On Wednesday, Mr Biden called on Congress to temporarily suspend the federal gas tax and give drivers some relief. The government also released strategic petroleum stockpiles, suspended the ban on summer sales of high-ethanol gasoline blends, and urged American oil producers to increase production.
Republicans say the government is trying to do that in both ways.
In a recent hearing, Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso said, “The government pretends to support oil and gas production while doing everything in its power to slow and stop production expansion on public land. I can’t do that. ” .5-year plan Haaland.
The draft five-year plan for the National Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas leasing program is expected to include several options, including “no action alternatives,” that is, not offering new lease sales that have occurred in the past. Will be.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz declined to comment on internal deliberations, saying the decision had not been finalized.
“This department is working hard to develop a five-year plan. There is no up-to-date information on timing,” Schwartz said.
At some point, the Biden administration was considering limiting new drilling to the central and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico, according to three people who were briefed on the issue.
Eric Millito, chairman of the National Marine Industry Association, which represents offshore energy companies, said it was harmful to consumers. A new lease in the Gulf of Mexico could mean an additional 2.4 million barrels of crude oil per day. This is the amount that “may have a global impact on the market.”
Last month, the Biden administration canceled lease sales in the federal waters off Cook Inlet, Alaska, due to lack of industry interest.
Once the main source of oil in Alaska, the Cook Inlet Basin is now primarily a source of natural gas for local power companies, and energy experts say large-scale projects are rare in recent years. Still, the industry wants to use the waters of the Arctic Ocean for future possible leases.
When the Interior Ministry’s Department of Marine Management announces a five-year plan, it will be subject to public comments before it is finalized. Past presidents have used plans to alternately open or close doors to unchecked development to prevent new drilling.
President Obama banned drilling in parts of the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, and later invoked ambiguous provisions in the 1953 Act. Outer Continental Shelf MethodAlso bans drilling along areas along the Atlantic coastline.
President Trump sought to open up all coastal waters of the United States to oil and gas drilling, including areas protected by the Obama administration.
But by the end of his administration, and under strong pressure from Florida Republicans who feared that drilling would hurt tourists, Mr. Trump drilled 10 years from the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Signed a banning presidential order.
Mr. Trump’s broader plans were never finalized. Haaland told lawmakers that the Trump administration stopped working on its five-year plan in 2018, and “various conflicting proceedings” contributed to the delay.
Offshore oil and gas leasing plans have landed at the center of the government’s oil and gas decision debate. Shortly after his inauguration, President Biden signed a presidential order to suspend the issuance of new leases, but the government suspended the sale of new leases after a successful legal objection from the Republican state and the oil industry. I had no choice but to do it.
The administration has appealed the ruling. At the same time, it defends itself in another Republican-led proceeding, which aims to prevent the government from considering the economic costs of climate change resulting from drilling and other actions.