The nation’s largest fossil fuel industry association has filed a legal challenge against the Biden administration over its offshore oil and gas leasing program, which includes the lowest number of lease sales in U.S. history.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Monday argued that the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) plan to restrict future offshore fossil fuel lease sales puts American consumers at risk and threatens U.S. energy security, arguing that the filed a petition. The DOI finalized its five-year plan in December, projecting only three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029, the lowest number of sales included in such a plan on record.
“Demand for affordable and reliable energy continues to grow, but the current administration has used every means at its disposal to restrict access to the vast energy resources within federal waters,” said API Senior Vice President and General Counsel. said advisor Ryan Myers.
“In issuing a five-year program with the lowest lease sales in history, the government is restricting access to the region responsible for producing the least carbon-intensive barrels in the world, and U.S. consumers are “Our future energy needs are at great risk of relying on foreign sources for resources,” Myers continued.
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The oil leasing plan the Biden administration finalized late last year marks a departure from past plans announced by Democratic and Republican administrations. (Getty Images)
The administration’s plan calls for the D.O.I. Ocean Energy Management Bureau The company plans to conduct three parcel sales in the Gulf of Mexico in 2025, 2027 and 2029. It also excludes leases off Alaska, in the Atlantic Ocean, and in the Pacific Ocean, in a departure from previous plans.
Meanwhile, the DOI suggested it could have pursued a more restrictive five-year program without the Inflation Control Act. The bill (Democrats’ $739 billion climate and tax package signed into law by President Biden in 2022) ties new offshore wind energy leases to new oil and gas leases, making them more consistent with fossil fuels. This means that without the lease of the former, the lease of the former may be threatened.
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The DOI suggested last year that it might issue programs with fewer than three sales, to the dismay of energy industry groups. May have jeopardized Biden’s plans It aims to enable the United States to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030. There are currently only two small pilot projects in the country, one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other off the coast of Virginia, but the DOI has given the go-ahead for several large-scale facilities to be built starting in 2021. are doing. It will be online within the next few years.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks at an event celebrating the new national monument designation in Las Vegas on April 14, 2023. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
Under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, the federal government is required to issue a forward-looking plan every five years. Offshore oil and gas lease sales. The latest plan, implemented in 2017, expires in June 2022.
of Persistent publication delay But the replacement plan represents a departure from precedent set by both Republican and Democratic administrations, which have traditionally decided to make replacements immediately after their previous plans expired.
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The two most recent plans were both developed under the Obama administration and included more than 10 offshore programs. Sales of each oil and gas lease. The Trump administration had planned to conduct a total of 47 lease sales in the Atlantic region, Pacific region, Gulf of Mexico, and offshore Alaska between 2022 and 2027, but after Biden took office in 2021, This proposal was withdrawn.
“Today, we are taking action to challenge this short-sighted plan so that future generations of Americans can continue to benefit from energy advantages for decades to come,” API’s Meyers said Monday. “
DOI declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital.
