President Joe Biden’s plan to hold three offshore oil lease sales in the next five years is not winning many friends. The long-awaited lease proposal is another White House effort to find a middle ground on fossil fuel production. The blueprint greenlights new offshore oil exploration as fuel prices remain high, but caps drilling in federal waters as a response to climate change. The schedule would be the lowest number of auctions in the program’s history. And no lease sale would take place in 2024, making it the first year in four decades that companies will be unable to bid for parcels in the Gulf of Mexico or the waters off Alaska, writes Ben Lefebvre. Yet the plan also reneges on Biden’s campaign pledge to end new offshore drilling. Rock meets hard place
The United States is on track to pump record volumes of oil this year. Despite that, prices are approaching $100 a barrel amid production cutbacks from Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members. That’s kept gasoline prices high and introduced a political headache for Biden and other Democrats heading into next year’s election. The administration has come under pressure from Gulf Coast states and the oil industry to sign off on a new five-year plan since the last lease cycle ended in June 2022. The response to the proposed plan was scathing. “Only holding three lease sales over the next five years in the Gulf of Mexico doesn’t even qualify as bare minimum effort,” said Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. “It’s a slap in the face to American energy workers and a pat on the back to [Vladimir] Putin and OPEC dictators.” The administration said the limited schedule aligns with its goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions across the U.S. economy by midcentury, writes Heather Richards. The proposal also falls in line with a prohibition put in place by Congress on new offshore wind projects until federal leases for oil drilling are put up for bid. Risking a green backlash
But the failure to meet a key campaign promise risks further alienating young voters and climate activists still reeling from the administration’s approval of ConocoPhillips’ $8 billion Willow oil project in Alaska. “This decision is beyond disappointing, as Americans face the impacts of the growing climate crisis through more frequent and intense fires, droughts, hurricanes, and floods,” Beth Lowell, Oceana’s vice president for the United States, said in a statement. July was the hottest month in recorded history, with the heat index nearing 150 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the Middle East.
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