The Biden administration on Friday unveiled a long-awaited drilling plan that would drastically shrink the nation’s offshore oil and gas leasing program to a maximum of three lease sales over the next five years — the smallest number ever to be offered in the program’s history.
The Interior Department said the proposal is “in line” with President Joe Biden’s goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But environmental groups were quick to condemn the plan as a broken campaign promise and wildly out of step with what scientists say is required to stave off catastrophic climate change.
If approved, the plan would limit offshore oil and gas leasing to no more than three lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico — one each in 2025, 2027 and 2029. It includes no auctions in the Pacific, Atlantic or Alaskan Arctic.
The proposal is an enormous departure from both the Trump administration’s 2018 proposal, which identified 47 potential lease sales throughout the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and a previous Biden proposal in July that considered as many as 11 sales.
The Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden’s signature climate law that Democrats passed last year, includes a provision championed by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), that tied future offshore wind development to continued offshore oil and gas leasing. Specifically, it prevented the administration from offering new wind lease sales unless it first auctioned off drilling rights.
The Interior Department said its proposed plan allows for the administration to continue working toward its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of wind energy by 2030, enough to power 10 million homes for a year and slash 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to building a clean energy future that ensures America’s energy independence,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “The Proposed Program, which represents the smallest number of oil and gas lease sales in history, sets a course for the Department to support the growing offshore wind industry and protect against the potential for environmental damage and adverse impacts to coastal communities.”
Since the offshore leasing program began in 1980, no five-year plan has had fewer than 11 lease sales, with a few offering more than 30.
But with fossil fuel-driven climate change already wreaking havoc across the country and the globe, environmentalists see any future lease sale as a monumental mistake.
“By failing to end new offshore drilling, President Biden missed an easy opportunity to do the right thing and deliver on climate for the American people,” Beth Lowell of Oceana, an ocean advocacy group, said in a statement. “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. President Biden is unfortunately showing the world that it’s okay to continue to prioritize polluters over real climate solutions.”
Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the environmental group Food & Water Watch, called the move an “outlandish and irresponsible decision to increase oil production for decades to come” and an “unconscionable betrayal of future generations.”
On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden famously pledged to “take on the fossil fuel industry” and to end new oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters. Green groups say the administration has repeatedly broken those pledges, including with its approval of oil giant ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow project in the Alaskan Arctic.
Biden’s new offshore plan also drew backlash from U.S. oil and gas producers, who have accused the administration of waging a war on fossil fuels and threatening energy security.
“At a time when inflation runs rampant across the country, the Biden administration is choosing failed energy policies that are adding to the pain Americans are feeling at the pump,“ Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement. “This restrictive offshore leasing program is the latest tactic in a coordinated strategy to reduce energy production, ultimately weakening America’s energy dominance, limiting consumers access to affordable reliable energy and compromising our ability to lead on the global stage.”
Manchin condemned the plan, but stressed that without the Inflation Reduction Act, the number of proposed offshore lease sales would have been zero.
“It’s now clear without a shadow of a doubt that without the IRA, this Administration would have ended federal oil and gas development completely,” Manchin said in a statement. “But instead of embracing the all-of-the-above energy bill that was signed into law, this Administration has once again decided to put their radical political agenda over American energy security, and the American people will pay the price. Granting the bare minimum of oil and gas leases will result in a minimum of renewables leases as well because the IRA tied the two together. You can’t have one without the other.”