The Biden administration has announced a proposal for three offshore oil and gas lease sales over the next five years, all of which will be situated in the Gulf of Mexico. Notably, no lease sales are planned for the Pacific, Atlantic or Alaskan waters.
The rationale behind the administration’s decision to allocate water for oil and gas leasing — despite President Biden’s campaign pledge to transition away from fossil fuels — lies in the crucial role these three leases play in advancing offshore wind development. This connection is established through the Inflation Reduction Act, which links the allocation of water resources for oil and gas with the offshore wind development.
The legislation stipulates that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management can only grant leases for offshore wind if it has already allocated 60 million acres for oil and gas in the previous year.
The Interior Department has stated that these three lease sales are the minimum required to support the administration’s goal of achieving 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
While the limited number of leases is not expected to have an immediate impact on gas prices at the pump, analysts say it sets the stage for potential challenges in the long term.
Critics of the move, such as the American Energy Alliance, express disapproval.
“While President Biden continues to blame oil and gas companies for sustained high energy prices, his Department of Interior has taken yet another step to curtail domestic production and increase reliance on foreign sources of energy,” Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, said.
