Top Republicans Slam Biden Administration for Obstructing American Energy Production and Pushing Radical Climate Agenda
Call on DOI to provide information on its delays to lease federal land for domestic energy production and failure to issue a five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan.
WASHINGTON – Today, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon (R-Texas), and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) led a letter raising concerns over the Biden Administration’s ongoing efforts to obstruct American energy production and implement its radical climate agenda. To ensure Americans have access to clean, reliable, and affordable energy, the Republican lawmakers are calling on the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to provide information on their delay in issuing a five-year offshore leasing plan and the department’s failure to fulfill their obligations to lease federal land for domestic oil and gas production.
“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Natural Resources (jointly, the Committees) are conducting oversight of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) ongoing efforts to obstruct domestic energy production in service of extreme ideological goals,” wrote the Republican lawmakers. “Specifically, the Committees are deeply concerned regarding the process for issuing offshore leases, a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) memorandum (memo) regarding the Cook Inlet Planning Area Lease Sale 258 (Lease Sale 258), DOI’s long delay in issuing the next five-year offshore leasing plan, and DOI’s failure to fulfill statutory obligations to lease federal land for oil and gas production.”
According to the Lease Sale 258 memo, DOI accepted the recommendation that Lease Sale 258 in the State of Alaska should be offered with the highest possible royalty rate. BOEM manages offshore energy development, and their royalty rate hike was effectively a carbon tax that priced out prospective energy producers from further Alaskan development. BOEM’s anti-energy agenda is further evidenced in DOI’s failure to issue the 2023-2028 five-year program, a serious breach of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) that will directly impede future U.S. energy production, constrict global supply, and drive energy prices higher for American families.
“The memo and your actions in this matter illustrate the pressing need for oversight of DOI’s permitting review processes and the Biden Administration’s prioritization of its climate agenda above states’ revenue streams, economic development, and the energy security of all Americans,” continued the Republican lawmakers. “The internal deliberations at BOEM to brazenly elevate President Biden’s radical eco-agenda ahead of common-sense policies call for greater congressional oversight of DOI and BOEM. Under your leadership, DOI has leased acres for oil and gas production at the lowest rate of any presidential administration since the end of World War II. This is unacceptable. The lack of certainty has reduced investment in domestic oil and gas development, limited American energy production, and is driving oil and gasoline prices above the $2.39 per gallon they were when President Biden took office. The lack of leasing will have long-term impacts of exhausted producible acreage, increased reliability on foreign-sourced fuel, and jeopardized price stability for decades to come.”
The letter to DOI can be read here. The letter is signed by members of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Natural Resources.