Biden’s commitment to Gulf offshore oil leasing is questioned

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are questioning whether the Biden administration will carry through on three lease sales for offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico scheduled to begin in 2025, amid ongoing tension between the parties over climate change.

At a hearing Tuesday, Rep. Pete Stauber, Rminn, chair of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, repeatedly asked Liz Klein, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, to commit to holding those lease sales, pointing out previous administrations routinely held half the lease sales proposed.

Klein responded that three lease sales were scheduled, without saying definitely they would occur.

“I don’t know I’ll be here in 2025, so I can’t say what will happen at that time,” she said.

Over the course of the more than hourlong hearing, Republicans took turns criticizing the Biden administration’s track record on offshore drilling, which has included the canceling of numerous lease sales and a five-year program that represented a dramatic scaling down from previous administrations. During the Obama and Trump administrations, lease sales for the Gulf were typically held twice a year, with occasional lease sales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Biden has proposed none there.

“The five-year program will only serve to outsource our energy production to Opec-plus nations,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-ark., chair of the House Natural Resources Committee. “President Biden has obstructed the offshore leasing program at every turn.”

But the administration will need to hold the proposed oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf — as well as one scheduled for next month — if it wants to meet its goal of building 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.

Under last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, the administration must hold an offshore oil and gas lease sale if it wants to hold an offshore wind lease sale in the following 12 months as part of deal brokered with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V.

With the staggered oil and and gas lease sales through 2029, the administration believes it can meet the offshore wind target, Klein said.

“We have a number of projects in the queue and under environmental review,” she said. “Twentyseven gigawatts by close to 2030, and we have additional projects to be proposed to us.”

But the administration will have to rush if it is going to hold an offshore oil and gas lease sale in 2025, a key to holding the offshore wind sales it wants. Environmental reviews for oil lease sales typically take 18 months but can stretch up to two years, and the administration still hasn’t finalized its offshore leasing program.

“Under BOEM’S own math, the first lease sale isn’t realistically going to be held until December 2025 or beyond,” Stauber said.