Biden administration to release long-awaited offshore oil plan Friday

The Biden administration will release on Friday its long-awaited plan that maps out the next five years of offshore drilling, a top official said.

“We’ll be publishing the five-year program tomorrow,” Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beaudreau said in response to questions from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) during a Senate hearing Thursday. 

“The program is definitely informed by the IRA and the connection that the IRA makes between offshore oil and gas leasing and renewable energy leasing,” he added, referring to the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act.

The Interior Department can’t sell the rights to drill for oil and gas offshore without first publishing a schedule that outlines its plans. 

The Inflation Reduction Act is the name of the Democrats’ signature climate, tax and health care bill. To win support from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key swing vote, provisions were added that tied the future of offshore wind to the future of offshore drilling.

Specifically, the bill said that to hold an auction for offshore wind rights, an auction has to have been held for offshore oil and gas rights in the past year. 

Prior to the bill’s passage, the Interior Department released a draft plan last year that did not say how many auctions the federal government would have for rights to drill offshore. The draft plan said it may have as few as no lease sales or as many as 11. 

While he did not elaborate, Beaudreau’s comments about the plan being informed by that legislation make the possibility of no lease sales unlikely.