The Interior Department still needs to finalize the plan in order to move ahead with offshore drilling.
The proposed plan limits offshore oil and gas leases issued between 2024 and 2029 to the Gulf of Mexico.
The proposal announced Friday can be finalized after 60 days.
The context:
- Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the plan impacts not only offshore oil and gas but also offshore wind.
- The IRA requires offshore oil and gas leases sales to be held to also hold offshore
wind lease sales.
- That provision was widely seen as being included to win the support of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
How it compares:
- The proposal offers up significantly fewer leases than plans issued by previous Democratic administrations.
- While Biden’s is limited to up to three, the Clinton and Obama administrations published plans that included 16 lease sales each.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland described the department’s proposal as one that furthers the offshore wind industry.
“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,” she said in a statement.
Manchin, meanwhile accused the administration of putting “their radical political agenda over American energy security.”
“To be clear — three lease sales is more than the zero we would have gotten had it not been for the IRA,” he said in a written statement. “But it makes no sense at all to actively be limiting our energy production while our adversaries are weaponizing energy around the world.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
