At a time when gas prices are rising yet again, the Biden administration is colluding with environmental groups to restrict offshore energy production.
They say they want to save the whales, but what they really want to do is hamstring our access to oil and natural gas produced offshore in the U.S. If they really want to save whales, they would halt those destructive offshore wind turbines.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), a part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, will hold Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 261 next month, offering approximately 13,620 blocks on 73.4 million acres on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to energy companies for oil and natural gas development.
However, as a result of a recently settled lawsuit supposedly filed to protect Rice’s whales, about 11 million acres within the sale area will be made off limits for energy production.
BIDEN ADMIN BLOCKS OFF MILLIONS OF ACRES FROM OIL, GAS LEASING AFTER SETTLING WITH ECO GROUPS
In addition, the area will be subject to provisions – applying to oil and gas vessels, but not the thousands of other ships that sail those waters – that will dramatically restrict their speeds and the times they can operate. Together, these caveats could ensure that new oil and gas leases in the gulf are not economically viable for domestic energy producers.
The restrictions are a win for the Sierra Club, which along with a few other environmental groups took the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to court to force more marine life protections.
It’s a return to the "sue and settle" strategy, blocked by the Trump administration but reinstated by the current administration. This allows special interest groups and willing accomplices at the EPA and other federal agencies to circumvent the legislative process and create policy through negotiated settlements made behind closed doors, with no input from impacted parties or the public.
In this case, the harsh restrictions placed on domestic energy development come even though the science does not back up the litigants’ claims of protecting whales, as there is little evidence to show energy activities actually pose a danger. BOEM itself has not determined that there is "reason to believe" accidental harm to whales may occur.
What is certain is that this unilateral dictate by Interior puts a key element of U.S. energy security at serious risk.
According to the U.S. EIA, the Gulf of Mexico accounts for 15% of total U.S. crude oil production and 5% of total U.S. dry natural gas production. In addition, over 47% of total U.S. petroleum refining capacity is located along the Gulf coast, as well as 51% of total natural gas processing plant capacity.
Also, according to the EIA, 61% of the gasoline used on the East Coast and about 16% of the crude oil run in refineries in the Midwest were shipped from the U.S. Gulf Coast region of the United States.
But those facts, and the associated harm losing American-made energy would do to consumers and the economy, matter little to environmental zealots. In fact a spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the signers of a petition to BOEM demanding more restrictions on offshore leases, recently said, "We should be phasing out offshore drilling entirely."
Doing that would not reduce demand for oil and gas. It would just force us to get more of it from foreign suppliers. That would probably result in the release of even more carbon, as the Gulf of Mexico produces some of the lowest carbon intensive barrels of oil in the world. Constrained production there could be replaced by higher carbon intensive energy from elsewhere in the world.
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Backdoor settlements on offshore oil production also set a dangerous precedent. Banning offshore drilling is hardly the only extreme agenda environmentalists want to pursue.
They also work consistently to block pipelines (even though they move energy more safely and with fewer emissions than other transport). They would love to put an end to mining for rare earth metals, handing that business over to China and other countries. And they want the government to force everyone to drive electric vehicles.
The list goes on and on. This move on offshore leasing could have broad implications on disrupting interstate commerce. If environmental NGOs can collude and coordinate with the federal government to restrict interstate commercial activity for essential oil and gas products, which critical economic sector could be next?
Secretive environmental settlements like this jeopardize U.S. energy security, threaten American jobs and increase our dependence on more carbon-intensive fuels produced by the likes of energy rivals like Russia, Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries.
Congress should make the rules that govern domestic energy production, not deal-making political appointee bureaucrats and environmental activists.
