Joe Biden is becoming engulfed in a national energy crisis, and he decided to kill virtually all oil and gas leases in Alaska. He already got the ball rolling on this fiasco when he decided to nix the Keystone Pipeline.
It was a bad policy, but one he was forced to make because the environmental Left would have had a coronary. [bold, links added]
It’s not hard to see gas prices soaring to a national average of $5/gallon by the dog days of summer. This is Joe Biden’s crisis. It’s his fault, and it’s sadistic. These people thought they could ride in and do what they want.
You can’t with a 50-50 Senate and a four-seat House majority. So, they’d rather torch our wallets with these policies; it’s intentional.
Could it also be a backdoor enaction of the Green New Deal? At least on a partial basis especially with the oil and gas leases?
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) caught Biden’s Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland dead to rights on the agenda to kill everything regarding oil and gas exploration.
It occurred during a budget hearing. Manchin whipped out the Department of Interior’s own documents highlighting their intention to kill the whole show.
Haaland was left speechless:
Biden Interior Secretary Deb Haaland struggles to explain a memo from HER department calling for the shut down of new oil leases.
“I am sorry, and am sitting in this hearing and not ………” pic.twitter.com/bLypsaAt8H
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 19, 2022
It didn’t stop there. The West Virginia Democrat took a blowtorch to the Biden administration’s energy agenda (via The Hill):
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) claimed the Biden administration’s oil and gas leasing policies have “put America’s energy security at risk” during testimony by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Thursday.
In a hearing on the Interior Department’s fiscal 2023 budget request, Manchin pushed back on the administration’s repeated references to the industry’s 9,000 unused leases to explain the energy crisis, arguing the administration has the power to pressure industry to use them.
“If the administration’s argument is that industry is sitting on these leases … why don’t they do something about it?” Manchin said. “For example, if the concern is that too many leases are not being developed in a timely manner, the department could increase the rental rates over time to provide a financial disincentive against holding leases for speculation alone.”
Haaland said that her department is working on a new five-year offshore leasing plan that will be released by June.
These people just could have left the Trump energy policy in place, which was tremendous and put us on a path towards energy independence.
It had to be wrecked by the Democrats because—well—it was good policy. And things that the GOP enacts that work for the American people is racist, sexist, misogynist, or whatever “ism” is the flavor of the week for the ‘woke’ dolts.
Read more at Townhall
I won’t defend the current DOI “pause” on oil & gas lease sales because they are violating the law. The Mineral Leasing Act prescribes periodic lease sales and a federal district judge has ruled accordingly. Basically, this Administration has been “slow walking” anything involved with fossil fuels. However, I believe Senator Manchin may have misinterpreted the DOI news release. A lease sale is just the first step in the process, as I believe the Assistant Secretary tried to explain. Issuing a lease just gives you the operating rights. Any specific drilling & development proposal (then) goes through the detailed process of an APD/Plan of Development as well as environmental review (NEPA). I think that qualification was the actual intent. Confusing wording & bad TIMING to say the least! However, I have NO DOUBT that this Administration is openly HOSTILE to oil, gas & coal, so they will continue to do anything they can to “dis-incentivize” activity & investment (through ESG) in this sector. Ill advised, short sighted & FOOLISH given the ongoing (developing) energy crisis…
Biden and his fellow Globalists/Socialists bottom dwellers meanwhile have free run of the place and allows for other nations to drill
Exactly. Lyin’ Biden blames Putin’s for all of America’s problems. The reality is Biden’s incompetence is the cause. Rather than taking responsibility for his record failures, he blames everything and everyone but himself. Good leaders take responsibility, they don’t make excuses. And left-wing television which got him elected can no longer cover for him because no one is listening anymore.