Manchin lashes out at Biden over delayed offshore oil and gas leasing plan

Jeremy Beaman

March 08, 12:00 PM March 08, 12:00 PM

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) castigated the Biden administration for falling behind on advancing a new offshore oil and gas leasing program after the Interior Department said it needs until December to finalize the plan, deepening the conflict between him and President Joe Biden.

Attorneys for the Interior Department told a federal court on Monday that the agency needs the rest of the year to complete an analysis on the delayed five-year program, which will replace the expired 2017-2022 program. There is no active offshore leasing program providing for new lease sales.

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR OIL AND GAS LEASING THIS YEAR

Manchin, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the administration is "putting their radical climate agenda ahead of our nation’s energy security" with the delay. It represents his latest in a line of criticisms of the administration's energy policy.

"This is not optional," Manchin said in a statement. "The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act mandates that the Secretary of the Interior 'shall prepare' this program to 'best meet national energy needs.'"

Federal law directs the Interior Department to issue an offshore leasing program detailing the year and location of potential oil and gas lease sales over the course of a five-year period. Previous administrations have all finalized new programs to take over expiring plans on time, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The department proposed its new five-year program in July 2022 when the previous plan expired but has yet to advance it further.

Attorneys for the department have blamed litigation brought by Republican states and oil and gas industry groups as one factor causing the delay.

Interior said in a court brief Monday that it expects to complete and publish a proposed final program in September 2023, which triggers a mandatory 60-day waiting period, after which the secretary may approve the program.

The brief was filed as part of a lawsuit led by the American Petroleum Institute, a leading trade group representing the oil and gas industry, seeking to force the administration's hand to advance the delayed five-year program.

Manchin has been pressuring the administration to facilitate more oil and gas production on federal lands and was responsible for several pro-leasing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats' energy and healthcare spending bill passed in August.

The Inflation Reduction Act revived three offshore lease sales in the previous five-year program that Interior canceled in May 2022. It also linked continued oil and gas leasing to the development of renewable energy on federal lands and in federal waters, something Manchin noted Wednesday.

"I will remind the administration that the Inflation Reduction Act also prevents them from issuing any leases for renewables, like offshore wind or onshore solar, unless there are first reasonable lease sales for oil and gas that actually result in leases being awarded," he said.

Interior's brief noted that it is carrying out lease sales pursuant to the law. The department held one lease sale offshore in Alaska in December and has another scheduled for March.

The third lease sale must be carried out by the end of September.