Biden’s insane approach to energy harming vulnerable citizens

By Scott A. Angelle

Opinion published in the Beaumont Enterprise on June 29, 2022

It is incumbent upon the governing administration that the energy transition does no harm to those most vulnerable, the working class and elderly.

This is exactly what is happening with a 40-year record high inflation rate driven by high energy costs. In the path to U.S. energy transition, allowing the offshore leasing program to come to abrupt end is not an effort focused on a seamless transition, it is an action with narrow-minded blinders that cuts off the country’s nose, its climate goals and efforts, to spite its face, essential production of conventional energy sources.

Tomorrow, on June 30, the current five-year offshore leasing program, known as the five-year plan, expires with no new plan ready to take its place. A five-year plan includes a schedule of oil and gas lease sales and details on the size, timing and location of proposed leasing activity.

Normally, a five-year plan takes two and a half years to develop with many opportunities for public input and environmental analysis. Offshore leasing has been a bipartisan policy for 57 years with 13 different presidents prior to this administration. It should be no surprise that ending offshore leasing is now causing historical pain at the pump. Without a five-year plan, U.S. energy development will be impacted and energy production will decrease. In order to meet our energy demands, the U.S. will be forced to turn to foreign-produced energy. This is contrary to our current climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A 2016 Bureau of Ocean Energy Management report, produced under the Obama-Biden Administration, found that emissions would increase without new Gulf of Mexico lease sales because foreign-produced oil would take their place, and “the production and transport of that foreign oil would emit more” greenhouse gases.

Since the pausing and subsequent cancellation of regularly scheduled lease sales on public lands and waters, gasoline and natural gas prices have soared, all while the White House has begged foreign countries with environmentally inferior practices to increase production. Recent research regarding carbon emissions reveals that U.S. Gulf of Mexico production has approximately half the carbon intensity per barrel of other producing regions worldwide. The recent inconsistency of making affordable energy available for Americans can be considered bizarre.

Let’s examine the evidence. A nominee for Comptroller of Currency commented that she wanted coal and oil and gas “to go bankrupt.” Yet, subsequently, Secretary of Energy Granholm called on producers to raise output. Still, climate envoy John Kerry wants to “push back hard” on new fossil fuel infrastructure, and the Biden administration cancels three offshore lease sales.

Clearly, the solution is a public policy that focuses on balancing the 3 Es – Environment, Energy and Economy. That requires we look inward for domestic solutions led by U.S. energy workers. Record-breaking inflation, ever rising fuel prices and compromised climate goals – is any other evidence needed to demonstrate that the administration’s strategy toward energy transition needs a course correction?

The country needs a Five-Year Leasing Program, one which develops our energy resources in a climate-advantaged manner, lowers fuel prices and allows for a systematic approach to energy transition without harming our citizens most vulnerable.

Requesting foreign countries to increase production is not a solution – it's an insult to the U.S. energy worker. Unleash us -– we are ready to help America!