(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The Biden administration has squandered more leases for land and offshore rigs dedicated to oil and gas drilling than any other presidential administration since the end of World War II.
The Department of the Interior leased around 126,000 acres for drilling in the first 19 months of Biden’s presidency, according to The Daily Wire. Richard Nixon was the last president to do less than 4.4 million acres at this point during his first term, and Harry Truman was the last president to approve doing fewer acres than Biden.
Ronald Reagan leased out over 47 million federal acres during his tenure, by far the most of any president.
Biden made the promise to end drilling on federal property on the campaign trail.
“Number one, no more subsidies for fossil fuel industry, no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill period,” Biden said in a 2020 Democrat presidential debate.
In his first few months in office, Biden paused new leases and did extra reviews on the drilling, as energy prices continued to soar and consumers were being crippled by inflation and high gas prices.
The administration has only auctioned off land in one of the six quarters it has held office, which happened after the Russian invasion in Ukraine and prices spiked even more than their already-upward trend.
The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 mandates that onshore oil and gas leasing has to be done “at least quarterly.”
The practice of leasing has been dropping as oil and gas companies were becoming less willing to develop offshore drilling as fracking became more mainstream. Leasing is down 97% from the first 19 months of President Donald Trump’s time in office.
Biden lackeys are avoiding discussing the topic, and seem to be making moves to make leasing national land for oil drilling more difficult.
Spokesperson for the Department of the Interior Melissa Schwartz said the industry is moving more towards private and state-owned land, and 35 million acres of land the federal government leases is not in production.
The Inflation Reduction Act also mandates provision of federal acres for oil and gas leasing, but it is possible there will be no promotion of the leasing.
White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan said the Biden administration is “making America a magnet for clean energy manufacturing investment, securing America’s clean energy future, and putting us on track to meet our climate goals,” while maintaining high oil production.
