Washington Update From the U.S. Oil & Gas Association
The Biden Administration Adds
"Creating Energy Poverty"
To Its To-Do List
September 29, 2023
From Eleven to Three:
Interior released its revised Five Year Plan this morning and is proud to announce it is planning to hold three offshore oil lease sales through 2029, the lowest number of auctions in the program’s history. There will be no lease sales in 2024, making it the first year in four decades that this has taken place. There will be one sale each for 2025, 2027 and 2029. The previous plan called for 11 lease sales over five years.
This is the absolute minimum that Sec. Haaland can schedule while still pursuing the development of offshore wind under provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Interior is following the letter of the law at best which will allow it to offer wind lease sales that no one is interested in bidding on while all but killing off-shore development through 2040.
To shut down or not to shut down, that is the question.
Will the federal government shut down? (Or at least the non-essentially parts of the federal government?) It seems likely, but it does not appear a shutdown would necessarily be very long. That said, there are significant sticking points. House Republicans and others (including Sen. Sinema) want improved security at the border, but that goes against the Administration’s plans to fill the sanctuary cities. House Republicans want to reduce funding to Ukraine, but the biggest impediment to that on the Senate side may be Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and not Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.