Biden Energy Agenda Continues to Defy Reality, Common-Sense

February 1, 2022

Trying to make intellectual sense of the Biden administration’s energy policies is a pointless task because this administration lacks a coherent energy agenda. Instead, they have a radical environmental agenda and a desire to crush anything that stands in its way. As a result, the Biden administration is engaging in a multi-pronged effort to hurt domestic energy production, and their latest efforts were on display last week.

In a piece published by Forbes, David Blackmon writes about two important developments that will further reduce domestic energy production:

In a decision classified by CNN and other media outlets as a “win” for the Biden administration, a federal judge ruled last Thursday that the federal oil and gas lease sale conducted recently for 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico was invalid, in a lawsuit in which the government was ostensibly the defendant. The judge ruled that DOI had not conducted a proper environmental review prior to the sale.

PTF has previously written about how the Biden administration was dragging its feet in approving new federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere. In June, a federal judge ordered the resumption of leases on federal lands and waters, but the administration ignored that until last fall when another federal judge threatened to hold the Interior Department in contempt for failing to comply with the court order. Now it appears that the Interior Department conveniently failed to ensure the proper environmental review had been conducted, therefore further slowing the process.

In addition, Blackmon’s article also notes that the Interior Department announced last week that it was canceling federal leases held since 1966 to mine for nickel, cobalt and other minerals that are critical to energy infrastructure. As Blackmon writes:

How is America supposed to secure a new, renewable energy future when federal leases to produce the minerals that are fundamental to the transition that were originally approved 56 years ago are suddenly cancelled for obvious political reasons? Not only has the Biden administration made little or no discernible progress towards implementing its promised “whole of government approach” to secure these mineral supplies and supply chains, in this case it is actively working to avoid that outcome.

Saying one thing but doing another is a regrettable hallmark of President Biden’s approach to energy. The outcome is a country where we pay more for energy, and rely on other countries for it.