The Biden government gave no explanation after it missed its own deadline for scheduling future oil and gas lease sales on Thursday. Home Secretary Deb Haland promised during a Senate hearing on May 19 to issue a legal plan outlining proposed offshore lease sales for the next five years through Thursday. On Wednesday, Home Office (DOI) spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz confirmed that the agency was “well on track” to release the plan by Thursday, according to E&E News. FIRST PUBLIC OIL SALES ON BIDEN CLEARLY $ 22 MILLION FROM ENERGY COMPANIES Schwartz declined to comment on the delay in response to a Fox News Digital inquiry. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. An announcement was due to be made on Thursday, but was postponed for unknown reasons, government officials told Reuters on Friday. Home Secretary Deb Haaland speaks during a press conference on July 22, 2021, in Denver. (AP Photo / David Zalubowski / Associated Press) “President Biden wants to stifle US oil and gas production,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee member John Barasso of Romania told Fox News Digital. “Now it has failed to follow the law and prepare a final five-year lease plan by yesterday’s deadline. This means that the federal government will not offer new offshore oil and gas lease sales this year.” “This will be the first year since 1958. On the contrary, the Biden government has devoted its time to flirting with dictators abroad,” he said. “The White House has asked countries like Russia, Iran and Venezuela for oil. It is a complete shame.” Under the Outer Territory Land Act of 1953, the DOI is required to periodically issue five-year plans for offshore oil and gas leasing sales. Historically, the plans were issued in a timely manner by Democratic and Republican administrations and included more than 10 lease sales extending into federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific, the Atlantic, and off the coast of Alaska. The latest plan, which went into effect in 2017, expired on Thursday. Without a plan, sales of offshore leases, which produced more than 1.7 million barrels of oil per day last year, could not be realized. Frank Macchiarola of the American Petroleum Institute says the supply of oil to the US has not been maintained since the end of the pandemic. “The inability of the Interior to meet its own June 30 deadline for the publication of the Proposed Program is another reminder of the administration’s failure in its statutory obligation to develop and maintain an offshore oil and gas leasing program. The Interior “It took 17 months to publish the Final Program, not just the Proposed Program promised to be released yesterday,” National Oceanic Industries Association President Eric Milito told Fox News Digital. “No other administration has failed in this way,” he continued. “So far, every government, whether Democratic or Republican, has recognized the critical, strategic benefits of continued U.S. offshore oil and gas production through an uninterrupted national leasing program.” Milito added that the government’s actions amounted to a “deliberate obstruction” of US energy growth. He said they would lead to higher gasoline prices and negatively affect national security, global geopolitics, energy security and high-paying jobs across the country. GET FOX BUSINESS IN ENGINE BY CLICKING HERE Since taking office, the Biden government has made a single offshore sale which has since been rejected by a federal court on environmental grounds. Management canceled three more sales listed in the expired program. Republican lawmakers and industry groups have repeatedly blamed the government’s climate agenda for near-high gasoline prices. The average price of natural gas reached $ 4.84 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA data.
