- Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 257 was vacated on 1/27/2022 because DC Federal Court Judge Contreras ruled that BOEM failed to consider the “positive” effect that higher prices (the logical result of lower production) would have on reducing foreign consumption and the associated GHG emissions. Think about that in the context of the timing and magnitude of this ruling. Why did the court fail to consider the other logical consequences of tight oil supplies and higher prices – increased coal consumption and energy poverty? To avoid the latter, India, the world’s second largest coal producer and consumer, is boosting coal production to record highs.
- The Administration, which had only proceeded with Sale 257 because a prior court ruling invalidated the President’s leasing pause, chose not to appeal the decision by Judge Contreras. Why appeal a decision that is consistent with your agenda?
- The legislatively mandated 5 year leasing program, without which no Federal offshore leases sales may be conducted, expires at the end of June. This is why last week’s cancellation of the 3 remaining sales in the current 5 year program was rather meaningless. Despite bipartisan congressional support for prompt completion of a new 5 year plan, this does not appear to be a high priority for the Department of the Interior. The only hope for a sale this year might be a successful appeal by Lousisiana and API of Judge Contreras’s Sale 257 ruling.
Posts Tagged ‘5 year leasing plan’
As energy prices soar, remember these 3 things…
Posted in climate, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 5 year leasing plan, DC Federal Court, India coal, Lease Sale 257, oil prices on May 18, 2022| Leave a Comment »
4 House Democrats send letter to the President urging completion of the 5 Year leasing plan
Posted in energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, Uncategorized, tagged 5 year leasing plan, 532 days, DOI, House Democrats urge action, Senate Democrats support on May 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »
One important action your administration can take to ensure American energy independence is to publish a new Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Plan (“Five-year Plan”) as required under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953. Finalizing the Five-year Plan, with frequent area-wide leases, would help bring millions of additional barrels of U.S. oil to market. According to a recent analysis by Energy and Industrial Advisory Partners, a further delay of federal offshore leasing could result in 500,000 fewer barrels of domestic oil produced per day, 60,000 lost jobs, and a $900 million per year decrease in federal conservation funding.
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The four Democrats are Texas Representatives Vicente Gonzalez, Sylvia Garcia, Henry Cuellar and Lizzie Fletcher.
Meanwhile, the Senate approved language supporting the issuance of a new 5 Year Program ASAP. Four Democrats -Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) – voted for the measure.
When will we hear from the Department of the Interior on the status of the 5 Year Program? It has now been 532 days since the last US offshore lease sale.
Fellow Democrats Manchin and Kelly urge President Biden to implement 5 year program “without delay”
Posted in climate, energy policy, Gulf of Mexico, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 5 year leasing plan, Gulf of Mexico, Senator Kelly, Senator Manchin on April 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The current 5 year leasing program expires on June 30, 2022. Absent a new program, no lease sales may be held.
We are writing to urge you to develop and implement a new Five-Year Program for oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico without delay.
Seinfeld-esque leasing proposal: a five year leasing plan with no lease sales
Posted in climate, energy policy, Offshore Energy - General, tagged 5 year leasing plan, Daniel Yergin, national energy needs, OCSLA, Seinfeld on January 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Contrary to the opinion of some, opponents of offshore oil and gas leasing are not rigid zealots who are unwilling to compromise. More than 80 such organizations have graciously voiced support for a novel five year leasing plan:
In accordance with OCSLA, we urge you to create a new five-year lease plan that includes no new offshore lease sales for the next five years.
Letter to President Biden and Secretary Haaland
That’s right – a leasing plan with no leasing, a program that is about nothing.
Unfortunately for the proponents, this creative proposal would seem to have some significant legal obstacles, most notably its inconsistency with the statute and the legislative history. The idea was to have an organized approach to leasing, not to eliminate it. Per OCSLA:
The leasing program shall consist of a schedule of proposed lease sales indicating, as precisely as possible, the size, timing, and location of leasing activity which he determines will best meet national energy needs for the five-year period following its approval or reapproval.
OCS Lands Act
How does zero leasing help meet national energy needs? Security? Price stability? Supply chain? Are these groups funded by OPEC+ members and nations that hate us the most? If not, they should be, because they are certainly doing their bidding.
As Daniel Yergin’s excellent Atlantic piece explained, the energy transition will take time and be enormously complex. He quoted French economist Jean Pisani-Ferry who warned that “going into overdrive on transitioning away from fossil fuels would lead to major economic shocks similar to the oil crises that rocked the global economy in the 1970s.”
Empty five year leasing programs are not an option for a diverse nation of 330+ million people that will continue to need oil and gas well into the future. We should and are adding new energy alternatives to the mix, and many of us were involved in developing the framework for these alternatives, but eliminating important sources of oil and gas at this time would be sheer folly.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 