The Department of the Interior recently released its much-anticipated five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing. The plan is a disaster for American families, our energy security, and even our ability to protect the environment.

The Biden administration will be making available for auction just three offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico, representing the lowest number of auctions in the history of the program. Strikingly, it marks a dramatic reduction from the Obama administration’s plan for 10 sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one in Alaska. President Joe Biden appears to be keeping true to his campaign promise to “end fossil fuel.”

As the world still grapples with a vicious energy crisis, making America less energy-dominant is clearly a bad idea. After all, domestic gas prices have skyrocketed , our European allies are still looking for ways to stop subsidizing Russia’s war in Ukraine, and enemies such as Iran are looking for any opportunity to exploit American weakness.

Biden often touts the fact that he signed the largest clean energy investment in history into law, but that accomplishment risks being overshadowed by his failure to encourage a robust all-of-the-above energy approach that achieves affordable, reliable, and increasingly clean American energy. Whether it’s limiting lease sales or pushing onerous rules from federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Trade Commission, Biden’s top-down, regulatory zeal hurts the domestic energy industry.

That will come at a high cost. Not just for consumers at the pump or our geopolitical strength abroad but for conservation and climate efforts in this country. Despite using climate change as cover, the administration’s offshore leasing plan will actually be counterproductive to environmental progress.

There are two main reasons for this. First, Biden’s de facto ban on the majority of offshore leasing will have devastating impacts on our ability to fund critical wildlife conservation, the preservation of historic lands, and public access to the great outdoors. This is because a federal program known as the Land and Water Conservation Fund was created back in 1964 to balance the extraction of resources from public lands with the conservation of these lands. The LWCF channels revenues from offshore leasing to various conservation projects across the country, having provided "$5.2 billion to support more than 45,000 projects in every county in the country" since its inception. This year alone, Interior announced the distribution of $279 million in LWCF state matching grants for fiscal year 2022.

Simply put, the largest source of conservation funding in the United States comes directly from offshore oil and gas leasing. In the absence of such funding, our national parks backlog will only grow worse, key conservation initiatives will be halted, and communities across the country will suffer the results. No one is talking about the direct, tangible environmental downsides of Biden’s historically low offshore leasing plan.

But conservation is only one side of the story. Nearly three-quarters of young Americans aged 18-44 rightfully care about tackling climate change and reducing carbon emissions. The problem is that crippling domestic oil and gas production will do nothing to solve the global climate challenge. Domestic and international energy demand will simply keep going up, while production will be sent to countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iran.

Not only would that be catastrophic for our energy and national security, but it would also backfire from a climate perspective. The reality is that American energy production has a huge carbon advantage, thanks to our high environmental standards and technological capabilities. Consider, for example, that Russian liquefied natural gas exported to Europe produces 40% more carbon emissions than American LNG. While the world still relies on oil and gas, the climate is better off if America supplies that.

Moreover, if the U.S. can produce excess oil and gas domestically and then export it to countries around the world, we can dramatically reduce global emissions by displacing coal in places such as Asia and Africa. Recent data, for example, show that displacing coal in Southeast Asia can cut emissions by nearly half. That’s indisputably good for tackling climate while helping our allies reduce their reliance on China and Russia. American energy dominance is good for the climate.

Of course, it’s important to acknowledge that offshore oil and gas production still has its environmental risks , from impacts on wildlife to potential oil spills to methane leakage. While the U.S. has made enormous advances in these areas to minimize ecological harm, continued progress can strengthen our environmental track record and ensure that domestic energy production becomes increasingly clean.

When it comes to energy and climate issues, we need more balance in the conversation. Tackling climate change and pursuing clean energy is a fantastic goal, but it can’t conflict with reality. While we build our clean future, we must remain realistic about the economic, energy security, and environmental roles of American oil and gas without fearmongering or hyperbolizing. Ultimately, Biden’s offshore leasing plan fails on all fronts.

Chris Barnard is the president of the American Conservation Coalition. Follow him on X  @ChrisBarnardDL .