The Interior Department will hold just three offshore oil and gas lease sales between 2023 and 2029, according to its new five-year plan published Friday, a long-awaited proposal that is almost certain to be met with sharp criticism from Republicans and industry groups.
According to the department, no lease sales will take place in 2024 for the first time since the program was created in 1978. Instead, the five-year plan calls for one new sale per year in 2025, 2027, and 2029.
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“The proposed program, which represents the smallest number of oil and gas lease sales in history, sets a course for the department to support the growing offshore wind industry and protect against the potential for environmental damage and adverse impacts to coastal communities,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
The number is far fewer than the 11 leases included in the previous five-year plan and sparked ire from the industry, which has pushed the administration to clear the way for more domestic oil and gas production.
American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers criticized the Biden administration's "restrictive" offshore program, saying in a statement Friday that it's "the latest tactic in a coordinated strategy to reduce energy production, ultimately weakening America’s energy dominance, limiting consumers access to affordable reliable energy and compromising our ability to lead on the global stage."
National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito described the plan as an "utter failure for the country," saying it entails an outsize reliance on U.S. adversaries. "With global demand at record levels and continuing to rise, regressive policies like this serve to harm Americans of all walks of life by putting upward pressure on prices at the pump, destroying good-paying jobs that form the fabric of Gulf Coast communities, and relinquishing geopolitical advantages of energy production to countries like Russia, Iran, and China," Milito told the Washington Examiner.
The Biden administration had been under heightened pressure from industry groups, Republicans, and some Democrats to release its final five-year plan, something Interior is required to do under federal law but which President Joe Biden has repeatedly postponed since taking office.
Interior told a federal court in March that it will need until the end of the year to finalize its delayed five-year program, which is meant to replace the defunct 2017-2022 program.
There is currently no active offshore leasing program in place. All recent lease sales have been carried out thanks to several provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, which revived three offshore lease sales in the 2017-2022 program and linked oil and gas leasing to renewable energy development on federal lands and in federal waters.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who oversaw that provision's inclusion in the IRA, has sharply criticized the administration for dragging its feet on the new program and accused them in March of putting a "radical climate agenda" ahead of U.S. energy security with the delay.
"This is not optional," Manchin said in a statement at the time. "The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act mandates that the Secretary of the Interior 'shall prepare' this program to 'best meet national energy needs.'"
Environmental groups and many Democrats have asked Biden to propose a five-year program that excludes all new lease sales completely, in a nod to his campaign trail promise to end offshore drilling.
The inclusion of potential lease sales in Interior's program does not mean that sale will ultimately be carried out, a point senior Interior officials have stressed in recent months.
Federal law directs Interior to provide an offshore leasing program that stretches over a five-year period and details the year and location of potential oil and gas lease sales.
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The Interior Department revealed its new five-year program in July 2022, after the last program expired, but the plan did not advance further until Friday.
Previous administrations have all finalized new programs to take over expiring plans on time, according to the Congressional Research Service.