Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) took to social media on May 11 to criticize the Biden Administration's announced cancellation of oil and gas leases on public land in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. The move has been widely reported by many news outlets, including Fox Business.
"The Biden administration just canceled oil and gas lease sales in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico," Blackburn said in her Twitter post. "If this is their plan to make us energy independent again, we’re in trouble."
President Joe Biden
| whitehouse.gov/
Blackburn's Twitter post was only the latest of her comments about U.S. oil and gas production - and she says cancelling oil leases isn't the way to go.
In early March, Blackburn was part of the GOP's Senatorial delegation members who signed a letter urging the Biden administration to "change course" on its "failing energy policy" as prices at the pump were surging and Russian President Vladimir Putin "defies global outcry." The letter included "12 specific actions the president can take to unleash domestic energy production, lower skyrocketing energy prices, and help America’s European allies and partners become less dependent on Putin’s regime for their energy supply," a news release from Blackburn's office announcing the letter said.
Among other things, the letter recommended reinstating leases issued in a northeastern Minnesota mining project and finalizing a new five-year offshore lease plan.
"Joe Biden has given up the best defense we had against Putin's evil vision for the world - energy independence," Blackburn said in the news release. "We need to make America energy independent again. It's time to divest from Russian energy and stop funding Putin's war, and reauthorize the Keystone Pipeline."
Also in March, Blackburn blamed the president for rising gas prices.
"Joe Biden is directly responsible for record-breaking gas prices," Blackburn said in a March 9 Twitter post. "That’s what happens when you ban new leases to produce American oil and halt the Keystone XL."
Two days later, Blackburn talked more about oil and gas leases on public land.
“According to a Department of Interior report, the U.S. had more than 37,000 oil and gas leases just last year — so 9,000 is a small number comparatively — and just because an oil company has a lease doesn't mean they can just start drilling,” she said in a March 11 Twitter post.
In its coverage this week, Fox Business reported the Biden administration's decision to stop plans for oil drilling on about 1 million acres of Alaska's Cook Inlet and to cancel an Alaskan gas lease. Reuters reported this week that the canceled U.S. oil and gas leases were for drilling in the outer continental shelf and the Gulf of Mexico. The plans had been for five-year leases, the latest set to expire in June.
Reuters also noted that the Biden administration "has not finalized a new program."
In a widely reported statement, including in a CBS News story, a U.S. Department of the Interior spokesperson said DOI won't move forward with the proposed Cook Inlet OCS oil lease sale and three other gas lease sales, including two in the Gulf of Mexico region. Those decisions resulted from, among other reasons, "lack of industry interest in leasing in the area" and "conflicting court rulings that impacted work on these proposed lease sales," the spokesperson said.
CBS recalled Biden's political promises to halt global warming but that "those promises have become a political challenge in the face of prices at the pump."
"They don't want to get hit by the Republicans in light of the high gas prices," an anonymous environmental advocate reportedly told CBS News. "They're getting killed on attacks based on inflation. The most visible sign of inflation is high gas prices."
