Biden's Interior Department on Friday unveiled a congressionally mandated five-year plan for offshore oil drilling that included just three sales, all in the Gulf of Mexico -- the lowest number in any five-year plan since the government began publishing them in 1980.
Previous five-year offshore lease programs have ranged between 11 and 41 sales, according to Interior's U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate change law passed last year, made oil and gas lease sales a prerequisite for new offshore wind power auctions.
Biden sees offshore wind power as a key element to his plan to decarbonize the U.S. economy by 2050.
In a sign of the litigious nature of U.S. drilling policy, Biden's administration had been scheduled to hold a Congressionally mandated Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease auction this month.
Persons:
Biden, Erik Milito, Abigail Dillen, we've, Mike Sommers, Bill Cassidy, Vladimir Putin, Cassidy, Trump, Nichola Groom, Jamie Freed, Daniel Wallis
Organizations:
Biden's, Department, Reuters, National Ocean Industries Association, U.S . Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Interior Department, Biden, American Petroleum Institute, U.S . Chamber of Commerce, Gulf Coast, OPEC, Organization of, Petroleum, ., Interior, Thomson
Locations:
Gulf of Mexico, U.S, Gulf, Mexico, Putin, Louisiana, Russia, California