Congress Should Put “All of the Above” Energy on Schedule
“The federal government is the single largest landowner in the country.”
Congress Should Put “All of the Above” Energy on Schedule
February 06, 2023
The federal government is the single largest landowner in the country. Yet, for offshore energy developers and their customers, Uncle Sam is an increasingly erratic and unpredictable landlord. Rather than relying on the good graces of the White House, Congress needs to mandate periodic, parallel offshore leasing schedules for both renewable and fossil fuel energy projects, with meaningful penalties for noncompliance.
The Biden administration has repeatedly demonstrated how the executive branch can be an unreliable partner for American energy expansion. The Department of the Interior, for example, recently issued draft rules to establish a five-year public leasing schedule for offshore wind projects. The rules, as currently proposed, would require the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to publish a list of sites that could potentially be leased, as well as a schedule of intended future lease sales. The schedule would be updated at least once every two years. The draft rules promise that the schedule “would provide increased certainty and enhanced transparency…[and] facilitate planning by industry, the States, and other stakeholders.”
And yet, the devil remains in the details. While on the surface the scheme appears to be a commitment to further energy expansion, in reality, it amounts to little more than vague promises. By the Department’s own admission, the rules would not obligate the Bureau to offer the auctions, and its schedule can be altered at a bureaucratic whim. If the schedule loses the political wind in its sails, it can summarily be cast aside—hardly a prospect that provides “increased certainty and enhanced transparency.”
A lack of trust in the Biden administration to stick to a schedule is not born out of malice but, rather, recent experience. Since 1978, the federal government has been compelled to maintain a five-year schedule for oil and gas leasing on the outer continental shelf. Although the 2017-2022 schedule elapsed in June of last year, the Biden administration is still yet to approve a final replacement program. In comparison, the Obama administration approved its own leasing program seven months before the previous schedule expired.
Opinions differ over whether allowing gaps between five-year schedules is currently a violation of the 1978 law. Meanwhile, the Biden team have taken advantage of the uncertainty by delaying the development of the next schedule. If their intentions weren’t clear enough, they also scrapped three of the leases that were scheduled under the Obama program.
To inhibit this kind of slow-walking and sabotage, Congress needs to make renewable and fossil fuel offshore energy leasing schedules mandatory, conditional upon each other’s completion, and replete with penalties for noncompliance.
This idea is not without precedent; a recent compromise on offshore leasing within the Inflation Reduction Act demonstrates how Congress can effectively compel the administrative state to advance energy development. Provisions within the climate law prohibit the sale of offshore wind leases for the next 10 years, unless at least one offshore oil and gas lease sale has been held in the preceding 12 months. Anticipating that a crafty administration may make a tiny token sale to tick the box, the Act requires that at least 60 million acres are offered for oil and gas leases in the one-year window. And to send a message that the executive cannot condemn scheduled leases with impunity, the law also forces the Biden administration to carry out the three lease sales it sought to scupper.
Drawing lessons from the compromise in the climate law, the periodic scheduling of offshore wind and fossil fuel energy lease sales should be mandatory and conditional upon each other’s completion. Additionally, further penalties for noncompliance could safeguard energy expansion. If the Interior Department has not published a final leasing sale schedule before the expiration of its predecessor, the Department should be compelled to offer an even greater number of acres—say, at least 125 percent of those in the preceding program. For administrations that seek to limit access to federal offshore resources in defiance of Congress, the only thing worse than compliance should be non-compliance.
The Biden administration’s non-binding provisions within its proposed offshore wind schedule demonstrate that its lack of commitment is not confined to fossil fuel energy projects. American consumers deserve reliable and affordable energy from any and all sources. Congress can help by mandating a stricter scheduling regime for all federal offshore projects and realizing an “all of the above” energy policy.
Oliver McPherson-Smith is the Director of Energy, Trade, and Environmental Policy at the American Consumer Institute.
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