The Biden administration mysteriously delayed a key oil and gas leasing announcement Thursday despite promising to issue the legally-mandated decision.
Schwartz declined to comment on the delay in response to a Fox News Digital inquiry. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
An announcement was slated to take place Thursday, but was pushed back for an unknown reason, administration officials told Reuters on Friday. "President Biden is hell-bent on choking off American oil and natural gas production," Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital in a statement. "Now he has failed to follow the law and prepare a final five-year leasing plan by yesterday’s deadline.
"This will be the first year since 1958 that has happened. Instead, the Biden administration has spent its time courting overseas dictators," he continued. "The White House has begged countries like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela for oil. It’s an absolute disgrace." Under the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the DOI is required to periodically issue five-year plans for offshore oil and gas lease sales. Historically, the plans have been issued on time by Democratic and Republican administrations and have included more than 10 lease sales stretching across federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, Atlantic and off the coast of Alaska.
The most recent plan, which went into effect in 2017, expired on Thursday. Without a plan, offshore lease sales, which produced more than 1.7 million barrels of oil per day last year, cannot be held.
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