During the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden promised: ““No more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling including offshore—no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill—period.” No matter the consequences for pump prices and American independence from foreign fuel suppliers apparently.
This is one promise Biden has kept. The Wall Street Journal reports today:
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration has leased fewer acres for oil-and-gas drilling offshore and on federal land than any other administration in its early stages dating back to the end of World War II, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
President Biden’s Interior Department leased 126,228 acres for drilling through Aug. 20, his first 19 months in office, the analysis found. No other president since Richard Nixon in 1969-70 leased out fewer than 4.4 million acres at this stage in his first term.
The chart the Journal includes is striking:
First, good grief was Ronald Reagan awesome in getting access to domestic oil opened up in a big way.
Second, if Republicans can’t exploit this in the coming election they should file Chapter 11 bankruptcy for political incompetence.
Third, I hope reporters will ask Joe Manchin every day, “So how’s that deal you made with Schumer for expanded oil and gas leasing on federal land working out?”
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.