The Biden administration has issued more oil and gas drilling permits than the preceding administration in its first year despite the Democrat's declared focus on climate change issues and initial promise to review the leasing practices set by Donald Trump.
Under Biden, some 3,557 permits have been issued, which is almost 34% more than the 2,658 permits issued under his predecessor in his first year in office. Notably, Trump never declared having an interest in climate change issues and even withdrew the US from the Paris Accord.
Biden's Actions on New Drilling Leases Challenged in Courts
The Democrat paused the process of issuing new permits in his very first month in the White House. Yet, it was successfully challenged in a Louisiana federal court half a year later by a group of 14 state attorneys general.
Despite trying to appeal the federal judge's decision, who argued that POTUS had no power to pause the issuance of new leases, the White House put 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico up for leasing auction. Some 300,000 more acres are set to go under the hammer in March 2022.
The administration, however, faced opposition from the courts again, this time from US District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Rudolph Contreras. Contreras ruled to void the auction and cancel the 1.7 million acres in leases from it. The judge pointed at the impact of the drilling on the climate in these areas as the reason for his ruling.
Not the First Climate Agenda Failure for Biden
Biden's controversial record on drilling permits comes in the wake of another fiasco by Democrats to promote their climate agenda – the failure to pass the president's "Build Back Better" plan. The piece of legislation was set to spend $555 billion on various climate initiatives, including incentives for producers of green energy – to stimulate the transition to net-zero emissions. Yet, due to the opposition of Democrat Joe Manchin in the evenly split Senate, the bill was stopped in its tracks without support from the GOP.
A report by The Washington Post suggests that issuing drilling permits is not Biden's only about-face on the climate agenda. According to the newspaper, the review of coal extraction permits was paused by the White House in order to prevent further alienation of holdout Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and make negotiations with him on the Democrats' initiatives possible.