On Friday, instead of putting out a proposed plan for selling oil drilling leases over the next five years, Joe Biden punted. Caught between rabid socialist environmental extremists on one hand and a price at the pump that cripples the economy on the other, Joe promises they’ll approve somewhere between zero and ten.
Oil deal needs more grease
The proposed “plan” issued by the imperial palace on Friday, July 1, isn’t much of a plan at all. The Biden regime won’t commit to anything. Because, no matter what they do, it will look bad. The deadline arrived for the announcement on “where the federal government intends to hold offshore oil and gas lease sales in federal waters for the next five years.”
The where part is easy. Where it’s allowed now. The slippery part is how many. Progressives are demanding none. Joe’s afraid to say no. He’s just as terrified to say yes. That’s why they said “maybe.”
According to what the Interior Department released, new drilling, if any, will be limited to the Gulf of Mexico. They were all set to approve one site in waters off the coast of Alaska but that was scrapped due to lack of oil company interest.
None of the producers wanted to touch that site with a 50 foot pole. The palace admits this traps His Wisdom between his “own commitments to slash planet-warming emissions from fossil fuels, and intense political pressure over high gas prices.”
Staffers are going frantic, spending what’s supposed to be a holiday weekend combing through provisions in their oil lease deals, to see how they match up with the fresh SCOTUS decision. The one that dropped like a bomb on Thursday saying that the EPA doesn’t have nearly the authority everyone thought it did.
Congress is actually going to have to take responsibility for doing their own work for a change so their aides will be working overtime. The liberal civil servants didn’t have any big plans anyway, they view American Independence as nothing but one of those non-holidays they get paid for taking off.
Not ruling it out
Imperial Leader Biden, his spokesunits proclaim, “isn’t ruling out new offshore drilling in the next half decade.” He isn’t guaranteeing any new oil rigs either. That way he can play it both ways. “Interior is proposing a range of options,” they weasel.
Anywhere from “no new drilling to 10 lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico – where the vast majority of offshore drilling already occurs.” They take credit for yanking any hope of Atlantic and Pacific coast drilling, “which was a widely anticipated move.”
Our new Minster of Interior Deb Haaland put the focus on the future. Some say the pain at the pump was intentional, to help everyday Americans get rehab therapy from their oil addiction. They want to get the “transition to a clean energy economy” over like ripping off the Bandaid.
“The time for the public to weigh in on our future is now.” They were able to kick the can down the road because they have to hold a “90-day public comment period.” Once they see how the comments go, they may need to drag it out until after the November mid-terms. That “process could take much longer,” Haaland warns.
An source inside the Interior Ministry stressed the whole range of oil options is on the table and they will eventually pick one of them. After the election. “This is a multi-step process that is traditionally a winnowing process.”
DINO Senator Joe Manchin announced he’s “pleased that the Department has finally released their long-overdue proposal,” but that he is “disappointed to see that ‘zero’ lease sales is even an option on the table.“
