Great Lakes Wire

The U.S. Interior Department has cancelled planned oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, a move critics say is contributing to the country's high energy prices.

"The domestic actions that restrict oil production worsen the inflation problems and the budget squeezes that too many families are facing across the states," Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in Business and Economics of Pacific Research Institute, told the Great Lakes Wire recently. "The expectation of greater supply by allowing more oil production would help reduce gas prices quickly and incentivize greater supply, which could help offset some of the inflationary pressures.

"Allowing more oil production would help reduce gas prices quickly and incentivize greater supply."

Shortly after taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order freezing all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, a recent report from The Hill said. On May 11, the administration cancelled oil and gas lease sales in Alaska's Cook Inlet and in the Gulf of Mexico. The lease in Alaska would have covered more than 1 million acres.

The administration's decision comes at a time when Biden’s approval ratings from Americans have declined, in particular on economic issues, The Hill report said. Congressional Republicans also continued to criticize the administration’s energy moves when average nationwide gas prices soared to an all-time high recently.

As of May 12, the national gas price average was $4.42 per gallon, a 7.8% climb from a month ago when the average was $4.10 per gallon, a AAA report said. In Michigan, the average price was $4.35 per gallon.

On March 31, the day of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve release, gas was $4.22 per gallon, 20 cents cheaper than on May 12, a report from the American Automobile Association said. 

"Production is essentially higher than it's been in a couple decades," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said during a recent congressional hearing. "On the federal lands, we're doing what we need to do and we're following the law and making sure that we are moving those issues forward."

But recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed total oil production in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive months, disproving administration officials' claims that domestic production is at historic highs.          

On May 4, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) was among 44 Senate Democrats who voted against a motion by Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) to require the immediate development of a new five-year federal offshore oil and gas leasing plan. The plan, which is intended to ease energy prices in the U.S., mandated lease sales for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska.