A leading industry group is calling on the Biden administration to shift course and more aggressively support domestic oil and gas production in response to unrelentingly high energy prices.
The American Petroleum Institute sent the White House a list of 10 policies on Tuesday that it argues will encourage production and bring down costs. Topping the list is a request that the administration quickly issue a new five-year plan for the offshore oil and gas leasing program and that it reinstate canceled sales.
President Joe Biden, who promised to end drilling on federal lands during his campaign, ordered a pause on all new oil and gas leasing during his first week in office. A court later put the pause on hold.
The administration has been behind the timeline laid out in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act for introducing a new leasing plan to replace the current one, which expires at the end of the month. It intends to introduce a new proposed program by June 30.
API’s list also recommends that Congress make special designations for critical energy infrastructure projects, that permitting of such projects be accelerated, and that the administration encourage investment in oil and gas by walking back rules such as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s climate-related risk disclosure proposal.
“We do think that a renewed tone and a focus on policies that talk about the future of the oil and gas industry in the United States, not that it’s going to end by 2030, would help with the kind of investment that we’re going to need to get these products to market as quickly as possible,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers said on a call with reporters.
Biden and other administration officials have solicited more production from the industry and also backed more LNG exports to Europe since the war in Ukraine began.
Democrats, including Biden, have also criticized the industry for not investing more in production and accused them of price-gouging, something industry players deny.
Sommers and others in the industry have noted that production is coming back but said various barriers are standing in the way, including difficulties sourcing materials such as steel, finding labor, and accessing capital for new expenditures.
Some producers have elected not to spend more on production, citing the need to pay down debts and increase their market value after facing steep losses because of the pandemic.
