Families are being hit by a one-two punch of skyrocketing inflation and the highest gas prices in history. How did we get here? The answer is simple: poor policy choices by the Biden administration.
I was not surprised to see White House press secretary Jen Psaki try to cover up these policy choices by deflecting blame to energy producers. She recited talking points, now universal among Washington liberals, that energy companies are sitting on over 9,000 “unused” permits to drill for oil and gas on federal lands and thus don’t need any relief or help from the Biden administration. This might be the most misleading statistic thrown around in Washington since the people were told that “Build Back Better” would cost taxpayers “zero dollars.”
The 9,000 “unused” permits claim is misleading on multiple fronts. First, the Bureau of Land Management isn’t approving thousands of the other permits necessary to put already-approved permits to use. Oil and gas operations are extremely complex and technical, with a single project often requiring multiple approved permits to start production. Federal law requires approval of permits on federal lands within 30 days of submission. Under the Biden administration, however, some permits have been languishing at the Interior Department for over a year.
The lack of new lease sales has made some approved permits useless as well. Given the patchwork nature of how land is leased and the need to drill horizontally to tap resources, land adjacent to existing leases is sometimes needed to make extraction worthwhile. To acquire this land, producers identify it for the BLM to include in the next lease sale, which usually happens every three months. Over a year into this administration, there has yet to be one lease sale on federal lands, making those permits that require additional land worthless.
Environmental groups are also using the federal court system as a weapon against domestic energy production. Groups like the WildEarth Guardians have sued the BLM saying it is not properly considering climate impacts as a part of its leasing process. Even though courts have upheld the validity of several of the lease sales in question, the Biden administration still refuses to approve permits for them.
This is why I introduced the American Energy Security and Transparency Act. This legislation helps tackle our energy crisis by requiring the BLM to resume lease sales immediately in states covered by the Mineral Leasing Act, including my home state of New Mexico. In addition, it requires the BLM to hold replacement lease sales to make up for the five sales that have been missed since President Joe Biden took office.
The bill also requires the Interior Department to report to Congress on the number of permits waiting for approval in each BLM field office nationwide. This report must include a detailed account of why certain permits are being sent to Washington, D.C., for approval instead of following the normal practice of approval at the local level. This will ensure that the full scope of the permitting backlog is made transparent.
Lastly, my bill requires the BLM to proceed with the normal approval process for permits on leases whose validity has been confirmed by a federal court. This will free up hundreds of permits nationwide and allow for greater production almost immediately.
Today’s sky-high gas prices were a policy choice, not an unavoidable accident. No matter how many misleading statistics White House officials and congressional liberals try to throw at the people, the blame for high energy costs rests with them. It is time to reverse their failed policies, and the American Energy Security and Transparency Act is a great first step to ending this crisis and restoring energy independence.
Yvette Herrell represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
