Biden Administration Finalizes Plan to Limit Offshore Oil and Gas Leasing

The new plan, marking a significant departure from past policies, schedules only three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029 and rules out leasing in other waters.

The Biden administration has finalized a plan to significantly limit the number of offshore oil and gas lease sales over the next five years, scheduling just three Gulf of Mexico lease sales through 2029.
This represents the fewest number of sales ever included in such a plan, and marks a departure from past plans issued by both Democratic and Republican administrations.
The plan does not expand leasing into new waters and rules out any leasing off the Alaskan coast, and in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Industry representatives and environmental groups have criticized the plan, with the former arguing it ignores energy realities and the latter calling for an end to offshore drilling.
The plan was mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act, which ties new offshore wind energy leases to new oil and gas leases.