The Biden administration made a shocking admission in a leaked memo, acknowledging that lowering costs on fossil fuel drilling would create “greater energy security,” despite the administration’s plans to raise royalty fees. The memo, which was leaked on Friday, serves as tangible proof that the White House is placing its climate agenda ahead of the best interests of Americans.
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According to a report by Fox News, Former Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Amanda Lefton recommended in 2022 that the Biden administration raise royalty fees on the sale of oil and gas leases stretching nearly 1 million acres off the coast of Alaska. That same year, Biden penned a letter to the fossil fuel industry, accusing them of profit-seeking in the wake of the Ukraine War and demanding that they increase production capacity.
Despite Biden’s calls for increased production, the administration reportedly went ahead with Lefton’s recommendation, with DOI Assistant Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis ultimately signing the proposal.
“If a Cook Inlet prospect were developed, there would be additional government revenues and greater energy security for the State of Alaska, especially if development of natural gas resources in the Cook Inlet ameliorated the long-term supply challenges facing the Anchorage area,” Lefton admitted in the memo.
But the BOEM Director had other priorities,
“Nevertheless, because of the serious challenges facing the Nation from climate change and the impact of [greenhouse gasses] from fossil fuels, BOEM is not recommending this option since it would not include an appropriate surcharge to account for those impacts,” she wrote.
Lefton specifically recommended a royalty hike from 16.67% to 18.75%, which she says would help offset the costs of global warming. Lefton admitted that the lower price would “be more likely to facilitate expeditious and orderly development of [offshore] resources.”
According to Fox, Daniel-Davis stated in her record of decision in November that she agreed with the proposal “because this rate constitutes the most reasonable balancing of environmental and economic factors for the American public,” but did not reference Lefton’s analysis that developing the area would have provided greater energy security.
According to federal records reported by Fox, the lease sale ultimately attracted just one bid for a single 2,304-acre tract. The Biden administration had initially canceled the lease sale, originally a Trump-era proposal, but the decision was reversed under the Inflation Reduction Act.
“The Department of the Interior mistakenly posted an internal memo making recommendations… on the Cook Inlet Oil and Gas Lease Sale 258 mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, said in a statement on Friday.
“I am appalled by its contents, which make crystal clear that this administration is literally putting their radical climate agenda ahead of the needs of the people of Alaska and the United States.”
“It’s a clear and intentional threat to energy security and the all-of-the-above energy policy Congress has consistently reinforced,” Manchin added. “I will not support anyone who agrees with this type of misguided reasoning.”
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While gas prices are expected to decrease year-over-year from 2022, fuel price tracker GasBuddy reported in January that it expects per-gallon costs to rise as high as $4.19 by June when the summer travel season begins.
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