Oil industry, workers' groups unleash on Biden after 'no more drilling' pledge: 'Devastating to Americans'
Voters should 'reject Biden's harmful policies' at the ballot box this week, oil workers group president tells FOX Business
A protester in the audience was heard challenging him on his climate policies
Two of the nation's most prominent oil industry groups slammed President Biden following his comments Sunday vowing to block all new fossil fuel drilling.
"No more drilling," Biden said in response to a crowd member's shouts during a campaign event in New York on Sunday. "There is no more drilling. I haven’t formed any new drilling."
The comments appeared to be in reference to a five-year offshore drilling plan that the Department of the Interior (DOI) is expected to finalize in the near future. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has opened the door to block all drilling in federal waters through 2028, but she is also weighing whether to schedule up to 11 lease sales in that time span.
Shortly after Biden took office in January 2021, he issued an executive order blocking all new oil and gas drilling on both federal lands and waters, following through on a 2020 campaign promise to "end fossil fuel." However, in August, a federal judge delivered a fatal blow to the leasing moratorium, ruling that it was "beyond the authority" of the White House.
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President Biden has taken a series of measures to restrict future oil and gas development throughout his tenure. The Department of the Interior is currently weighing a five-year ban on offshore oil and gas drilling. (AP Newsroom)
"The message is clear: Joe Biden is directly responsible for high gas prices, rising home heating costs, and high grocery prices that are crushing every American. The Biden administration is to blame for this self-inflicted energy crisis and the looming diesel shortage," Matt Coday, the president and founder of the Oil & Gas Workers Association, told FOX Business. "This administration has slowed down federal permitting."
"Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asked banks to stop funding fossil fuels projects," he said. "Biden nominated a Marxist comptroller of the currency who said she wanted fossil fuel companies ‘to go bankrupt.’"
Additionally, National Ocean Industries Association President Erik Milito slammed Biden for focusing on politics instead of measures that would boost U.S. energy security.
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"The President should be focused on policy, not politics. It took an extraordinary act of Congress to end a substantial, unnecessary, and avoidable gap in offshore leasing, which we are still feeling the impacts for with both near-term and long-term investments in U.S. energy production, and to reinstate Gulf of Mexico lease sales," Milito told FOX Business.
The Inflation Reduction Act included a series of provisions that requires the DOI to move forward on Trump administration-era lease sales it had canceled in recent months. Among the lease sales green lit under the legislation was the largest lease sale in U.S. history which the Biden administration had previously abandoned.
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Milito also noted that blocking all new offshore drilling would be unprecedented and force American consumers to rely more on foreign energy imports.
"Decisions to restrict domestic production are devastating to Americans," Milito said. "Every past president – Republican or Democrat – has recognized the strategic importance of domestic oil and gas production."
"Restricting American energy development will quite simply lead to reduced American supplies, higher prices, lost investment, destruction of high-paying jobs throughout the country, harmful geopolitical consequences and a reversion to dependency on foreign suppliers – such a Russia, Iran and China – who have little interest in reducing emissions and protecting workers and the environment," he continued.
Milito's group represents offshore energy industry interests including wind development and has advocated in favor of more drilling in federal waters.
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Coday, meanwhile, argued that Americans should consider Biden's energy policies when voting this week in the midterm election.
"Americans have a choice at the polls on Tuesday," Coday said. "We can come together as Democrats, Republicans and Independents to reject Biden's harmful policies and vote for the candidates who consistently support USA oil and gas production, regardless of party affiliation."
President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event for Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., on Sunday in Yonkers, New York. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky / AP Newsroom)
In a statement, a White House official said the president was specifically referencing drilling in the Arctic.
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"The President was asked about new drilling in the Arctic. His position has been clear on that from the start," the official told FOX Business. "When the Trump administration opened the Arctic refuge for drilling, not a single major oil company bid on the sale."
"The facts are the U.S. produced more oil in President Biden’s first year than under Trump’s first year," they continued. "And oil companies continue to sit on 9,000 unused but approved drilling permits. There is no shortage of opportunity for oil companies to produce more oil in the United States. But instead of ramping up production and lowering gas prices, they’re using their record profits to pad shareholder pockets."
The DOI did not respond to a FOX Business request for comment.