Manchin slams Biden administration for granting ‘bare minimum’ offshore drilling lease sales

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) slammed the Biden administration’s decision to grant “the bare minimum” number of offshore oil and gas lease sales in the next six years.

The five-year plan released by the Department of the Interior on Friday says only three offshore drilling lease sales will take place between 2023 and 2029. The chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee issued a lengthy statement saying President Joe Biden‘s administration has put “their radical political agenda over American energy security”

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“It’s now clear without a shadow of a doubt that without the IRA, this administration would have ended federal oil and gas development completely. But instead of embracing the all-of-the-above energy bill that was signed into law, this administration has once again decided to put their radical political agenda over American energy security, and the American people will pay the price,” Manchin said in the statement. “Granting the bare minimum of oil and gas leases will result in a minimum of renewables leases as well because the IRA tied the two together. You can’t have one without the other. ”

Manchin also emphasized how the few leases the administration approved were due to the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed in 2022 thanks to his key vote in the Senate. He then reiterated how the news was a “failure of leadership.”

“To be clear — three lease sales is more than the zero we would have gotten had it not been for the IRA. But it makes no sense at all to actively be limiting our energy production while our adversaries are weaponizing energy around the world. This is a failure of leadership, and I will continue to do everything in my power to hold this administration accountable.”

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The West Virginia Democrat has been the most vocal critic of Biden in the Democratic Senate majority, frequently criticizing the Biden administration’s climate policy and rollout of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Manchin is widely viewed as one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents in 2024 but has not said whether he will run for reelection to his Senate seat next year. The West Virginia Democrat has also left the door open to running for president as a third-party candidate in 2024. He is expected to make a decision on his 2024 plans by the end of this year.