Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a member of the committee, called on the Administration to move forward with domestic oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico. In a letter to President Biden, the Senators leaned on the Administration to develop and implement a new Five-Year Program for offshore production. Approximately 98 percent of offshore oil produced by the United States occurs in the Gulf. The current Five-Year Plan expires in June, and it’s unclear if the Biden Administration will move forward with a new round of lease area designations in 2023.

“Americans are facing record-level gasoline prices every day when they commute to work, drive their children to school and buy groceries and medicine,” wrote the Senators in part. “Increasing domestic oil production to meet demand is a critical step to lowering gas prices and reducing our reliance on foreign sources. Allowing energy projects to languish in court or remain suspended in years of bureaucratic limbo is not addressing the pain at the pump or the climate crisis.”

The Senators’ letter also addressed the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions through an all-of-the-above energy policy.

“Advancing Gulf production does not mean our nation must abandon its climate goals,” the Senators continued. “The United States can and should increase its renewable energy production and lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but this must occur responsibly, pragmatically and through an all-of-the-above energy approach that takes advantage of our resources at home.”

Read the full letter below or click here:

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to urge you to develop and implement a new Five-Year Program for oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico without delay. Americans are facing record-level gasoline prices every day when they commute to work, drive their children to school and buy groceries and medicine. The additional disruptions in the oil market caused by Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine could drive prices up even further. We support your decision to coordinate a release of crude oil from the emergency reserves of International Energy Agency members but believe more must be done to provide relief to Americans facing rising costs for everything from gas to groceries. Increasing domestic oil production to meet demand is a critical step to lowering gas prices and reducing our reliance on foreign sources. ?

A new Five-Year Program is needed to establish a schedule for oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico off the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and west Florida.?The program should be flexible for responding to high gasoline prices now and in the future and enable the United States to become more energy independent to meet emerging geopolitical threats. This plan should also provide for the protection of marine life and the environment, and ensure drilling operations are conducted safely and responsibly. In the meantime, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the National Marine Fisheries Service must continue timely processing of permits and plans for existing leases. Delays to seismic permitting present a serious risk to bringing additional offshore production online in the near term while the Five-Year Program is being developed.

Advancing Gulf production does not mean our nation must abandon its climate goals. The Gulf of Mexico is among the lowest greenhouse gas-emission-intensity oil production sites in the world and would offset foreign imports that are shipped across oceans. When the Obama administration created the current 2017-2022 Program, they found that GHG emissions “could, in fact, increase slightly in the absence of new OCS leasing.” Allowing energy projects to languish in court or remain suspended in years of bureaucratic limbo is not addressing the pain at the pump or the climate crisis. The United States can and should increase its renewable energy production and lower its greenhouse gas emissions, but this must occur responsibly, pragmatically and through an all-of-the-above energy approach that takes advantage of our resources at home.

###