GOP opens investigation into Biden admin for obstructing US power producers with ‘radical eco-agenda’

EXCLUSIVE: Republican leaders of two key Home panels are investigating the Biden administration over its fossil gasoline leasing practices in response to a leaked “power safety” memo.

The Republican leaders — led by Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Pure Sources Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark. — knowledgeable a senior Division of the Inside (DOI) official Laura Daniel-Davis of the probe in a letter on Tuesday. The letter blasted DOI’s continued oil and gasoline leasing delays and Daniel-Davis’ determination, revealed within the memo leaked this month, to prioritize local weather concerns over power safety.

Oversight Subcommittee on Financial Development, Power Coverage, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon, R-Texas, and Pure Sources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., additionally led the letter. Seventeen extra Home Republicans signed onto the letter.

“The Biden Administration has obstructed America’s power producers in an effort to drive a radical Inexperienced New Deal agenda on the American individuals,” Comer informed Fox Information Digital in an announcement. “The Democrats’ ongoing conflict towards America’s oil and gasoline trade has solely pushed power costs larger and households throughout the nation are paying the worth.” 

BIDEN ADMIN MAKES STUNNING ADMISSION ON CLIMATE AGENDA IN LEAKED INTERNAL MEMO

“As a substitute of pushing the Administration’s local weather agenda, the Division of the Inside must be prioritizing financial improvement and American power safety,” Comer added. “Congress should guarantee DOI is fulfilling their accountability to advance insurance policies that unleash American power manufacturing and strengthen an trade that gives good-paying job alternatives.”

In late November, former Bureau of Ocean Power Administration (BOEM) Director Amanda Lefton penned the referenced memo, recommending DOI cost power corporations a royalty fee of 18.75%, the very best allowable fee underneath the legislation, for a big oil and gasoline lease sale in Alaska. Lefton acknowledged within the memo that charging a decrease fee would possible “provide better power safety,” however would not correctly account for local weather change.

BIDEN ADMIN GIVES TOP ENERGY POST TO CLIMATE ACTIVIST WHO FAILED SENATE CONFIRMATION OVER ETHICS CONCERNS

Shortly after the personal memo was despatched, Daniel-Davis issued a public document of determination signing off on Lefton’s advice with out mentioning its power safety implications. And in late December, the DOI held the practically million-acre lease sale which garnered only one bid price $63,983 for a 2,304-acre tract.

“The memo and your actions on this matter illustrate the urgent want for oversight of DOI’s allowing assessment processes and the Biden Administration’s prioritization of its local weather agenda above states’ income streams, financial improvement, and the power safety of all People,” the Republicans said of their letter to Daniel-Davis on Tuesday.

“The interior deliberations at BOEM to openly elevate President Biden’s radical eco-agenda forward of common sense insurance policies name for better congressional oversight of DOI and BOEM,” they continued.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the chairman of the Senate Power and Pure Sources committee, finally tanked Daniel-Davis’ nomination for DOI assistant secretary for land and minerals administration because of the leaked memo. 

Daniel-Davis stays the company’s principal deputy secretary for land and minerals administration.

“The Bureau of Ocean Power Administration and the U.S. Division of the Inside proceed to fail of their fundamental tasks and as a substitute are actively elevating President Biden’s radical eco-agenda above the perfect pursuits of the American individuals,” Westerman informed Fox Information Digital. 

“These backroom dealings contribute to Biden’s ongoing power disaster, threaten America’s nationwide safety, discourage future funding, and trigger lasting harm to the economic system,” he mentioned. “Their work to actively advance politics over America’s power wants are clear proof of the dire want for congressional oversight.”

BIDEN ADMIN OFFICIAL HIT WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT FOR ROLE IN FEDERAL OIL LEASING PAUSE

And within the letter Tuesday, Westerman, Comer and the opposite Republicans additional criticized Daniel-Davis for the DOI’s failure to finalize a five-year offshore leasing plan as required by federal legislation. Below the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal authorities is required to subject plans periodically laying out potential oil and gasoline lease gross sales. The newest plan, which was applied in 2017, expired in June.

The letter added that the Biden administration’s “anti-energy agenda” was evidenced by the delay in releasing the plan and that the delay will “straight impede future U.S. power manufacturing, constrict world provide, and drive power costs larger.”

The GOP leaders famous that the administration has solely held two offshore oil and gasoline lease gross sales — one within the Gulf of Mexico and the Alaska sale outlined within the November memo — since taking workplace. These two lease gross sales, along with two upcoming gross sales, had beforehand been deserted by the administration in 2022, however have been reinstated by the Inflation Discount Act.

“The shortage of certainty has diminished funding in home oil and gasoline improvement, restricted American power manufacturing, and is driving oil and gasoline costs above the $2.39 per gallon they have been when President Biden took workplace,” the letter concluded. 

“Furthermore, the shortage of leasing could have long-term impacts of exhausted producible acreage, elevated reliability on foreign-sourced gasoline, and jeopardized value stability for many years to return.”

As a part of their investigation, the Republicans requested a collection of paperwork and communications relating to administration oil and gasoline leasing selections. In addition they requested a collection of data associated to the financial impacts of charging power corporations larger royalty charges for leases.

The DOI did not instantly reply to a request for remark.

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