Four more days. How much more damage can Joe Biden’s handlers do in that time? A lot more than we thought. This time it’s putting MORE limits on oil drilling in Alaska and the Bering Strait.

The Biden administration is setting in motion actions that could prevent drilling in more “special areas” of Alaska’s north slope — if the incoming Trump administration does not shelve it.

The Interior Department issued a memo Thursday proposing a new protected area and expansions of existing protected areas.

The impacted areas would be expected to total more than 3 million additional protected acres within a 23-million-acre area known as the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

The new protected area would be called the Nuiqsut Subsistence Use Area. The Nuiqsut community is located near the controversial Willow oil project. Existing activity that’s part of that project is not expected to be impacted, but if the policies are left in place, they could impact efforts to further expand it.

The move comes on top of prior decisions to block drilling on 13 million acres within the petroleum reserve and reverse a Trump-era decision to open up 80 percent of it for oil and gas production.

Yet just days ago Biden stridently declared that he hasn’t hindered domestic energy production at all. 

10 days until Biden's gaslighting on energy ends.

"It's simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production."

– Offshore drilling ban
– Natural gas tax in the Inflation Reduction Act
– Canceled the Keystone pipeline
– Terminated ANWR… pic.twitter.com/gCvjyimFMt

— Daniel Turner (@DanielTurnerPTF) January 11, 2025

He’s not only terminated ANWR leases and paused LNG production, the Biden Administration led by Deb Haaland at Interior and the rabid tree-spiking environmentalist Tracy Stone-Manning at Bureau of Land Management, has also been busy shutting down major farming/ranching and recreation areas to oil and gas leases and farming and ranching. So don’t tell me they’ve been hard at work building a strong energy economy these last four years when they’ve done the very opposite. 

Our country cannot run on wind and solar. Period. In fact, wind and solar REQUIRE oil, gas, and coal to run appropriately. Furthermore, no matter how cute and wonderful EV vehicles are, they also require oil and gas in order to be built! 

But the Biden Administration doesn’t give a hoot about all that. They want their wind, their solar, their electric buses and the elimination of gas vehicles/stoves/water heaters no matter the cost to Americans. 

And now there’s this latest last gasp move to shiv the oil and gas industry once more, which will have a direct impact on current ConocoPhillips operations, while thumbing their noses at President Trump.

The new protections, which take effect immediately, create a legal hurdle that could slow down, though probably not stop, efforts by the Trump administration to expand drilling in part of the North Slope known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The reserve is the largest expanse of undisturbed land in the United States. It is an important nesting ground for migratory birds, home to caribou, grizzly bears and wolverines and is an important habitat for polar bears. It also contains large reserves of oil and gas and was created in 1923 as a source of oil for the Navy. Some exploratory drilling took place over the decades but it was largely left untouched until the late 1990s.

Laura Daniel-Davis, the acting deputy secretary of the Interior Department, said that, under the new policy, the Bureau of Land Management would have to explain how drilling in the protected areas would affect subsistence hunting and fishing in the vast wilderness.

I have to laugh at that last bit. We are talking THOUSANDS of acres. Which I’d be willing to bet that Miss Laura Daniel-Davis has never ever visited. Drill sites would be a drop in the bucket in that area but those currently at the BLM would throw up roadblocks no matter how asinine they are. 

That said, this country needs energy independence and dominance for a multitude of reasons. National security and economics are the top two reasons. The third reason is that oil and gas give American citizens CONSISTENCY in keeping their homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Wind and solar do…NOT.

.@DougBurgum keeps SHUTTING DOWN climate doomers:

Angus King objects to him using the word "intermittent" for wind/solar and "baseload" for coal/gas. Burgum educates the Maine senator:

"It's not for any political reasons that I distinguish [them]. It's just because of… pic.twitter.com/8s8AZEXh50

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 16, 2025

Doug Burgum is totally correct here. Solar flat out doesn’t work when there is cloud cover – such as what we’ll see this weekend due to yet another polar vortex. Wind doesn’t work in high wind (70-100+mph) as we know in WY and have seen during the Santa Ana winds that fueled the CA fires. What does stay consistent is oil and gas. 

Even the incoming EPA Administrator gets it. 

Scott Bessent just made Ron Wyden look completely clueless:

Wyden: “We are in an arms race on clean energy with China.”

Bessent “China will build 100 new coal plants this year. There is not a clean energy race. There is an energy race.”pic.twitter.com/85ekT3LJ9l

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 16, 2025

We’ve said it time and again that China and others don’t give a rats ass about “clean energy.” What they care about is keeping the lights on and people warm or cool in their homes. The Biden Administration has ignored that very fact. 

This newest move by the Biden Administration is supposed to cause problems for the incoming Trump Administration. Guess what? What is done CAN be undone. 

Burgum is absolutely correct. If we do not use our lands to the fullest and wisely, our balance sheet is off kilter. 

To which I say… Drill Baby, DRILL!! 

Feature Photo Credit: American flag with oil rig via iStock, cropped and modified