‘Drill Baby Drill!’ That’s the Friday night news dump from the Biden Administration. Suddenly, they want to auction off public lands leases. Suddenly, they want oil companies to…drill for oil!

Fabulous news right? Given that Biden campaigned on shutting down oil and gas, made good on that promise by stopping the Keystone pipeline dead in its tracks, and shutting down any movement for drilling in key areas on public lands, this is a terrific move! Right? Ummm, there’s a catch. A pricey one. 

The Biden administration announced on Friday that it would resume selling leases for new oil and gas drilling on public lands, but would also raise the federal royalties that companies must pay to drill, the first increase in those fees in more than a century.

The Interior Department said in a statement that it planned next week to auction off leases to drill on 145,000 acres of public lands in nine states. They would be the first new fossil fuel leases to be offered on public lands since President Biden took office.

The move comes as President Biden seeks to show voters that he is working to increase the domestic oil supply as prices surge in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But it also violates a signature campaign pledge made by Mr. Biden as he sought to assure climate activists that he would prioritize reducing the use of fossil fuels.

“And by the way, no more drilling on federal lands, period. Period, period, period,” Mr. Biden told voters in New Hampshire in February 2020.

Needless to say, environmentalist and progressive heads are exploding everywhere! They’ve been totally fine with the U.S. buying foreign oil, including Russia’s. But drilling in our backyard?? No baby NO! 

https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1515101934331473921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1515101934331473921%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2022%2F04%2F15%2Factivists-decry-bidens-reckless-resumption-fossil-fuel-leases-public-lands

They offered their pithy opinion from their phones and laptops, while sitting in their lovely heated homes, while ignoring that oil and gas contributed towards their ability to whine about some new oil wells popping up in a few places on public lands. Let’s not forget that reopening federal lands to ‘Drill Baby Drill’ will marginalize specific groups of people?!

The Western Environmental Law Center noted that “the communities most at risk from new fossil fuel extraction are primarily Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples, people of the global majority, and those on the frontlines of fossil fuel industry expansion. These are the same communities that turned out in record numbers to get Biden elected in 2020 and who have since been urging Biden to use his executive authority to fulfill his campaign promise and ban new federal fossil fuel projects.”

Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity, argued that “the Biden administration’s claim that it must hold these lease sales is pure fiction and a reckless failure of climate leadership.”

Evidently, drilling here, which also creates MANY new jobs, is good for the economy for everyone, including those marginalized groups mentioned above! The leftist progressives in the environmental climate change movement never think of that. Then again, many of them believe the government should pay for everything. 

The Biden Administration has now spent at least six weeks blaming inflation and high gas prices on Putin. 

It wasn’t Putin who shut down Keystone. It wasn’t Putin who shut down sales of oil and gas leases. It wasn’t Putin who begged OPEC for oil three times and was unequivocally told NO all three times. Nope, that was Joe Biden. 

So now, in a desperate attempt to shore up horrendous poll numbers, suddenly ‘Drill Baby Drill!’ is ok! 

Does that mean we will see a sudden drop in prices at the pump? Sadly, no. 

Oil companies only have the opportunity to bid on the leases that will be auctioned off. The oil companies will have to look very carefully at the leases proffered and determine which one(s) and what areas will give them the most bang for the buck in the long-term and decide if the short-term outlay of funds, resources, and people will give the ROI needed. 

Keep in mind, that Obama held multiple lease sales during his eight years as President. 

“While today’s announcement is a step in the right direction, to really unleash American energy the Biden administration should continue to hold ongoing lease sales pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act, issue permits more expeditiously and provide consistent regulatory certainty,” Anne Bradbury, the group’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Biden’s Administration is tanking in the polls all over the place. This is an attempt to look like they are DOING something. 

Interior announces new oil and gas lease sales on public lands, and a royalty rate hike to 18.75%, up from 12.5 % pic.twitter.com/uI0oGeDraU

— Rachel Frazin (@RachelFrazin) April 15, 2022

But again, by hiking the royalty fees, how many leases with the companies actually bid upon? ALSO, just because they end up purchasing a lease doesn’t mean drilling starts right away. Nope, there are multiple hoops to jump through before a permit to drill ON that lease is granted. 

Still, this is a definitive about face for Biden. Suddenly, as his number are well below the crapper, it’s absolutely ok to ‘Drill Baby Drill!’ 

Feature Photo Credit: Oil rig via Pixabay, cropped and modified