Biden admin launches first ‘offshore wind lease sale’ in Gulf of Mexico as oil, gas leases grind to halt

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced the government’s first-ever offshore “wind lease sale” in the Gulf of Mexico, which will give companies a chance to bid on areas of the Gulf Coast to produce wind energy and contribute to America’s “clean energy transition.”

The announcement comes as the number of offshore oil and gas leases granted under the Biden administration have shrunk to historic lows. The Biden administration has leased 1.7 million offshore acres for oil and gas in its first two years, fewer than any president since President Richard Nixon and about a third seen in President Barack Obama’s first two years, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API).

That statistic shows how effectively the Biden administration has been at keeping Biden’s promise to dramatically shut down new oil and gas drilling. As a candidate, Biden famously promised “no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling, including offshore.”

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But while offshore oil and gas leases have sputtered under Biden, his administration is hoping to make up the difference with its latest offshore wind sale. Biden’s Department of the Interior said Wednesday that this announcement is part of its effort to “grow America’s clean energy economy.”

“America’s clean energy transition is happening right here and now,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a statement. “At the Department, we are taking action to jumpstart our offshore wind industry and harness American innovation to deliver reliable, affordable power to homes and businesses.”

Interior said it has already held three offshore wind lease auctions, including one off the coast of New York and another on the Pacific coast in California. It said the Gulf of Mexico lease sale will auction three sites off the coast of Galveston, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana.

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The department said several environmental and “equity” considerations will be considered by Interior as it considers lease proposals. For example, Interior said it will take into account Biden’s executive order on “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government” as it conducts its wind lease auctions.

Interior is “considering lease stipulations to ensure that communities, particularly underserved communities, are considered and engaged with early and often throughout the offshore wind energy development process, that potential impacts and benefits from lessees’ projects are documented, and lessees’ project proposals are informed by or altered to address those impacts and benefits.”

The government will also require companies to contribute to a fisheries compensatory mitigation fund to redress “potential negative impacts to commercial and for-hire recreational fishers caused by offshore wind development in the Gulf of Mexico.”

It will also require lessees to summarize their “engagement with Tribes and ocean users potentially affected by proposed offshore wind activities.”

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In his first two years in office, the only offshore oil and gas lease sales that have taken place under Biden have been those ordered by Congress or the courts. And late last year, the Biden administration allowed the federal government’s five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing to expire for the first time in history, a lapse that will make new offshore leases difficult until a new plan is in place.

API argues that the oil and gas industry needs time in advance to scout sites and search for energy reserves in the Gulf and elsewhere, that Biden’s slowdown in offshore lease sales for oil and gas is creating massive uncertainty in the industry and potential energy supply problems down the road.

“A lapse in the federal offshore leasing program could jeopardize American energy security, cost thousands of jobs, and risk billions in lost federal, state and local revenues, according to analysis prepared by Energy and Industrial Advisory Partners,” API Senior Vice President for Communications Megan Bloomgren wrote this month.