Peach Tree Times

The Interior Department has cancelled planned oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska, a move officials say is contributing to the country's high energy prices. 

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) opposes increased domestic oil production and recently voted against a bill in favor of it. 

President Joe Biden signed an executive order freezing all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands shortly after taking office last January, a recent news report from The Hill said. He has since stopped a number of oil leases. The administration has now halted oil and gas lease sales in Alaska's Cook Inlet and in the Gulf of Mexico. The lease in Alaska would have covered more than 1 million acres.

The administration's decision comes at a time when Biden’s approval ratings from Americans have declined, in particular on economic issues, The Hill report said. Congressional Republicans have also continued to criticize the administration’s energy moves once average nationwide gas prices soared to an all-time high recently.

"The domestic actions that restrict oil production worsen the inflation problems and the budget squeezes that too many families are facing across the states," Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in Business and Economics of Pacific Research Institute, told the Peach Tree Times recently. "The expectation of greater supply by allowing more oil production would help reduce gas prices quickly and incentivize greater supply, which could help offset some of the inflationary pressures."

On March 31, the day of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve release, gas was $4.22 per gallon, 20 cents cheaper than today, a report from the American Automobile Association said. 

As of May 12, the national gas price average was $4.42 per gallon, a 7.8% climb from a month ago when the average was $4.10 per gallon, a AAA report said. In Georgia, the average price was $3.95 per gallon.

Biden administration officials have been defending their policies.

“Production is essentially higher than it’s been in a couple decades,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said during a recent congressional hearing. “On the federal lands, we’re doing what we need to do and we’re following the law and making sure that we are moving those issues forward.”

But despite administration officials' claims that domestic production is at historic highs, recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed total oil production in the U.S. has been on the decline for three consecutive months.

On May 4, Georgia's Warnock was among 44 Senate Democrats who voted against Sen. John Barrasso’s (R-WY) motion to require the immediate development of a new 5-year federal offshore oil and gas leasing plan. The plan, which is intended to ease energy prices in the U.S., mandated lease sales for oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska.