HYDE-SMITH CONTINUES FIGHT TO OVERCOME BIDEN OBSTRUCTION TO OFFSHORE ENERGY
Senator Cosponsors Bills to Force Biden Interior Dept. to Hold Offshore Lease Sales
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) is cosponsoring new legislation intended to overcome ongoing Biden administration efforts to obstruct future oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hyde-Smith is an original cosponsor of the Supporting Made in America Energy (SMART) Act (S.3445), which would require the U.S. Department of the Interior to issue four onshore oil and gas lease sales and two offshore oil and gas lease sales in each available area in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.
“As it has from day one, the Biden administration continues to do everything it can to prevent oil and gas production offshore and on federal lands, often in direct violation of the law. We must continue to fight to ensure our energy security, which realistically does not mean abandoning America’s oil and gas assets,” said Hyde-Smith, who serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Introduced by U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.), S.3445 would also prohibit the President from pausing, canceling, delaying, deferring, or otherwise impeding the federal energy mineral leasing process through executive order or administrative procedure.
Hyde-Smith, who has consistently challenged the administration’s offshore energy policies, has also cosponsored Gulf-specific legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.).
The Offshore Energy Security Act (S.2389) would require the Interior Department to hold a minimum of two lease sales in 2024 and two lease sales in 2025. The bill also includes a section from the WHALE Act (S.2986), which Hyde-Smith also cosponsored, to prevent the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) from adding Rice’s whale restrictions as lease stipulations to mandated leases.
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