Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) criticized the Biden administration for turning down a recommendation for an offshore oil and gas lease sale that Interior Department staff concluded would improve energy security.
Manchin was responding to a memo from the department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management showing the agency explored charging a lower royalty for offshore oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Cook Inlet in order to lure more bidders but declined to due to climate change concerns.
“I am appalled by its contents, which make crystal clear that this administration is literally putting their radical climate agenda ahead of the needs of the people of Alaska and the United States,” Manchin said in a statement Friday.
Manchin’s statement is the latest of several instances in recent days of him splitting with his party on legislation and criticizing Democrats and the Biden administration.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources chairman has also grown increasingly frustrated with the administration’s implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democratic healthcare and green energy spending deal Manchin crafted with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
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