US Energy Focused on a ‘Pipe Dream’: Sen. Barrasso Grills Gov. Official on Biden’s Drilling Policies

Miss Klein the recently released 5-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing includes the fewest lease sales in history and your department brags about that they're very pleased with themselves this is the headline your your department press relas reflecting America's rapid and accelerating shift to clean energy Interior Department announces fewest offshore oil and gas lease sales in history in proposal final program for uh in proposed final program for 2024 to 2029 so that's that's your bragging and uh you're that's your position it also suggests that you are holding those Fest sales solely not for oil and gas but for the purposes of enabling the offshore wind program to continue that's what your release says so in your view is there any reason ever to hold offshore oil and gas lease sales other than to ensure that the bureau can hold offshore wind lease sales uh well thank you very much for the question Senator uh the proposed final program obviously is a decision by the secretary based on the what she believes to be the nation's energy needs in the next 5 years based on a number of factors she's required to consider in oxa the inflation reduction act gave us very clear Direction about uh the you know what how we link oil and gas lease sales to the offshore wind program and we've proposed the minimum number of sales needed to continue to expand our offshore wind leasing program into the future the president's made clear that climate change is a crisis that he believes the federal government has an responsibility to do something about and that transition to clean energy is something that this Administration is very focused on so it sounds like you as director of our nation's our nation's offshore oil and gas program actually doesn't think there should be any offshore oil and gas program M Miss Klein the Biden Administration is now lifting sanctions on Venezuelan oil this is the administration that you just talked about now the oil produced in Venezuela ranks among the worst in the world in terms of carbon intensity while production in the Gulf of Mexico is among the best is it better for the environment for oil to be produced in the Gulf of Mexico or in Venezuela well thank you for that question I think our the doc and the analytical documents contained as part of the proposed final program go into some detail about the emissions associated with Gulf of Mexico oil development we walk through that in we and we agree that the analysis shows that the emissions are lower for Upstream production associated with Gulf of Mexico oil and gas resources when you consider the full life cycle emissions of upstream and downstream production the numbers are are different um and you know the proposed final program from the secretary's perspective meets the energy needs for the next 5 years so oil from Iran oil from Russia also ranked near the bottom in terms of carbon intensity I mean Summa kumada from college Summa kumada from law school this is a simple question is it better for the environment for oil production if it occurs in the Gulf of Mexico or Iran and Russia and Venezuela which is what the president is asking for and allowing sure uh thank you for the question I think a lot of the feedback we received is that it might be better for the environment if we transition to clean energy sources so you're refusing to answer the if for or but what you're saying the president's decision to go to Iran to go to Venezuela to go to Russia is okay and better because you're shutting it down in the Gulf of Mexico so we just don't have it here so the administration's efforts to choke off new oil and gas lease sales on federal lands and Waters they're bad for our National Economic Security they're bad for the um environment these anti-American energy policies are more than misguided they are shameful and you're smart enough to know that Miss KO last month the Bureau of ocean Energy Management attempted to impose major travel restrictions on ships servicing oil oil and gas operations in the Central and Western Gulf of Mexico in order to protect Rice's whal I would note that ship servicing oil and gas operations make up less than 10% of the total ship traffic in the Gulf then means 90% of the ship traffic nothing to do with oil and gas production can Wales tell the difference between the ship servicing oil and gas operations and other ships turn your turn your mic on man um thank you again for that question uh the uh endangered races whale one of the threats to that whale um is from ship strikes vessel strikes um and the opportunity for us to mitigate those impacts um occurs when we consult with other federal agencies um so um we're trying to reduce threats to the unang gered whale as required Under The Endangered Species Act but you didn't answer the question is there any rational basis for imposing restrictions on the ships that service the oil and gas operations but not on the other 90% of the ships that travel in the same area I believe the rational basis is that Under The Endangered Species Act we're dealing with Federal agency actions and most of those other fish excuse me other ships are not um going to be uh something that's approved by the federal department of the Interior it's not a it's not then a rational decision you feel you're mandated by law to do that but it's not because those 90% of the ships that are still allowed to go are safer ships and the other 10% that are the oil and gas ships okay so this chart shows all the confirm suspected sightings of the Rice's whale um last 20 years the black dots are confirmed sightings most of them are over there where we see the Florida coast and under Alabama uh there's this one dot way over here uh by Texas an enormous gap between the sighting and the whales known habitat off the coast of Florida we know they're over there we know that and understand that is it your position that activities in areas where there have been no confirmed sightings at all they need to be restricted to in order to protect the rice as well the the Western um the Western Gulf has just a few sightings as you state it also had we have a record of passive well there was one sighting and it was six years ago well we've actually um believe we've seen a bunch this last summer as well and we have passive acous of monitoring um that demonstrates that there are Rises whales there they have a distinctive call and they are there 12 months of the year in the western Gulf um so we're confident from the latest and best available science that they are in the Western Gulf so do we need to block off all this area in between I just want to want to CL clarify it looks like your um map has is uh related to our proposed critical habitat and that is not blocking off the area it's uh simply identifying habitat that's important for their feeding and survival um Mr chairman I'm I'm my time has expired thank you senator hiners uh Miss clein I wanted to go back to Vineyard wind one and South Fork what well thanks Mr chairman uh Miss Klein last week before the house you were asked some questions one was about your involvement in the voluntary settlement agreement involving Rice's whale in July uh you avoided the question uh so please just yes or no were you consulted informed or otherwise involved in the settlement agreement involving the rice as wh uh well thank thank you for the question um there is uh you know from bomb's perspective we share no his concerns about the status of the rice as whale in the Gulf of Mexico and we put forward some voluntary recommended measures in a notice to leses uh to try and address potential impacts to the rice as wh so so you were consulted by what you just said so I note that the lawsuit had issue did not involve your agency so was the decision to impose restrictions on the leases and remove 6 million Acres from the lease sale 261 a coordinated effort across the administration or was it principally your decision as a director of the Bureau of ocean Energy Management uh well thank you for the question uh again we proposed some what we believe to be reasonable measures to address uh potential impacts to a critically endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico uh we are tied up in litigation in several uh cases around these lease sales um but from Bam's perspective again we share Noah's concerns about the uh status of this critically endangered species and right now there are recommended measures that companies can take and I know that um from speaking to oil and gas companies they share our concerns about making sure that their activities are done in a sustainable safe and environmentally protective way so we hope we can continue to work forward uh to make sure that this species doesn't go extinct on our watch so as we've heard then from Senator heid Smith Senator marowski Senator Cassidy offshore energy production is critically important to our US economy and our US National Security the decision that you make have enormous consequences for this country for Coastal States for American workers I know you have a lot of concerns about the globe I'm talking about American Coastal States American workers American citizens our country where affordable energy matters would you support legislation requiring the Senate to confirm the person who holds your position the director of the Bureau of ocean Energy Management because of right now it's not a confirmable position uh well thank you for your the question uh as always my Bureau and the department of interior and the administration stands ready to provide technical assistance to any proposed legislation that's that is uh that is put before us and provide uh Administration positions so we're we're ready to do that if there's a proposal you don't have a vision of whether that should be a confirmable position or not in terms of the role that it plays in our nation's economy and the jobs uh right now personally I am uh focused on doing the best job that I can as director of the Bureau of ocean energy management and implementing the president's agenda to address climate change and uh ensure that the federal government is doing something to address that crisis so along that line the um the 30 gigs of offshore wind energy by 2030 the Biden Administration has set that goal you're involved to generating 30 G gigawatts of electricity from offshore Wind by the year 2030 so two weeks ago Politico ran a story uh Mr chairman I asked that submitted to the record the headline yeah pipe dream Biden's offshore wind plan takes a hit a quarter of the power plan from Ocean turbines by 2030 is facing delays and cancellations the um about 7.5 gws the article quotes an analyst from Bloomberg new energy Finance saying us targets are further from reality I've been saying it was a pipe dream at the beginning of the year my opinion is even stronger today so when are you going to end the happy talk and and admit that 30 gaw is not going to be available by 2030 and don't you really owe the country Frank and candid assessment as Energy prices continue to go up as your role makes us less reliant on affordable available energy and more focused on what is a pipe dream and you know we have people responsible for keeping the lights on and we're not being helped along the way by mislead the public so when are you going to fess up and admit that you're not going to meet the goals that you've decided upon or so critical uh well thank you for the question uh I think at bom we really uh we believe in American Ingenuity Innovation and hard work we're rolling up our sleeves to make sure that we can work through the hard problems associated with the buildout of a brand new industry here in the US we hear from folks every day about how uh they believe that the transition I to cleaner energy sources including offshore wind which is the only industrial scale uh clean energy source available to certain East Coast communities um I believe that these are hard problems and we have the ability to work through them we already have two projects that are under construction and other two that have been approved and we have approximately 27 gaws in the pipeline with uh more to come in the future thank you Mr chair thank you Senator Senator Cindy hod Smith thank you and I know that