Bloomberg is reporting that the Interior Department will release a plan that envisions offshore oil drilling auctions over the next five years. The administration reportedly ruled out a plan that would have blocked any further auctions.

In response, Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement: 

“The only way to avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis is by stopping new fossil fuel projects. The Biden administration knows this, and yet is making the outlandish and irresponsible decision to increase oil production for decades to come. Approving new offshore drilling is an unconscionable betrayal of future generations who will be forced to live through an intensifying planetary emergency, and will pose direct and severe threats to healthy oceans and marine life. 

“This decision is yet another reminder that, thanks to Senator Joe Manchin, the Inflation Reduction Act requires oil and gas drilling on public lands in order to develop clean energy sources like wind and solar. This short-sighted political dealmaking will continue to have grave consequences.

“President Biden says that climate change is an existential threat. Unfortunately, this decision is yet another sign that the administration is not willing to take actions that would match that rhetoric.”

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