Biden's Federal Oil Leases a Record Low for First 19 Months

After former President Donald Trump's push for energy independence, President Joe Biden has slowed federal oil leases to a record low for the early days of the administration, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Biden administration has leased fewer acres for offshore oil and gas drilling and on federal lands — as Biden promised during his campaign — than any administration at this stage since the end of the World War II, according to analysis of Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management data.

Because it was still new then, President Harry Truman was the last president to lease out fewer acres (65,658) than the Biden Interior Department did (126,228) in the first 19 months of his administration. Only President Richard Nixon in 1969-70 had leased fewer than 4.4 million acres at this stage of a first presidential term since Truman.

"The president said he was going to stop leasing, and he's been remarkably successful," Trump administration Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told the Journal.

Leasing is down 97% from the first 19 months of the Trump administration, the Journal reported.