The Liberty Daily 
The worst possible scenario for Joe Biden and the Democrats, not to mention the United States itself, was staved temporarily as a federal judge has issued an injunction on White House attempts to curtail offshore drilling. The move will be panned by mainstream media and their Democrat puppet masters, but quietly they’re all breathing a sigh of relief as gas prices continue to surge upward.
This is the worst possible time for Democrats to be pushing their green agenda. They know it, but they are beholden to the radical progressives behind the Green New Deal, The Great Reset, and all of the other fancifully named monstrosities designed to destroy the economy, bring an end to capitalism, and usher in a Neo-Marxist future made in the image of failure. For their green agenda to be slowed by a Trump-appointed federal judge is ideal as they can blame their pet projects getting stopped on someone else while fueling their own fire to pack the courts.
“Hey, we tried but those darn conservatives want to kill the polar bears,” they’ll tell the treehugger wing of their party.
While this might be a benefit to the Biden administration, it’s also a huge benefit for Americans. Biden’s executive order halted new leases on offshore drilling, rendering the entire energy exploration industry obsolete. Now is the time when we need more energy independence, not less, and with oil prices continuing to rise it is Russia, China, and OPEC who benefit from the administration’s climate change virtue signaling.
As Steve Maley at Red State noted, this injunction will slow the rising gas prices:
The Federal Offshore produces 15% of the nation’s crude oil. With access cut off to new leases, exploration effectively ceases and is forced into a “going out of business sale”. This would affect the economies of Louisiana and Texas most directly, but the supply chain for offshore stretches from coast to coast.
Since 2006, states adjacent to offshore federal lands have shared in GOMESA funds. Louisiana receives the largest cut by far, and most of those funds are dedicated to coastal restoration. Ironically, Louisiana’s fragile environment would be one of the biggest unintended victims of the Biden Leasing Ban — to the tune of an estimated $57 million.
Unlike offshore, inland states enjoy a 50% share of royalties on federal lands within their borders. For example, sixty percent of New Mexico’s oil production is on federal lands. (Note that New Mexico did not join the suit.)
The average price of gasoline nationwide is $2.97, up nearly a buck from last November. The crude oil price is up over 50%. Less leasing would mean less supply which would translate to even higher prices for the consumer.
There’s an old cartoon where a little dog on a leash is barking furiously at a much bigger dog on a leash. The owner of the little dog accidentally drops the leash. Freed, the little dog picks up the leash, hands it back to the owner, and continues barking at the big dog. This is essentially what the Biden administration will do if the injunction is overturned by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. They will bark about how bad this all is for the environment, but they will not fight hard at the Supreme Court level to make their case. Instead, they will hope their disastrous policy is reversed permanently.
Most in conservative media are calling this a “loss” for the Biden administration, but the wokeness of the White House only goes as far as pragmatism ends. They dodged an economic bullet by not having their wishes met.
