By way of this semantic legerdemain they would open up the floodgates for extractive and construction industries to run roughshod over their operation areas without regulatory oversight or legal consequences.
A whole raft of regulations were signed into law after a litany of environmental disasters pissed the public off to the point that we were done giving industry free license to destroy our living habitat.
The industry is in their element when prices are around $100/bbl. When it falls to $50/bbl. they close up shop. So having lease sales in a sinking market may not yield the promises of “Drill, Baby, Drill.”
What we can attempt to do is navigate the turbulence with grace and kindness – perhaps for no other reason than it is completely anathema to how we are being tormented to react – by both the instigators and the Press.
We’ve arrived at an odd inflection point that has arisen now that National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is on the DOGE chopping block.