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Industry Disputes Interior’s Rationale for Canceling AK Offshore Lease Sale

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Industry groups and some Republicans are disputing the Biden administration’s justification for pulling the plug on the offshore lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, which it said was canceled “due to lack of industry interest.”

Both have argued energy companies and other parties did want the sale to move forward and that the only way to gauge interest in the sale properly would have been to hold it and allow energy companies to offer bids.

The Interior Department confirmed late Wednesday it would not move forward with work on three offshore lease sales, one for acreage in Cook Inlet and two off the Gulf Coast, the last outstanding sales outlined in the current five-year offshore leasing program.

Kara Moriarty, president and CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, said the administration’s reasoning on Cook Inlet was “disingenuous” and pointed to comments she filed with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in December in which she expressed her organization’s support for the sale.

“We certainly said, ‘Hey, we support having a lease sale move forward,’ and as a trade association, we don’t put out any comments unless, obviously, the majority of our members support that,” she told the Washington Examiner. (Read more from “Industry Disputes Interior’s Rationale for Canceling AK Offshore Lease Sale” HERE)

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Biden’s Climate Czar May Have Inadvertently Revealed Deep Dysfunction in the Administration

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Top White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy copied a CBS News reporter on an email chain Wednesday announcing the administration would cancel a series of oil and gas lease sales.

“The Cook inlet sale was canceled. It is not proceeding,” McCarthy wrote to other White House officials in an email, CBS reported.

Another official reportedly responded immediately saying that a decision hadn’t been made yet. Interior Department (DOI) officials then reiterated that sentiment to CBS, also saying the agency hadn’t decided if it would move forward on the lease sales Wednesday evening.

It is unclear why the CBS News reporter was copied on the email, but the ensuing thread appeared to show disagreement and miscommunication over the administration’s energy policies as gasoline prices continue to hit all-time highs. . .

The administration eventually confirmed that it would cancel offshore oil and gas lease sales set for Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. The DOI said the decision was made due to lack of industry interest in Alaska and legal issues in the Gulf of Mexico. (Read more from “Biden’s Climate Czar May Have Inadvertently Revealed Deep Dysfunction in the Administration” HERE)

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Crack Pipes in ‘Safe Smoking Kits’ Prove Psaki and Fact-Checkers Lied in Denials

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“They were never a part of the kit, it was inaccurate reporting.” Those were White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s words earlier this year when she was asked about reporting that a new “harm reduction” grant program from the federal government allowed taxpayer dollars to end up putting free crack pipes in the hands of addicts. . .

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra released a statement at the time saying “no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits.” . . .

But now, thanks to followup reporting from The Beacon, the truth is again being told — and it’s leaving the mainstream media with a whole pile of egg on its collective face:

Crack pipes are distributed in safe-smoking kits up and down the East Coast, raising questions about the Biden administration’s assertion that its multimillion-dollar harm reduction grant program wouldn’t funnel taxpayer dollars to drug paraphernalia.

The findings are the result of Washington Free Beacon visits to five harm-reduction organizations and calls to over two dozen more. In fact, every organization we visited—facilities in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Va.—included crack pipes in the kits.

(Read more from “Crack Pipes in ‘Safe Smoking Kits’ Prove Psaki and Fact-Checkers Lied in Denials” HERE)

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Biden Admin Silent on Major Natural Gas Pipeline as Energy Prices Soar

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The Biden administration has yet to take a public position on a major natural gas pipeline as the project faces an uphill federal permitting battle.

Equitrans Midstream, the energy company that proposed the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in 2014, delayed the project’s expected completion to late 2023 and said it would pursue new federal permits for a second time, in an earnings report published Tuesday. The project — a 303-mile pipeline that would transport natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia — faced another setback earlier this year after a federal appeals court struck down its Trump-era permits, ruling in favor of environmental groups.

Federal agencies involved in the MVP permitting process didn’t respond to requests for comment or declined to comment altogether, and the White House has yet to intervene in the matter despite soaring energy prices and pleas from a Democratic senator.

“After engaging with the federal agencies and evaluating all options, we believe the best path forward for MVP’s completion is to pursue new permits,” Thomas Karam, the chairman and CEO of Equitrans, said in a statement Tuesday. “To reflect the time required for permit re-issuance and to ensure safe, responsible project construction, we have revised our MVP in-service target to the second half of 2023.”

The total project cost of the pipeline has increased to $6.6 billion, the company added in its earnings report. The MVP pipeline was originally projected to begin operations in 2018 and the total cost has doubled since the project was unveiled, Bloomberg reported. (Read more from “Biden Admin Silent on Major Natural Gas Pipeline as Energy Prices Soar” HERE)

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Biden Blasted for Policing Free Speech With ‘Dystopian’ Disinformation Bureau

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. . .President Biden came under fire Thursday for the creation of a “dystopian” disinformation bureau created under his Homeland Security department, which critics are blasting as just a way for the government to police free speech online.

Conservatives slammed the Department of Homeland Security’s Orwellian new “Disinformation Governance Board” – with some suggesting the timing is convenient given Elon Musk vowed to make Twitter a free speech haven after his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform notorious for selectively censoring right-leaning points of view.

Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called the new board a “disgrace” that was designed to “monitor all Americans’ speech.”

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Hawley said he initially thought Wednesday’s announcement was “satire.”

“Surely, no American administration would ever use the power of government to sit in judgement on the First Amendment speech of its own citizens. Sadly, I was mistaken,” Hawley wrote. (Read more from “Biden Blasted for Policing Free Speech With ‘Dystopian’ Disinformation Bureau” HERE)

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Stagflation Nation: Economy Shrinks

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Stagflation. It’s back.

The definition of stagflation is growth below its long-term trend and inflation above trend. . .

The economy did not just grow slowly. It contracted on an annualized basis. Imports, which are subtractions from GDP, expanded massively and and exports fell. Consumer spending was weaker than expected, suggesting that households balked at high prices. Inventories fell, subtracting from GDP.

U.S. trade policy has left our economy extremely vulnerable to trade imbalances. Because our leaders refuse to erect adequate trade safety-valves, any time the U.S. economy recovers faster than the economies of the rest of the world, U.S. income leaks out to foreign manufacturers. That means Americans earned less and produced less. In March and February, the trade in goods deficit rose to a record highs. The trade deficit wound up subtracting 3.2 percentage points from first quarter GDP.

Inventories were weak after a massive build-up at the end of next year. As I’ve discussed a number of times, last year retailers were headfaked into thinking that year-end holiday sales were going to be strong because early holiday shopping had been better than expected. As it turned out, that early shopping was just people getting their shopping done earlier than usual because prices were rising and they feared shortages. So stores wound up with unwanted merchandise that had to be liquidated at the start of the year. (Read more from “Stagflation Nation: Economy Shrinks” HERE)

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The Biden Administration Is Openly Pursuing a Policy of Escalation in Ukraine

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What are we to make of a comment Monday from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that the Biden administration’s goal in Ukraine is “to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine”?

Austin made the remark in a press conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken after the pair met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in what was the highest level visit by U.S. officials since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

One obvious conclusion we can draw from Austin’s comment is that the Biden administration has now committed openly to a policy of escalation in Ukraine. The White House intends to keep the war in Ukraine alive, with the stated goal of weakening Moscow by continuing to pour new and more advanced weaponry into the war-ravaged country. . .

If you’re wondering what is the significance of this deepening U.S. involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian war, or how it might lead to a direct military confrontation between the United States and Russia, consider that the U.S. secretaries of defense and state might have just narrowly missed being struck by a Russian missile as they traveled to and from Kyiv by rail on Monday.

As the Biden administration escalates, the chances that something very much like that will happen are going to increase exponentially. Perhaps a crew of U.S. servicemen quietly sent into the country to train Ukrainian troops on the use of a new U.S.-provided weapons systems will get hit by a Russian missile strike. Perhaps U.S. diplomats, whom Blinken said are returning to Ukraine this week, first to Lviv and eventually to Kyiv, will be killed or injured or otherwise caught in the crossfire. (Read more from “The Biden Administration Is Openly Pursuing a Policy of Escalation in Ukraine” HERE)

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Biden Unveils Plan to Deal With Massive Migrant Surge

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The Biden administration released its plan Tuesday for handling the influx of migrants expected to cross the U.S.-Mexico border when Title 42 ends.

The plan includes six pillars to address the migrant flows, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) having the capability to hold around 18,000 migrants at a time in custody by May 23, when the Trump-era policy used to quickly expel migrants is set to end.

“When the Title 42 public health Order is lifted, we anticipate migration levels will increase, as smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants. The increase in migration being experienced by the United States is consistent with larger global trends: there are currently more people in the world displaced from their homes than at any time since World War II, including in the Western Hemisphere,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in a memo.

The plan also includes steps to surge authorities to the border, provide grants to local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) aiding migrants, and “deterring” illegal migration through agreements with Panama and Costa Rica and messages to smugglers that the border isn’t open.

“We are also sending a clear message in the region to counteract misinformation from smugglers, including that the termination of the Title 42 public health Order does not mean that the U.S. border is open. As we execute this work, our objective continues to be the safe, orderly, and humane processing of noncitizens, consistent with our laws, while protecting national security and public safety,” the plan stated. (Read more from “Biden Unveils Plan to Deal With Massive Migrant Surge” HERE)

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White House Chief Ripped for ‘Pathetic’ Macron Tweet Suggesting Hope for Biden

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White House chief of staff Ron Klain is drawing ridicule for suggesting there was hope for President Biden since French President Emmanuel Macron won re-election with a 36 percent approval rating.

Biden’s popularity stands at 40 percent — with 52 percent of Americans disapproving of his performance — according to a recent Morning Consult poll shared by Klain.

“An interesting observation, just FYI. President Macron appears to have secured a double-digit victory over LePen, at a time when his approval rating is 36%. Hmmm….” Klain tweeted Sunday.

Klain drew scorn from people who pointed out the differences between French and US politics, including the fact that US presidential elections are decided by the Electoral College, which gives more weight to small states, and that French presidents generally are very unpopular.

“This is pathetic. Why not strive for the support of the American people rather than celebrate the possibility of victory when your ratings are in the toilet? #noshame,” tweeted American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Danielle Pletka. (Read more from “White House Chief Ripped for ‘Pathetic’ Macron Tweet Suggesting Hope for Biden” HERE)

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White House: Legal Defense of Mask Mandate Necessary to Preserve CDC Power

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The White House on Wednesday said President Joe Biden’s administration would continue to defend mask mandates leveled by the Centers for Disease Control, despite airline passengers celebrating a court ruling effectively ending them.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the two-week extension of the mask mandate on planes and public transportation, arguing the CDC “felt they needed that” to examine more data about the coronavirus pandemic.

She said the Justice Department announced its willingness to defend the CDC’s mandate to help preserve the agency’s power over public transportation.

“I mean our focus here was seeing what power we had to preserve what we felt was in the public health interest of the country,” Psaki explained.

She defended the mandate extension as “entirely warranted” and “entirely reasonable.” (Read more from “White House: Legal Defense of Mask Mandate Necessary to Preserve CDC Power” HERE)

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