©2025 League of Conservation Voters
Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) sponsored a motion to instruct (MTI) Senate conferees on H.R. 4521, the United States Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) of 2021, to force the Biden-Harris administration to immediately develop a five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan that includes a minimum of 10 region-wide oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska regions. This damaging MTI not only contradicts the necessity to act on climate change and protect coastal communities and wildlife, but it also circumvents the careful, participatory statutory process used to develop the five-year plan. The oil and gas industry has already stockpiled millions of acres of unused leases, and new leases that are sold would not start producing for years or decades, thus having no impact on current oil prices. On May 4, the Senate approved the Barrasso MTI by a vote of 53-44 (Senate roll call vote 148). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. Portions of the underlying bill, though none mandating completion of a five-year plan or a minimum of lease sales, were included in the final Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) & Science Act (H.R. 4346) that the president signed into law on August 9.
©2025 League of Conservation Voters