BATON ROUGE, LA (September 30th, 2021) – In compliance with the June 15th U.S. District Court ruling, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced they will hold Lease Sale 257 on Wednesday, November 17th, 2021. The Biden administration had previously banned new federal leasing for drilling early in his presidency and is currently engaged in legal proceedings to resume the moratorium.

In response to this announcement, Louisiana Oil & Gas Association President Mike Moncla released a statement earlier this afternoon:

"The Louisiana Oil & Gas Association supports the decision by the Department of the Interior to resume federal leasing for drilling. Gulf of Mexico energy production provides hundreds of thousands of jobs for Louisiana and other Gulf economies, not to mention millions of dollars of investment for coastal restoration.

Since Day One in office, the White House energy policy has hurt the American economy and has forced the nation at the mercy of OPEC+ and other foreign institutions, compromising both environmental sustainability and our national security.

While this lease sale announcement is a step in the right direction, we must acknowledge the damage President Biden and the rest of the Washington Democratic establishment is doing to the energy sector with its misguided policies that ultimately hurt the American people.

The oil and gas industry of Louisiana stands ready to meet the demands of a post-COVID society and provide an affordable, reliable, and abundant source of energy to fuel this nation's economic resurgence.

We call on President Biden and all public officials to work with the industry to bring the United States back to energy independence and create reasonable standards that do not comprise our country's prosperity."

This upcoming lease sale will be the eighth offshore sale in the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program since 2017.