The next five-year offshore leasing program must be in place by July 1 – but it’s well behind schedule. Jeopardized American energy security and a cost of thousands of U.S. jobs and billions in government revenue. That’s what we could see if there is a lapse in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) five-year program for leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new analysis by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), which was prepared by Energy and Industrial Advisory Partners (EIAP). The next five-year offshore leasing program must be in place by July 1, 2022, but is well behind schedule, and no offshore lease sales can be held unless DOI implements a new program, API noted in a statement posted on its website. Nearly 60,000 jobs could be lost without the five-year offshore leasing program and a delay could […]