Hope is fading that the Department of the Interior (DOI) will hold offshore oil and gas lease sales anytime soon, industry lobbyists said Tuesday.

“The Biden administration’s lack of progress on offshore leasing is a clear example of the large gap between rhetoric and reality,” the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, told reporters during a conference call. 

The API executive praised the administration for recently approving two liquefied natural gas expansion projects and for signaling it would resume onshore lease sales on federal land. However, Macchiarola said more clarity is needed to advance offshore development.

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