The Biden administration is canceling three oil and gas lease sales scheduled in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, removing millions of acres from possible drilling as U.S. gas prices reach record highs. The decision likely means the Biden administration will not hold a lease sale...
news.yahoo.com
Below is from the OP's own link.
New leasing will not lower current gas prices,'' countered Dustin Renaud, a spokesman for the environmental coalition Healthy Gulf. It takes several years for new leases to begin producing oil, he noted, adding that the industry "is already sitting on over 8 million acres of unused offshore leases.''
She defended Biden administration actions to scale down federal leasing, saying that industry has about 9,000 permits that have been approved but are not being used.
"The industry is free to use these permits in a way they see fit. They just haven’t acted on those,” Haaland told a House committee last week.
Oil companies say they have increased production as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, but they have been reluctant to ramp up production further, citing a shortage of workers and restraints from investors wary that today’s high prices won’t last.
Decisions by the OPEC+ ( What trump signed to DECREASE oil production) oil cartel, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, to only modestly increase supplies to the world market have also kept prices high.