White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan took to the podium on Monday to preview President Biden’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, making it clear that the administration will continue to plead with OPEC to increase oil production amid high gasoline prices as part of the discussions.

As Reuters reported:

“Sullivan said members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have the capacity to take ‘further steps’ to increase oil production despite suggestions from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that they can barely increase oil production.

“‘We will convey our general view…that we believe that there needs to be adequate supply in the global market to protect the global economy and to protect the American consumer at the pump,’ Sullivan added.”

Yet, it was just eleven days ago that the Dept. of Interior finally published its draft of the long-delayed Outer Continental Shelf five-year offshore leasing program which leaves the door open to the possibility that no lease sales will be offered.

As Energy In Depth has explained before, an offshore leasing plan without lease sales would be like ordering a cheeseburger without the meat, cheese, and bread.

By holding up lease sales for U.S. oil and natural gas production while at the same time begging OPEC to ramp up production, President Biden is ordering nothing but a bowl of pickles for American energy security but going back for multiple trips to the buffet on the other side of the world.

Unfortunately, this has been a theme of the Biden White House. It was this time last year when Sullivan originally started calling on OPEC to increase oil production as Interior was fighting against a federal judge’s ruling to drop the illegal ban on federal lease sales.

With U.S. gasoline prices having climbed $1.75 per gallon over the past year, the Biden administration is still deploying the same flawed strategy of slow walking American energy production.