Breanne Deppisch writes for the Washington Examiner about President Biden’s commitment to the green agenda.

President Joe Biden campaigned for office in 2020 vowing to halt new drilling on federal lands.

Since taking office, Biden has followed through in part. He banned oil and gas drilling on millions of federal acres.

Still, some environmental groups say Biden has reneged on some of his core campaign promises, opting to prioritize energy security or lower costs at the expense of his goals on decarbonization, which could open him up to criticism as he runs for reelection in 2024. Republicans and the industry, meanwhile, say he hasn’t done enough to allow domestic production of oil and gas at a time of market volatility.

On his first day in office, Biden instructed the Interior Department to halt all new oil and gas leasing in federal lands and waters pending a comprehensive review of the lease program.

But that “pause” subsequently encountered legal problems, culminating in a federal judge in Louisiana last year ruling that the Interior Department had violated federal law when it canceled the lease sales, saying they are required to be held under the Mineral Leasing Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

The administration has also been forced to carry out lease sales because of an Inflation Reduction Act provision negotiated by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that links offshore wind to oil and gas leasing. That provision was a major sticking point required to secure Manchin’s approval on the IRA.

More generally, geopolitical events and domestic policy priorities have prompted Biden to moderate or even backtrack on his promises regarding drilling.

Biden asked U.S. oil refiners and producers last year to take “immediate actions” to ramp up supply after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine pushed U.S. gas prices to an all-time high of more than $5 per gallon. The U.S. also exported roughly 10 billion cubic feet per day of liquefied natural gas to the European Union in 2022 in an effort to help the bloc avert a winter energy supply crisis. …