EDITORIAL: Biden gives Bronx cheer to energy consumers

President Joe Biden is leaving Nevadans with a final reminder of his undying commitment to increasing their energy bills.

Just before New Year’s Day, the Biden administration announced plans to make Nevada’s Ruby Mountains off-limits to future energy development. That mountain range is largely in Elko County. This would prevent additional oil, gas and geothermal projects for 20 years. The decades-long ban won’t happen immediately. A 90-day public comment period and an environmental analysis need to take place first.

Before considering the merits of this idea, it’s worth considering the mental condition of the man supposedly leading this administration. Mr. Biden’s last months in office have been marred by concerns about his coherence, culminating in the disastrous debate performance that eventually led him to drop his re-election effort.

Now that the election is over, more troubling details are emerging. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that, even in 2021, Democrat politicians had trouble reaching the “diminished” Mr. Biden. His staff shielded him from negative information and hand-held him through events. “Senior advisers were often put into roles that some administration officials and lawmakers thought Biden should occupy,” the Journal wrote.

It’s fair to wonder, then, how much Mr. Biden was actually involved in the decision to hinder energy development in Nevada and elsewhere. Along with this Ruby Mountains move, Mr. Biden also banned offshore oil and gas drilling on Monday. That order includes the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and parts of the Gulf of Mexico. President-elect Donald Trump said he will “unban it immediately.” Good.

While Mr. Trump is at it, he should pull back this restriction on the Ruby Mountains. There are currently no known oil reserves in the area, but who knows what future exploration will bring. It’s possible to extract energy resources horizontally, which would help preserve the range’s natural beauty. If oil and gas were discovered, it could create a large number of good-paying jobs, boosting the state and local economies. As the Journal noted this week, “more areas will need to be developed to support current production levels.”

Notably, the Biden administration isn’t limiting potential mining in the Ruby Mountains. That highlights how this move is about artificially restricting fossil fossils, not a principled objection to commercial activity in a sensitive area.

U.S. oil and gas production has increased in the past few years, but that’s in spite of Mr. Biden, not because of him. His administration has been consistently hostile to traditional energy producers, and American consumers pay the price. Mr. Trump’s return to the White House can’t come soon enough.