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WASHINGTON — President Biden’s top aides are debating whether to ban new oil and gas drilling off the coast of America, a move that would delight climate activists but leave the administration vulnerable to Republican accusations that it is exacerbating an energy crisis as gas prices soar.

By law, the Department of the Interior is required to publish a plan for new leases of oil and gas in federal waters every five years. Home Secretary Deb Haaland promised Congress that a draft of the Biden plan would be ready by June 30.

Two administration officials said the White House shaped the plan, as the administration is very aware that inflation and high prices are putting pressure on voters ahead of the November midterm elections.

President Biden’s close circle, including chief of staff Ron Klain and longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti, are closely involved in the debate over whether and where drilling should be allowed, as officials speaking about the anonymity condition said they were not authorized to discuss the matter. negotiations.

“The Biden Administration is in a difficult position,” said Sara Rollet Gosman, a professor of environmental and energy law at the University of Arkansas. “If the Home Office decides to eliminate overseas rental sales or offer only a few sales, it will do the right thing for the climate. But it also provides ammunition to fossil fuel companies to argue that President Biden doesn’t care about high gas prices.”

Several people familiar with the administration’s decision-making process said new drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was likely to be blocked in the face of bipartisan opposition from members of Congress and leaders from coastal states. The eastern Gulf of Mexico has been closed to drilling since 1995.

It is still being evaluated whether to allow lease sales in parts of the Arctic Ocean, as well as in the western and central Gulf of Mexico.

As a candidate, Mr. Biden has pledged to end new drilling on public lands and federal waters. Environmental activists have argued that offshore drilling has no place in the clean energy future. They are pressing the administration to ban drilling along the entire outer continental shelf to reduce the US contribution to climate change.

“In our conversations with the Home Office, we were very clear that we expect the president to honor his campaign commitment to end the new lease,” said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for Oceana, an environmental advocacy organization.

The International Energy Agency said countries should stop approving new coal mines or oil and gas fields to keep global warming on average 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. Beyond this threshold, devastating heat waves significantly increase the likelihood of droughts, floods and widespread extinctions. The world has warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution.

Tré Easton, a Democratic strategist, said that if Mr. Biden were to issue new drilling contracts, he risked alienating climate-minded voters who Democrats should take part in this fall’s midterm elections.

“Joe Biden’s failure to deliver on a big campaign promise and the new leases will have no impact on energy prices in this country. It’s a distraction and I really hope the White House accepts it.”

The areas made available for lease under the plan will be put up for auction until 2027. Years can pass between a rental sale and the production of gas or oil from offshore drilling.

Still, the fossil fuel industry and Republicans blame record high gas prices, accusing the Biden administration of slowing fossil fuel production.

On Wednesday, Mr. Biden appealed to Congress: temporarily pause the federal gas tax to give the drivers some relief. There is also the administration strategic oil reserve releaseds, Suspends the sales ban during the summer season high-ethanol gasoline blends and urged American oil producers to increase production.

Republicans say the administration is trying to have it both ways.

“The administration cannot pretend to support oil and gas production while doing everything it can to slow and curb expanded production on public lands,” Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming said at a recent hearing where he and others questioned Ms. Haaland is on the five-year plan.

The draft five-year plan for the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Program is expected to include several options, including a “no-stable alternative” – ​​that is, not proposing any new lease sales that have occurred in the past.

Home Office spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz declined to comment on the internal negotiations and said no decision has been finalized.

“The department is working hard to develop the five-year plan. I don’t have an update on the timing,” said Ms. Schwartz.

The Biden administration had at some stage considered limiting the new drilling to the central and western Gulf of Mexico, according to three people briefed on the matter.

This would be harmful to consumers, said Erik Milito, president of the National Oceanic Industries Association, which represents offshore energy companies. New leases in the Gulf of Mexico could mean an additional 2.4 million barrels per day of crude oil – an amount that “could have a global impact on the market”.

Last month, the Biden administration canceled lease sales in Alaska’s federal waters off Cook Inlet, citing it as uninteresting to the industry.

Energy experts said the Cook Inlet basin, once Alaska’s primary source of oil, is now a source of natural gas for local utilities, and large-scale projects have been rare in recent years. Still, the industry wants Arctic waters to be available for potential future leases.

After the Home Office’s Bureau of Ocean Management publishes the five-year plan, it will be subject to public comment before it is finalized. Past presidents have used the plan to alternately open the door to uncontrolled development or close it to prevent new drilling.

President Obama banned drilling In parts of the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, and later in reference to a vague provision of the 1953 law, Outer Continental Shelf Lands ActTo also prohibit drilling in areas along the Atlantic coastline.

President Trump has sought to open all of the US coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, including areas protected by the Obama administration.

But at the end of his administration, and under intense pressure from Florida Republicans, who feared that drilling would harm tourism, Mr. Trump signed an executive order banning drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina for 10 years.

Mr. Trump’s broader plan was never finalized. Ms. Haaland told lawmakers that the Trump administration stopped working on a five-year plan in 2018 and that “several conflicting lawsuits” contributed to the delays.

The offshore oil and gas leasing plan has been at the center of a debate over management’s oil and gas decisions. President Biden shortly after taking office signed an executive order however, a successful legal challenge from the Republican states and the oil industry forced the administration to make new lease sales.

The administration is appealing this decision. At the same time, another Republican is defending himself in the case, trying to prevent the government from considering the economic cost of climate change from drilling and other actions it allows.