The decision by the Biden administration to delay new oil and gas leases on federal lands is unconscionable.

The choice was prompted by a federal judge’s decision to block a measure to calculate the environmental impact of oil and gas drilling. The judge determined that the measure needed congressional action.

Now, as the White House and relevant federal agencies review how to fine-tune the attempt to calculate environmental impact, gas and oil leases are halted.

The inability — or unwillingness — of the administration to proceed with leases while the environmental impact assessments are revised is, when the prices Americans pay at the gas pump and when paying their monthly heating bills are increasing, frankly cruel.

We want gas and oil to be developed in the most environmentally friendly way possible. We hope that the technologies — such as affordable battery capacity — necessary to make renewable energy more feasible continue to improve. But we have to remain committed to domestic development of conventional energy sources.

American households heated by natural gas are seeing up to a 30% increase in heating costs. Americans who heat their homes with oil furnaces are seeing increases of up to 40%, according to CNBC’s website. Increasing production is one crucial step to combating these larger bills.

Domestic development of so-called fossil fuels also creates jobs and supports communities — particularly rural communities. The livelihoods of American families are at stake.

But the impact on Americans’ wallets isn’t the only reason to encourage domestic production: America’s past reliance — and much of the free world’s current reliance — on violent dictatorships for energy continues to have lethal consequences for people around the world.

Today, those consequences are seen in eastern Ukraine. About twenty years ago we saw them in the rubble at Manhattan’s Ground Zero, as the U.S. and western democracies were overly delicate in assessing the role of oil-rich Saudi Arabia in al-Qaeda’s rise.

If we want a safer world where more Americans can enjoy prosperity, domestic energy production is a key step. Freezing oil and gas leases because a federal judge wouldn’t pretend Congress can be shut out of its role doesn’t make the America or the world safer or more prosperous.