President Joe Biden is pressing the pause button on oil and gas leases on federal land.
The executive action signed Wednesday is one in a series of orders to accelerate federal efforts to combat climate change. It directs the Secretary of Interior to “pause” new leases while the administration reviews the program to allow drilling on public land, according to information released by the White House.
Other policies call for the preservation of 30 percent of the nation’s land and ocean by 2030 and a framework for a new Climate Conservation Corps. The order does not ban new leases on coal.
The move fulfills a campaign promise from President Biden. Besides marking a shift in the pro-industry policies of the Trump administration, it also signals a new focus on oil and gas production. Previous climate policies, like car efficiency standards, were aimed at the demand-side of the climate equation.
In remarks at Wednesday’s signing ceremony, Biden said he would not push for a federal ban on fracking — which President Trump falsely claimed Biden promised to stop during the presidential campaign.
Economic and environmental costs
The move divided the Colorado environment groups and the oil and gas industry.
Aaron Weiss, the executive director for the Center for Western Priorities, a public lands advocacy group, said a revamp of the federal leasing program is long overdue.
“The oil and gas industry has spent the last 100 years, and especially the last four years of the Trump Administration, getting everything it wants from public lands at bargain prices,” Weiss said.
About a quarter of U.S. oil and an eighth of the nation’s natural gas is produced on federal lands. In Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management had leased 2.5 million acres to oil and gas companies through 2019, according to federal data. About 40 percent of that acreage is currently used to produce petroleum, which Weiss said shows companies still have plenty of land to drill for years to come.
Royalties and fees from those leases are a major source of government revenue. The program provided about $7.6 billion to federal, state, local and tribal governments in 2020, according to the Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue. Colorado took in just over $57 million.
Weiss said those numbers might sound big, but it’s not nearly enough to cover the cleanup and climate consequences of drilling on public lands. Companies pay a 12.5 percent royalty rate on federal leases, which Weiss said is far lower than what most westerns states charge to allow drilling on state land. Colorado assesses a 16.67 percent rate on state-owned leases
“The oil and gas industry needs to pay their fair share, and they are not today,” Weiss said.
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January 28, 2021 at 04:41AM
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