President Biden is poised to impose a moratorium on new federal oil and gas leasing Wednesday, according to three individuals briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan was still being finalized. The move will deliver on one of Biden’s boldest climate campaign pledges but will encounter stiff resistance from the fossil fuel industry. The White House has prepared documents that would halt new oil and gas auctions on federal lands and waters as the new administration reviews the program, these individuals said. The moratorium would not affect existing leases, meaning drilling would continue on public land in the West as well as in the Gulf of Mexico.
The memo remains a draft subject to final approval, said one individual close to the White House who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been formally announced. Administration officials had considered imposing a moratorium on new federal coal leasing as well, but one of the individuals briefed on the plan said officials were now leaning against that option.
Biden plans to outline steps Wednesday aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions and elevating the role of science in federal decision-making. Asked about the matter, both the White House and the Interior Department declined to comment.
During the campaign, Biden pledged to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters,” without specifying exactly what such a ban would entail.
Fossil fuel leasing on federal and tribal lands accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s annual carbon output. It also generated $11.7 billion in tax revenue for the federal, state, local and tribal governments last year, according to the Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
Environmentalists say the pause will allow the new administration to assess whether taxpayers are being adequately compensated for the minerals extracted from lands they own.
“By pausing the broken leasing system and halting the giveaways to oil and gas executives, President Biden has an opportunity to meaningfully fix the leasing system for the first time in nearly four decades with solutions that work for the public and which incorporate ambitious conservation, taxpayer fairness, and climate goals,” Jenny Rowland-Shea, senior policy analyst for public lands at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, wrote in an email. “We can make sure our public lands and coasts are preserved, accessible and beneficial to everyone — not abused by oil and gas corporations.”
But oil and gas groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, counter that freezing new leasing will deprive state and local governments, as well as the U.S. Treasury, of needed revenue. Last week, the industry criticized the Interior Department when it dictated that any new leases or permits issued during the next 60 days needed the approval of a top-ranking Biden appointee before they could be finalized.
API President Mike Sommers said that move alone will damage domestic energy producers while benefiting ones abroad.
View full article at www.washingtonpost.com
