![]() energy-related emissions.Įnvironmentalists had hoped that the Interior Department’s next step would be to lay out policies to curb those emissions in the report that Biden ordered soon after taking office, in one of his first executive orders. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management in October released a new analysis calculating that greenhouse gas emissions from federal oil and gas leasing added up to 1 billion metric tons annually, about one-fifth of U.S. By last year, federal production accounted for only one-quarter of the country’s oil production and just 11 percent of natural gas. ![]() oil and gas was produced on federal lands. A Complicated Political LandscapeĪs recently as 2003, one-third of U.S. ![]() He thinks the Biden administration’s decision to avert a showdown over leasing reflects a decision to spend its political capital on climate steps that will have greater impact, like the sweeping methane rules proposed in November and the investments in a transition to electric vehicles that are contained in the Build Back Better package now under consideration in the Senate. “Oil and gas leasing has taken on a symbolic importance far beyond its actual climate value,” said Paul Bledsoe, who worked on climate policy in President Bill Clinton’s White House and now is a strategic advisor to the Progressive Policy Institute. greenhouse gas emissions, they say, but it would stir up a political firestorm that would hurt Biden and other Democrats, especially in two swing states with substantial federal oil and gas leasing, New Mexico and Colorado. A ban on new leasing would not make a significant dent in U.S. production over the last 18 years, while drilling on private land has soared. Oil and gas from federal lands and offshore has become a smaller portion of U.S. ![]() The lack of it is a major disappointment.”īut some observers argue that from a climate perspective, the administration had little to gain and a lot to lose politically by going forward with a ban on new federal leasing at this time. “At the very least, it would have been nice to see some recognition of that, even if they didn’t propose any definite policy changes. “We’re at a critical juncture on climate,” said Axelrod. He said the reforms proposed are indeed necessary-royalty rates have not changed since the 1920s-but they don’t go nearly far enough, at a time when the president says he wants every government agency to be acting to slash carbon emissions. “Our biggest criticism is simply that it basically ignores the elephant in the room, which is climate change,” said Joshua Axelrod, senior advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council’s nature program. The Biden administration did not endorse any restrictions on new leasing or steps to address the greenhouse gas impact of drilling on federal lands. The document proposed little change beyond raising the fees that the industry must pay to extract resources on public lands and requiring companies to increase their insurance coverage-proposals already under consideration in Congress, although opposed by industry. ![]() So green groups said they were deeply disappointed when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released the roadmap for the future of federal oil and gas leasing the day after Thanksgiving. Environmentalists were enthusiastic about these proposals because Biden wouldn’t need Congressional approval the president could just invoke the Department of Interior’s broad authority to manage federal lands. “Banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters” and “modifying royalties to account for climate costs” were two steps Biden said he would take if elected, to help put the nation on track to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But his climate plan included a clear pledge to halt any further advance of the oil and gas industry on federal lands or offshore. As a candidate, President Joe Biden never embraced the strict curbs on fossil fuel development that progressives sought, like a ban on fracking. ![]()
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