Four House Democrats from Texas have urged President Joe Biden to rescind his executive order halting new oil and gas leases on federal land and water, saying it will lead to job losses, squeeze budgetary revenues, undercut American energy independence, and will “hurt an already suffering community.”
On Jan. 27, Biden signed an executive order that set up a “pause on entering into new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters to the extent possible” and will launch a “rigorous review of all existing leasing and permitting practices related to fossil fuel development on public lands and waters.” The White House said the move is an attempt to “tackle the climate crisis.”
Biden’s early steps after taking office represent a sharp break from former President Donald Trump’s efforts to push American energy independence by maximizing fossil fuel production. On his first day in office, Biden moved to rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change and revoked a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Last week, the Biden administration imposed a 60-day suspension of new permits for oil and gas leasing, drilling, and fracking on federal lands. The Jan. 27 executive order goes a step further and imposes a moratorium on such permits, although the freeze wouldn’t impact existing leases and wouldn’t apply to private land, which accounts for more than three-quarters of total U.S. oil production and even more for natural gas. Biden’s new order also seeks to end direct federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.
“Unlike previous administrations, I don’t think the federal government should give handouts to big oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies,” Biden said at the Jan. 27 signing ceremony.
“I’m going to be going to the Congress asking them to eliminate those subsidies. We’re going to take money and invest it in clean energy jobs in America, millions of jobs in wind, solar, and carbon capture.”
“The law is clear. Presidents don’t have authority to ban leasing on public lands. All Americans own the oil and natural gas beneath public lands, and Congress has directed them to be responsibly developed on their behalf,” Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said in a statement, according to The Washington Times.
“Drying up new leasing puts future development as well as existing projects at risk. President Biden cannot simply ignore laws in effect for over half a century.”
The executive order, Sgamma said, violates the Mineral Leasing Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act.
