President Joe Biden’s administration has temporarily suspended oil and gas permitting on federal lands and waters in the latest of a series of rapid-fire orders aimed at fighting climate change and tamping down the U.S. fossil fuel industry.
The order appeared to be a first step in delivering on newly sworn-in Biden’s campaign pledge to permanently ban new drilling on federal acreage. Federal leases account for close to 25 percent of the nation’s crude oil output, making them a big contributor to energy supply but also to America’s greenhouse gas emissions.
