The Biden administration has launched a review on the sale of US drilling rights on federal land and waters.
The Biden administration has launched a review on the sale of US drilling rights on federal land and waters.
Several weeks after oil and gas sales were suspended, the study is set to guide the US Interior Department’s decisions about selling leases on roughly a 10th of US land and almost all its coastal waters, including in the Gulf of Mexico. It also could dictate the conditions for any future lease sales, including new environmental safeguards, higher costs to buy tracts and limits on territory that is made available for leasing.
‘The federal oil and gas programme is not serving the American public well. It’s time to take a close look at how to best manage our nation’s natural resources with current and future generations in mind,’ said Laura Daniel-Davis, the Department of Interior’s principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management.
The department was due hold a virtual forum on the future of leasing on March 25 to hear from industry representatives and environmental groups.
The Interior department’s public consultation was due to end on 15 April, with plans to outline recommended changes this summer. Among recommendations being considered are higher royalty payments, location restrictions and even limits on the number of tracts held by individual companies.
That report ‘will wrestle with some fundamental questions about the oil and gas programme, including whether it’s delivering a fair return to American taxpayers, whether it fairly accounts for the impacts of climate, whether there’s adequate opportunity for public input, including from Indian tribes, and whether we have the right mechanisms in place to avoid irreparable harm to wildlife, water, sacred sites and beyond,’ said interior secretary Deb Haaland.
A previous Interior department examination of the federal coal leasing programme that began under former President Barack Obama – only to be ended under President Trump – had been expected to take three years.
Conservationists claim that the current approach is a bad deal for taxpayers with annual rental fees for some leased acres costing less than a cup of coffee.
‘The federal oil and gas leasing programme needs serious reform if America is going to address climate change,’ said Drew Caputo, vice president at Earthjustice. ‘Nearly 25% of this country’s climate-cooking emissions come from fossil fuels pumped or mined from lands and waters that belong to all Americans. This is unsustainable.’
About 22% of total US crude supplies and 12% of US natural gas came from federal lands and waters in 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration.
