Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance, which represents 200 companies engaged in all aspects of environmentally responsible exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the West.
It’s time for President Joe Biden’s Interior Department to start giving some answers to the American people about its policies governing nearly one-quarter of our energy economy. This week provides the perfect opportunity as Interior Secretary Deb Haaland plans a visit to Denver and Grand Junction.
In January, right after taking office, the president issued a ban on new oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands and waters and ordered the Interior Department to conduct a full review of the program.
Western Energy Alliance immediately filed a lawsuit seeking to halt this unlawful ban.
Shortly thereafter, 13 state attorneys general filed a similar lawsuit in Louisiana. Last month, the federal judge, in that case, granted a preliminary injunction that overturned the ban nationwide.
Despite the Interior Department stating it would comply with the ruling, more than a month has passed and the agency has yet to announce when it will resume quarterly lease sales on non-park, non-wilderness public lands in Colorado and across the West.
The Interior Department has also not released its plans for conducting the full review of the federal oil and natural gas program ordered by the president back in January. Regardless of Haaland stating in May that a report would come in “early summer,” nothing has been released.
Hardworking oil and natural gas workers in Colorado and across the country deserve to know when lease sales will resume and when the Interior Department’s report will be released. The ongoing delay is creating a cloud of uncertainty over their jobs and the communities that rely on revenues from responsible energy development.
The industry in Colorado generates $13.5 billion for the state’s economy, supports more than 80,000 jobs, and generates $1 billion a year in tax revenues. On the West Slope, where most of the state’s federal lands are located, oil and natural gas companies generated $133 million in tax revenue in 2019.
That’s real money, real jobs, and real support for critical public services like education, public safety, and infrastructure.
Moreover, even as the Biden administration has been unable to articulate its plans for federal oil and natural gas, it spent the past month urging Russia and OPEC to ramp up production to alleviate high gasoline prices. The administration is literally encouraging foreign imports while discouraging American production.
These policies don’t reduce our need for energy but do enrich other countries at the expense of American workers and consumers.
Secretary Haaland’s visit to Colorado is the perfect time to press the Biden administration to reverse course on these disastrous energy policies. Western Energy Alliance calls on her to finally release the report on federal lands leasing and development so that the American people know exactly what the plans are.
Op/Ed first appeared in The Denver Post.
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