Kathleen Sgamma, President, Western Energy Alliance, recapped the past week to week and a half of increasingly weird behavior from the White House regarding the oil and gas industry.
Sgamma referred to the weird behavior as another example of the Biden Administration wanting to shut down the American oil and gas industry. Host Jason Spiess opined this weird behavior is another example of State Sponsored Rank Discrimination and Prejudice.
The “weird” behavior is cited as a sitting president asking OPEC to up production when American workers are willing and able to work. The other “weird” behavior is the ignoring of legal deadlines that exist in courts of law.
Sgamma recently wrote an editorial which was first published in the Denver Post.
Western Energy Alliance today denounced the Department of the Interior’s failure to meet the deadline to hold any onshore oil and natural gas lease sales in fiscal year 2021 and the agency’s continued failure to comply with the Louisiana district court order overturning the leasing ban. Yesterday marked the 45-day deadline for the agency to announce a lease sale before the end of the quarter as required by the Mineral Leasing Act, and hence, to hold any lease sales before the end of the fiscal year which ends September 30th. It also marked 60 days since Judge Terry Doughty in the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction overturning the leasing ban.
“For six months, the Interior Department cited the Biden Ban as the reason for not holding quarterly lease sales. In the two months since the ban was overturned by a federal judge, department officials have ducked questions from lawmakers, media, and industry about when lease sales would resume. Now that the Interior Department has missed the deadline to hold any sales before October, it’s crystal clear there is no intention of complying with the judge’s order,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Alliance. “At a recent Senate hearing, Interior Sec. Haaland admitted the president’s ‘ban on new leasing is still in place.’ Meanwhile, the Biden Administration has spent the summer lobbying OPEC and Russia to increase oil production. At the same time it’s encouraging foreign oil production, the Biden Administration is preventing American production and helping drive up the price Americans pay at the pump.
“Further, the Interior Department still hasn’t released the plan for conducting the ‘comprehensive review’ of the entire federal oil and natural gas program as ordered by the president. That means the last six months of the leasing ban were completely futile, as no progress has been made on the analysis that was the ostensible reason for the ban in the first place. It’s been an exercise in futility and now we have record high imports from Russia.
“We call on the administration to declare a truce with American producers and promise to back off plans to regulate us off federal lands and out of business. It’s time to announce new lease sales onshore, move forward with the offshore leasing plan, reissue the permit for KeystoneXL, and scuttle plans to move forward aggressively with myriad new regulations meant to reduce American production. Send a clear message to Wall Street that the Securities and Exchange Commission will not pursue regulations to deny the industry access to capital so that investors have more certainty about investing in American production. When the rubber meets the road, high energy prices trump unrealistic climate change policies. Don’t advantage Russian and Saudi above American producers,” added Sgamma.
Western Energy Alliance represents 200 companies engaged in all aspects of environmentally responsible exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the West. Alliance members are independents, the majority of which are small businesses with an average of fourteen employees. Learn more at www.WesternEnergyAlliance.org.
About The Crude Life
The Crude Life produces original content that focuses on industry, the people, energy innovations, community building and it’s proactive culture. Our custom content is non-polarizing, trusted and often news making.
The Crude Life promotes a culture of inclusion and respect through interviews, content creation, live events and partnerships that educate, enrich, and empower people to create a positive social environment for all, regardless of age, race, religion, sexual orientation, or physical or intellectual ability.
Part of our mission is to enable people, companies and communities to affect change, demonstrate their transformative actions and drive energy awareness through storytelling and access to resources.
For sponsorship information on The Crude Life Morning Show Play Hard Work Hard, email studio@thecrudelife.com or click here.
Sponsors, Music and Other Show Notes
Studio Sponsor: The Industrial Forest
The Industrial Forest is a network of environmentally minded and socially conscious businesses that are using industrial innovations to build a network of sustainable forests across the United States.
Weekly Sponsor: Witting Parters
Witting Partners delivers a full range of energy-focused leadership
development services to help companies overcome the unique challenges of
today’s oil & gas industry so that they can successfully regain and
sustain peak performance.
From one-on-one executive coaching to
group training programs to powerful speaking engagements, everything
Witting Partners offers reflects an unmatched blend of industry insight,
technical know-how, and relevant experience that has produced
consistent results from the Gulf of Mexico to Appalachia, from service
company to operator, and from drilling rig to downtown boardroom.
Weekly Sponsor: MineralTracker
MineralTracker is the only mineral management software that allows mineral owners to compare actual royalty payments to expected payments based on well performance and a proprietary, Bakken-specific reservoir model built by MineralTracker’s petroleum engineers.
MineralTracker was formed in Watford City, North Dakota, and is a subsidiary of First International Bank & Trust, a family-owned bank also based in Watford City.
Phone Line Sponsor: Swan Energy, Inc. 866.539.0860
Studio Email and Inbox Sponsor: To Be Announced
Featured Music: Moody River Band
For guest, band or show topic requests, email studio@thecrudelife.com
Spread the word. Support the industry. Share the energy.
If you have a chance, check out The Crude Life Podcast!
