The Biden administration delayed oil and gas lease sales for a second time late last week amid continued protest from environmental groups opposed to the sales.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency responsible for overseeing oil and gas development on public lands, announced Friday the dates for three planned lease sales for New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming that would take place. at the end of the month. All three sales had been rescheduled once before for the same reason.
“The date of this sale has changed slightly to complete the testing required under the National Environmental Policy Act and allow time for the resolution of protests,” the BLM said in its announcements on Friday.
The BLM originally forecast the New Mexico and Colorado sales for June 16 and the Wyoming sale for this week.
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In addition, a separate sale of oil and gas leases in Nevada scheduled for June 14 was delayed two weeks earlier this month. Two others scheduled for June 28 in Utah and Montana have not been postponed.
“Greenhouse gas pollution resulting solely from existing federal fossil fuel development and potential development of leases and drilling permits already issued but not yet in production, would contribute to catastrophic climate change and unnecessary degradation and undue damage to the atmosphere and other public land values that BLM is legally obligated to protect,” a coalition of 13 environmental groups wrote in a May 18 protest filing challenging the Nevada sale.
The groups, led by the Western Environmental Law Center, argued that the administration was not legally bound to hold the sales as it had argued and that it should conduct a thorough environmental review before proceeding. The Sierra Club joined this coalition and filed a second protest.
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In April, the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that it would proceed with all six oil and gas lease sales under a reformed federal lease program that reduced available land by 80 percent and increased leasing rates. royalties for drillers. The administration said it would suspend sales due to a June 2021 federal court ruling blocking President Joe Biden’s attempted pause on any new rentals.
The administration has yet to hold a single land lease sale in the past 18 months.
Republican lawmakers and fossil fuel industry groups, meanwhile, have criticized Biden for his climate agenda. Since taking office, he has canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, canceled drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and lobbied for green energy subsidies.
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“We have to flip the switch,” Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce committee, told Fox News in a June 13 interview. “We need to unleash American energy.”
A BLM spokesperson reiterated the agency’s statement Friday in an email, and a DOI spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to the original BLM press releases in response to an investigation.
The Biden administration delayed oil and gas lease sales for a second time late last week amid continued protest from environmental groups opposed to the sales.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency responsible for overseeing oil and gas development on public lands, announced Friday the dates for three planned lease sales for New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming that would take place. at the end of the month. All three sales had been rescheduled once before for the same reason.
“The date of this sale has changed slightly to complete the testing required under the National Environmental Policy Act and allow time for the resolution of protests,” the BLM said in its announcements on Friday.
The BLM originally forecast the New Mexico and Colorado sales for June 16 and the Wyoming sale for this week.
US IS ON ‘CUSP OF RECESSION’ IF IT’S NOT ALREADY THERE, OIL ANALYST WARNS
In addition, a separate sale of oil and gas leases in Nevada scheduled for June 14 was delayed two weeks earlier this month. Two others scheduled for June 28 in Utah and Montana have not been postponed.
“Greenhouse gas pollution resulting solely from existing federal fossil fuel development and potential development of leases and drilling permits already issued but not yet in production, would contribute to catastrophic climate change and unnecessary degradation and undue damage to the atmosphere and other public land values that BLM is legally obligated to protect,” a coalition of 13 environmental groups wrote in a May 18 protest filing challenging the Nevada sale.
The groups, led by the Western Environmental Law Center, argued that the administration was not legally bound to hold the sales as it had argued and that it should conduct a thorough environmental review before proceeding. The Sierra Club joined this coalition and filed a second protest.
BIDEN FLOATS GASOLINE TAX, BUT ANALYSIS SHOWS IT COULD WORSEN INFLATION
In April, the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that it would proceed with all six oil and gas lease sales under a reformed federal lease program that reduced available land by 80 percent and increased leasing rates. royalties for drillers. The administration said it would suspend sales due to a June 2021 federal court ruling blocking President Joe Biden’s attempted pause on any new rentals.
The administration has yet to hold a single land lease sale in the past 18 months.
Republican lawmakers and fossil fuel industry groups, meanwhile, have criticized Biden for his climate agenda. Since taking office, he has canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, canceled drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and lobbied for green energy subsidies.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE ROAD BY CLICKING HERE
“We have to flip the switch,” Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce committee, told Fox News in a June 13 interview. “We need to unleash American energy.”
A BLM spokesperson reiterated the agency’s statement Friday in an email, and a DOI spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to the original BLM press releases in response to an investigation.