President Biden is starting to make good on his promise to halt new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, at least temporarily.
The Interior Department won’t issue any new leases for fossil fuel production on federal lands or in federal waters for at least 60 days unless there is approval by top leadership, according to an order on Thursday from acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega. Operations under existing leases, however, will proceed unchanged under the order.
Though de la Vega’s order is only temporary, Biden pledged on the campaign trail to bar new fossil fuel leasing on federal lands permanently.
His nominee to lead the Interior Department, New Mexico Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland, is expected to carry out the policy aggressively. Haaland drew national attention by joining tribal leaders in rallying against the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.
Biden is also preparing to sign an executive order next week that would permanently block new oil and gas leases, as well as coal leases, on federal lands, according to a report from Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the order’s development.
Oil industry groups are raising the alarm that any pause to or restrictions on resource development would harm the U.S. economy and pose a security threat because the country would be forced to rely more on foreign fuel.
“Restricting development on federal lands and waters is nothing more than an ‘import more oil’ policy,” said Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, in a statement. The oil lobby conducted a study in the fall that found U.S. oil imports would increase by about 2 million barrels per day by 2030 if Biden banned new drilling on federal lands.
Environmentalists, though, are cheering the Interior Department’s move. “Let’s turn this ‘temporary halt’ into a permanent ban and a plan to phase out all fossil fuel development!” tweeted Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media.
De la Vega’s order also halts Interior Department career staff from granting new rights of way or other approvals for land development, which can be critical for energy infrastructure such as pipelines, from approving new minerals plans, and from advancing other regulatory actions without approval from a top official.
In a press release, the Interior Department also said it will immediately begin implementing Biden’s climate executive order signed on Wednesday. That order temporarily paused new leasing decisions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pending legal and policy review. The Trump administration rushed through oil and gas leases for the refuge in its final days, though the lease sale fell far short of expectations.
