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The Biden administration is moving forward with its comprehensive review of federal oil and gas activities by hosting a virtual forum on Thursday with a multitude of stakeholders representing labor, energy development, and environmental interests to discuss the future of the oil and gas leasing and permitting system.
The burning of oil, gas, and coal extracted from federally managed lands accounts for nearly a quarter of U.S. carbon emissions. Oil and gas in particular represent the biggest chunk of human-caused fossil fuel emissions following a drilling surge under former President Donald Trump.
Officials at the Interior Department say that the federal oil and gas leasing program has historically failed to consider climate impacts and that irresponsible leasing practices threaten wildlife habitat as well as Native American cultural and sacred sites, and lock up public lands that could be used for recreation or conservation.
Last Friday, in an effort to underscore the administration's commitment to evaluate drilling and other extractive activities on public lands, the Interior department distributed an internal memo alerting agency staff to the extension of careful review by senior officials at the department for land sales and exchanges, coal leasing proposals, draft resource management plans, drilling permit extensions, and pleas for royalty relief while the comprehensive oil and gas leasing review is underway.
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People from all over the world come to Yellowstone specifically to see these wolves. The fact that they can be killed so easily, right on the edge of the park in the state of Montana, for only a few dollars for a permit to trap a wolf – it makes no sense, either ecologically or economically."
