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Since President Biden ordered the Interior Department to pause new oil and gas lease sales and review the broken system governing drilling on our public lands, drill rig counts have tripled in Wyoming. In fact, tracking data from Baker Hughes shows that, since Biden took office, rig counts have increased in every major oil producing state in the Rocky Mountain West—New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah.
Similarly, oil and gas companies have stockpiled 9,841 approved, but unused, permits to drill on public lands—an all-time high. Because oil companies are sitting on roughly 14 million acres of idle leases and thousands of permits, a recent study by the Conservation Economics Institute found that, even if no new leases are ever issued, they could drill for decades in New Mexico and other Western states.
The surge in drilling comes as scientists at the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are warning we must ramp down the development of fossil fuels to avoid extreme impacts of warming. Additionally, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey recently found that fossil fuels extracted from public lands account for nearly one-fourth of all carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. Taken together, these findings make it clear that the Biden administration must act swiftly to reform how we manage our public lands, prioritizing clean energy and conservation.
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A destabilizing climate poses countless tests for public lands. It alters the natural qualities that were a primary reason for holding and protecting these lands. The glaciers and Joshua and sequoia trees in the national parks named for them are disappearing.”
