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In his State of the Union address, President Biden touted the climate-focused agenda of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—he celebrated the creation of jobs to build clean energy infrastructure, trumpeted the tax credits offered to those buying electric vehicles, and promoted the creation of new electric grids that will withstand worsening storms. He even noted the exorbitant profits that oil and gas companies raked in last year, calling artificially inflated gas prices amid a global energy catastrophe “outrageous”.
Though the IRA offered noteworthy provisions for climate action, they could be easily reversed by a future administration unless formal rulemakings are completed. The oil and gas leasing system was one of the targeted reforms of the IRA, eliminating anonymous leasing nominations on public lands, ending non-competitive leasing, and increasing royalty rates. These reforms are currently being implemented via Instruction Memoranda rather than a more durable rulemaking, where rules go through an extensive review and public comment process and can only be revised if they go through the same rulemaking process.
President Biden failed to acknowledge the Colorado River crisis, which impacts the lives of the nearly 40 million people who rely on the river for water, food, and recreation. In light of the ongoing 23-year-long megadrought, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the nation’s largest reservoirs, now contain a fraction of the water they did during their peak in the 1980s, and they are unlikely to refill in our lifetimes.
This is largely due to unprecedented demand for Colorado River water, and exacerbated by Western aridification caused by climate change. According to water scientist Brad Udall, even if the West experienced ten consecutive wet years, basin states’ demand for water would inhibit the lakes from filling.
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You may have noticed that Big Oil just reported record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis. It’s outrageous.”
