Thursday, March 28, 2024

Despite Biden’s climate commitments, U.S. drilling approvals have increased

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Billings, Monte. (Associated Press)-This year’s approval for companies to drill for oil and gas on public lands in the United States is accelerating to the highest level since George W. Bush became President, which highlights President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to be stronger To curb oil production. Resistance from industry and the Republican Party.

According to an analysis of government data by the Associated Press, the Department of the Interior approved approximately 2,500 permits for drilling on public and tribal land in the first six months of this year. These include more than 2,100 drilling approvals since Biden took office on January 20.

New Mexico and Wyoming have the largest number of approvals. There are hundreds each in Montana, Colorado and Utah.

Biden promised during his campaign last year End of new drilling on federal land To control emissions from climate change. He chose to supervise these lands. The Minister of the Interior Deb Harand firmly opposed drilling on federal lands during the Congress and jointly initiated a liberal green New Deal.

But so far, the government has taken more moderate measures on fossil fuels, including temporary Suspension of new oil and gas leases On federal land A judge was blocked last month, Stop oil sales Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) with Cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline From Canada.

Since large fossil fuel reserves are already being leased out, these actions have not slowed down drilling on public lands and waters, which account for about a quarter of U.S. oil production.

Further complicating Biden’s climate agenda is the recent increase in gasoline prices in many parts of the country to US$3 per gallon (US$0.79 per liter) or higher. Any attempt to restrict oil production may push up gasoline prices and may revive the economy from the pandemic.

“He is walking a tightrope,” said Parker Fawcett, an energy industry analyst at S&P Global Platts, noting that the emergence of Keystone and ANWR does not have a huge political cost because their goals are future projects.

Fawcett said: “Those easy victories will not necessarily have a huge impact on today’s market.” “He will definitely give up taking drastic actions that will shake the market. … What you will see is that U.S. oil production will Continue to rebound.”

Harland tried to dispel Republican concerns about potential restrictions on the industry. She said at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee last month that “there is currently no plan for a permanent injunction.”

“The production of natural gas and oil will continue into the future, and we believe that this is the reality of our economy and the world we live in,” Harland told Colorado Republican Congressman Doug Granborn.

Interior officials declined to comment further on the permit issued under Biden’s leadership.

Under the leadership of a staunch industry supporter and former President Donald Trump, the Department of the Interior has reduced the time required to review drilling applications from a year or more in some cases to a few months.

Enterprises scrambling Lock in drilling rights Before the new government. In December of last year, Trump’s last month in office, agency officials approved more than 800 permits—far more than any month during his presidency.

According to an interim order, Biden slowed down when he first took office Improve the licensing review of senior administrative officialsSince then, the approval rate has rebounded to exceed the monthly figures for most of Trump’s presidency.

The data obtained by the Associated Press from government databases may change due to delays in transmitting data from internal field offices to headquarters.

If recent trends continue, the Ministry of the Interior may issue nearly 6,000 permits by the end of this year. The last time so many bonds were issued was in fiscal year 2008, when crude oil prices reached a record high of US$140 per barrel in June, which promoted the oil boom.

Industry analyst Fawcett said that as of June 1, the decision on about 4,700 drilling applications has not been completed, which means that as officials deal with the backlog of work left by the Trump administration, the speed of approvals may continue to accelerate.

As the prospect of a ban on drilling faded, environmentalists who shared the government’s climate issue expressed increasing frustration. They argued that the government can take administrative action to stop further permits, but they have succumbed to Republican pressure.

“All signs are that they have no plan to actually fulfill their campaign promises,” said Mitch Jones, the policy director of the environmental group Food and Water Watch. “The result will be to continue and increase the development of fossil fuels on public land, which means more climate change.”

Economists and other experts have been skeptical about the impact of the license ban. Ryan Kellogg, associate dean of the University of Chicago, said the company can simply move to private and state-owned land and continue drilling.

Defenders of the government say that the government is pragmatic in the face of the 50-50 difference between the Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and whether the government can legally stop drilling on leases that have been sold to companies.

This means abandoning the drilling ban, hoping to get the support of the two parties for the huge infrastructure package, which includes clean energy incentives and other measures to solve the problem of global warming.

“This is a long game. …you have to appease some oil and gas state senators,” said Jim Lyons, who served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior under Barack Obama and is now An environmental consultant. “This means thousands of workers can go home to work. You can’t pull the plug overnight.”

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP


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