As pressure mounts on the Biden government to cut fuel prices, the Home Office announced Friday that it plans to make the first onshore oil and gas lease sales since taking office. The ministry said it plans to open about 144,000 acres for lease next week and will charge oil and gas companies with higher rights to drill on federal land, raising the fees for the first time. According to the plans presented on Friday, the interest rates will increase to 18.75 percent from 12.5 percent for oil and gas lease sales. The long-awaited announcement follows a report released by the ministry last autumn, which called for royalties to be more in line with the higher rates charged by most private landowners and large oil and gas-producing states. The Biden administration’s willingness to lease oil and gas has angered climate activists, who have called the ministry plans to betray the president’s promise to ban new drilling on public land. According to the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released last week, the world is preparing to run out of “carbon” by 2030 – setting an ambitious goal of keeping warms at 1.5 degrees. Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). ) out of range. Drilling on federal land and offshore is responsible for nearly a quarter of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions. “This is a clear denial of climate,” said Jeremy Nichols, director of climate and energy program at WildEarth Guardians. “While the Biden government speaks well of climate action, the reality is that it is in bed with the oil and gas industry.” Domestic officials presented the pending lease sales as a significantly reduced version of what it could be, describing it as a realistic approach. In a press release, they noted that the area offered at auction is 80 percent less than the 733,000 acres of land in nine states proposed by the oil and gas companies. “For too long, federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the needs of the extractive industries over local communities, the natural environment, the impact on our air and water, the needs of tribal nations and, in addition, other uses our common public spaces, “said Secretary Deb Haaland. “Today, we are beginning to bring back how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of American resources for the benefit of all present and future generations.” The department’s plans are the latest example of the political rope the president is trying to walk. Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed oil prices soaring, Biden has come under pressure to alleviate American pain at the pump. He urged US oil companies to boost production and released millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Oil Reserve to offset the loss of Russian oil from world markets. Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to allow the sale of gasoline in conjunction with higher ethanol levels over the summer, lifting a ban that was originally enforced over concerns that burning ethanol-rich fuel was hot. summer will worsen the smog. At the same time, however, the government is wary of alienating progressive Democrats and climate activists and has sought to express its enthusiasm for oil and gas production as a necessary – and temporary – response to supply shortages as it works to expand. cleaner energy sources. As a candidate, Biden vowed to ban new oil and gas drilling on federal soil. But in January 2021, U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty in Louisiana overturned an executive order temporarily suspending drilling, dealing a major blow to the president’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. The power to suspend oil and gas leases rests “exclusively with Congress,” Doughty wrote. Last year, Interior made the largest offshore oil and gas lease sale in the country’s history, auctioning off more than 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. A federal judge later canceled the leases, citing a misguided environmental analysis that was completed during the Trump administration. At the time, Biden government officials said they could have been judged in contempt of court if they had not sold out, a legal interpretation that many environmentalists have criticized. “It’s important to increase royalty rates,” said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice. “But in the end, the leasing of oil and gas on any major scale is incompatible with the Paris agreement.” Because most oil and gas production takes place on private and public land, experts say there is little evidence that the Biden government will cut prices. Even if energy companies hire new leases in the coming months, it may take years to open new wells and increase production. On Friday, the US oil industry criticized Biden officials for reducing the size of lease sales and raising royalty rates. In an email, Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trading group, said forcing companies to pay higher drilling fees would result in lower output, thwarting management efforts to reduce prices. “While we are glad to see [the Bureau of Land Management] “Finally, it is going to announce sales,” Sgamma wrote. . Sign up for the latest climate change, energy and environment news delivered every Thursday
