The Department of the Interior on Friday released a long-awaited review of oil and gas drilling on federal lands and oceans that recommends an increase in leasing fees and consideration of environmental concerns in leasing decisions. But the report largely sidesteps climate change issues, and does not recommend a halt to new oil and gas leasing -- a promise President Joe Biden campaigned on.
The report, which Biden commissioned last January, outlines a series of primarily fiscal reforms for the federal oil and gas program, which Interior said currently "fails to provide a fair return to taxpayers, even before factoring in the resulting climate-related costs that must be borne by taxpayers."
Environmental groups expressed concerns about the review and called for more urgent action to be taken to address the climate crisis.
"These trivial changes are nearly meaningless in the midst of this climate emergency, and they break Biden's campaign promise to stop new oil and gas leasing on public lands," said Randi Spivak, public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Greenlighting more fossil fuel extraction, then pretending it's OK by nudging up royalty rates, is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. There's no time left for baby steps that let the fossil-fuel industry wreak even greater havoc on the Earth."
"We urge the Biden administration to build on this report by phasing out new oil and gas leasing altogether," said Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program, "and we call on Congress to include these reforms in the final Build Back Better Act to ensure that our public lands are part of the climate solution, instead of enriching oil company CEOs at the public's expense." (cnn)