Biden administration goes after oil and gas industry’s use of federal lands

 

In the Biden administration’s latest move against the oil and gas industry, it has launched a review to weigh the value of the federal drilling program to taxpayers against the environmental costs.

It’s part of President Biden’s free of new drilling lease auctions, an action he took in the first days of his presidency in January.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the former Democratic congresswoman from New Mexico who was criticized by Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford and other Republicans for what they felt were extremist stands on the environment said the drilling program shortchanged taxpayers.

“The Trump administration offered vast swaths of our public lands and waters for drilling, prioritizing fossil fuel development above all other uses on public lands and waters. While some corporations profited, taxpayers were shortchanged, and voices of many Americans went unheard,” she said.

Reuters reported Haaland and others in the Biden administration claim that half of the 26 million acres of federal land under lease for drilling are not producing and generating little for taxpayers.

Haaland’s comments were made at a public form that kicked off the review.

Reuters reviewed the Bureau of Land Management leasing data and found the top five holders of nonproducing oil and gas leases control an estimated 1.5 million acres of federal land. The Colorado-based Kirkwood Oil & Gas exploration company is the largest holder with nearly 500,000 acres of nonproducing acres.

 

 

 

Stephen Smith and Larry Moyer, Colorado residents are the second-biggest holder with 300,000 nonproducing acres and most of them are in Nevada.

Anschutz Exploration Co., part of Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz’s business empire has 275,000 nonproducing acres and is the third largest holder. Anschutz is the former owner of the Oklahoman newspaper.

Reuters found that Liberty Petroleum, a New York-based company has 270,000 acres and is the fourth largest holder of the federal land. The fifth largest holder is Texas entrepreneur Avinash Ahuja who has more than 210,000 nonproducing acres.

Those are the holders of the nonproducing lands. Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy is one of the biggest holders of producing land in New Mexico where it operates in the Permian Basin. It has hundreds of leases to drill on the federal lands.

Source: Reuters