WASHINGTON—U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said at a House committee hearing on June 23 that the Biden administration has no plan to permanently ban new oil and gas drilling on federal land.
“Gas and oil production will continue well into the future,” Haaland said during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing. “I don’t think there is a plan right now for a permanent ban.”
Haaland’s comments came after a federal judge on June 15 blocked the Biden administration’s temporary ban on new leases to drill for oil and gas on public lands and waters. The Biden administration in January suspended new oil and gas leasing and drilling for 60 days and ordered the Interior Department to conduct a “comprehensive review” of its leasing program.
During the hearing, Haaland said that the review would be released “early summer.”
“We will assess the fossil fuel programs at that time,” she said.
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, which represents 200 oil and gas companies in many Western states, called Haaland’s statement “pretty ambiguous.”
“I guess it’s good. It implies she just may not know what they’re doing yet and even if she did know, that plan could change in the near future,” she told The Epoch Times in an email.
“I guess we’ll find out soon what the plan is. I suspect the review will take at least a few years leaving plenty of time left to wonder if the ultimate outcome will be another unlawful attempt to stop leasing,” she said.
Sgamma added that Haaland’s statement at the hearing recognizes “that neither she nor the president have the authority to simply ban leasing.”
Critics argue that the administration’s climate agenda is making it hard for domestic producers to invest to meet the country’s growing energy demand; hence, they are concerned that the United States would end up being more dependent on oil imports from overseas.
Environmental groups, on the other hand, demand Biden fight harder for the climate agenda.
The Food and Water Watch, an advocacy group on climate change, reacted to Haaland’s comments, saying they contradicted “Biden’s repeated promises to ban fracking on public lands.”
“It now seems that Biden has no intention of keeping that promise,” Mitch Jones, policy director at the advocacy group, said in a statement.
“This would be a disastrous capitulation to the fossil fuel industry, and a worrying sign that this White House is not committed to the kinds of actions necessary to stave off climate catastrophe,” he said.