Many climate campaigners and progressive critics have given the Biden-led administration backlash over the lease of public lands and waters to oil and gas companies.
Coming at a time when there is a clamor to keep fossil release levels below ground level, it seems like a diplomatic move that draws the nation two steps backward.
According to the report, President Biden intends to adjust royalty and bonding rates. He also intends to lease areas with potential public resources and preserve regions with known cultural heritages.
In response to this, Mitch Jones, the public director of Food and Water at Watch Policy, stated the report shows Biden has no intentions of halting oil and gas drilling in the nation.
This is shameful, considering the climate change obligations of America in the last few months.
Biden Derailed From His Earliest Campaign Mandate
One of the early mandates of Biden’s administration was banning the lease of public lands and waters for oil drilling. In contrast, Biden auctioned off the drilling of 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico.
Republican attorney generals instituted legal action, and the ruling of the court was there is no way Biden could halt new drilling leases.
Hey, @POTUS! Care to comment on this awful decision?
Please cancel the lease sale.
“Biden Admin Set to Auction Off Over 80 Million Acres to Oil and Gas Drilling Companies” https://t.co/EsJe00AI6u
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) November 19, 2021
However, despite the promise of Biden to place an embargo on drilling lease sales, climate campaigners expressed their disappointment in his administration. The reason is Biden didn’t keep to his word of reducing fossil releases in the country.
Economic Experts Weigh in on the New Lease Report
Economic experts and Americans know climate change is one of the banes affecting the nation. Making climate polluters pay higher royalties would in no way mitigate its corrosiveness.
If anything at all, it would make the nation overly dependent on the revenue gathered from fossil fuels. In the words of Mitch Jones, he stated if reports were true about drilling lease sales, then the White House is not to be trusted with fulfilling their promises.
The Secretary of the Interior Department, Deb Haaland, weighed in on the current land drilling lease sales. She said the American government owes taxpayers accountability.
One of the ways this accountability can be proven is by reducing the current climate emergency that affects every well-meaning American. The expectation of climate activists on the current drilling lease report is the government would discuss the impact of the program at length.
However, the drilling lease program failed to review the impact of drilling activities on the local landscape and its contribution to the current global climatic crisis.
President Biden said “I can guarantee if I’m president, there will be no offshore drilling” but is moving forward with Lease Sale 257—an 80 million acre oil & gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. @POTUS must keep his promise to #EndOffshoreDrilling. pic.twitter.com/iy8MoIFXoo
— Ctr4BioDiv Ocean (@EndangeredOcean) November 17, 2021
In the words of Collins Rees, U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, he expressed his disgust at the report, which was poorly written.
He went on to state the report only confirms the grievances of climate advocates from the 1990s. In light of all that is currently affecting America as a nation, this new trend would further taint Biden’s administration as one that doesn’t keep promises to its people.
