Biden admin announces new onshore oil and gas lease sales while dragging feet on needed rulemaking to update leasing program

The Department of the Interior announced plans to offer more than 260,000 acres of federal public lands across New Mexico and Wyoming in oil and gas lease sales scheduled for the second quarter of 2023. Interior states additional lease sale parcels will be announced in the coming weeks.

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act made the biggest climate investment in U.S. history, established long-overdue rate increases for oil and gas development on public lands and waters, but harmfully tethered renewable energy development on public lands and waters to new oil and gas development. Per the Inflation Reduction Act, the Department of the Interior must hold onshore oil and gas lease sales (and issue a lease) in order to issue wind or solar right-of-way permits. 

In response to the lease sales announcement, The Wilderness Society Senior Staff Attorney Ben Tettlebaum said:

“We need responsible renewable energy development on public lands to spearhead a transition to a just, sustainable future. And the fact that oil and gas leasing is now required before we can pursue renewable projects means that it is more critical than ever that the Interior Department deftly use its authorities to put public health and safety, climate and conservation first,” said Ben Tettlebaum, Senior Staff Attorney at The Wilderness Society. “That means Interior must promptly draft new regulations that implement the Inflation Reduction Act provisions, address the issues identified in its own review of the oil and gas program, and align the program with the Department’s strong conservation mandates.”

The Department of the Interior has begun to announce new lease sales, but has yet to start an urgently needed rulemaking to update the federal oil and gas program. A rulemaking is needed to: 

• Favorably and durably implement the important, necessary policy changes included in the Inflation Reduction Act, which established the long-overdue increases to the fiscal rates and terms for leasing and development on public lands and eliminated the wasteful practice of leasing lands noncompetitively (for just $1.50/acre); 
• Address all of the remaining core problems that the Department highlighted in its report from November of last year by 1) requiring oil and gas companies to fully pay for potential clean-up costs so that communities aren’t stuck with the bill for well clean-up; 2) avoiding the massive leasing of areas with low potential for oil and gas development; and 3) creating and ensuring a more transparent process that provides meaningful opportunity for public engagement and Tribal consultation; and 
• Utilize all available discretion to take lands off the table for oil and gas development.

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For more information, contact Tony Iallonardo at newsmedia@tws.org