‘Pause’ on oil and gas leases riles NM industry

President Joe Biden charged into a direct confrontation with the oil and gas industry Wednesday with an executive order to indefinitely “pause” all new leasing activity on federal lands. The lease ban is just one element in a broad range of actions contained in Biden’s order, which outlines aggressive federal efforts to tackle climate change. But industry leaders pounced on the leasing issue as a potentially devastating blow to domestic oil and gas production that could constitute the opening salvo in a string of new restrictive regulations to come. “While this move suspends new leasing, this decision appears to be a first step toward an end goal of stopping natural gas and oil development on federal lands and waters,” American Petroleum Institute president and CEO Mike Sommers told reporters in a national press call Wednesday morning. Leaders from four states participated in the call, including New Mexico Oil and Gas Association Executive Director Ryan Flynn, who said New Mexico will be hit harder than any other state because of the high level of production on federal lands here. “New Mexico accounts for 57% of all federal onshore oil production and 31% of all onshore natural gas production in the country,” Flynn said. “… Nearly one-third of our state’s budget comes directly from oil and gas revenue, and of that one-third, approximately $1 billion, comes from revenue generated on federal public lands.” Environmental groups, however, praised Biden’s order as a critical first step to begin reeling in greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations while simultaneously designing new policies to protect public lands, potentially reorienting their use toward environmentally friendly economic development such as outdoor recreation and renewable electric generation...Biden’s order directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to use the pause to launch a “rigorous review” of all existing leasing and permitting practices. It doesn’t affect new permitting for leases already approved by the Bureau of Land Management — the Interior agency that manages federal lands through field offices around the country — nor any existing oil and gas activity on federal lands. But it’s unclear whether the leasing pause will end or under what new regulatory framework leasing would resume in the future, which creates widespread uncertainty in the industry. And Wednesday’s presidential order comes on top of a separate order last week by acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega to suspend authorization of all new drilling permits by BLM field offices for 60 days, until Biden-nominated leaders get Senate confirmation to take their posts. That includes Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., whom Biden appointed to head the Interior Department...MORE