Conservationists are cheering the Biden administration’s 60-day pause on new energy development on public lands as a chance to overhaul an antiquated leasing program that has not been modified in decades. Oil and gas producers are not happy, and they are warning of severe economic shocks from the decision announced Thursday. “Bowing to the environmental left to fulfill a campaign promise and to prove his crew with climate change activists has real consequences for Westerners,” said Kathleen Sgamma with the Western Energy Alliance. “This is a sacrifice of real people’s livelihoods, and it does nothing for climate change. If we don’t produce oil and natural gas in the West, it gets produced somewhere else, and if it comes from overseas, it has even more climate change impact.” Oil and gas harvested from federal lands account for about a quarter of all U.S. annual production but it pays a lot of bills. The Bureau of Land Management has about 26.3 million acres under lease to oil and gas producers right now, including 2.5 million acres in Colorado. To view the full article visit the Durango Herald.
