As the Biden administration moves on from hectoring gas station owners to cut prices and returns to begging the Saudi government to pump more oil, there’s a case in Alaska that shows how hard it can be to develop new oil fields on federally-owned land.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, ConocoPhillips has been trying to develop a new project on federal land in the Alaskan Arctic called “Willow.” The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to shrink the project’s size, but still allow it to proceed.
A big reason BLM is making the project smaller: a court ruling that said the government “failed to properly assess the project’s impact on climate change and its potential harm to polar bears.”
There are more such legal challenges either underway, or in the making:
A coalition of environmental groups…sued the Biden administration in an effort to stop more than 3,500 permit applications from energy companies to drill for oil and gas on federal lands.
The groups argued the administration hasn’t considered the damage that climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions from drilling does to endangered species, and that permit approvals in Wyoming and New Mexico violated federal laws including the Endangered Species Act.
The groups said burning fossil fuels from drilling is heating the planet and damaging imperiled species like Hawaiian songbirds, desert fish, ice seals and polar bears. The administration’s approved permits, they said, will release up to 600 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
The lawsuit is the latest attempt by environmentalists to pressure the administration to halt new drilling permits. Earlier in his term, Biden sought to commit to his campaign promise to suspend new drilling on federal lands, but was thwarted after legal challenges from GOP-led states and the oil industry.
While the outcome of such legal challenges is unclear, one thing is certain: they will delay any production on federal lands for years, if not decades.
All the more reason to look on with wonder at the U.S. shale revolution, which made the U.S. a net exporter of fossil fuels in a few short years. A big reason for that success? “Shale gas development in the United States has taken place primarily on private land.”
READ NEXT: Cross-Dressing Biden Energy Official Once Defended Website Pimping Young Boys for Sex >>
Norman Leahy has written about national and Virginia politics for more than 30 years with outlets ranging from The Washington Post to BearingDrift.com. A consulting writer, editor, recovering think tank executive and campaign operative, Norman lives in Virginia.
Joe the big guy biden caught in another stream of lies, denying how the big guys crime family sold out America for personal financial gain.The investigations should be ongoing now, not after the midterms,this makes the democrats complict in their family crimes, also the DOJ, for covering up their now oblivious international crime family corruption.Our National Securityis at risk, accountable.
That’s why the village idiot was put in office — to cause as much damage as possible. They knew that the gop would do their normal hiding in the corner playing with their little willys and do nothing to stop him.
Exactly why I am no longer a Dem or a Repub! Lying, cheating & stealing IS the Democrat way while the Repubs still have not grown a pair!
Can we please put the person this country voted for in office to get this country back on track?
Open the pipelines, OK drilling, offshore etc NOW
Another China first policy of joe and hunter biden, Do you feel it’s being honest with your readers to sweep under the rugs what the biden’s are doing to the United States? joe biden and his China first policy are failing across both parties. He is not wanted in 2024 and will be cause for his impeachment after the midterms, just hope the biden monies they collected for” what ever they promised to do for it” is returned to those Un American adversaries where it should have stayed all along, we do not need the joe and hunter’s America last policy in our Country. Because the truth is on hold because of politics does not mean what’s happening now and has come to light is not true, you should be allowing your readers the truth not like the controlled press who also has accepted large amounts of money from China not to inform their readership. Do you wonder at all why millions of barrels of oil are being shipped to China from our US National reserve is not a national security risk to our Nation? It’s your oil also paid for by American tax payers.
I thought shutting down the pipeline & denying all those applications to drill were the reason why the cost of petro products skyrocketed. But then Biden said that it was all Putin’s fault until, recently, Biden blamed it all on the out of power Republican’s fault. What will it be next week? I’m so confused!
WHY AREN’T THE REPUBLICANS AND THE DEMOCRATS WORKING TO STOP BIDEN FROM DESTROYING AMERICA. TO ALL THE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REMEMBER, YOU WORK FOR THE PEOPLE, NOT YOUR OWN PERSONAL AGENDAS.
Oh, but their pocketbooks are much more important than human lives! That’s dems and repubs alike. Mitch McCONnell needs to be taken to the woodshed.
So now animals and plants are more valuable than people? Get a grip, biden.