Climate fight shifts to oil, a strong foe
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — President Joe Biden’s bid to tackle climate change is running straight through the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry — a bigger, more influential foe than Democrats faced when they took on the coal industry during the Obama years.
Coal dominated U.S. power generation for decades, with the bulk of that fuel coming from the massive strip mines of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin — a market that collapsed in recent years as utilities switched to natural gas.
Fast forward to 2021 — and oil and gas have eclipsed coal to become the biggest human source of greenhouse gas emissions from public lands and waters. That’s made government fuel sales an irresistible target for Democrats.
Biden’s election has put big oil companies on the defensive after largely having their way in Washington under President Donald Trump. But in taking on petroleum companies with a moratorium on oil and gas lease sales, Biden picked a foe that spent lavishly over decades to secure allegiance from Republican lawmakers.
The industry is also deeply enmeshed in local economies — from Alaska and the Gulf Coast to the Rocky Mountain ns — posing a challenge as Biden tries to navigate between strong action on the climate and recovering from the pandemic’s financial devastation.
“You’re not hurting the big guys that are doing all the development. You’re hurting these little guys that are dreaming up where no one else thought there was any oil and gas,î” said Steve Degenfelder, land manager for familyowned Kirkwood Oil & Gas in Casper, Wyo.
Trump’s final months in office saw a huge spike in new drilling permits after his administration sped up approvals. As a result, some companies with the biggest presence on public lands have announced that they are ready to weather changes under Biden.
Gone from power in Washington are former industry lobbyists including Trump’s Interior Department secretary, David Bernhardt, who oversaw a loosening of rules for drilling. They’ve been replaced in many instances with environmentalists and industry critics. Biden’s nominee for Interior secretary, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland, has a history of anti-oil activism.
Just a week after his inauguration, Biden announced the sales moratorium while officials review potential climate impacts and whether energy companies are paying enough. He’s following a familiar template — a 2016 Obama-era moratorium on federal coal sales that Republicans seized on as a “war on coal.î ”
Oil from federal and tribal lands makes up about about a quarter of U.S. production.
Even with Trump gone, the oil and gas industry still has formidable allies in Congress, who say the moratorium would cost tens of thousands of jobs.
Benefits to the climate from a ban on new oil and gas leases could take years to realize, according to economic analysts.
Companies could respond by shifting onto private lands in the U.S., and more oil would likely come in from overseas, said economist Brian Prest, who examined effects of a long-term leasing ban.
As a result, almost threequarters of the greenhouse gas emission reductions from a ban could be offset by oil and gas from other sources, said Prest.