\n\n“\u201cThe oil and gas industry has millions of acres leased \u2026 they could be drilling right now, yesterday, last week, last year,\u201d Biden said last week. \u201cThey are not using them for production now. That\u2019s their decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For its part, industry has not leapt to expand drilling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The major public oil and gas companies that drive much of the United States\u2019 activity are holding themselves back with uncharacteristically miserly capital expense plans, returning cash to investors instead of drilling new wells. Officials with some companies say they are also facing bottlenecks for equipment, rigs and labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to public lands and waters, though, oil and gas companies have accused the White House of not truly supporting their industry and aiming to curb production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ryan McConnaughey, spokesperson for the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said the Biden administration has a \u201cplaybook\u201d for federal development: \u201cdelay, distract and deflect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t come as much of a surprise that the Biden Administration\u2019s approval of APDs [applications for permit to drill] has plummeted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said the political focus on the drilling permits and leases already held by industry is a red herring from the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust because Acme O&G isn\u2019t using a permit right away doesn\u2019t mean that ABC O&G doesn\u2019t need one for a well it\u2019s planning to drill now,\u201d she said. \u201cIf the federal permitting situation weren\u2019t so inefficient and fraught with political interference, companies wouldn\u2019t need to request a large inventory even years in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the White House wants drilling to increase, they could ease regulatory requirements and speed up permitting, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The permitting showdown is the latest of many disagreements over the federal oil program under Biden. When Biden came into office last year, he paused oil and gas leasing on federal lands and last fall published a report criticizing the program as antiquated and deferential to industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leasing moratorium was overturned by a federal judge, but leasing has been slow to resume \u2014 and bogged down in continued legal wrangling. The outlook for new leasing in 2022 remains in limbo as Interior has said it will be difficult to move forward after a Louisiana federal judge blocked the use of an interim climate metric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Interior is developing regulations on oil and gas that will increase royalty rates and bonding requirements on federal leases, as well as impose new methane rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the administration has also taken heat from environmental groups for focusing on these regulatory reforms rather than aggressively working to retire the oil and gas program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fossil fuels developed on federal lands, including coal, are responsible for as much as a quarter of the country\u2019s downstream carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, a statistic that\u2019s underscored criticism of continued drilling from environmental groups and climate activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the environmental group Center for Western Priorities, said the Biden administration has continued to \u201crubber stamp\u201d drilling approvals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven under Biden, 96 percent are getting approved versus 98 percent under Trump,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weiss downplayed the impact of the permitting slowdown on industry, arguing that the number of permits issued doesn\u2019t have an immediate correlation to industry\u2019s ability to drill and that companies frequently allow permits to expire without being used. His organization counted 8,000 permits that oil companies had not used or had allowed to forfeit between 2016 and 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA slight dip in approvals makes no difference at all because APDs and available leases have never been a bottleneck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With oil and gas companies exercising \u201cfiscal discipline\u201d to please investors, that\u2019s even more the case, he said.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n