Biden sets out oil, gas leasing reform, stops short of ban

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | November 26, 2021 | Matthew Daly, AP

[CedarDave]

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday recommended an overhaul of the nation’s oil and gas leasing program to limit areas available for energy development and raise costs for oil and gas companies to drill on public land and water.

The long-awaited report by the Interior Department stops short of recommending an end to oil and gas leasing on public lands, as many environmental groups have urged. But officials said the report would lead to a more responsible leasing process that provides a better return to U.S. taxpayers.

“Our nation faces a profound climate crisis that is impacting every American,″ Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement, adding that the new report’s recommendations will mitigate worsening climate change impacts “while staying steadfast in the pursuit of environmental justice.″

The report completes a review ordered in January by President Joe Biden, who directed a pause in federal oil and gas lease sales in his first days in office, citing worries about climate change.

The moratorium drew sharp criticism from congressional Republicans and the oil industry, even as many environmentalists and Democrats said Biden should make the leasing pause permanent.

The administration has proposed another round of oil and gas sales early next year in Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and other states. Interior Department officials proceeded despite concluding that burning the fuels could lead to billions of dollars in potential future climate damages.

[CedarDave]

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is from Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico and is a radical, far-left environmental activist who previously represented US House district one (NM-1) which includes the Albuquerque metro area. If she could she would ban all fossil fuel production and use, believing that rainbows and unicorn farts will provide US energy.

[butlerweave]

All for the Chinese Communist Party ? Aren’t they drilling near Cuba ?

[HighSierra5]

So she’s a commie puke. What a surprise. They’re all communist insurrectionists.

[CedarDave]

Below is a link to the story at Fox News that includes proposed increases in royalty and bonding rates:

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/biden-interior-department-calls-raise-prices-oil-gas-companies-drill-public-lands

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Let them heat their houses with windmills.
Let them fuel their cars with solar cells.

Just wait until the poor folks understand what “environmental justice” means to them!

[CedarDave]

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[alloysteel]

Make energy so expensive and inaccessible to most Americans, and we have - Venezuela. Sitting on a pool of oil that is the rival of some of the great producing regions of the world, and the country is awash with hyperinflation and poverty.

The politics of artificial scarcity has never made much sense at any time in history. Combine that with what are essentially draconian dictates not to make any innovations, and you have a totally immobilized economy.

If this nation does not go to nuclear power generation, then we must rely on what are called “fossil fuels”, which is a misnomer in itself. The earth’s crust is CONSTANTLY evolving new hydrocarbons by abiotic means, and with sufficient heat energy and a little ingenuity, we can MAKE a high grade of kerogen from most waste organic material.

Nuclear power need not be based on the fission of uranium alone, but by substituting thorium for uranium almost entirely, most of the supply of electrical energy can be put within close reach of virtually the entire population of the planet and at a far lower price per kilowatt, with a degree of efficiency that is way ahead of anything else now being attempted.

Solar and wind power can at best only be used in very specialized applications with any manner of cost effectiveness. They cannot supply the demands of a modern industrial economy.

[Myrddin]

I broached the topic of building a startup to do a thorium based reactor for power generation with a few of my co-workers. They are nuclear engineers who spend much of their time doing yield calculations on real detonations or modeling what the current weapons can produce. The short answer is even the thorium reactors require some fissile uranium to operate. Some of the other engineers have worked on "pebble" type reactor designs. Bottom line is that there is still some material that requires careful handling and complex regulatory activity to make it happen.

If my co-workers are going to press ahead, it needs to happen soon. I'm 65 and most of them are older.

[patriotfury]

Double BINGO!

[AZJeep]

Our nation faces a profound climate crisis that is impacting every American,
______

Obvious lie, I do not feel affected! So not every American is affected!

What’s impacting me are the gov. “remedies” for this “crisis”
I would dare to say the global warming is one of those problems, where the cure is a LOT, LOT worse than the disease!

[AZJeep]

Yes, the nuclear energy, especially Thorium based, is the best near term solution for our energy problems.
In long term, I believe, we can eventually figure out the controlled atomic fusion. I am not sure, I will live to it, but humanity eventually will do it!
In that time, people will look back on current situation in disgust!
“Are you telling me, they destroyed all that environment just in their futile attempts to reduce Co2?”