Continuing The War On American Energy Independence

On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported that the Biden has more attacks on the fossil fuel industry in the works.

The article reports:

President Biden is calling on Congress to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Thursday.

“Companies that are producing from their leased acres and existing wells will not face higher fees,” the statement continued. “But companies that continue to sit on non-producing acres will have to choose whether to start producing or pay a fee for each idled well and unused acre.”

As part of the announcement Thursday, Biden will also order the Department of Energy to release a million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months.

The White House has repeatedly blamed Big Oil for not doing enough to combat high gasoline prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted global energy supplies. Biden and Democratic lawmakers suggested this month that oil companies have taken advantage of the crisis to pad their profits.

I have no way of knowing if the President actually believes the garbage he is spouting. The problem with gasoline prices sits in the White House–not in the executive boards of oil companies.

The article concludes:

Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma, meanwhile, noted the Interior Department is currently holding up permits on 3,800 leases while it conducts additional “climate change analysis,” about 4,600 permits are still awaiting approval and that the her group is defending thousands more in court.

“Western Energy Alliance has been in court for years defending 5,900 leases of 7.3 million acres and companies can’t develop on most of them when they’re caught up in legal challenges,” Sgamma told the DCNF in a statement. “But the president now wants to penalize us for these delays?”

“The White House conveniently forgets the government’s role in delaying pipelines and permits and introducing new financial and regulatory risks to American development,” she continued.

The Biden administration has actively pursued an anti-fossil fuel agenda, nixing the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ditching oil drilling in Alaska, not appealing a court ruling that prohibited a massive offshore drilling lease in the Gulf of Mexico, attempting to ban new drilling leases on federal lands and making it harder for utilities to gain approval for natural gas projects.

The actions of the Biden administration in the area of energy policy show a total lack of concern for the well being of the American people. A continuation of these policies will eventually wipe out the middle class in America. This may in fact be the goal of the Biden administration.

Let The Lawsuits Begin

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported that Western Energy Alliance, a group representing fossil fuel producers on federal lands, has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Wyoming stating that the President does not have the authority to ban leasing on public lands.

The article reports:

“The law is clear. Presidents don’t have authority to ban leasing on public lands. All Americans own the oil and natural gas beneath public lands, and Congress has directed them to be responsibly developed on their behalf,” Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said in a statement, according to The Washington Times. “Drying up new leasing puts future development as well as existing projects at risk. President Biden cannot simply ignore laws in effect for over half a century.”

The executive order, Sgamma said, violates the Mineral Leasing Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act.

The lawsuit argues that the administration’s suspension of the federal oil and gas leasing program is “an unsupported and unnecessary action that is inconsistent with the Secretary’s statutory obligations” and is “both arbitrary and capricious.”

The article continues:

Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America said in a separate statement: “Do not be fooled, this is a ban [on drilling]. The Biden administration’s plan to obliterate the jobs of American oil and gas explorers and producers has been on clear display.”

What’s more, according to Sgamma, the order would also put at risk $8.8 billion in conservation revenue that is funded in part by mineral development on federal property.

“Biden’s ban is an overreach meant to satisfy the environmental left, but it would seriously harm the livelihoods of tens of thousands of westerners and put at risk millions more as state services become unfunded,” she said.

The order doesn’t affect existing oil and gas leases, which can last 10 years, officials have said.

The courts are not the ideal way to reign in an overreaching President. I am sure our Founding Fathers would be appalled. However, I suspect they would be equally appalled at what President Biden has done in only a week to Americans attempting to earn a living.