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SALT LAKE CITY — In 2019, when Kamala Harris was campaigning to be the Democratic U.S. presidential nominee, she vowed she would stop fracking as a means to extract fossil fuel from the land.
Now, once again on the campaign trail for the presidency, Harris has dramatically shifted her position and said she has no intention of banning fracking.
"I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States, and in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking," Harris said in Tuesday's presidential debate with former President Donald Trump.
The Inflation Reduction Act, however, was criticized by Republicans as a giveaway for green energy investments, including $369 billion over 10 years to pay for renewable energy, pollution reduction and environmental justice. It also contained price hikes for the oil and gas industry.
The then and now
Between 2021 and now, what has the Biden-Harris administration done in terms of actions that impact onshore oil and gas leasing on public lands and offshore drilling?
A week after taking office, President Joe Biden's administration oversaw the issuance of an executive order banning any new oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters. The action brought swift condemnation from fossil-fuel dependent states — including Utah — and praise from environmental groups who want the country to eschew oil, gas and coal in favor of renewables.
A Jan. 27, 2021, executive order prompted a federal lawsuit to overturn the ban, and by August 2022, a judge tossed the litigation. The judge said only Congress has the power to ban new oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters and that the federal government is required to hold lease sales by the Mineral Leasing Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
But has that happened?
The Western Energy Alliance, representing independent oil and gas producers in the West, says that since Biden and Harris took office the administration has failed to hold quarterly gas lease sales as required under law.
In an analysis of Bureau of Land Management data by the industry association, numbers show the downward trajectory for new leases offered, acres offered and acres actually leased since the inception of the Biden-Harris administration.
Here is a snapshot of the number of new leases on public lands and waters issued under three different presidential administrations in these fiscal years:
- 2012, under President Barack Obama, 1,729.
- 2019, under President Donald Trump, 1,841.
- 2021, under President Joe Biden, 407.
- 2023, under Biden, 144.
During the entirety of the Biden administration, the BLM offered 15 lease parcels of 27,615 acres in Utah. Of those, four sold, making up 7,571 acres, said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance.
Just a few hours after taking office, the Biden administration pulled the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a contentious 1,200-mile pipeline slated to transport up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to a connection in Nebraska for conveyance to other pipelines on the Gulf Coast.
The pipeline was widely opposed by environmental groups and Native Americans in particular who lived near its route. Pulling out cost the Canadian government $1 billion in investments and brought a lawsuit from attorney generals in close to two dozen states. Even some moderate Democrats urged Biden to reconsider the move.
The whiplash nature of oil and gas politics
"The Biden administration tried to stop leasing from day one. They have been offering anemic leases sales — offering as few lease sales as possible and we really have not seen the effects of that yet," Sgamma said. "What we are seeing are the effects of Trump. We will not see the full impacts of the Biden-Harris slowdown for at least a few years."
Valerie Thomas, a scholar who works in energy and public policy, offered this as part of a commentary published in the Nevada Current.
"When land is leased for drilling, it takes some years for production to begin. So, the increased oil and gas production during the Biden administration is to some extent a result of leases issued during the Trump administration."
While it is true that oil and gas production is at an all-time all high in the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration, Thomas cautioned the numbers are more complicated than that.
"Trump auctioned off the leases; the Biden administration signed the permits," she said. "In many cases, presidents have little discretion and are essentially required to approve when permits meet the legal requirements."
In terms of actual acreage issued for potential leasing, the data under varying presidential administrations shows this:
- 1.7 million acres, 2012, Obama.
- 2.2 million acres, 2019, Trump.
- 91,000 acres, 2023, Biden.
"The Biden-Harris administration has used every regulatory lever it can to slow oil and natural gas development. You see that most egregiously on federal lands where they have most control. As a country, many of our prolific natural gas plays are not on federal lands, so production is up," Sgamma said.
Most of the land in Utah is under federal management and that is true in most of the West — including Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and Alaska. In contrast, Pennsylvania is a big oil and natural gas production state, dependent on fracking. Both presidential candidates have been courting the vote in that swing state. There, the federal government owns just 2.2% of the land. That compares to Utah's nearly 65%.
Companies subsequently have have turned to state-owned land and tribal lands, and as a result, that is where the majority of production takes place. BLM statistics show the disparity when it comes to acres put out on the table and offered for actual leasing. Under Obama, it was 6 million acres in 2012; 11.8 million acres under Trump in 2017, and under Biden, 128,510 acres in 2022.
The Center for American Progress, an ardent critic of the oil and gas industry and other fossil fuels, asserts the complaints by industry are unwarranted given the current stockpile they control.
As of 2022, the oil and gas industry held more than 34,000 leases on public lands, covering more than 23.7 million acres. In public waters, the oil and gas industry has more than 12 million acres under lease, the center said.
Using money as a tool
In April, the Bureau of Land Management once again instituted steps that made only a handful of groups happy.
The agency increased bonding requirements and revamped pricing by a significant amount, hiked the minimum royalty rates and increased the minimum bid per acre from $2 to $10.
Supporters said the pricing changes were long overdue and part of an antiquated system that didn't return a fair investment for the American taxpayer. Industry complained it would jeopardize small producers' ability to stay in operation.
At the time, Sgamma said, "The BLM rule will drive small producers off public lands. The bonding amounts are excessive when there are just 37 orphan wells out of more than 90,000 wells on federal lands. Increasing bonding amounts 20-fold in order to take care of a problem on just .004% of wells is way out of proportion."
Still others were frustrated that oil and gas leasing was even allowed to continue.
Correction: An earlier version said the Keystone XL Pipeline was slated to transport up to 830 barrels of crude oil a day but should have said 830,000.
