US Department of the Interior language bodes ill for lease sales

Any hope the Biden administration might seek a compromise on federal land drilling ban looks increasingly forlorn

The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency of the Department of the Interior that administers 700mn acres of the country’s subsurface mineral estate, announced this week that it was “exercising its discretion to not hold lease sales in the second quarter”. The decision is not unexpected, as President Biden’s late January Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crises at Home and Abroad, mandated that the BLM, as the delegate of the secretary of the interior, “pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands… pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of federal oil and gas permitting and leasing practices.” “This decision does not impact exis

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