The White House has prepared documents that would halt new oil and gas auctions on federal lands and waters for one year, these individuals said, and coal leasing for three years. Metallurgical coal was excluded from an Obama-era coal moratorium on the grounds that steel was required for infrastructure projects. During the campaign, Biden pledged to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters,” without specifying exactly what such a ban would entail. Fossil fuel leasing on federal and tribal lands accounts for nearly a quarter of the country’s annual carbon output. AD“Restricting development on federal lands and waters is nothing more than an ‘import more oil’ policy,” Sommers said.

Source: Washington Post January 25, 2021 20:37 UTC