BACKAdrian Hedden, Carlsbad Current-Argus | February 24th, 2022
A sale of public land in New Mexico to the oil and gas industry could be delayed again as the federal government and a U.S. district court in Louisiana debate how to properly evaluate the environmental impact of operations on the lands in question.
Upon taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden issued a moratorium on new oil and gas leases on public land while the U.S. Department of the Interior reviewed its federal fossil fuel program.
That was struck down by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty for the Western District of Louisiana via an injunction, responding to a lawsuit from multiple oil-producing states not including New Mexico, which ordered the DOI to schedule and hold onshore lease sales in the first quarter of 2021.
The sales in multiple states including New Mexico were again delayed as the DOI sought to reevaluate its environmental analysis for the parcels that were nominated and evaluated under the previous administration.
This involved use of the “social cost of carbon” (SCC), a concept created under the administration of former-President Barack Obama and embraced by Biden. The concept accounts for how pollution impacts public safety, the environment or the economy estimating a cost of $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions.
Under Biden's predecessor former-President Donald Trump, the SCC was valued at $7 per ton.
On Feb. 11, Judge James Cain for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued another injunction against the use of the metric in federal decision making.
This could, argued the Department of Justice in a Feb. 19 filing asking for a stay to block the Feb. 11 ruling, further delay multiple decisions and federal actions including oil and gas leasing.
At the Department of the Interior, the filing reported the latest injunction could delay 27 environmental analysis, including onshore lease sales to be conducted by the Bureau of Land Management, arguing “work surrounding public-facing rules, grants, leases, permits, and other projects has been delayed or stopped altogether so that agencies can assess whether and how they can proceed.”
“In each of these examples, revision of the agency’s analysis would cause delay and take agency resources away from other projects. Delay could undermine an agency’s project altogether,” read the filing. “And in the vast majority of instances, the time and resources spent on revision will provide no benefit whatsoever, and redress no harm, to plaintiffs.”
Supporters of oil and gas in New Mexico argued the state would be most affected by delays in federal leasing, as about half of the state’s oil and gas production occurs on federal land.
The industry makes up about a third of the state’s budget and led New Mexico to become the second-highest producer of oil in the U.S. last year.
U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM) who represents New Mexico’s Second Congressional District, including the Permian Basin oilfields in the southeast corner of the state, said the latest filings from the Biden administration were meant only to further delay fossil fuel development in the U.S., to the detriment of the region.
Supporters of oil and gas in New Mexico argued the state would be most affected by delays in federal leasing, as about half of the state’s oil and gas production occurs on federal land.
The industry makes up about a third of the state’s budget and led New Mexico to become the second-highest producer of oil in the U.S. last year.
U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM) who represents New Mexico’s Second Congressional District, including the Permian Basin oilfields in the southeast corner of the state, said the latest filings from the Biden administration were meant only to further delay fossil fuel development in the U.S., to the detriment of the region.
As of Wednesday, records showed Herrell, a frequent supporter of domestic oil production, had yet to introduce such a bill.
The DOJ’s response to the injunction on use of the social cost of carbon also drew the ire of oil and gas industry groups in the Western U.S.
Kathleen Sgamma with the Western Energy Alliance, a group that represents about 200 energy companies throughout the region, said the continued delays on oil leasing was illegal as the administration was required to hold quarterly sales under federal law.
“Officials are hoping to stall long enough to use the SCC to justify not leasing. But the legal maneuvering means the department is now violating actual law on the books,” Sgamma said. “It’s now been five quarters that the Interior Department has failed to hold quarterly lease sales as required by the Mineral Leasing Act.”