Representatives from Western states grilled the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday over proposed regulations they believe will threaten oil and gas development on millions of acres managed by the federal agency, including 1.6 million acres in Colorado.

The representatives argued that policies the Biden administration is pursuing would harm the states’ economies and deny Americans access to the land.

The bureau responded that its intent is to thoughtfully develop resources as America transitions to a “clean energy economy.” Supporters of the policies also argued that they would result in shifting activities away from “speculative” leasing toward actually finding energy resources in “non-sensitive” places.   

The back and forth occurred during a subcommittee oversight hearing on energy and mineral resources in Washington D.C. In particular, the panel tackled the bureau’s proposal for leasing onshore public lands.

During the hearing, Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, noted that the bureau last month issued two supplemental environmental impact statements for two resource management plans that would withdraw 1.6 million acres of federal land in Colorado from energy production, despite, the congressman said, substantial advances in wildlife protection and recovery.

The withdrawal would harm Coloradans and the state’s economy, Lamborn said. 

“The protection of the sage grouse is the supposed rationale behind this drastic action,” Lamborn said. “But this species has experienced a 24% increase in the Colorado population since 2019, just in the last four years. There’s no dichotomy, you can have both. Colorado is the fourth largest producer of oil in the country and yet still finds a way to responsibly ensure a robust and healthy ecosystem.”

“So, Mr. Nedd, why does the BLM feel it is appropriate to hurt Americans and my own state of Colorado with this withdrawal when we’re seeing positive benefits in wildlife in every sector,” Lamborn asked Mike Nedd, a deputy director at the bureau. 

“Congressman,” Nedd replied, “I don’t believe the Bureau of Land Management’s intent is to hurt members or hurt the community.”

“The intent is to look at the resources and find a way to create, as we transition to the clean energy economy, to develop these resources,” Nedd said. “And so, looking at the Colorado plan is to update the analysis and ensure that we’re thoughtful in where and how we develop.”

Nedd and four other witnesses testified about new policies and regulations the agency is proposing for leasing onshore public lands the federal government manages.

The bureau manages about 245 million surface acres, mostly in the 12 western states, as well as 700 million subsurface mineral acres under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, which mandates they be managed for multiple use and sustained yield, according to Nedd. 

The agency also manages more than 34,000 oil and gas leases covering 23.7 million acres with roughly 80,000 producing wells on about half of that acreage, with 11 million acres containing an undisclosed number of non-producing wells, Nedd added.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York and a ranking minority member of the subcommittee, kicked off the testimony by asking Nedd what the bureau is doing to ramp down emissions from public lands, claiming that oil and gas extraction from public lands is responsible for 25% of the nation’s CO2 emissions.

“As it stands, nearly a quarter of the United States’ current carbon pollution comes from fossil fuel production on federal lands and waters,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“We continue to take a very thorough look and analysis for emissions,” Nedd replied. “We’re not only doing it by project but we’re looking at a cumulative impact. We’re also looking at what’s going on in downstream. So, every project is going through a very thorough analysis.”

Nedd said this analysis is being applied to existing leases issued by the bureau.

During the hearing, U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, a Democrat from Nevada, effectively summarized the rationale for the new rules.  

“Is it fair to say that America’s taxpayers and public lands both stand to benefit from BLM rulemaking and bipartisan policymaking that shifts focus away from speculative and unproductive leasing in places, like my home state of Nevada, and toward non-sensitive places with a high likelihood of actually finding and harnessing significant energy resources?” Lee said.

“That is the intent of the rule, congresswoman,” Nedd said.

Critics said they’re not buying that proposition. 

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, criticized what she described as the Biden administration’s approach “against the oil and natural gas industry.”

“I mean the regulation coming at our industry is astounding,” Sgamma said. “Just one of those rules we’re really going to focus on today, and it’s not just on my industry, but the financial industry, as well, meant to defund the oil and gas industry, and it’s done so in the name of climate change, attempting to stop the energy sources of oil, gas, and coal that provide 80% of Americans energy.”

Sgamma also sought to refute Ocasio-Cortez’s claim on carbon pollution.

“She claimed that oil and gas production on federal lands is responsible for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s a complete falsehood,” she said. “That’s based on a misreading of a USGS study of greenhouse gas emissions. And if you actually look at the numbers, production on federal lands and waters accounts for 0.6% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, not nearly a quarter.

The Western Energy Alliance represents 200 companies engaged in “all aspects of environmentally responsible exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the West,” as well as independent oil and gas producers, the majority of which are small businesses with an average of 14 employees, according to its website.

The Bureau of Land Management’s actions came to a head in early September, when U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland cancelled seven leases in the section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska reserved for oil and gas drilling. Some of those leases were owned by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.

In response, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Biden “needs a refresher on the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.”

“The leases AIDEA holds in ANWR were legally issued in a sale mandated by Congress,” he said. “Federal agencies don’t get to rewrite laws, and that is exactly what the Department of the Interior is trying to do here.”

He added: “We will fight for Alaska’s right to develop its own resources and will be turning to the courts to correct the Biden Administration’s wrong.”

During the hearing, Sgamma argued that the federal agency is trying to permanently preclude any oil and gas development of as-yet unknown reserves that could be developed in the future.

“I think the intention is to stop the development of very promising Mancos Shale in the Piceance Basin in western Colorado,” she said. “They’re closing nearly 1.6 million acres under the guise of closing areas that have no known low potential or medium potential for oil and gas. The problem with that is 15 years ago, the Bakkan (an oil and gas formation in Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan) was considered medium potential. Twenty years ago, the Permian Basin in New Mexico was considered basically low potential. So, now those are two of the most prolific basins in the world. So, by cutting off the Mancos shale to any new exploration, what was low that could become high potential, we would never know.”

Another sticking point for Sgamma is that the bureau is proposing to increase bonding requirements twenty fold — purportedly, she said, to deal with abandoned “orphan” wells that must be capped and remediated.

The amounts proposed are so high that independent companies cannot afford them or find funding for drilling wells, she said. 

The Department of the Interior has proposed the minimum bonding requirement jump from $10,000 to $150,000 and to $500,000 for a statewide bond, and eliminate nationwide bonds.

The lower bond rates “no longer provides an adequate incentive for companies to meet their reclamation obligations, nor does it cover the potential costs to reclaim a well should this obligation not be met,” the interior department said in a news release in August.

In an email, Sgamma told The Denver Gazette that, a few months ago, the deputy interior secretary reported to Congress that there are only 37 orphan wells on federal lands and only an average of four bond calls a year.

“So, the problem is not the exaggerated case that BLM makes in the rule to justify setting unlimited bond amounts,” Sgamma said. “There are 89,350 wells on federal lands and only 37 orphaned, a rate of .04%, so it’s a very manageable problem, down from 295 in 2019.”

During the subcommittee hearing, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican from Wyoming, took issue with the statement that the bureau is being “thoughtful.”

“You recently issued the Rocks Springs RMP (resource management plan), and this, I think, is an example of things to come in every state that has federal lands within its borders, specifically BLM lands,” Hageman said. “We should recognize what now the intent of the BLM is. This Rock Springs RMP will exclude, prohibit, and bar all access management and use of vast swaths of federal land throughout the United States. You exclude not only oil and gas development, but livestock grazing and recreation.”

“Is it your intent to prohibit American citizens from accessing their lands?” Hageman added. 

“Congresswoman,” Nedd replied, “our intent is to use the land in a way that allows all Americans, both present and future generations, to enjoy and benefit from it.”