A plan by President Joe Biden to halt new oil and gas leases on federal land will have severe economic impacts on Wyoming and other western states, Gov. Mark Gordon said Tuesday.
Gordon, responding to reports that the Biden Administration plans a moratorium on leasing on federal land, said the move will put thousands of jobs in danger, along with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
“The president’s decision to halt federal leasing on oil and gas under the guise of a ‘pause’ is beyond misguided,” Gordon said in a prepared statement. “It is disingenuous, disheartening and a crushing blow to the economies of many Western states, particularly Wyoming. No matter how it is framed, this action is still a ban on leasing.”
According to several media outlets quoting unidentified sources, Biden is preparing to issue an executive order Wednesday that will suspend new oil and gas leasing on federal land to allow the administration to conduct a comprehensive review of the federal leasing program.
The moratorium would not affect existing leases.
Biden in his first day in the Oval Office issued an executive order temporarily halting new oil and gas leases on federal land.
Issuing a moratorium would not unite Americans, a goal Biden has identified, but divide them, Gordon said.
“It is a reinvigoration of top-down, Obama-era policies that only served to divide and alienate the very working-class American communities with whom the Biden administration has pledged to unite,” he said. “It is clear President Biden has caved in to a loud segment of the Democratic Party that is pushing to require all policies and decisions to meet a litmus test of climate change, regardless of consequence.”
