Republican Claims About Biden’s Oil Leasing ‘Ban’ Fall Flat

Industry and GOP lawmakers argued the oil and gas leasing pause would devastate the U.S. energy sector. A new report found it's had a minimal impact.

For months, fossil fuel industry-allied Republicans have been up in arms about the Biden administration’s pause — which they’ve falsely dubbed a “ban” — on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. President Joe Biden’s “illegal ban has hurt workers and deprived Wyoming and other states of a principal source of revenue that they use for public education,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) declared in a June tweet.  In reality, oil and gas production in Wyoming and across the West is recovering after the major hit it took during the coronavirus pandemic. Permits to drill for oil and gas on federal lands have increased under Biden’s watch and, according to an Associated Press review, are on pace to reach their highest level since the George W. Bush administration.