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SOURCE ROCK BLOG

Save Our Cars

11/6/2023

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We were glad to see the automakers are finally standing up for the internal combustion engine (ICE).  Filing comments on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards as the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, several major automakers blasted the rule and requested major changes. NHTSA proposed boosting fuel standards 2% per year for passenger cars and 4% for pickup trucks and SUVs from 2027 through 2032. The American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the Detroit Three automakers, estimates automakers would face more than $14 billion in non-compliance penalties between 2027 and 2032, thereby increasing average vehicles prices by $3,000.


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Yet More Ways to Say No on Colorado’s West Slope

11/3/2023

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Our friends at the Institute for Energy Research have a running list of the ways the Biden Administration has suppressed American oil and natural gas. We’d like to focus on just one of the 176 we’re dealing with, a Resource Management Plan (RMP) amendment for public lands on the West Slope of Colorado. The RMP would close 1.566 million acres to oil and natural gas leasing. The justification? These lands have “no-known, low, or medium potential” for oil and natural gas, or so BLM would have you believe.
 
BLM is basing its resource assessment on a 2002 U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) study, well before technological advances and the shale revolution that has unlocked huge resources from shales like the Mancos found in western Colorado. BLM blithely dismisses the need to update its assessment because, and we’re not kidding, “geology remains constant.”


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Correcting Misinformation from Lawmakers

10/10/2023

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I recently testified before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals. Right out of the gate, Ranking Member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez falsely claimed in her opening statement that nearly a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from fossil fuel production on federal lands and waters. When it came for my opening remarks, rather than start with my written testimony, I took the opportunity to correct the misinformation. Actually, fossil fuel production on federal lands accounts for just 0.7% of U.S. GHGs or three orders of magnitude less.
But some members of the Subcommittee just didn’t believe me. In what was meant to be a gotcha question, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) submitted the following Question for the Record in which he doubled down on AOC’s false talking point. Here’s my reply, using the best available data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

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Time to Call Interior’s Bluff on Oil and Natural Gas Production Claims

9/12/2023

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​Biden officials at the Department of the Interior have been lucky that lawmakers haven’t challenged their claims on oil and natural gas production being up on federal lands. In multiple congressional hearings Interior officials have held stoic poker faces while holding a weak hand, and well-mannered lawmakers have failed to call their bluff.
 
Well the pot is ripe, and it’s time to call.

​A recent analysis of Interior’s production data by the Alliance shows that in all key states, except one, oil and natural gas are still down from pre-COVID production levels.
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Sec. Haaland’s Ethics Vulnerabilities

9/4/2023

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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is facing new questions about her decision to withdraw land from oil and natural gas leasing around the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. An ethics complaint was filed against the secretary by the watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust, which requested that the Department of the Interior (DOI) investigate several public statements and actions that made clear Secretary Haaland’s decision was pre-determined.

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Whole-of-Government Approach to Prevent American Production

9/1/2023

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We’re experiencing an onslaught of new regulations targeting oil and natural gas production from the Biden Administration. No sooner did we get our comments out the door on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) conservation and landscape health rule then the next BLM rule dropped. The recently proposed bonding and royalties rule aims to implement royalty and other fee increases from the inaptly named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), but more concerningly, add new bonding requirements that Congress jettisoned from IRA.
 
Despite the fact that there are only 37 orphan wells on BLM lands and only 40 calls on bonds over the last decade, the rule plows ahead with essentially what anti-oil-and-gas groups have been pushing for: the disruption of the bond market for oil and natural gas by increasing bonds to prohibitive levels, particularly for small companies.


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Three Years of the Great American Outdoors Act

8/31/2023

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​The three-year anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) is a good time to reflect on all the conservation and infrastructure benefits that have come from the $8.4 billion in funding and consider improvements that can be made to the law. We’re proud that 96% of GAOA’s funding comes from onshore and offshore oil and natural gas royalties. The hundreds of projects funded so far show the balance that can be achieved in managing our nation’s public lands.


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Biden Officials Praise Natural Gas as “Climate Friendly.” Why the Contradiction?

8/1/2023

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There’s a good reason people feel they can’t get a straight answer out of Washington on climate and environmental issues. Recent conflicting news stories about natural gas are good examples as to why. While Biden officials and some lawmakers are attempting to scare consumers into believing they’re damaging the environment by using natural gas when cooking dinner or taking a hot shower, their rhetoric is undercut by their effusive praise at other times for natural gas’s climate benefits.

​In an easily overlooked announcement made far away from Washington, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Park Service (NPS) touted the addition of a fleet of natural gas and electric buses to transport tourists around Grand Canyon National Park. The fleet consists of 20 compressed natural gas (CNG) buses and 10 battery electric buses. The focus of the announcement was on the climate benefits of the new buses.

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Sec. Haaland Ignored Navajo Sovereignty in Chaco Withdrawal

7/18/2023

 
​Voices of Navajo Nation were ignored by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland when she decided to lock up over 336 million acres in northwestern New Mexico, according to tribal witnesses during a recent congressional hearing.
 
The president of the Navajo Nation, Buu Nygren, expressed his frustration before the House Committee on Natural Resources as lawmakers consider legislation to reverse Secretary Haaland’s decision to establish a ten-mile buffer around Chaco Culture Historical National Park.
​“The legislative body of the Navajo Nation Council and I are unified in our opposition to the ten-mile buffer. The withdrawal was done without meaningful consultation and fails to honor the Navajo Nation sovereignty. Respect for tribal sovereignty must be consistent, even when it is not convenient. The nation offered a compromise that honored Navajo sovereignty and the rights of our allottees, but that was rejected with inadequate explanation from the administration.”

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Local Bans on Natural Gas Hook-Ups Hit a Wall, Biden's DOE Should Take Notice

4/19/2023

 
No sooner had I submitted our comments opposing the Department of Energy’s (DOE) energy conservation standards for cooking products, then this gem came across my desk from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It relates to the very same law, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), that governs the DOE rule. I would have liked to refer to the ruling, but then again, it doesn’t matter, since it dropped from California just at the close of business deadline on the East Coast. The timing is quite delicious, as the proposed rule seeks to underhandedly ban natural gas stoves, likewise in violation of EPCA.
 
The ruling overturns the City of Berkley’s ban on natural gas hookups because the ordinance violates EPCA’s federal pre-emption of state and local laws regarding the energy use of natural gas appliances.
 
“The Act expressly preempts State and local regulations concerning the energy use of many natural gas appliances, including those used in household and restaurant kitchens. Instead of directly banning those appliances in new buildings, Berkeley took a more circuitous route to the same result and enacted a building code that prohibits natural gas piping into those buildings, rendering the gas appliances useless.”

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