Earlier this week, Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma testified at a joint virtual forum hosted by the Congressional Western Caucus and the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Republican members. Lawmakers held the event on the anniversary of Pres. Biden’s first year in the White House to explore how his policies have contributed to increased energy prices.
 
The discussion focused on the consequences of the Biden Ban on federal leasing, the overreaching threats from the Build Back Better Act, and overregulation from the Department of the Interior and other agencies that will further dampen American production. Participants also explored how to reverse the administration’s policies, the climate benefits of producing oil and natural gas in the United States, and Interior slow walking the permitting process. 

Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle held that Chesapeake Energy was wrongly denied intervention in litigation challenging numerous Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and natural gas lease sales in the District Court of Idaho. Environmental groups have repeatedly challenged sales conducted since 2015, primarily in five lawsuits in the district courts of Idaho, Montana, and Washington, DC. The latest ruling represents a backfire in the plaintiffs’ plans to choose those jurisdictions and sidestep Wyoming, Colorado or Utah (the states where the vast majority of the leases were issued) as they forum shopped for activist judges who would put a finger on the scale and rule in their favor.