Member Login

WESTERN ENERGY ALLIANCE

  • THE ALLIANCE
    • ABOUT
    • CONNECT
    • NEWSROOM
    • SOURCE ROCK BLOG
  • GET INVOLVED
    • EVENTS
    • MEMBER BENEFITS
    • MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
    • POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
  • ADVOCACY
    • REGULATORY
    • PUBLIC LANDS >
      • GREAT AMERICAN OUTDOORS ACT
      • VOICES AGAINST THE BIDEN BAN
    • WILDLIFE
    • LEGAL
    • MARKET ACCESS
  • MEMBERS
    • Member Portal
    • Get Connected
  • THE ALLIANCE
    • ABOUT
    • CONNECT
    • NEWSROOM
    • SOURCE ROCK BLOG
  • GET INVOLVED
    • EVENTS
    • MEMBER BENEFITS
    • MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
    • POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE
  • ADVOCACY
    • REGULATORY
    • PUBLIC LANDS >
      • GREAT AMERICAN OUTDOORS ACT
      • VOICES AGAINST THE BIDEN BAN
    • WILDLIFE
    • LEGAL
    • MARKET ACCESS
  • MEMBERS
    • Member Portal
    • Get Connected

Press Releases

Biden Ban Risks Future Conservation Funding

4/13/2021

 
Picture
​DENVER – Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recently announced $1.6 billion for maintenance and repairs at national parks and other public lands under the new Great American Outdoors Act. However, the country could see a significant reduction in conservation funding in the future because President Biden is risking the program’s largest source of revenues: oil and natural gas production on public lands.
 
“The investment Sec. Haaland announced for America’s national parks is not possible without oil and natural gas production on federal lands, which provides practically all the funding,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance. “Yet she and the president are on a path to eliminate the very source of revenue that underwrites the conservation program. By banning new leasing and embarking on policies to make development on existing leases prohibitive, the federal government will soon struggle to pay for public lands conservation. The policies that are the hallmark of the first 100 days are, paradoxically, a good way to ensure the massive backlog of maintenance at national parks remains into the future. Besides killing up to 58,676 oil and natural gas related jobs annually, the president’s ban threatens over 108,000 long-term jobs fixing national park infrastructure.”

The National Park Service will receive $1.158 billion for infrastructure projects that include maintaining visitor centers, trails, campgrounds, roads, bridges, and water systems. The funds will help reduce the Park Service’s $13.1 billion backlog of deferred maintenance. The Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Education, and national wildlife refuges will receive $265 million for similar infrastructure improvements.
 
No money will be allocated to national parks in New Mexico and Utah despite the states contributing $1.3 billion and $66.3 million, respectively, in oil and natural gas royalties. Contrast their shares to these states which provide next to no federal royalties:
 
  • Virginia - $247.5 million
  • North Carolina - $153.8 million
  • New York - $50.5 million
  • Washington - $50.3 million
  • New Jersey - $28.3 million
  • Massachusetts - $25.4 million
  • Oregon - $12.5 million
 
“It’s astounding that New Mexico and Utah contribute so much in oil and natural gas wealth for the country but are rewarded so meagerly. Instead of addressing needs at the iconic parks of the West like Chaco Canyon, Arches and Zion, prosperous costal states are allowed to cash in,” added Sgamma.
 
The funds are authorized under the Great American Outdoors Act passed by Congress in an overwhelming bipartisan fashion last summer. The act authorizes up to $1.9 billion annually, predominantly from oil and natural gas production on non-park, non-wilderness public lands, for maintenance and conservation in national parks and other protected public lands. The act also permanently funds the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund to the tune of $900 million annually, which is exclusively generated from offshore oil and natural gas. Western Energy Alliance supported the bill because it provides an appropriate balance between responsible energy development on working landscapes while preserving our nation’s treasured public spaces.
 
“The federal oil and natural gas program is the primary source of new conservation and infrastructure funding for public lands. With his ban on federal oil and natural gas leasing, President Biden is risking $2.8 billion annually for our national parks and other treasured landscapes,” concluded Sgamma.
# # #

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    January 2019

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

​Sitemap   |  Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | ©2020 Western Energy Alliance
1660 Lincoln Street, Suite 2175
​
Denver, CO 80264
​(303) 623-0987
Picture