Colorado Receives $38 Million for Conservation, But Biden Ban Risks Future Funds

​DENVER – Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recently announced Rocky Mountain National Park and other public lands across Colorado will receive $38.1 million for maintenance and repairs under the new Great American Outdoors Act. However, the state 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.”

Of the $1.6 billion available nationwide in 2021, Rocky Mountain National Park will receive $32 million towards its $78 million deferred maintenance backlog to rehabilitate water systems and campground facilities. Colorado’s remaining $6.1 million allocation will go to seven infrastructure projects to improve recreation access, roads, and emergency communication on Bureau of Land Management lands.
 
Colorado’s oil and natural gas industry contributed $67 million in royalty revenues that enable the park maintenance investments. Contrast Colorado’s $38 million share to states that received more funding despite contributing next to nothing:

• Virginia - $247.5 million
• North Carolina - $153.8 million
• New York - $50.5 million
• Washington - $50.3 million

​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 maintenance 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 iconic public lands,” added Sgamma.

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