Western Energy Alliance Responds to Biden’s Leasing Ban in Ad Campaign

​DENVER – Western Energy Alliance today launched an advertising campaign to educate westerners on the economic costs of President Biden’s ban on new oil and natural gas leasing on public lands. The ad highlights that nearly 58,700 jobs a year will be lost under the president’s recent executive order as well as $8.3 billion for vital public services for all citizens in eight states across the West.
 
The Alliance’s two-week ad campaign starts today as the U.S. Senate considers the nomination of Rep. Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior. If confirmed, Haaland would administer Biden’s leasing ban, which the Alliance is challenging in court. The ad is running on digital music streaming services in states that produce the most oil and natural gas on public lands including New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and North Dakota.

​“President Biden has decided to sacrifice the livelihoods of tens of thousands of hard-working westerners to appease environmental activists in his party” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Alliance. “The folly of their ultimate agenda to stop all American oil and natural gas production has been on full display in Texas. People are seriously harmed when they don’t have access to reliable, affordable energy that keeps them warm in the winter with the electricity running. By disadvantaging western production, he’s adding further instability to the energy sources all Americans rely on.
 
“Rep. Deb Haaland has shown hostility to the very oil and natural gas development that sustains the state and district she represents. If confirmed as Interior Secretary, she’ll oversee about a quarter of American’s energy production. If she cannot rise to that responsibility, which includes honoring a fiduciary trust to energy-producing tribes, she will seriously put all Americans at risk. We hope the confirmation process helps her understand the energy responsibility she is about to take on, and we wish her well throughout the process.
 
“In the West, oil and natural gas resources are inextricably bound to federal public lands, and therefore, to the men and women of the industry who work there. Likewise, we are inextricably bound to the Department of the Interior, which oversees those public lands. We are excited that the country is on the verge of its first Native American Interior Secretary, as she represents a vital constituency for the Department. However, we hope Rep. Haaland will approach another vital aspect of her presumptive new role without the hostility she has displayed to it in the past.”
 
The ad is available on the Alliance website and YouTube channel.
 
By the end of his first term, Pres. Biden’s ban would result in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) across eight western states declining by $33.5 billion, 58,676 jobs would be lost annually, wages would drop $15 billion, and state tax revenue would plummet $8.3 billion. Wyoming and New Mexico would be hit the hardest. Additional information on the economic impacts of Biden’s ban is available on the Alliance’s website, including the full economic study from the Wyoming Energy Authority.
 
The Alliance filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming on January 27th challenging Biden’s executive order banning oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands as exceeding presidential authority

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