Obama Admin Quietly Enables Oil and Gas Drilling on Public Lands and Waters, Weakens Endangered Species Act

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As eyes turned to the most viewed presidential debate in U.S. history, the Obama administration meanwhileย quietly auctioned off thousands of acres of land for oil and gas drilling in national forests, opened up 119 million acres forย offshore drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico, and delivered a blow toย the Endangered Speciesย Act.ย 

The Endangered Species Act rule changeย followedย a multi-yearย lobbying campaign by the oil and gas industry andย occurred the morning before the debateย unfolded.

The leasing decisionsย came just weeks earlier, with the most recent oneย taking place as an onlineย rather than in-person drilling lease auction,ย the productย of industry and U.S. government backlash against efforts such as the Keep It In The Ground campaign which aimย to block fossil fuel projectย development.

Collectively, the announcements coincide with the release of a report by the group Oil Change International, which crunched the โ€œclimate mathโ€ numbers and concluded that governments must stop both permitting new fossil fuel projects andย tapping into a huge swath ofย existing oil and gas fields and coalย mines.

First Onlineย Lease

As chronicled by DeSmog, in recent months the Obama administration has increasingly shifted toward holdingย online auctions for oil and gas on public lands and in public waters,ย in backlash against the Keep It In The Groundย movement.

One politicallyย connected company in particularย โ€” EnergyNetย โ€” stands to profit from the shift away from in-person oral auctionsย for fossil fuel leases, which are open to the public and provide a more visible platform forย protests.ย 

On September 20ย EnergyNet conducted the second ever solely online auction on behalf of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). EnergyNet also ran the first such auction asย a pilot testย in 2009. Thisย latest auctionย was held for oil and gas leases located on over 4,000 acres of public lands in the Homochitto and Bienville National Forests inย Mississippi.ย 

โ€œI am pleased that Eastern States was able to be the first BLM office to use this new authority,โ€ย BLM Eastern States Director Karen Mouritsen said in a press release. โ€œThe success of this effort builds upon the experience of other government agencies with online auctions, and gives the BLM another tool to efficiently administer its oil and gasย program.โ€

Magnum Producing wasย the company that came out on top inย this online auction, winning every single parcel of land and payingย only $18.23 per acre, according to BLMย data.

Image Credit: U.S. Bureau of Landย Management

119 Million Acres in theย Gulf ofย Mexico

Less than a week before the BLM Eastern States online auction, the Obama administration announced another lease auction, scheduled forย March 2017, in whichย 47 millionย acres off the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabamaย will be available for offshoreย drilling.ย 

โ€œAs one of the most productive basins in the world, the Gulf of Mexico remains a critical component of the Administrationโ€™s domestic energy strategy to create jobs, foster economic opportunities, and reduce Americaโ€™s dependence on foreign oil,โ€ U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)ย Director Abigail Ross Hopper said in a press release. โ€œThe exploration and development of the Gulf of Mexicoโ€™s vital energy resources will continue to help power our nation and drive ourย economy.โ€

Just weeks earlier on August 19, BOEM, which is administering the Gulf offshore drilling lease auction,ย opened up for public comment aย 2018 lease of another 72 million acres of Gulf of Mexico waters to the oil and gas industry. That bringsย the total toย 119 millionย acres in theย Gulf of Mexicoย now up for grabs in the next two years, which will beย under the watch of a new presidentialย administration.ย 

Gutting the Endangered Speciesย Act

On the morning of the presidential debate,ย the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA‘s National Marine Fisheries Serviceย unveiled rulesย which are expected to increase the difficulty ofย listing animals and plants under the protections ofย the Endangered Speciesย Act.ย 

The new rules โ€œrestrict the ability of ordinary citizens, scientists, and public-interest organizations to obtain Endangered Species Act protections for species on the brink of extinction,โ€ explained the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) in a press release. โ€œThe new rules eliminate the ability of the public to submit multispecies petitions and require that 30 days prior to submitting a petition, the petitioner must notify every state where an imperiled species mayย live.โ€

According to CBD, these changes haveย long been on the oil and gas industry wish list.ย CBD also told DeSmog via email that the organization sees it as a form of โ€œappeasementโ€ to the oil and gas industry, as well as right-wing states and politicians. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT),ย Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources, praised the Obama administrationย for the changeย but said more needs to be done by the nextย administration.

โ€œThis announcement is a call for help from the administration and an acknowledgement that ESA is broken,โ€ said Bishopย (sic).

โ€œThese revisions give the appearance that state input will improve and that closed-door settlements will no longer drive petition and listing decisions. Unfortunately, serial environmental litigation will continue to drive ESA policy, and there is nothing the agencies can do about it unless we reform the underlying statute. No matter who wins the White House in November, the lawโ€™s failings necessitateย reform.โ€

Bishop, in citing โ€œclosed-doorโ€ legal settlements, echoed a โ€œsue and settleโ€ talking point deployed by the likes ofย industry-funded groups like theย U.S. Chamber of Commerce,ย the Western Energy Alliance (WEA),ย and Endangered Species Watch.

In a report titled โ€œSue and Settle: Regulating Behind Closed Doors,โ€ the U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes the concept as โ€œwhen an agency intentionally relinquishes its statutory discretion by accepting lawsuits from outside groups that effectively dictate the priorities and duties of the agency through legally binding, court-approved settlements negotiated behind closedย doors.โ€

Bishop’s top campaign contributors for his re-election campaign include BP, ExxonMobil, Koch Industries,ย andย others.

Anti-ESAย Advocacy

The oil and gas industry at-large has engaged in a years-long lobbying and influence-peddling campaign to gut the Endangered Species Act, led in the forefront by WEA and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA). IPAA created the hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€) industry front group, Energy in Depth.

โ€œThe industry takes seriously its obligations to protect species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA),โ€ says WEA, which hosts a โ€œwildlife committeeโ€ meeting every month. โ€œHowever, misuse of the ESA can directly prevent energy development, ranching, farming, timber, mining, and other productive uses of the land. Far too often the ESA has been used as a means to prevent or delay responsible economic activity rather than for speciesย protection.โ€

Commenters on the proposed rule included fracking companies such as ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy,ย and pipeline giantย Williams Companies, as well as groups like IPAA,ย American Petroleum Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and an industry-funded front group called the Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition.ย Some of them โ€” such as Devon and the Chamber โ€” cited โ€œsue and settleโ€ in their submittedย comments.

Image Credit: Regulations.gov

Environmental and community groups submitted their own commentsย on the proposed rule change, sounding the alarm about the ability to petition government if the rule isย implemented.

โ€œThere would be an enormous chilling effect on citizensโ€™ fundamental right to petition their government if other federal agencies emulate the rules the Services are proposing here,โ€ they wrote. โ€œThe effectiveness of petitions as a driver of environmental protection and social justice would be diminished immediately, and would undeniably harm the interests of theย petitioner.โ€

The new rule goes into effect on October 27, roughly two weeks before Electionย Day.

Main photo: Oil Platformย Credit:ย Cipiota,ย CC BYSAย 3.0

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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