Q: Which administration approved oil and gas leases at a faster pace: Biden’s or Trump’s?
A: Much to many peoples dismay, and despite his promise to halt new leases on public land, Biden has outpaced Trump in issuing drilling permits on public lands.
Q: How much public land is currently open to oil and gas drilling?
A: More than 26 million acres are under lease to the oil and gas industry. Nearly 13.9 million (53%) of those acres are not in production. There is no shortage of land in the U.S. available for oil and gas exploration and production.
Q: Who determines the rate of oil and gas production in the U.S.: oil companies or the administration?
A: The oil companies. They produce oil and gas based on economic factors, not administration policy.
Q: Is the U.S. self-sufficient in oil and gas production?
A: Yes; sort of. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, more oil and gas is produced in the U.S. than is consumed in the U.S. However, some of that production is exported to other countries and imports are required to make up the shortfall. If all the oil and gas produced in the U.S. were consumed in the U.S., we would not need to import any.
Q: If the U.S. produces enough oil and gas to meet our needs, why have prices gone up so much in the last six months?
A: Oil and gas production is a complex international market. If world energy demand exceeds supply, then the price goes up. It goes up around the world and the oil companies make more money. The price increases are not due to current administration policies. To claim so shows a gross misunderstanding of the way the world economy works.
Q: What is the best way to address the steep rise in fossil fuel prices?
A: In the immediate short term it is to produce more oil and gas. But in the long term we must reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and transition to clean sources of energy that will not be subject to the wild fluctuations in price that we are currently seeing. We must make the U.S. truly independent in clean energy production and break our reliance on global oil. We must speed up the transition to clean energy production and make America a leader in this field.
Q: What might this energy transition look like?
A: We are going to need fossil fuels for some time into the future. But burning fossil fuels releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane that are warming our planet at the fastest rate in many centuries. This is resulting in the increased disasters we see every year – more wildfires and smoke, increased flooding, more intense hurricanes, sea level rise, more deaths due to increased rates of heat stroke, asthma, and COPD, to name but a few.
If we keep on our current fossil energy path all these damaging impacts will be much worse in just a couple of decades. Last year the International Energy Agency reported that if we are to avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet, all nations need to immediately stop approving new coal-fired power plants and new oil and gas fields and swiftly phase out gasoline powered vehicles. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, 69 percent of Americans want Congress and the administration to make developing clean sources of energy a high priority and transition the U.S. economy to 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
We need to make the energy transition as quickly as we can so as to not saddle our grandchildren with poor health and the huge cost of mopping up after multiple disasters. Economists overwhelmingly agree that the best way to do this is to put a price on carbon pollution and return the money raised to the American people. This concept is known as Carbon Fee and Dividend. Learn more about it here: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/dividend-delivery-study/ Call, text, or email Sens. Cortez Masto and Rosen and Rep. Amodei and ask them to support this policy.
Chas Macquarie is a Carson City resident.
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