Statement from Anne Bradbury, AXPC CEO:

“Environmental protection and energy production are not mutually exclusive. We can both protect our federal lands and waters and produce affordable and reliable energy here in America.

“Blocking American companies from accessing our country’s natural resources is bad for American jobs, bad for state budgets, and bad for national security.  It also raises serious legal concerns.

“Less production domestically means importing more oil and gas from less regulated, unstable nations.  When the federal government works with states and companies to ensure safe and environmentally protective oil and natural gas production, the results are good-paying jobs, and resources states need for vital services like public education and health care.”

Additional Support Points:

• • The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for managing the federal government’s onshore oil and gas program, including leasing and permitting of oil and gas exploration, development, and production activities on federal and Native American lands.
    • Under the Mineral Leasing Act, the secretary is required to hold lease sales on a quarterly basis in states where eligible lands are available.

• • Acreage administered by the federal government includes 28 percent of the nation’s total onshore land area controlled by the government. In 2015, 24 percent of our nation’s coal, oil, and natural gas was mined or extracted from federal lands (Chamber report, page 8)

• • A study by the American Petroleum Institute (API) estimates that a federal leasing ban would increase energy imports and increase emissions:
    • US oil imports would increase by estimated 2 million barrels per day by 2030 under a ban on development on federal lands.
    • There would be a 5.5% increase in CO2 emissions in the power sector by 2030 under the ban.

• • We produce the cleanest and safest oil and natural gas here at home, and our country will not stop consuming oil and gas just because it is not produced in the US.  Even under the International Energy Agency (IEA) Sustainable Development Scenario, which assumes every country meets their Paris commitments, the world will still get almost 50 percent of our energy from oil and gas in 2040. If American production is limited or restricted by bans on production, the energy needed to meet our demands will be exported from countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia.

• • Drilling royalties generated for the federal and state governments — including Democratic-led states such as New Mexico and Colorado – provide enormous sums of money that is used for vital federal and state services.
    • Nationwide, activity on BLM-managed land has a $105 billion economic impact. Oil and gas activities on federal lands contributed $12 billion in revenue to the U.S. government in FY 2019, $4.8 billion of which was generated from onshore activities.
    • A significant amount of that revenue is disbursed to state governments to help support local communities. The two states that benefitted the most from this are New Mexico and Wyoming, which received $1.2 billion and $641 million, respectively, in FY 2019.

• • Oil and gas production on federal lands and waters supports hundreds of thousands of American jobs. Banning production would be a huge economic hit, especially as the country is trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent study found:
    • The total hit to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2040 in western states alone from a leasing or drilling ban would be $640 billion and $670 billion, respectively. Annual job losses would be 343,088 and 351,555.
    • A ban on new oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands would cost eight Western states $8.1 billion in tax revenue and $34.1 billion in investment in the next five years.
    • According to the Western Energy Alliance: By the end of the first Biden term, GDP would be down $43.8 billion under a drilling ban while wiping out 72,818 jobs annually.

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