Biden’s Fracking Moratorium is Erasing Much Needed Production

January 27, 2021

The Biden Administration has taken action to keep one of its most radical campaign promises, extending a ban on new leases for drilling and fracking on federal lands and waters for a full year. This decision comes only days after President Biden signed an executive order that put drilling and fracking on hold for 60 days – a decision that has already cost thousands of American jobs.

Fox Business reports:

A fracking ban on federal lands would deliver a devastating blow to the U.S. economy, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The organization projects a $700 billion hit to U.S. gross domestic product should the ban be extended through 2030. Such action would also erase $9 billion of revenue, some of which is used to fund education and conservation programs.

API also projects that one million job losses would occur by 2022, eliminating nearly one-tenth of the 10.3 million jobs that the natural gas and oil industry supports. This is all not even to mention the actual production of energy that is being halted as a result of this decision. 

Oil production from federal land and water accounted for over 954 million barrels in 2019 – 22% of all U.S. oil production and 12% of natural gas production. All of this production also accounts for $6 billion in federal revenue. Still, while Biden wasted no time shutting down all of these jobs, revenue streams and sources of energy, he’s yet to present a means of replacing them.