Congresswoman Lee Stands Up to Big Oil & Gas, Slams Speculative Leasing Practices
WASHINGTON – In a markup for the House Natural Resources Committee, Congresswoman Susie Lee (NV-03) delivered fiery remarks standing up to Big Oil & Gas companies who engage in speculative leasing practices that lock up public lands with little to no energy production to show for it, all at huge costs to the American taxpayer.
Nevada makes up two-thirds of the total acreage nominated for oil and gas leases nationwide. But since the 1950s, Nevada public lands leased for oil and gas drilling only produced energy 0.3% of the time. A particularly egregious example of this government inefficiency came in 2014, when a 28-million-acre nomination took the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) five years to process, much of which yielded zero actual energy production.
“Speculative leasing is actually one of the most charitable ways I know to describe [this] phenomenon,” said Congresswoman Susie Lee. “Another way to describe [it] is more simply just waste, or a boondoggle, or a drill to nowhere. Ultimately, no matter what you call it, it's an unacceptable economic and environmental burden on the people in the places we represent, and one borne by Nevadans most of all.”
Earlier this Congress, Congresswoman Lee introduced her End Speculative Oil and Gas Leasing Act to address the problem, which she called attention to in her remarks. The bill would update BLM’s administration of public lands, cut wasteful speculation, and allow lands with low or no oil and gas potential to be reprioritized for better uses such as conservation, housing, renewable energy, or infrastructure projects.
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