Biden federal leasing pause won’t impact energy production this year, agency says

President Biden’s temporary moratorium on leasing federal lands and waters for oil and gas drilling is expected to have “no effects” until 2022, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said this week. 

“No effects will likely occur until 2022 because there is roughly a minimum eight-to-ten month delay from leasing to production in onshore areas,” the EIA said in its “short-term energy outlook.” 

It forecasted that in 2022, the change will result in a dip of less than 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day. As of 2018, the country produced an average of nearly 11 million barrels per day of crude oil. 

In a January executive order, Biden temporarily paused the issuance of new oil and gas leases “pending completion of a comprehensive review and reconsideration of Federal oil and gas permitting and leasing practices.”

His order did not affect existing leases or stop the Interior Department from issuing new permits to drill on existing leases, though the department is subjecting those leases to an elevated review process.  

It is not clear when the leasing pause will end, but during her confirmation hearing, Interior nominee Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) said “It’s not going to be a permanent thing where we’re saying we’re restricting all these lands from something.”

However, while he was on the campaign trail, Biden pledged to ban new oil and gas permitting on federal lands and waters.