In an unprecedented and controversial move just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, outgoing President Joe Biden is working to ban oil and gas leases across the Nevada region for the next 20 years. Critics argue this decision, part of Biden's broader progressive environmental agenda, would undermine the United States’ goal of being energy independent, raise costs for Americans, and hurt U.S. jobs in the energy sector. As the nation prepares for a change in leadership, many conservatives view this as another example of the president’s aggressive push to impose regulations that benefit green energy activists while crippling traditional industries that have long fueled the U.S. economy. The timing of the move, just days before Trump's inauguration, is seen as an attempt to lock in policies that could be difficult to reverse.
The outgoing Biden Administration announced plans to prevent oil, gas, and geothermal leasing for over two decades on more than 264,000 acres of Nevada’s Ruby Mountains, including federal lands where interest in drilling has peaked.
Biden quickly submitted a request to withdraw the land from potential leasing, triggering a two-year ban on new mineral leases in the area during the approval process. The proposal now enters a 90-day public comment period, which will take place under the new Trump Administration.
The proposal, which does not include mining, was initially rejected in 2019 after the public comment period saw "thousands of comments from the local area, the state of Nevada, and across the nation" opposing such plans. More than 80 percent of the state is federally owned. However, federal leasing has been minimal, and the full extent of its hydrocarbon potential remains largely unknown.
During Trump’s first term, the Forest Service studied whether 54,000 acres could be leased for oil and gas drilling in the Ruby Mountains. Still, whether the incoming president would consider potential leases in Nevada is unclear.
Biden’s proposal starkly contrasts the energy policies promised by Trump, who aims to increase oil and gas production and move away from the president’s focus on so-called climate change and "clean energy." Trump’s energy plan for federal lands will be managed by Doug Burgum, his pick for Secretary of the Interior, who will also lead president-elect’s National Energy Council.
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