Publisher’s Note: A New University of Wyoming Study Details the Economic Effects of a Biden-Harris Administration Leasing and Drilling Ban on Federal Lands.
Source: Reuters
Authored by Dr. Timothy Considine, a Professor of Energy Economics with the School of Energy Resources and the Department of Economics at the University of Wyoming, the study meticulously lays out the revenue and job loss data state-by-state.
This is a must read.
The study focuses on eight western states, which represent 97% of federal natural gas production and 99% of federal oil production including Alaska, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
One possibly overlooked fact in this study that the Editor’s at Oil & Gas 360 find compelling is that the devastating effects of a “Lease Moratorium” and a “Drilling Ban” are nearly identical. Politically, however, we suspect using the term “Lease Moratorium” in any possible Executive Order or Agency action will provide the prerequisite semantic mishmash required for a new Biden-Harris administration to claim fidelity to the campaign promise that they “won’t ban fracking”.
Taking into consideration the economic and employment impact of COVID, this study highlights the negative economic amplification effects such policies would have on these western state’s general budgets, education funds, unemployment resources and housing markets as they try and recover from the pandemic. In addition, a reasonable extension of this state-level analysis would expose the resulting, and equally negative, impacts on the Federal deficit and the cost of energy and gasoline for US manufacturing and everyday American’s.
The complete study can be found HERE. (https://www.wyoenergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Final-Report-Federal-Leasing-Drilling-Ban-Policies-121420.pdf)
In addition, you can read the Western Energy Alliance statement on this study “The Fiscal and Economic Impacts of Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Lease Moratorium and Drilling Ban Policies” HERE. (https://www.westernenergyalliance.org/pressreleases/biden-ban-on-public-lands-to-cost-economy-670-billion-over-20-years)
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