Wondering why gas prices are at a seven-year high?
It’s because of idiotic liberal polices like President Biden’s suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal land, and disingenuous policy crap like this:
It doesn’t make sense to lease taxpayer-owned public lands for next to nothing, blocking outdoor recreation and conservation. Today I introduced the COMPETES Act to end these giveaways. pic.twitter.com/lj5dv7mqEa
— Senator John Hickenlooper (@SenatorHick) October 7, 2021
Kathleen Sgamma, president of Western Energy Alliance, tells Colorado Politics that Hickenlooper’s claims are a complete fabrication.
“That’s blatant misinformation from a senator of a state with significant federal oil and natural gas production.”
The leases targeted by Hickenlooper and lobbyists for the Green New Deal are for subsurface exploration within a third of pubic lands that are high risk with low yield.
The lease means exploration could occur at some point, but it doesn’t prohibit recreation or conservation on the surface.
Hickenlooper told Bruce Finley, Denver Post reporter by day, Big Green lobbyists by night:
“Noncompetitive leasing encourages speculation on public lands at taxpayers’ expense,” said Hickenlooper, a Democrat who long has been seen by political observers and lawmakers as an ally of the oil and gas industry. “Westerners lose out when large swaths of land are set aside for speculation — instead of conservation or recreation.”
So in order to get some street cred with his far left base to prove he doesn’t support Big Energy, Hick wants to sacrifice smaller producers who are willing to invest in America’s domestic energy future?
Sgamma goes on to explain:
“There’s nothing speculative about leases with low potential that are not competitively acquired because the market doesn’t support a higher rate,” she said. “The low rate accurately reflects the market at that point in time. Most are not acquired, but those that are often are not developed, in which case no money is ‘speculatively’ made.”
On the occasion an energy producer gets lucky and hits pay dirt, that’s when the government takes its taste of the efforts and profit by jacking up future lease prices and collecting royalties.
Hickenlooper’s bill just seeks to spend more taxpayer dollars to make high-risk investments in energy leases even riskier.
And the loser continues to be the taxpayers at the pumps.