WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) questioned Mark Mills, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, on the climate impact of President Biden’s executive order to ban new oil, gas, and coal leases. Mills confirmed the ban will be ineffective as a means to address climate change. 

Mills is also a faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he co-directs an Institute on Manufacturing Science and Innovation.   

Mills testified at a hearing to examine global climate trends and progress in addressing climate change before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.   

On the Ineffectiveness Biden Leasing Ban will have on Climate: 

Barrasso: “Last week, President Biden signed an executive order prohibiting new oil, gas, and coal leasing and permitting on federal lands and waters. Is there any reason to believe that executive order by President Biden is going to reduce the amount of oil and gas that the world will consume?” 

Mills: “I can make that answer an easy and short one. No. There’s no reason to believe that will happen. The world’s consumption of oil, recovering particularly from the great lockdowns, is going to increase, not decrease.” 

Barrasso: “Is it fair to characterize President Biden’s executive order as completely ineffective as a means to address climate change?” 

Mills: “As a practical means, it is utterly ineffective. It will not reduce the consumption of oil or the emissions of carbon dioxide from the combustion of petroleum.” 

Barrasso: “Is it fair to expect that President Biden’s executive order is going to outsource American oil and gas production – and the tens of thousands of American jobs that come with it – to foreign countries, including OPEC members and Russia?” 

Mills: “The short answer is yes. But also, by increasing the use of batteries here to offset that oil –if it were to be mandated – we will also export jobs and economic development for that to those nations that make those minerals and materials as I’ve outlined.”

Click here for video of Sen. Barrasso questioning Mills.

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