WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), issued the following statement regarding the Biden administration’s sue and settle tactics, that will reopen procedural environmental reviews on over 2,000 Wyoming oil and natural gas leases, covering nearly 2.5 million acres, sold between 2015 and 2020. A federal court recently approved settlement agreements between the Department of the Interior and allied environmental activist groups that will add extensive, bureaucratic review to nearly 4 million acres of oil and natural gas leases across the West (Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, and Utah).

“Oil and gas leasing on federal lands is essential to American energy production. President Biden has attacked leasing at every turn while begging for more oil from Iran, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. The Biden administration’s goal is to eliminate oil and gas leasing on federal lands. This means even higher energy prices and greater American dependence on foreign oil. Joe Biden continues to lie to the American people. His policies are making it harder to produce U.S. energy, increasing prices, and destroying Wyoming jobs.”

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