They argue that the Biden administration is directly preventing them from drilling more through regulation.
While overall permitting is up this year from last, the pace at which the Bureau of Land Management has approved applications for permits to drill on existing federal land leases slowed significantly throughout the summer in what industry groups argue is a reflection of the administration's priority of restricting oil and gas production.
The bureau approved 671 permit applications in April, a number that progressively dwindled each month through August.
Separately, the Biden administration announced last month that government regulators will begin to comprehensively analyze greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas lease sales on federal lands. The BLM insists it would defer offering oil and gas leases on some western public lands that had been scheduled to go up for auction in early 2022 while it completes emissions assessments and considers their social cost.
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Such actions, and the administration's move to require the Interior's Department's political appointees to review certain oil and gas leasing decisions rather than career BLM officials, are "constraining" producers who rely on federal lands, Stewart asserted.
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For a range of other producers wishing to expand, many are having an exceptionally difficult time raising capital to do so.
Stewart pointed to the administration's moratorium on new oil and gas leases, which President Joe Biden ordered in January and a federal judge blocked in June, forcing the administration to restart the sales, as well as the closure of the Keystone XL pipeline, methane regulations, and a proposed rule change from the Labor Department to allow retirement plans to more easily add investment options based on environmental, social, and governance considerations, saying they have scared the capital markets off even more.
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"There are actions and there are signals, and the markets respond to both," he insisted.
Eberhart said the Labor Department move has especially weighed on investors, adding new pressures to direct capital away from companies seen as contributing to social injustice and climate change. Critics assert the rule and ESG more broadly amount to the politicization of investment strategies.
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"These concerns existed before Biden, but his climate policies are sending a stronger message to producers and investors about Washington’s hesitancy to remain a top oil and gas producer," pointed out Eberhart.
Beyond capital issues, firms are staring down some of the same supply and labor shortages as are industries across the board, according to Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance.
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The Biden administration has argued in recent weeks that its actions and the broader transition to clean energy are not responsible for the high prices of oil and natural gas, with Amos Hochstein, the administration’s senior energy security adviser at the State Department, recently calling the notion a "political talking point" that "has no merit and is not backed by the facts."
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