Senator John Hoeven is continuing his effort to push Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to stop blocking oil and gas production on federal lands, and called on Haaland to comply with a recent federal district court ruling that ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to resume quarterly oil and gas lease sales for federal lands in North Dakota.

Despite the ruling requiring BLM to release, within two weeks, a schedule of quarterly lease sales for 2023, the agency has yet to commit to holding any lease sales in North Dakota, having only released an anticipated lease sale for June 2023.

“More supply is the answer to rising energy costs, but due to the Biden administration’s harmful policies, U.S. oil production overall remains down, with North Dakota oil production having decreased by nearly half a million barrels per day,” said Hoeven. “President Biden wants to cherry pick data and take credit for leases and permits approved under the Trump administration, but the reality is that his administration’s policies, along with lawsuits from his environmentalist allies, are resulting in higher prices for American consumers."

The proposed overhaul of public lands management comes as the latest of the Biden administration’s efforts to curtail U.S. oil, gas and coal development. Last year, the Department of the Interior significantly reduced access to federal oil and gas reserves, only allowing 20 percent of available acreage for oil and gas leasing, while also raising production fees on the lands by 50 percent. It followed the administration's issuance of a moratorium on permitting for oil, natural gas and coal development on federal lands.

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