Tracy Stone-Manning Defends Admin’s Goal to End Oil, Gas, Coal Production
U.S. Senator Steve Daines today at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing delivered remarks taking President Biden’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Tracy Stone-Manning to task for the Administration’s radical anti-energy policies that are harming Montana families and communities.
Watch Daines’ opening remarks HERE.
“Director Stone-Manning, I would like to talk about the last three and a half years. This is the first time you are back in front of this Committee since your nomination hearing in June 2021. Since then, actions your agency has taken or failed to take have been devastating to Montana and our rural communities that depend on federal lands for their livelihoods.
“It is no secret that the Biden Administration, the EPA, the Department of the Interior, and BLM are doing everything they can to eliminate oil, eliminate gas, eliminate coal production in the United States.
“If anybody doubts that, go to the WhiteHouse.gov website. You can see it says, ‘Stop LNG. Eliminate fossil fuels.’ At least they’re public about it.
“Let me name just a few actions that impact Montana.
“On Day One, President Biden cancels the Keystone XL Pipeline, a gut punch to so many Eastern Montana counties, a million barrels a day stopped by Joe Biden.
“Day one, Biden starts stopping oil and gas leasing on federal lands.
“Then we’ve had an onslaught of rules from the EPA. Methane rules targeting small oil and gas producers.
“The MATS and Clean Power Plan 2.0 that’s targeting the Colstrip power plant. We are now on a path, two of our four Colstrip units have been shut down. Power units, the last two now, will be shut down unless these overreaches coming from the Biden administration are stopped.
“The Department of Energy stops, they said pause, good grief, they stopped LNG export permits.
“The Office of Surface Mining slow walks coal permits in Montana in hopes the mines will be forced to close down.
“And now to the BLM. The BLM has only held two oil and gas lease sales in Montana since Biden took office. This is under your watch. You’re supposed to have at least four a year. BLM’s new public lands rule seeks to sideline oil and gas production. BLM’s new oil and gas leasing rule sets bonding requirements so high, our small producers can’t keep up.
“And just last month, the BLM announced a proposed plan to eliminate coal leasing in Montana and Wyoming.
“Wyoming is the number one coal producer. Montana has the most coal potential of any states in the United States. And these are just the tip of the iceberg.
“The Biden administration has one goal. It’s radical. It’s to end oil, gas, and coal production in the United States. And you aren’t hiding it.”
Daines pressed Stone-Manning on the Biden administration’s goal to shut down coal leasing in Eastern Montana and the effect it would have on Montana families. Watch the exchange HERE.
Daines also asked Stone-Manning if BLM consulted Montana energy producers on how the debilitating increase in bonding rates will affect their operation. Stone-Manning admitted BLM did not consult any Montanans. Watch the exchangeHERE.