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The Executive Order, among many things climate-related, tells the Department of the Interior to pause new oil and gas leasing on public lands and offshore waters. It also mandates a review of existing leasing and permitting practices on federal properties. Tribal lands are exempt from the order.
For Biden, the move is part of a larger promise he made on the campaign trail to phase out fossil fuels. But it's being met with lawsuits from an oil and gas industry already reeling from depressed prices.
A moratorium on lease sales affects drilling proposals throughout the western U.S. One in southwest Colorado that's now on hold is a bid to increase natural gas development in the HD Mountains east of Bayfield. Many of the proposed new wells are on parcels of public land that were being readied for an early-2021 lease sale.