CASPER, Wyo. – President Joe Biden’s bid to tackle climate change is running straight through the heart of the U.S. oil and gas industry – a much bigger, more influential foe than Democrats faced when they took on the coal industry during the Obama years.
Coal dominated U.S. power generation for decades, with the bulk of that fuel coming from the massive strip mines of Wyoming’s Powder River Basin – a market that collapsed in recent years as utilities switched to natural gas.
Fast forward to 2021 – and oil and gas have eclipsed coal to become the biggest source of greenhouse emissions from public lands and waters, federal production data indicates. That’s made government fuel sales an irresistible target for Democrats as they try to rein in climate change.
Biden’s election has put big oil companies on the defensive after largely having their way in Washington under President Donald Trump. But in taking on petroleum companies with a moratorium on oil and gas lease sales, Biden picked a foe that spent lavishly over decades to secure allegiance from Republican lawmakers.
The industry is also deeply enmeshed in local economies – from Alaska and the Gulf Coast to the Rocky Mountain drilling hub of Casper, Wyoming – posing a challenge to the Democrat as he tries to navigate between strong action on the climate and recovering from the pandemic’s financial devastation.