Top Energy Republican blasts Haaland on lease sales: ‘You haven’t been following the law’

Senate Energy Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) castigated Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s record on oil and gas leasing at a committee hearing Tuesday, accusing her of violating the law by not holding quarterly lease sales.

“Instead of holding quarterly oil and gas lease sales, the secretary has held only one lease sale in two years,” Barrasso said in his opening statement at the budget hearing. In his direct questioning of Haaland, Barrasso cited the Mineral Leasing Act, the federal law that requires the quarterly sales.

He conceded that the Interior Department has scheduled two more lease sales for the second and third quarters of 2023, but still pressed Haaland on whether she would commit to holding lease sales every quarter.

“We follow the law in everything we do. We have had lease sales, we’ll continue to have lease sales,” Haaland responded.

“But you haven’t followed the law,” Barrasso replied. “For nine quarters since President Biden took office, the department has held only one lease sale.”

The Wyoming Republican repeated the question, prompting Haaland to answer “We will always follow the law.”

“You haven’t been following the law,” Barrasso repeated. The ranking member again asked Haaland if she would commit to the required lease sales going forward, to which she again responded: “We will follow the law.”

Immediately upon taking office, and before Haaland’s confirmation, President Biden signed an executive order suspending new oil and gas leasing on public lands. The Biden administration defended the order in court, but eventually abandoned the moratorium following a series of conflicting court rulings.

Most recently, the administration sold $263.8 million worth of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico in late March. The previous August, the administration agreed to fast-track the lease sale, the largest in U.S. history, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.