North Dakota Senators introduce POWER Act to protect oil and gas industry

N.D. – North Dakota Senators are acting quickly in response to President Joe Biden’s executive orders to halt new oil, gas and coal leases.

They are joined by senators from Montana and Wyoming.

New legislation was introduced to Congress on Thursday by North Dakota Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer.

The POWER Act, or Protecting our Wealth of Energy Resources Act, would prohibit the president or his secretaries from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting for energy and mineral resources on federal lands.

Cramer says Biden’s order could create many problems.

“President Biden banning energy development on federal lands would increase the deficit, hurt state and tribal budgets, makes the United States more reliant on foreign producers, like Saudi Arabi, and, of course, it eliminates lots of great American jobs,” said Cramer.

Experts say if the suspension was to become permanent, it could destroy more than 10,000 jobs in North Dakota.

Hoeven says with the POWER Act, they hope to keep that from happening.

“This legislation is about making sure that we can produce energy on our federal lands. That means oil and gas and coal and other types of energy. Now we do that in North Dakota and we do it very dependably at low cost. Create many good jobs and at the same time, use the latest technologies, so we do it with good environmental stewardship,” said Hoeven.

It’s important to note that the president’s order only freezes new drilling on federal land, and already is the subject of a lawsuit.