FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 25, 2021

FACT CHECK: No, Sen. Daines. You’re wrong about LWCF funding.

Montana Senator screws up the basics on public lands funding

Dear Editors, Reporters and Producers:

The office of Senator Daines is claiming that the Biden Administration is killing “American energy security and independence” and that recent orders by the Biden Administration threaten funding for the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund.

This is simply not true. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, as Senator Daines should know, is already fully funded by receipts from existing energy production, with billions more in the bank.

On behalf of all Montanans, we encourage you to hold the Senator’s office accountable for this false statement, considering the independently verifiable fact check below. Feel free to attribute any of this to me, Whitney Tawney, Executive Director of Montana Conservation Voters.

CONTEXT:

In a sharply worded January 21 email, captured and tweeted by journalist Kylie Mohr, Daines’s spokesperson suggests that the shutdown of the Keystone XL Pipeline will somehow impact funding for the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

The email falsely states: “By the way, what about conservation programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund? Guess what FUNDS that program? Oil and gas. So… no more oil and gas… no more conservation program.”

Daines takes credit for permanently funding LWCF last year, with revenues from offshore oil leasing. For more than 50 years, LWCF has used these revenues to fund public lands and access investments, including more than $500,000 in Montana alone.

Daines was also among 13 senators who planned to vote against America’s democracy on January 6, without any evidence of election fraud, before changing his mind after violent insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol. He also sent a recent fundraising email falsely claiming “Dems are stealing the election” of President Joe Biden.

Knowing facts and taking responsibility are important responsibilities of all elected officials. This organization, which represents tens of thousands of Montanans, will always set the facts straight, especially when it comes to the future of funding for our public lands.

FACTS:

• Yes, Joe Biden issued executive orders on January 20 revoking the permit for the tortured Keystone XL Pipeline [SOURCE: The White House] and reentering the United States in the Paris Climate Agreement [SOURCE: The White House].

• The U.S. Interior Department also issued an order temporarily suspending new oil and gas leases for 60 days, “for the purpose of reviewing the questions of fact, law and policy they raise” [SOURCE: U.S. Interior Department].

• However, the temporary suspension of oil and gas leases does not impact existing leases or oil and gas development, which fund LWCF. Nor does it ban drilling outright. And it comes after the Trump Administration haphazardly approved 1,400 permits for drilling on public lands [SOURCE: Associated Press].

• In fact, in Fiscal Year 2020, the U.S. Interior Department’s Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) collected more than $8 billion from offshore energy production, $900 million of which went to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, as required by the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020. After all other disbursements were made, the ONRR still had nearly $3 billion left over [SOURCE: U.S. Interior Department].

• LWCF relies only on these “earnings from offshore oil and gas leasing,” not taxpayer dollars or revenue generated by mainland pipelines. [SOURCE: U.S. Interior Department]

• The Biden Administration does not oppose responsible drilling for oil and gas [SOURCE: Biden Climate Plan].

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