By Addison Smith (Just The News)
Interior Department staffers appeared to try to go beyond a directive by President Biden for the agency to pause new oil and gas leases in the U.S. by considering ways to eliminate them, based on internal department documents obtained by a federal watchdog group.
The directive came in the form of a Jan. 27, 2021, Biden executive order in which he directed agency Secretary Deb Haaland to “pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters,” pending a review of such fossil fuel development practices.