Oil industry reels as Joe Biden targets fossil fuels in first days

Hours after taking office, President Joe Biden made good on a campaign promise to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Later that day his Interior Department mandated that only top agency leaders could approve new drilling permits over the next two months.

Next week, according to people familiar with the plans, Biden will go even further: suspending the sale of oil and gas leases on federal land, where the US gets 10% of its supplies.

The actions sent oil producers’ stocks tumbling and raised blood pressure across the industry.