Joe Biden has only made it more expensive to drill on public lands

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday finalized a new rule to modernize the long-outdated federal oil and gas leasing program.

The Interior Department’s rule significantly increases how much energy companies must pay to lease and drill federal lands, and gives federal land managers more authority to keep fossil fuel development away from sensitive natural areas and cultural sites.

The reforms “will help protect the health of our public lands and nearby communities for generations to come,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. rack at the announcement.

“These are the most significant reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing program in decades, and they will reduce wasteful speculation, increase revenues for the public, and protect taxpayers from the costs of environmental cleanup,” she said.

The final rule, which appears unchanged from last year’s Interior proposal, increases the royalties companies pay to the U.S. government for oil and gas extracted from public lands from a stagnant 12.5% ​​to 16.67% . It also increases the minimum bid for leasing federal parcels from $2 to $10 per acre.

These two changes were needed in the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate bill that Democrats passed in 2022. The federal royalty rate for fossil fuel extraction has remained unchanged for more than a century.

Autumn Hanna, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, called the move “a critical step toward ensuring fair returns and protecting American taxpayers.”

“For too long, this outdated system has failed to secure fair returns for American taxpayers, costing us billions of dollars in lost revenues and imposing significant clawback liabilities,” she said in a statement rack.

The agency rule also aims to hold companies responsible for cleanup costs in the event of bankruptcy by increasing the minimum lease bonds to $150,000 – a 15-fold increase from the current $10,000 minimum, which has been in place since 1960. The Biden administration said Friday that the $10,000 minimum “no longer provides an adequate incentive for companies to meet their reclamation obligations, nor does it cover the potential costs to reclaim a well if this obligation were not met are met, leaving taxpayers at risk for the cost of the cleanup.”

Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trading and lobbying organization, warned that the change in bond payments threatens to “drive small producers off public lands.”

“This is yet another Biden administration rule designed to deliver on the president’s promise of no federal oil and natural gas,” she said in a statement. “Western Energy Alliance has no choice but to challenge this rule.”

Environmental groups largely applauded Friday’s action — one of several rules and regulations finalized ahead of a deadline that would allow a future Republican administration to quickly undo them through the Congressional Reform Act.

“For too long, Big Oil has seized tens of thousands of acres of public land for drilling and left taxpayers footing the bill to clean up their mess,” said Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program. “This new rule addresses long-awaited issues and finally curbs the excesses of oil and gas companies. These common-sense reforms set the stage for more climate action on public lands so they are part of the climate solution and do not worsen the crisis.”

Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have repeatedly accused the Biden administration of a “war” on fossil fuels, despite U.S. crude oil production and natural gas exports soaring during the president’s term.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee who raked in more than 1.6 million dollars in campaign contributions to the oil and gas industry during his career, accused Biden of “doing everything he can to make it economically impossible to produce energy on federal lands.”

“Less oil and natural gas from federal lands means fewer jobs for Americans and, almost certainly, more money flowing to the Middle East, Venezuela, Russia and Iran,” he said in a speech. rack.