Environmental groups have expressed concern about the review and called for more urgent action to address the climate crisis.
“These insignificant changes are almost meaningless in the midst of this climate emergency, and they break Biden’s campaign promise to keep new oil and gas leasing on public lands,” said Randi Spivak, public land director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Green-lighting more fossil fuel extraction, and pretending it’s okay by needing up royalty rates, is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. There’s no time left for baby steps that let the fossil-fuel industry wear even more havoc on the Earth. “
“We urge the Biden administration to build on this report by implementing new oil and gas leasing altogether,” said Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s land protection program, “and we call on Congress to include the reforms in the final build back. “Better act to ensure that our public lands are part of the climate solution, instead of enriching oil company CEOs at the expense of the public.”
“The Interior Department has a duty to responsibly manage our public lands and waters – provide a fair return to the taxpayer and mitigate worsening climate impacts – while staying firm in the pursuit of environmental justice,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. Friday. “The review describes significant deficiencies in the federal oil and gas programs, and identified important and urgent financial and programmatic reforms that will benefit the American people.”
The review noted that the financial components of the federal oil and gas program were “particularly outdated, with royalty rates that have not increased for 100 years.”
“Reminds itself to promote royalty rates and, to the extent permitted by law, to increase the current minimum levels for bids, rents, royalty and bonds,” the report says.
The review also encourages congressional action “on pending legislation to provide fundamental reforms to the onshore and offshore oil and gas programs.”
While the review of the leasing program outlines a “set of important and long overdue reforms,” House Natural Resources chairman Raúl Grijalva emphasized the need for more permanent solutions.
“The administration needs to manage public lands and waters consistently with its climate connections, and today’s report does not offer any plan to do so,” Grijalva said in a statement. “What it offers is a set of important and long-lasting reforms to the federal fossil fuel leasing program, which until now has been a public subsidy for oil and gas drilling and extraction.”
The Arizona Democrat added, “We need new financial needs from the industry and greater public transparency around leasing, and the administration should start making the welcome changes.
“Congress needs to end wasteful subsidies and prescribe leasing reform bills while this is happening because every American sees climate change around them, and we all know that imperative policy changes in those margins will not reduce emissions enough to protect our quality of life.”
The administration could have chosen to increase domestic oil production, but the White House avoided the optics of the president and his assistants, who were pushing for more drilling indoors on the heels of the central UN. Climate Summit COP26, where Biden promised that the US. Would “lead by example” on clean energy initiatives.
The story is updated with more details and background.
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