Public lands to reopen for oil and gas drilling in a first under Biden
As federal officials weigh efforts to fight the climate crisis against pressure to bring down high gasoline prices, the interior department is moving forward with the first onshore sales of public oil and natural gas drilling leases under Joe Biden.
The move also calls for a sharp increase in royalty rates for companies, ostensibly to limit global emissions driving the climate crisis, though economists say the effect will be relatively small.
The royalty rate for new leases will increase to 18.75% from 12.5%. That’s a 50% jump and marks the first increase to royalties for the federal government since they were imposed in the 1920s.
Biden suspended new leasing just a week after taking office in January 2021. A federal judge in Louisiana ordered the sales to resume, saying interior officials had offered no “rational explanation” for canceling them.
The government held an offshore lease auction in the Gulf of Mexico in November, although a court later blocked that sale before the leases were issued.
Friday’s announcement comes as Biden faces pressure to expand US crude production after the pandemic and war in Ukraine have caused a surge in fuel prices and otherwise generally roiled the world economy.
Last month, the Democratic president announced plans to release 1m barrels daily from the US strategic oil reserves to, as he put it, “ease the pain families are feeling right now” at the country’s fuel pumps because of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
Yet Biden also faces calls from within his own party to do more to curb emissions from fossil fuels that are driving the climate crisis.
Leases for 225 sq miles (580 sq kilometers) of federal lands primarily in the western US will be offered for sale in a
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