Joe Biden Just Made It More Expensive To Drill On Public Lands

Environmentalists called the reforms long overdue. Industry says they will drive small producers off of federal 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President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday finalized a new rule to modernize the long-outdated federal oil and gas leasing program.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 rule significantly increases how much energy companies must pay to lease and drill on federal lands, and it gives federal land managers greater authority to keep fossil fuel development away from sensitive wildlife habitats and cultural sites.

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

“These are the most significant reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing program in decades, and they will cut wasteful speculation, increase returns for the public, and protect taxpayers from being saddled with the costs of environmental cleanups,” she said.

The final rule, which appears unchanged from Interior’s proposal last year, raises the royalties that 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 ups the minimum bid for leasing federal parcels from $2 to $10 per acre.