Biden Regime to Increase US Oil Lease Fees as Gas Prices Soar

 

The Biden Regime is planning to force US oil companies to pay more to drill on federal lands and waters to ‘boost revenue.’

The increase in fees will “incorporate the toll of climate change into the price of permits for new fossil fuel extraction.”

According to the 18-page Department of Interior report, the Biden Regime is planning on increasing the lease fees from 12.50% to 18.75% as gas prices soar.

The Washington Post reported:

In an effort to boost revenue and protect the environment, the Biden administration on Friday laid out plans to make fossil fuel companies pay more to drill on federal lands and waters.

The 18-page Interior Department report describes an “outdated” federal oil and gas leasing program that “fails to provide a fair return to taxpayers, even before factoring in the resulting climate-related costs.”

The document calls for increasing the government’s royalty rate — the 12.5 percent of profits fossil fuel developers must pay to the federal government in exchange for drilling on public lands — to be more in line with the higher rates charged by most private landowners and major oil- and gas-producing states. It also makes the case for raising the bond companies must set aside for cleanup before they begin new development.

Though Friday’s report focuses on the fiscal case for updating the leasing program, Interior officials say they will also consider how to incorporate the real-world toll of climate change into the price of permits for new fossil fuel extraction. The Biden administration this year set its “social cost of carbon” at $51 per ton of emissions, but suggested the number could go even higher as researchers develop new estimates of the damage caused by raging wildfires, deadly heat, crop-destroying droughts and catastrophic floods.

Shortly after being installed earlier this year, Biden issued an executive order and put a 60-day moratorium on new oil and natural gas leases and drilling permits on federal lands.

Several states, including states Joe Biden won (supposedly) in 2020 and the Ute Indian tribe sued Joe Biden and overturned the order.

Now the Biden Regime is recommending Congress increase the price of oil leasing fees 50% which will ultimately be passed down to the consumer.

Earlier this week Joe Biden announced the release of 50 million barrels of emergency oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat high energy prices ahead of the holidays.