The U.S. Interior Department is reopening oil and gas lease sales on public lands this summer, and hiking the fees lessees have to pay.
The follows President Joe Biden鈥檚 efforts to reform the federal oil and gas program. Last year a federal judge Biden's moratorium on new leases. And then a sale scheduled to happen earlier this year was delayed by a over the administration's "social cost of carbon" policy.
The new include 144,000 acres of public land, mostly in the Mountain West. Interior noted that that's about 80% less acreage than the oil and gas industry initially nominated.
And the agency is increasing royalties for new leases, from 12.5% to 18.75% 鈥� a rate that had gone for more than a century.
Critics are wide-ranging. Some oil and gas and lawmakers like Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso say the policies are at odds with efforts to lower fuel prices.
鈥淎fter begging American oil and natural gas companies for months to produce more, the Biden administration is still doing all it can to restrict leasing on federal lands,鈥� Barrasso said in a .
Leases can take years, or longer, to produce fuel which could affect gas prices. The Interior Department last year that about 14 million acres 鈥� more than half of all federal acres leased 鈥� sit unused.
Some environmental groups are of the Interior鈥檚 announcement, saying any leases contribute to climate change and would disproportionately affect Indigenous groups and people of color.
鈥淚t鈥檚 as if they鈥檙e ignoring the horror of firestorms, floods and megadroughts, and accepting climate catastrophes as business as usual. These so-called reforms are 20 years too late and will only continue to fuel the climate emergency,鈥� Randi Spivak, the public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
The nonprofit Center for Western Priorities is one of the few organizations to .
鈥淲e think that it鈥檚 the best case scenario,鈥� said Aaron Weiss, the deputy director there.
He said that the Interior is caught between dueling court opinions, the oil industry, climate activists and laws.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e working within a framework of a 100-year-old law, the Mineral Leasing Act, that says the Interior Department shall hold quarterly lease sales,鈥� he said.
The Interior also noted that it would ensure 鈥渢ribal consultation and broad community input鈥� within lease sales.
鈥淭hat, I think, is a sign of how important it is to finally have an Indigenous Interior secretary, 鈥� finally having a secretary who finally takes tribal consultations seriously. And that鈥檚 a big deal,鈥� said Weiss.
Weiss added that his group does have a big critique for the Interior, though: They are still waiting, and hoping for, a comprehensive review of the leasing system promised by the Biden administration.
鈥淚 have not seen any significant signs that it鈥檚 happening, and that is a huge concern for us," he said. "Because in order to do that review correctly, in order for it to hold up in court, in order for it to lead to that long-term policy change, that takes years. And the clock is ticking.鈥�
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