Joe Biden is determined to kill inexpensive oil and gas for good and force people to pay for more expensive green new deal alternatives for energy. And he’s trying to do it by making it too expensive for companies to produce oil and gas.
The Biden admin has just released new proposed rules that would do just that on public land:
FOX NEWS – The Biden administration proposed new rules that would make oil and gas leasing on public lands more costly for developers, but which it said would “ensure fair return to taxpayers.”
The proposed rules, unveiled Thursday by the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM), revise a number of financial requirements for onshore fossil fuel leasing including bonding requirements, royalty rates and minimum bids. The administration explained the changes would increase taxpayer returns, while disincentivizing speculators or “less responsible actors.”
“The Interior Department has taken several steps over the last two years to ensure the federal oil and gas program provides a fair return to taxpayers, adequately accounts for environmental harms, and discourages speculation by oil and gas companies,” said DOI Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Laura Daniel-Davis. “This new proposed rule will help fully codify those goals and lead to more responsible leasing and development processes.”
“This proposal to update BLM’s oil and gas program aims to ensure fairness to the taxpayer and balanced, responsible development as we continue to transition to a clean energy economy,” added BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “It includes common sense and needed fiscal revisions to BLM’s program, many directed by Congress.”
The hikes many of these required costs will be astronomical:
Under the proposal, the lease bond oil and gas developers are required to pay will be hiked from $10,000 to $150,000 and statewide from $25,000 to $500,000, the DOI said. The DOI said the current bonding requirements, established in 1960, are outdated and don’t cover potential federal costs to reclaim a well if companies don’t meet reclamation requirements.
In addition, minimum royalty rates developers must pay on their leases will be increased to 16.67% from 12.5%. And the national minimum bid for a lease will be bumped up from $2 per acre to $10 per acre and will rise with inflation after 10 years.
The proposal also includes an annual rental fee of $3 per acre for the first two years, $5 per acre for the following 6 years and $15 per acre for every following year. Finally, the rules would codify a new fee of $5 per acre for expressions of interest.
They claim all of these new costs are in the name of the taxpayer getting better returns. Yeah, no. This is about destroying oil and gas, plain and simple.