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Unable to win support in the Senate for their misguided policies, fossil fuel allies in the House have resorted to trying to use the debt limit to pass their massive giveaway to oil and gas companies. Late on Wednesday, the House narrowly passed H.R.2811 which would lift the debt limit, avoiding the economic catastrophe that would ensue if the U.S. defaults on its debt payments, but it also includes a slew of unrelated priorities on various energy and natural resource topics. Most of these provisions are recycled from H.R.1, the House leadership's marquee energy package which passed the House earlier this spring and went nowhere in the Senate.
Among other things, H.R.2811 (like H.R.1 before it) once again tries to reverse many of the Inflation Reduction Act’s reforms to the onshore oil and gas leasing program: the bill would return royalty rates, minimum bids, and rental rates to the outdated rates that were put in place in 1920; eliminate the fees companies pay to nominate land for leasing; restore noncompetitive leasing, letting companies lock up public land for just $1.50 an acre; and impose a per-page fee for exercising the right to protest lease sales. The bill would also require quarterly lease sales to be held in a variety of states, including several Western states, and remove the Interior Secretary's authority to determine which lands are eligible for oil and gas leasing. This provision would pave the way for companies—or anyone—to lock up public lands by nominating and leasing parcels regardless of their oil and gas production potential or any other values and uses of the land
Like H.R.1 before it, H.R.2811 is almost certain to die immediately in the Senate, and President Joe Biden has said he will veto it if it gets to his desk. Unlike the death of H.R.1, however, failure to increase the debt limit will have drastic impacts for the American economy. Tying the debt limit to unpopular and unpassable policies demonstrates that fossil fuel allies in the House care only about giveaways to oil and gas companies and are unserious about legislating in the best interests of the American people.
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Just when we think we got a small win, the industry calls in a favor for those donations. This move by Senator Cortez Masto is disappointing; we thought she was an ally of the environment.”
