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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its final Oil and Gas Rule last Friday, bringing forth long-overdue updates to the regulations governing onshore oil and gas development on national public lands.
The Biden administration inherited a federal oil and gas program that was broken and rigged in favor of the oil and gas industry. In August 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), an important piece of legislation that brought about some long-overdue changes to the federal oil and gas leasing program, including the first-ever increase to the onshore royalty rate for new leases in over 100 years and the elimination of the practice of leasing lands “non-competitively” for just $1.50 per acre. Less than a year later, the BLM proposed new rules for the onshore leasing system to reflect the provisions in the IRA and address other issues that have long plagued the program, such as outdated bonding rates that for decades have allowed oil and gas companies to shift the responsibility for cleaning up federal well sites onto taxpayers.
“The reforms in the final Oil and Gas Rule are common-sense and long overdue. Updating royalty, rental, and bonding rates—and ensuring those rates don’t fall out of date again in the future—ensures a fair return for taxpayers and is the fiscally responsible thing to do,” said Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Rachael Hamby. The rule also discourages companies from locking up lands they are not actually interested in drilling.
According to a sentiment analysis conducted by the Center for Western Priorities, the final Oil and Gas Rule has overwhelming support. CWP's analysis found that over 99 percent of the public comments on the rule encouraged the Interior Department to adopt the rule largely as written.
A closer look at state leadership to conserve nature
As momentum builds nationally to address the nature and climate crises, state leaders across the country have stepped up with a variety of measures aimed at conserving lands and waters. A new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP) and the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators reviews a variety of land conservation policy models that have been adopted at the state level—from the tried and true to creative new approaches—highlighting recent examples of each. “While recent state actions are encouraging, more is still needed,” said Drew McConville, senior fellow at CAP and a co-author of the report. “As the pace of nature loss and species extinctions grows, scaling up the impact will require even more committed leadership and deeper investment from governors and legislators, as well as effective support from Congress and federal agencies.”
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The Biden administration knows the value of protecting our public lands to combat climate change and ensure our communities have access to the outdoors. I look forward to working with them to safeguard some of California’s most treasured natural landscapes and ensure they are around for future generations to enjoy.”
