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When President Biden issued an executive order to temporarily pause oil and gas leasing on public lands last week, he directed the Interior Department to evaluate the program for “fair return to taxpayers for the use of their resources.” As a result, the Biden administration's pause on new oil and gas leases will include a review of oil and gas royalty rates charged for the extraction of public minerals.
The law governing how much companies pay to drill for oil and gas on public land has not been updated in a century, and federal rates are half of what states like Texas charge for drilling on state land. According to the Government Accountability Office, raising royalty rates would provide more money for state and local governments. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, praised this move, saying, “Raising royalty rates now through executive action is a good and very overdue move... [the federal government should] end this legalized ripoff once and for all.”
EPA's "secret science" rule vacated
A federal court threw out a rule instituted by Trump's EPA that would prevent the use of public health data in agency decision-making. The agency skirted rulemaking procedure, calling the change procedural rather than substantive, which caused the change to be rejected in court on Monday. The rule was also under review by the Biden administration, and this administration's EPA has signaled its support for the rule's rejection.
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At best, New Mexicans have lost their public land for no reason—and at worst, they end up paying with their health. This is a system that needs to change, and this is the opportunity that the moratorium offers New Mexico. Pausing this fire sale of public land to polluters will allow us time to think about better ways we can protect our public land, create new long-term jobs, and do all this without polluting New Mexico’s air and water.”
