Congresswoman Boebert's Bipartisan Restoring American Energy Dominance Act Passes House
Today, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s Restoring American Energy Dominance Act passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support.
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) said, “The Restoring American Energy Dominance Act reins in Biden’s Green New Deal Agenda and unleashes onshore energy production. Rogue bureaucrats at the Bureau of Land Management have no business proposing this misguided rule that will ruin smaller producers’ ability to afford to operate in the market. Regulations like this proposed rule will increase energy costs and threaten American energy production, American jobs, and our national security. Rather than appeasing radical climate activists, the United States should be incentivizing American energy production and creating more good-paying jobs across the West and in Colorado. I’d like to thank Chairman Westerman and all the local stakeholders for working with me to get H.R. 6009 passed through the House.”
House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (AR-04) stated, “Representative Boebert has delivered results for the state of Colorado and the American people with her energy work on the Natural Resources Committee. H.R. 6009 will ensure energy production on federal lands continues by nullifying BLM’s misguided and heavy-handed proposed rule that would phase out onshore energy production. This commonsense legislation unlocks our abundant resources and fights back against the Biden administration's energy failures, and passing it through the House is a major step for our nation's future.”
Background:
Today, H.R. 6009, the Restoring American Energy Dominance Act, passed the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support by a vote of 216-200.
On July 24, 2023, the BLM issued a proposed rule entitled Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process. The proposed mandate would formally implement provisions from the partisan Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which increased the royalty rate for production on federal lands while also increasing and creating new fees for producers.
While the proposed rule codifies pieces of the IRA, it also makes major, non-statutory, changes to the BLM’s onshore leasing program. The proposed mandate greatly increases bonding levels for production on federal lands (even though there are only 37 orphaned wells on federal lands). Increased bonding fee requirements disproportionately impacts smaller producers who can’t afford to operate in the surety market. These additional fees will ultimately harm returns and reduce revenues to state and local governments by disincentivizing development on federal lands.
Additionally, the proposed rule introduces “preference criteria” in federal leasing which could be devastating for future production on public lands. This is problematic if BLM field offices avoid leasing in all areas with endangered or threatened species, critical habitats, or nearby recreation areas. The proposed mandate could greatly limit leasing on federal lands under that criteria, in contradiction to the multiple-use mandate established in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.
The proposed regulation proposes to create new fees and increase existing fees while limiting the use of lease suspensions and drilling permit extensions. This is especially egregious given the Administration’s poor track record with respect to lease sales and drilling permit approvals.
This proposed rule increases energy production costs while further disincentivizing operators from producing domestically. These new costs will ultimately be passed along to consumers, driving up energy costs for American families and further shifting production to countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, and Venezuela.
Cosponsors of Congresswoman Boebert’s Restoring American Energy Dominance Act include: Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08), Rep. Harriet Hageman (WY-AL), Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-09), Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-05). Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-05), Rep. Ralph Norman (SC-05), Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15), Rep. Clay Higgins (LA-03), Rep. Troy Nehls (TX-22), and Rep. Andy Ogles (TN-05).
The full text of the Restoring American Energy Dominance Act is available here.
Additional Background Courtesy of House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources:
Specifically, the rule proposes ending nationwide bonding and increasing the minimum bond amounts for individual lease bonds and statewide lease bonds from $10,000 to $150,000 and from $25,000 to $500,000 respectively. This significant increase will tie up capital that would otherwise be put back into production and is unjustifiable as there are only 37 orphaned oil and gas wells on BLM-managed lands. Additionally, the BLM has only utilized bonds to plug wells on federal lands 40 times over the last decade.
Last month, Republican Members of the Committee on Natural Resources sent a letter to the BLM requesting an extension in the comment period given the significant policy shifts included in the regulation. On September 27th, the BLM responded to that letter stating that they do not plan on extending the comment period and instead plan to rush the regulation towards completion. This bill would force the BLM to withdraw the rule and would prevent the BLM from finalizing a substantially similar rule.
Among other things, current regulations proposed by the BLM would:
Unnecessarily increase bonding rates for oil and gas production on federal lands
Introduce new “preference criteria” for onshore oil and gas leasing that would significantly limit areas available for production
Prevent leasing outside of currently producing areas
Unfairly burden small businesses