Article originally appeared on dailycaller.com.
The Biden administration unveiled a final rule Friday that increases the costs of drilling for oil and gas on federally-controlled lands.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced its final Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule, increasing the amount the government charges drillers to use its land, increasing the government’s cut of profits from extracted oil and making it considerably more expensive for companies to abandon wells. While the administration and activist groups heralded the final rule as a much-needed update to federal guidelines for drilling on public lands, industry groups have generally characterized the regulation as unnecessarily broad and onerous.
“The BLM rule will drive small producers off public lands. The bonding amounts are excessive when there are just 37 orphan wells out of more than 90,000 wells on federal lands,” Kathleen Sgamma, the president of the …
| View full article |
