Resumption of sale of oil and gas leases on federal lands
Washington on Friday announced the auction of approximately 173 plots covering 144,000 acres (58,275 hectares) in nine states starting next week.
Illustrated image.
Getty Images via AFP
Under pressure to reduce gas prices, the U.S. government on Thursday announced the resumption of concessions to exploit hydrocarbons on federal lands, while imposing new conditions, including the first increase rates in more than 100 years.
Joe Biden, who has made the fight against climate change one of his priorities, announced a ban on oil and gas drilling on land and new government-owned concessions shortly after arriving at the White House in January 2021. Water levels, pending review.
About 173 parcels covering an area of 144,000 acres (58,275 hectares) in nine states will be put up for auction starting next week after making several changes, the home ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The proposed surface is 80% less important than initially thought. After all, the ministry will raise the requested royalties from 12.5% to 18.75% of profits without changing them for at least a century.
Interested companies should also respect new conditions, such as consulting with Native American tribes or complying with “the best scientific methods available” for the analysis of greenhouse gas emissions in particular.
The move comes at a time when the US president is facing record inflation, especially at petrol prices, which is undermining his popularity. Aiming to bring down the price of crude oil, he has been taking initiatives for weeks, for example, ordering the country’s strategic oil reserves to be massively depleted by the end of March.
Resumption of lease sales for oil and gas exploitation on federal lands may not have an immediate effect, however, the process usually takes several years. The moratorium announced by Joe Biden was already well underway and the judge suspended it in June 2021 on the grounds that the administration would have to seek congressional approval.
The government auctioned off concessions at sea a few weeks later in the Gulf of Mexico, which was canceled by justice in January. The Home Ministry has approved thousands of oil and gas permits on federal land by 2021.
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