Wednesday, April 20, 2022 7:08:00 AM
In a report that arrived at almost exactly 1700ET on Good Friday (also the start of Passover), the NYT revealed that the president has decided to lift the ban (initiated by executive fiat) on selling leases for new oil and gas drilling on public lands. But there's a small catch: he's also raising the federal royalties that companies must pay to drill.
Still, the administration plans to open up 145,000 acres of public lands in nine states to oil and gas leasing next week.
The Interior Department said in a statement that it planned to open up 145,000 acres of public lands in nine states to oil and gas leasing next week, the first new fossil fuel permits to be offered on public lands since President Biden took office.
This represents the abandonment of one of Biden's "signature" environmental policies (also: it's a capitulation to more conservative and moderate Democrats, who have been upping the pressure on Biden to do more to bolster oil and gas production). So far, his administration has relied mostly on SPR releases, allowing more ethanol in gas during the summer months.
The move comes as President Biden seeks to show voters that he is working to increase the domestic oil supply as prices surge in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But it also violates a signature campaign pledge made by Mr. Biden as he sought to assure climate activists that he would prioritize reducing the use of fossil fuels.
"And by the way, no more drilling on federal lands, period. Period, period, period," Mr. Biden told voters in New Hampshire in February 2020.
However, since the administration is raising the royalty rate it demands from producers who drill or frack on public lands, oil and gas companies will still face higher costs on the new leases.
In opening up the new public lands for oil and gas permitting, the Interior Department will raise the royalty rates that companies must pay to the federal government from 12.5 percent of their profits to 18.75 percent, an increase that could bring in billions of dollars of new revenue.
Already, environmental activists are slamming Biden for his 'recklessness' and for abdicating the Democrats' "climate leadership".
“The Biden administration’s claim that it must hold these lease sales is pure fiction and a reckless failure of climate leadership,” said Randi Spivak, director of the public lands for Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s as if they’re ignoring the horror of firestorms, floods and megadroughts and accepting climate catastrophes as business as usual.”
Meanwhile, everybody else will just be happy to see lower prices at the pump...although it will take months, perhaps years, for the new supply to come on line and have an impact on the US market.
The second major oligarchic lobbyist bloc running the puppet politicians in Washington DC is the rent-extracting oil and gas sector, joined by mining (OGAM) riding America’s special tax favoritism granted to companies emptying natural resources out of the ground and putting them into the atmosphere. Like banking and real estate, the aim of this OGAM sector is to maximize the price of its energy and raw materials so as to maximize its natural-resource rent. Monopolizing the Dollar Area’s oil market and isolating it from Russian oil and gas has been a major U.S. priority for over a year now, as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline threatened to link the Western European and Russian economies together.
If oil, gas and mining operations are not situated in every voting district, at least their investors are. Senators from Texas and other Western oil-producing and mining states are the leading lobbyists, and the State Department has a heavy oil-sector influence providing a national-security umbrella for its special tax breaks. The ancillary political aim is to ignore and reject environmental drives to replace oil, gas and coal with alternative sources of energy. The Biden administration accordingly has backed the expansion of offshore drilling, supported the Canadian pipeline to the world’s dirtiest petroleum source in the Athabasca tar sands, and celebrated the revival of U.S. fracking.
The foreign-policy extension is to prevent foreign countries not leaving control of their oil, gas and mining to U.S. OGAM companies from competing in world markets with U.S. suppliers. Isolating Russia (and Iran) from western markets will reduce the supply of oil and gas, pushing prices and corporate profits up accordingly.
Recent LNG News
- Form EFFECT - Notice of Effectiveness • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 09/06/2024 04:15:06 AM
- Form 424B3 - Prospectus [Rule 424(b)(3)] • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 09/05/2024 08:24:09 PM
- Form 8-K - Current report • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 09/03/2024 12:36:34 PM
- Cheniere Highlights Benefits of U.S. LNG in 2023 Corporate Responsibility Report • Business Wire • 08/15/2024 01:00:00 PM
- Cheniere Reports Second Quarter 2024 Results and Raises Full Year 2024 Financial Guidance • Business Wire • 08/08/2024 11:00:00 AM
- U.S. Index Futures Drop, Signaling Ongoing Market Volatility; Oil Prices Stall • IH Market News • 08/08/2024 09:55:44 AM
- Cheniere and Galp Sign Long-Term LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement • Business Wire • 08/05/2024 11:30:00 AM
- ADCC Pipeline Begins Commercial Service • PR Newswire (US) • 07/12/2024 12:00:00 PM
- Cheniere Announces Timing of Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Release and Conference Call • Business Wire • 07/11/2024 12:30:00 PM
- Form 8-K - Current report • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/17/2024 08:09:19 PM
- Cheniere Announces Upsized Share Repurchase Authorization and Planned Increase in Dividend • Business Wire • 06/17/2024 08:05:00 PM
- Form 8-K - Current report • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 06/17/2024 12:31:45 PM
- Cheniere Declares Quarterly Dividend • Business Wire • 06/17/2024 12:30:00 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 10:31:38 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 10:29:27 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 10:28:43 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 10:27:53 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 10:27:00 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 10:25:55 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 10:24:53 PM
- Form 8-K - Current report • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/24/2024 08:18:09 PM
- Form 8-K - Current report • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/22/2024 08:26:56 PM
- Form 4 - Statement of changes in beneficial ownership of securities • Edgar (US Regulatory) • 05/14/2024 08:42:52 PM
- Cheniere Reports First Quarter 2024 Results and Reconfirms Full Year 2024 Financial Guidance • Business Wire • 05/03/2024 11:30:00 AM
- Cheniere Declares Quarterly Dividend • Business Wire • 04/26/2024 12:30:00 PM
VHAI - Vocodia Partners with Leading Political Super PACs to Revolutionize Fundraising Efforts • VHAI • Sep 19, 2024 11:48 AM
Dear Cashmere Group Holding Co. AKA Swifty Global Signs Binding Letter of Intent to be Acquired by Signing Day Sports • DRCR • Sep 19, 2024 10:26 AM
HealthLynked Launches Virtual Urgent Care Through Partnership with Lyric Health. • HLYK • Sep 19, 2024 8:00 AM
Element79 Gold Corp. Appoints Kevin Arias as Advisor to the Board of Directors, Strengthening Strategic Leadership • ELMGF • Sep 18, 2024 10:29 AM
Mawson Finland Limited Further Expands the Known Mineralized Zones at Rajapalot: Palokas step-out drills 7 metres @ 9.1 g/t gold & 706 ppm cobalt • MFL • Sep 17, 2024 9:02 AM
PickleJar Announces Integration With OptCulture to Deliver Holistic Fan Experiences at Venue Point of Sale • PKLE • Sep 17, 2024 8:00 AM