In an effort to combat high gasoline and energy prices, President Joe Biden is bringing back public land leases for oil and gas drilling in the U.S. for auction as soon as Monday — but the reversal of a 2020 campaign promise has angered climate activists ahead of midterms that will determine Biden’s ability to get his agenda through Congress.
The administration is now set to start reselling leases for drilling on public lands — putting 144,000 acres of lands up for lease in nine states as soon as Monday — as the president faces massive pressure to boost oil production in the U.S. amid soaring prices partly because of the war in Ukraine, what President Biden calls “Putin’s price hike.”
To help deflect criticism, the Biden administration is increasing the royalties that companies must pay for this drilling from 12.5 percent to 18.75 percent — in a first-of-its-kind increase in more than a century.
The Interior Department announced the move on Friday afternoon heading into the holiday weekend.
Source-ABC
