Republican Budget Grants Fossil Fuel Billionaires’ Wishes With Massive Sellout to Oil and Gas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republicans late Thursday unveiled a draft budget and tax bill that would cede control over America’s national public lands to the oil, gas, and mining industries. The bill would mandate massive onshore and offshore oil and gas lease sales on unprecedented amounts of national public lands and waters. It would destroy environmental review and public participation, even allowing large corporations to buy a faster environmental review and deter lawsuits.
The bill would mandate offshore Gulf of Mexico oil drilling, leasing in pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge despite a lack of interest from Big Oil, promote the interests of a Chilean copper billionaire who rented his home to the president’s daughter, allow big corporations to buy speedier environmental oversight, and lower the royalties oil and gas companies pay to drill on public lands.
In response, Public Citizen President Robert Weissman said:
“The fossil fuel industry spent $450 million to buy a helpful Congress and White House, and lawmakers are delivering on the industry’s wishes. In a quest to provide tax cuts and handouts for billionaires and huge corporations, House Republicans have left no stone unturned. This disastrous legislation would sell our national public lands and waters to the highest bidder, destroying the climate and local communities while promoting the energy sources of the past. Doubling down on dirty energy sets our economy back decades, and allows the rest of the world to pull ahead in the clean industries of the future.
During the Biden Administration, Congress and the federal government enacted a long-overdue crackdown on fossil fuel companies, addressing the federal government’s longstanding failure to charge adequate royalties to compensate taxpayers for drilling on public lands, which have long been at woefully inadequate levels. The potential rollback of these royalties demonstrates the massive political power of an industry determined to deploy their political power to defend their gouging of taxpayers and abuse of our land.
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