House Republicans Move to Block Crackdown on Fossil Fuel Cleanup
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee is poised to approve the Restoring American Energy Dominance Act today. This bill would halt a proposed Interior Department rule requiring oil and gas companies to provide adequate financial guarantees to clean up wells on federal lands. A Public Citizen report released this week found that U.S. taxpayers could pay up to $18 billion to clean up more than 89,000 oil and gas wells on federal lands if the Biden administration’s proposal is not implemented. Alan Zibel, a researcher for Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“We already allow far too much climate-destroying fossil fuel drilling on public lands in western states. The least we can do is ensure taxpayers don’t get stuck subsidizing the fossil fuel industry’s cost of doing business. Even as U.S. fossil fuel production soars to record levels, Republicans are doing the bidding of fossil fuel lobbyists by trying to block modest, sensible efforts to reduce blatant, longstanding giveaways in the system for leasing public lands for oil and gas production.”