The city of BILLINGS, Mont. The Interior Department said on Friday that it is moving forward with the first oil and natural gas lease sales under President Joe Biden, but will increase royalty rates for companies as federal officials weigh efforts to fight climate change. The royalty rate for new leases will increase. It is the first increase to royalties for the federal government since they were imposed in the 1920s. New leasing was suspended by Biden just a week after he took office. A federal judge in Louisiana ordered the sales to resume, saying that Interior officials had not offered a rational explanation for canceling them. The government held an offshore lease auction in the Gulf of Mexico in November, but a court blocked the sale before the leases were issued. Pressure for Biden to expand U.S. crude production has increased as the global economy and fuel prices have gone up. The Democrat faces calls from within his own party to do more to curb emissions from fossil fuels that are driving climate change. There will be a notice to be posted on Monday for the sale of federal lands for over 200 square miles in the West. The parcels represent less land than officials had proposed for sale in November and less than what the industry had originally nominated. Nine states will be covered in the sales notices: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Alabama, Nevada, North Dakota and Oklahoma. The amount of land by state will be included in Monday's sales notices, but the Interior Department wouldn't specify which states had parcels for sale. They said the reduced area is a result of a focus on leasing in locations near existing oil and gas development. Hundreds of parcels of public land were dropped from the upcoming lease sale because of concerns about wildlife being harmed by drilling rigs. Burning fuel from the remaining leases could cost billions of dollars in climate change impacts. Fossil fuels are a prime target for climate activists because they account for 20% of energy related U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Republicans want more drilling because they say it will increase U.S. energy independence and bring down the price of crude. Oil companies are hesitant to expand drilling because of uncertainty over how long high prices will last. The announcement comes after Interior officials raised the prospect of higher royalty rates and less land available for drilling in a report issued last year. Secretary Deb Haaland said that the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of the extractive industries. Environmentalists derided the decision to hold the long- delayed sales, while oil industry representatives said the higher royalty rates would deter drilling. Nicole Ghio with the environmental group Friends of the Earth said Biden was putting oil industry profits ahead of future generations that will have to deal with the worsening consequences of climate change. Ghio said that if Biden wants to be a climate leader, he must stop auctioning off our public lands to Big Oil. Frank Macchiarola said that officials had removed some of the most significant parcels that companies wanted to drill while adding new barriers that would discourage companies from investing in drilling on public lands. Over the past decade, lease sales and royalties have brought in more than $83 billion. Half of the money from drilling goes to the state where it happened. According to federal officials, most states require companies to pay a higher royalty rate. The royalty rate for oil produced from deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico is 18%. The energy companies offered a combined $192 million for offshore drilling rights in the Gulf in the November auction that was later canceled. When Biden has a goal to lower greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50%, new leases that are developed could keep producing crude. Scientists say the world needs to be well on its way to avoiding catastrophic climate change over the next decade. A higher royalty rate would have a relatively small effect on global emissions because any reductions in oil and gas from federal lands would be largely offset by fuel from other sources. There is a problem. Follow Matthew Brown on social media. Plans for oil and gas development on federal lands have been resumed by the Biden administration, a move that could break a pledge Joe Biden made while campaigning for president. The plan calls for the government to lease less acres for drilling than initially proposed, charge more royalties to oil and gas companies, and assess the climate impact of developing the acres. The Interior Department made an announcement late Friday before the holiday weekend about reform of the federal oil and gas leasing program. The Interior Department is selling more oil and gas leases. The former EPA boss is running for the Senate. You can find the latest news on energy, the environment and beyond at this source. We are Rachel Frazin and Zack Budryk for The Hill. Someone. Few know that Amazon has millions of Prime subscribers. There have been more complaints to food regulators. The agency has not issued a recall for the popular children's cereals. In an attempt to lower soaring gas prices, the Biden administration is allowing cheaper biofuel to be sold this summer, tapping the nation's strategic oil reserve and restarting plans to lease federal land to drill for oil and gas. Climate activists say the plans undermine Biden's climate change goals. Josh Lederman reports from the White House. I can work anywhere in the world as a Medicare insurance agent. A man builds a trap to catch a thief. President Putin claims his special military operation is going to plan despite the deaths. The world should be prepared for the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, says the President of Ukraine. The Biden administration said on Friday that it will resume the sale of oil and gas drilling leases on federal land, but with higher royalties and a restricted amount of land available. Stay in your comfort zone all day in this Sonoma Goods For Life crew neck t-shirt. Stay in your comfort zone all day in this Sonoma Goods For Life crew neck t-shirt. The Crewneck Short sleeves are tested for harmful substances and are certified by OEKO-TEX. The gender is male. The age group is adult. The pattern is solid. The material is cotton blend. Gordon Ramsay is in South Florida. Desperate screams on the streets of Shanghai as residents protest the prospect of having COVID-19 isolation facilities so close to their home. In a video obtained by Reuters, people wearing hazmat suits with the word " police" on their backs can be seen fighting with other people outside a housing compound. The owners of the compound said that authorities had converted five of its vacant buildings into isolation facilities and that a further nine buildings would be converted. 39 tenants were moved to rooms in other parts of the compound and offered compensation, it said. Locals are furious. They are worried about being put at increased risk of infections. We want to do something for the country, but now you want to place patients with high transmissibility rates less than 20 meters away from some residential areas, what do you want us, the common folk, to do? The Chinese public have been largely supportive of the country's zero-COVID policy, but their patience seems to be wearing thin as the highly contagious O-micron variant emerges in China, triggering curbs that have brought food shortages, family separations, lost wages and economic pain. Some residents have expressed frustration on social media over the difficulties in getting food and poor conditions. People crammed into a building that looked like an office on video provided to us by an occupant of a facility. The person who filmed the video said there were at least 200 people there, including young children. New York City Mayor Eric Adams told George Stephanopoulos that the recent increase in crime extends beyond his city, calling it a national issue. A 30-hour search was launched for James after ten people were shot. This all-natural sleep patch is changing the way we sleep. Wake up more energetic every morning. Three of the six people killed in the downtown shooting were involved in a gang dispute and at least one of them fired a weapon, according to newly filed court documents. The three men who died were associated with gangs, according to documents filed by the district attorney. Two of the suspects are hospitalized or in jail. In a court filing out late Friday, shareholders who are suing Musk over alleged securities fraud said they won part of a critical ruling. After a two-year hiatus, members of the Garden State Region Mustang CClub traveled to a horse farm. Imagine walking to your car and seeing hilarious and embarrassing parking jobs. It has been a rough year for NHL officials. The reports show how much money candidates raised in the first three months of the year, and how well-equipped they are to make it through to the primary. New oil and gas lease sales on public lands and an increase in royalty rates were announced by the Interior Department on Friday, which is likely to be unpopular with both environmental groups and the fossil fuel industry. Shortly after President Biden took office, the Biden administration froze new leasing on public lands. Do you ever wonder what would happen if you did something that you really shouldn't? The Pentagon's watchdog office said Friday that the military bases in the sub-Arctic are failing to prepare for long-term climate change even though they are already cracking base runways and roads. The report from the inspector general of the Department of Defense provides a rare glimpse of the military's state of readiness, or lack of readiness, for the worsening weather of a warming Earth. Climate change is considered a threat to national security by the U.S. military. The most important environmental cases ever decided by the nation's highest court are restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from new cars. In the NASCAR Cup Series qualification heat at Bristol Motor Speedway, Daniel Suez lost his sixth-place position when he spun in the No. 99.Associated Press
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