Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to push through sweeping energy reforms despite Democratic opposition, including boosting oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
During a bill markup Tuesday, the House Committee on Natural Resources outlined its section of the upcoming reconciliation megabill. With over $15 billion in savings and new revenue for the federal government, the committee’s proposed bill more than satisfies the $5.8 trillion budget reconciliation instructions telling the committee to find $1 billion in cuts.
Roughly $12 billion in revenue would come from the bill’s expansion of onshore oil and gas leasing on federal lands, while about $3 billion would come from mandating increases in offshore leasing, both of which the Biden administration significantly curtailed.
The bill would also reduce both onshore and offshore drilling royalty rates to 12.5%, support domestic mining for critical minerals, and permanently reinstate coal leasing that the Biden administration had suspended.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that the full budget reconciliation package including all 11 committee bills should be ready for a House floor vote sometime next week.
