Last week, the Biden Administration released its updated plan for taking regulatory actions across the executive branch. According to the new “Unified Agenda,” the Department of the Interior is still planning to pursue two rulemakings that could be winners for taxpayers. The first would update several terms for leases to develop oil and natural gas on federal lands and waters. The second would relaunch a rulemaking to clarify when oil and gas companies operating on federal lands owe taxpayers for venting, flaring, or otherwise wasting natural gas. Both rules are overdue and could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue for taxpayers every year.

For background on the two rules, read our coverage of the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda. The scope of the two planned rules hasn’t changed since, but some of the context has. In late November 2021, the Department of the Interior released its review of the federal oil and gas program underscoring the need to improve the fiscal return from development of taxpayer-owned oil and gas. In addition, Congress has included several reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing system in drafts of the Build Back Better Act, but none have been enacted yet. Both developments provide further justification for the Department of the Interior (DOI) to keep moving ahead with the planned rulemaking. According to the updated plan, DOI will release its proposal for updated leasing terms in May 2022.

Likewise, operators wasting natural gas on federal lands, often without paying taxpayers, remains a pressing issue for DOI to address. In its spring regulatory plan, DOI indicated it would release a proposed rule in October 2021. In the updated agenda, DOI has pushed back publication of a proposed rule to March 2022 and now expects to issue a final rule by November 2022.

These rulemakings could be significant steps towards getting taxpayers a fair return from federal oil and gas development. Even with these important rulemakings Congress must also address oil and gas reforms to ensure permanent changes are made guaranteeing taxpayers a fair return for the resources we own into the future. Additionally current law allows operators to use natural gas on federal leases without paying for it. Operators reported using natural gas worth an estimated $6 billion from fiscal year 2010 to 2019. Taxpayers received nothing for this value. Congress must end this egregious giveaway. Congress must also act to end the practice of noncompetitive leasing on federal lands.

The policies that govern oil and gas on federal lands date back to the 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, or earlier and cost taxpayers billions of dollars every year in potential revenue. Updates to those policies can’t come soon enough.