(PatriotSpotlight.org) – In an apparent bid to reverse several Biden administration’s green policies, GOP Reps Representatives Andy Ogles and August Pfluger, of Tennessee and Texas respectively put forth plans last Thursday. The “Declaration of Energy Independence Act” seeks to scrap higher royalty rates on onshore gas and oil leases. These increased penalties were set up by Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) climate rules.
The IRA’s regulations claim to be aimed at reducing climate change, and have upped oil and gas development costs on federal lands, along with raising royalty rates from 12.5 percent to a whopping 16.67 percent. Ogles and Pfluger’s plans want to go back to the pre-Biden rules.
Pfluger said the planned changes were key to ensuring America could work towards energy independence, rather than penalizing vital energy industries and making consumers pay higher prices. Many top players in both the fossil fuel industry and conservative politics have expressed their frustration with the IRA, and their enthusiasm about proposed changes.
After entering the White House in 2021, President Biden tried to issue a blanket drilling moratorium on drilling in any federal lands. The bid was quashed by a federal court, but other restrictions, including the IRA’s, and limits on millions of Alaskan acres have been pushed through. In particular, many national security voices express concerns about such crackdowns possibly encouraging future reliance on energy from nations such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, who the US has tense relations with, especially in the case of the former following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Ogles slammed the administration’s alleged “years of abuse” geared toward energy providers, in the name of green policy. He stressed that the country’s energy security was far more important that what he deemed “woke” posturing, and that more oil and gas were needed to ensure the country’s national security and global economic position. In many parts of the country, population growth and new technology such as data mining are even pushing up demand further, defying previous forecasts,
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