American Petroleum Institute (API) President and CEO Mike Sommers released the following statement after the House Natural Resources Committee released its proposed markup of the 2025 reconciliation bill:
“Congress has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to help restore American energy leadership, and the House Natural Resources Committee has seized the moment. From lease sales to expedited permitting processes, the committee’s proposal creates an unprecedented pathway for developing our vast natural resources on federal lands and waters for generations to come. This is what American energy dominance looks like, and we urge the House to include these historic provisions in its final package.”
Oil and natural gas-related provisions in the committee’s proposal include:
Onshore oil and natural gas:
- Requiring quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales, drawing on provisions of the Lower Energy Costs Act
- Application for Permit to Drill (APD) by Rule that expedites drilling requests on public lands and waters
- Extending APD terms from 2 years to 4 years
- Repealing the Inflation Reduction Act’s increases to the royalty rates for oil and gas leases on federal lands and lowering the rates from 16.67% to 12.5% for onshore leases on federal lands
- Noncompetitive lease language that restores the ability of the Bureau of Land Management to carry out noncompetitive leasing for parcels that receive no bids during competitive auctions
- Requiring regular lease sales in NPR-A
- Repealing the Chaco Canyon Buffer Limit, which rendered adjacent lands unavailable for oil and gas production
Offshore oil and natural gas:
- Requiring biannual offshore leases in the Gulf of America for the next 15 years
- Requiring 6 lease sales in Alaska Cook Inlet over the next 10 years
- Establishing GOMESA-like offshore oil and gas royalty sharing for Alaska
- Lowering the offshore royalty rate from 18.75% (as established by rule) to 12.5%, with cap at 18.75%
Promoting offshore commingling approvals
