Biden Wants Oil Companies to Pay Penalties on Unused Drilling Leases
- Policy aimed to prod domestic industry to increase drilling
- Senator Joe Manchin said he supports raising leasing fees
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U.S. President Joe Biden wants oil drillers to pay penalties when federal leases go unused in an effort to prod the industry into pumping more.
The White House will call on Congress to “make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing,” the administration said in a statement on Thursday. “Companies that are producing from their leased acres and existing wells will not face higher fees.”