May 2, 2025

DENVER – Western Energy Alliance today commended House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman for the release of the committee’s section of the reconciliation bill. If passed by Congress, this bill would enact President Trump’s clear mandate to unleash American energy and undo the damage of President Biden’s Keep-It-in-the-Ground policies.

“Western Energy Alliance wholeheartedly supports the reconciliation legislation released by the House Natural Resources Committee today,” said Kathleen Sgamma, outgoing president of the Alliance. “When Congress last utilized the reconciliation process in the laughably named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it included numerous provisions targeting oil and natural gas that were intentionally designed to decrease American production and increase costs for consumers. The few well-intended provisions from then-Senator Joe Manchin to tie wind and solar permitting to federal oil and natural gas leasing were abused by the Biden administration to curtail lease sales. With this bill, not only are many of the damaging provisions reversed, but many new tools are handed to the Interior Department to make leasing, permitting, and environmental analysis under NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) more efficient and timely. We urge Congress to pass the bill.”

Highlights of the committee’s package that advance American oil and natural gas production:

• Commingling: Enabling commingling of production is one of the quickest ways to increase production onshore. Many projects in the West have been held up for years by the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) failure to approve the commingling of federal and nonfederal oil and natural gas in consolidated projects, even though today’s metering equipment enables accurate measurement for royalty calculations. With the bill, producers can consolidate facilities, thereby reducing the number of well pads and impact on the land while still accurately calculating federal royalties.

• Non-Federal Well Permitting: Removing the need for a federal permit for wells on nonfederal lands is perhaps equally important for quickly enabling more production. With two- to three-mile laterals, horizontal wellbores may touch small pockets of federal minerals underground. By reducing the need for a federal permit when only a small amount of federal minerals is traversed, it frees BLM from extra paperwork while still ensuring the American taxpayer receives the revenue. This provision is particularly necessary in North Dakota, where access to the energy that the state and private citizens own is often blocked for years by unnecessary federal process.

• National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA): Completing NEPA analysis in a reasonable amount of time by letting companies pay for their NEPA documents. The bill sensibly relieves the government of the cost and time of the analysis, while still enabling government oversight. Removing the ability of unaccountable groups to sue clears one of the largest impediments to getting projects done in a timely manner.

• Protest Fees: Requiring obstructionist groups to pay a fee when they protest leases would finally hold them responsible for a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars of economic activity they stop with their constant protests and litigation. It is appropriate and equitable for these otherwise unaccountable groups to pay for the burden they place on the government and for constantly preventing projects that create jobs and federal revenue.

• Permitting: Making the federal government more efficient, such as by establishing a permit-by-rule system. By enabling the timely approval of routine permits that meet stringent requirements, BLM could spend less time pushing redundant paperwork and more time actively managing the land. Likewise, setting a four-year term for drilling permits eliminates the need for BLM to revisit them after two years, a needless red tape exercise.

• Leasing: Clarifying quarterly lease sales prevents future administrations from issuing a ban on leasing, as President Biden did by unlawful decree as well as by bureaucratic inertia. Reinstating noncompetitive leasing provides a low-cost entry for small companies exploring in areas not considered highly prospective today. Like the Bakken and Permian in the 2000s, today’s low-value, low-potential area could be the next big find. The Permian later experienced a record high lease sale, netting nearly $1 billion in 2018.

• Resource Management Plans (RMP): Overturning five Biden RMPs that locked away millions of acres of lands appropriate for oil, natural gas, and coal leasing at the behest of the environmental left to keep them in the ground. The bill reverses the Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction; North Dakota; Miles City, Montana; Buffalo, Wyoming; and Rock Springs, Wyoming RMPs.

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