Endangered butterflies get aid in House proposal and drillers pay the tab
WASHINGTON — Endangered butterflies and desert fish would get millions of dollars in federal funding while oil companies would face new fees and a ban on most offshore drilling under a House committee proposal to fulfill key parts of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
The details were summarized in a document seen by Bloomberg News prepared by the Natural Resources Committee, one of a dozen House panels now writing pieces of a $3.5 trillion budget bill that represents the largest chunk of Biden’s economic plan. The document was circulated to lawmakers before a planned Sept. 2 meeting to vote on the panel’s portion of the measure.
It sketches out Natural Resources Committee Democrats’ ambitions for spending roughly $31.5 billion on conservation programs, environmental analysis and cleanup of abandoned mines, among other priorities. The proposal, which could be revised before the committee takes up the measure next week, calls for devoting some $550 million to wildlife recovery efforts, including $25 million each to endangered butterflies, freshwater mussels and desert fish.
“This is the largest investment in the recovery of endangered species in a generation, and I couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “If we’re going to tackle the extinction crisis and save these incredible species from the brink, this is exactly the type of bold action that’s needed.”
The oil and gas industry would shoulder the burden of paying for much of the proposed spending. The proposals include new fees for idled oil wells, pipeline owners and the inspection of oil and gas facilities. Royalties also would be increased for some minerals, oil and gas extracted from public land.
Spokespeople for the committee and several members, reached by telephone and email after hours, declined to comment on the document. A Democratic member of the committee, who asked not to be identified, confirmed the document’s authenticity. Republican staff members said they have heard such a document exists, but it had not been shared with them.
Committee Democrats also will seek to spend some $3 billion on a new Civilian Climate Corps, according to the document. The program, which would be modeled after the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, would put Americans to work building clean energy infrastructure, capping inactive wells and conserving land.
Under the plan, committee Democrats would impose or increase more than a dozen fees, penalties and royalty charges on oil, gas and pipeline companies — ultimately raising as much as $5.6 billion with the changes.
Republicans blasted the plan as an “attack on American energy.”
“This is another irresponsible step toward making our country increasingly reliant on foreign adversaries for our energy needs,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Washington. “They are proposing to spend $50 million to eliminate an important revenue stream and kill thousands of American jobs — all the while relying on royalties to fund their priorities.”
Democrats also intend to get rid of a congressional mandate for the government to hold two auctions of oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain by Dec. 22, 2024. The requirement was originally adopted by lawmakers a way to pay for the 2017 tax cuts, based on expectations that the lease sales and oil development would yield more than $2 billion in revenues over a decade.