Companies can start drilling on public lands again—but they’ll have to pay an even steeper price to do so, the White House said Friday. The Interior Department said companies can make use of 145,000 acres of public lands between nine states for drilling, but to do so, they must pay a federal royalty rate of 18.75 percent. The total is the first—and largest—spike in the royalty rate in over a century, according to The New York Times. “Today, we begin to reset how and what we consider to be the highest and best use of Americans’ resources for the benefit of all current and future generations,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.The move is one of a number of efforts by the Biden administration to combat rising gas prices, though it is a marked shift from Biden’s promise to eliminate drilling on federal lands to combat climate change.
