The Bureau of Land Management announced the first step in a plan to increase royalty rates on federal lands, the latest regulatory action on oil and natural gas development on federal lands. House Natural Resources Committee Spokeswoman Julia Bell released the following statement:

“At a time when oil and natural gas production on state and private land is up 89% since 2010, and federal production is down 10%, it’s unbelievable that we have yet another regulatory assault from the Obama administration on energy development on federal lands. Hiking the royalty rates will further curtail production and decrease revenue flowing to the federal Treasury,” Bell said.

“Not only does the federal government want to overregulate what is already handled by the state, as in the case of the BLM fracturing rule, they want to do it much slower – and now they want to charge more money for it. The reality is not that the American people aren’t getting the right return on investment from the oil and gas industry, but the American people aren’t getting the right return on investment from the federal government, which is stunting growth and harming our energy security.

“The administration’s agenda has once again been prioritized above rural schools and communities with federal lands, most of which are in the West, that rely on revenue from energy development for education funding,” Bell concluded.