Heather covers offshore energy — oil, natural gas and wind — and drilling on public lands for E&E. She previously covered energy and the environment for The Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming.
Senators and witnesses offered a slew of suggestions yesterday for closing the $19 billion gap between federal funding and maintenance needs on the nation's public lands, including options beyond the most popular suggestion — pulling funds from federal energy leasing revenues.
The Bureau of Land Management in Utah is suspending oil and gas leases sold in a contested patch of the high desert last year in what environmentalists are calling a win for climate action on public lands.
Legislation to raise royalty rates and make companies pay for nominating land for auction is up for debate this week before a House Natural Resources subcommittee.
The multibillion-dollar backlog of deferred maintenance on public lands, and what could be done about it, will be the subject of a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing today.
Coal, oil and gas companies have six months to recalculate several years of royalties they owe the federal government, according to an Interior Department order yesterday in response to an April court decision restoring Obama-era accounting standards that the Trump administration had tried to trounce.