# Declaration of Energy Independence Act - Plain Language Summary

## What This Bill Does

This bill makes it cheaper and easier for oil and gas companies to lease federal land for drilling. It reduces the royalty rates (the percentage of profits the government receives from oil and gas extraction) from 16.67% to 12.5%, lowers the minimum bid price for leases from $10 per acre to $2 per acre, and reduces annual rental fees that companies must pay to the government. The bill also eliminates certain application fees and streamlines the process for obtaining leases on federal lands.

## Who Benefits and Who Is Affected

**Primary beneficiaries:** Oil and gas companies would benefit significantly from lower costs and faster access to federal lands for drilling operations. **Those potentially negatively affected:** The federal government and taxpayers would receive substantially less revenue from oil and gas extraction on public lands. Environmental advocates argue this could lead to increased fossil fuel development on sensitive federal lands.

## Key Changes

- **Royalty rates drop** from 16.67% to 12.5% (meaning companies keep more profit)
- **Minimum bid prices fall** from $10 to $2 per acre
- **Annual rental fees decrease** from $3-$15 per acre to $1.50-$2 per acre
- **Application fees eliminated** for expressing interest in leases
- **Noncompetitive leasing expanded**, allowing companies to lease land without competitive bidding if no bids are received at auction
- **Faster processing:** Leases must be issued within 60 days of application

Declaration of Energy Independence Act

Ogles, Andrew

Declaration of Energy Independence ActThis bill reduces certain royalty rates, minimum bids, rental rates, and fees for onshore oil and gas leases on federal lands&nbsp;and modifies related leasing procedures.Specifically, the bill (1) decreases the royalty rate from 16 2/3% to 12 1/2% for&nbsp;developing oil and gas on federal lands, (2) lowers the minimum bid amount from $10.00 to $2.00 per acre for oil and gas leases on federal lands, and (3) decreases the rental rates from a maximum of $15.00 per acre to $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2.00 per acre thereafter.&nbsp;The bill&nbsp;also eliminates the fee for expressing interest in a lease.&nbsp;It also modifies&nbsp;leasing procedures to provide for noncompetitive leasing&nbsp;under certain circumstances.In addition, the bill modifies the conditions&nbsp;for the reinstatement of leases that have been cancelled or terminated, including by reducing the applicable royalty and rental rates.