According to the Washington Post, President Joe Biden’s administration wants to increase pressure on oil and gas companies operating on government property. The Ministry of the Interior issued a report on Friday calling for an increase in the tax rate for energy companies extracting from federally owned land, but did not specifically recommend how much the current 12.5% ​​profit surcharge should be increased. The new paper asserts that the current fee system "cannot provide a fair return to taxpayers, even before considering the resulting climate-related costs."

The Post pointed out that the call for the use of federal land and waters to squeeze oil and natural gas producers coincided with the President’s efforts to curb soaring fuel prices and his policy of pushing the country to switch to renewable energy. Biden’s iconic building reconstruction plan will include increasing drilling rates on land, but faces severe challenges in the Senate, where energy industry ally Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has tremendous power. The Post report quoted an estimate that an increase of 6 percentage points in the surcharge would bring a windfall of US$1 billion to the Federal Treasury Department each year.