{"id":115331,"date":"2021-03-03T18:59:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T18:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=115331"},"modified":"2021-03-03T18:59:52","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T18:59:52","slug":"democrat-katie-porter-says-to-target-big-oil-in-new-role-as-natural-resources-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/politics\/democrat-katie-porter-says-to-target-big-oil-in-new-role-as-natural-resources-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat Katie Porter says to target Big Oil in new role as natural resources chair"},"content":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Katie Porter, who has earned a reputation for grilling bank and drug company executives during Congressional hearings, told Reuters she will focus on a new target in her new role as chair of the House Natural Resources Oversight Committee: Big Oil.<\/p> The position will make the California Democrat a key player in U.S. energy policy as President Joe Biden puts curbs on federal fossil fuel development at the center of a plan to fight climate change.<\/p>\n Biden paused new federal oil and gas leases, source of about a quarter of U.S. petroleum production, shortly after taking office in a move widely seen as a first step toward delivering on his campaign promise of a permanent ban.<\/p>\n Porter is one of several Democratic lawmakers that introduced a set of bills this week to reform federal oil and gas leasing regulations, including by raising royalty rates for the first time in a century – proposals that could impact existing leases even if new leases are eventually phased out.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can things not have gone up as I see the cost of my everyday expenses — healthcare, childcare, college, housing — all go up?\u201d Porter said. \u201cThis is not a coincidence. This takes intense lobbying work by the fossil fuel industry to prevent these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter introduced a bill that would boost the amount oil companies must pay on their federal onshore production to 18.75% from 12%, a rate that has not changed since 1920, and also increase minimum bids in lease auctions to $5 per acre from $2.<\/p>\n \u201cI confess when I first heard the term \u2018oil and gas royalty rates\u2019 I didn\u2019t immediately feel a deep emotional sort of reaction to fighting the issue. But as I began to understand what\u2019s really at stake, which is oil and gas companies taking our public resources at pennies on the dollar, I began to feel outraged,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A second-term Congresswoman from California, Porter has become a social media sensation after her rapid-fire grilling of powerful executives over issues like compensation and drugs pricing.<\/p>\n She is perhaps best known for scrawling on what Twitter dubbed her \u201cwhiteboard of truth\u201d during committee meetings -a prop she will use in her new oversight role.<\/p>\n Porter said that as a professor who taught classes about bankruptcy, she enjoys teaching esoteric policy and making it real for people.<\/p>\n \u201cOur public lands are not a speculative investment,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are a national treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n