The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation, H.R. 26, the “Protecting American Energy Production Act,” to prohibit the president from “declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) unless Congress authorizes the moratorium.” The legislation would prevent future administrations from banning the drilling method on federal lands, which is used for oil and natural gas production and geothermal. The bill allows states to decide whether to allow fracturing on state and private lands. The final vote was 226-188 in favor, with 19 lawmakers not voting. No Republican voted against the bill, and 16 Democrats voted for it. The bill was initiated because of fears that a future Democrat president would ban fracking, as Vice President Kamala Harris had flip-flopped over her position on technology during the 2024 campaign. It also responds to a bill in 2020 introduced by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders to ban hydraulic fracturing.
Another bill being considered, House Bill 513, the “Offshore Lands Authorities Act of 2025,” would nullify certain presidential withdrawals of unleased offshore land and amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to establish limits on the authority of the President to withdraw unleased offshore land. The bill comes because former President Joe Biden enacted several regulations on oil and gas during his term, including banning future oil and gas drilling along 625 million acres of coastal and offshore waters, more than one-third of the outer continental shelf, just weeks before he left office.
Biden banned new offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters on the East and West Coasts, eastern Gulf of Mexico (America), and part of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea. Biden’s executive order to permanently ban new oil and natural gas leasing in parts of the outer continental shelf (OCS) used a 72-year-old law, the 1953 OCSLA, that governs offshore oil and gas development and gives president’s discretion to exclude specific waters from leasing permanently, which is why Congress now needs a bill to nullify or lessen that authority. Biden leased fewer federal acres for oil and gas than any president since World War II, a time when offshore drilling technology barely existed and before the OCSLA was enacted. Biden’s actions correspond with his campaign promise to “end fossil fuels,” which is the opposite of the OCSLA’s purposes, which say the OCS is a vital national resource that “should be made available for expeditious and orderly development.”
To implement President Trump’s energy dominance order, Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum issued directives that stripped the energy sector of “coercive” climate policies and oil lease bans enacted under the Biden administration, launching internal investigations into agency actions that “burden” energy development with short deadlines for reporting results. For example, Burgum revoked a 2021 order that halted oil and gas activity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and he reinstated a mandate from the first Trump administration to rewrite the land and energy management plan for the Indiana-sized National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. The Biden administration had taken multiple actions restricting vast areas in the Petroleum Reserve from petroleum development.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has also written directives to implement President Trump’s order for energy dominance, which would provide for economic growth, job creation, and lowering the price of goods and services. Wright prioritized expanding energy production rather than pursuing Biden’s net-zero climate policies, stating, “net-zero policies raise energy costs for American families and businesses, threaten the reliability of our energy system, and undermine our energy and national security.” Europe has been pursuing net-zero energy and climate policies, which have had disastrous results for affordable and reliable energy, with accompanying deindustrialization spreading across the continent.
Conclusion
The House of Representatives has passed a bill to ban any attempt by a President to prohibit fracking on federal land without congressional approval. The bill is now headed for the Senate and will need 7 Democrats to vote for it to pass. Fracking is a safe, clean, and effective way to produce affordable energy and strengthen the United States’ national security. It is being used for drilling oil, natural gas, and geothermal. Fracked wells now produce much of the nation’s oil and gas.
The House has another bill to limit the Presidential authority to remove lands on the outer continental shelf for oil and gas exploration. The bill was necessitated due to President Biden’s withdrawal of 625 million acres of coastal lands from oil and gas drilling just before leaving office — the authority of which came from a 72- year-old bill passed in 1953. Congress is seeking to plug gaping holes in energy security that a future administration could use bent on waging war on domestic energy production. These bills advance President Trump’s pro-energy agenda to restore America’s position as the world’s top oil and gas producer. Trump has signed various executive actions to unleash domestic energy, declaring a national energy emergency on his first day in office.
