"Let's Prolong the Recession!!" (D) To Raise Cost of Oil

What we need around here is higher fuel prices.

Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, West Virginia Democrat and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, has proposed a plan to boost royalty rates by 50 percent and to cut the lease periods to five years from the current 10 years or more. His recommendation would be part of a sweeping overhaul of the $22 billion, scandal-tarred oil and gas drilling program that the Interior Department oversees

I'm sure you can see the connection between 'raising the prices' and 'halting corruption', right?

[DOE Secretary] Salazar has said he favors higher royalty rates in return for the extraction of oil and natural gas on federal lands, where rates are generally lower than on private lands.

It's not an issue of equity. It's strictly GreenExtreme. Don't bother lying about it.

UPDATE:

Another item slipped into the same bill will allow DOE to "regulate" hydraulic fracturing--a method of extracting natural gas.

It turns out the actual resource base of the Marcellus [New York, PA., OH., WV. deposit] is closer to 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas than to 1.9 trillion. A lot closer. And thanks to new advances in drilling technology pioneered on the plains of Texas and Oklahoma, 50 trillion cubic feet of it could be extracted almost immediately. A trillion dollars' worth of American natural gas for the market … or continued undue influence granted to Russia, Iran, Libya. … Tough call.

DOE "regulation" is the kiss of death for hydraulic fracturing--and to a helluvalotta US natural-gas extraction.