President Joe Biden s administration on Friday finalized a new rule to modernize the long-outdated federal oil and gas leasing program.

The Interior Department rule significantly increases how much energy companies must pay to lease and drill on federal lands, and it gives federal land managers greater authority to keep fossil fuel development away from sensitive wildlife habitats and cultural sites.

The reforms will help safeguard the health of our public lands and nearby communities for generations to come, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

These are the most significant reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing program in decades, and they will cut wasteful speculation, increase returns for the public, and protect taxpayers from being saddled with the costs of environmental cleanups, she said.

The final rule, which appears unchanged from Interiors proposal last year, raises the royalties that companies pay to the U.S. government for oil and gas extracted from public lands, from a stagnant 12.5% to 16.67%. It also ups the minimum bid for leasing federal parcels from $2 to $10 per acre.

Those two changes were required in the Inflation Reduction Act, Bidens signature climate law that Democrats passed in 2022. The federal royalty rate for fossil fuel extraction has remained unchanged for more than a century.

Autumn Hanna, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, called the move a crucial step towards ensuring a fair return and protecting American taxpayers.

For too long, this outdated system has failed to secure fair returns for American taxpayers, costing us billions of dollars in lost revenue and imposing substantial reclamation liabilities, she said in a statement .