President Joe Biden will tour the Southwest this week to tout the Inflation Reduction Act, which funneled billions into projects that will help combat climate change.
The law could lead to permanent policy changes in the oil and gas industry.
Drilling for oil and gas releases large amounts of methane into the atmosphere and helps escalate climate change.
The Inflation Reduction Act used a series of instructional memorandum to reform the industry for the first time in about a century, says Aaron Weiss of the Center for Western Priorities.
He said the administration would like to extend those changes beyond the life of the IRA, and has begun a formal rulemaking process.
"So what this rulemaking is, in large part, is formalizing what the Interior Department has already done through those instructional memoranda," Weiss said.
The changes include higher minimum bids and bonding rates for cleanup costs, which frequently get passed on to taxpayers.
