Royalty rates set in 1920 are costing taxpayers billions each year
** Outdated law overseeing drilling on public lands turns 100
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020
California oil wells in 1920, when the law governing public lands drilling was passed | Photo courtesy Orange County Archives ([link removed])
One hundred years ago today, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 ([link removed]) into law, providing a framework for oil and gas companies to lease public lands and compensate taxpayers for the extraction of publicly-owned resources. Through massive lobbying efforts from oil and gas trade associations and corporations to keep the status quo, the law has largely remained intact since then; the latest significant update was in 1987.
The result? Oil and gas companies have taken advantage of a wildly outdated ([link removed]) system, snapping up leases on public lands at bargain rates, paying virtually nothing to sit on idle leases, and depriving U.S. taxpayers of billions in royalties thanks to low royalty rates. A comparison of royalty rates ([link removed]) by the Center for Western Priorities shows that taxpayers could have received more than $10 billion in royalties over the last five years if higher royalty rates had been in place.
One thing is clear—on the 100th anniversary of the Mineral Leasing Act, the laws governing oil and gas production on our public lands are in desperate need of reform.
Quick hits
** Wyoming legislators look to tax breaks in push for coal exports
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed]) | Wyoming Public Media ([link removed])
** Tracker finds progress in Trump Interior Department's remaining policy changes
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Westwise ([link removed])
** Interior Secretary intervenes to stop cull of nonnative mountain goats in Grand Teton National Park
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Jackson Hole News&Guide ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed])
** Data shows Wyoming efforts to curb drilling permit glut may be working
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Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])
** Outdated oil and gas royalties are costing taxpayers billions each year
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Westwise ([link removed])
** Study finds correlation between anti-environmental votes, fossil fuel political donations
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Gizmodo ([link removed])
** New Mexico to revisit bonding levels for oil and gas drilling
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Associated Press ([link removed])
** Utah legislation seeks to increase enforcement of drilling violations after scathing audit
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KUER ([link removed])
Quote of the day
Some companies thought they could file a thousand drilling permits, lock up land and then try to sell it — that formula isn’t working any more.”
—Mark Watson, Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission supervisor, Casper Star-Tribune ([link removed])
Picture this
An elk rests below Palette Spring in Yellowstone National Park
Photo by Jacob W. Frank | National Park Service ([link removed])
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