|
The Interior Department released a long-awaited review of its oil and gas leasing system on Friday, recommending a suite of reforms to ensure taxpayers get a fair return when companies lease and drill for oil on America's public lands and waters.
The report focuses on the fiscal impacts of oil and gas leasing, while acknowledging that the department is separately starting to account for “new stressors and new opportunities,” including “biodiversity loss, tackling climate change, and deploying new technology ranging from harnessing offshore wind in public waters, to sequestering carbon on public lands.”
The biggest recommendation in the report is to raise the royalty rate that companies pay when extracting oil and gas, which has been set at 12.5% for more than a century. That rate is significantly lower than what companies pay for oil on state and private land. The report also argues for increasing the bonds that companies must post for future cleanup, and encourages the Bureau of Land Management to avoid offering leases on land with low potential for future oil development.
The Center for Western Priorities was among the conservation and government accountability groups that praised the review. Executive Director Jennifer Rokala said that the report “provides a critical roadmap to ensure drilling decisions on public lands take into account (climate) impacts on our land, water and wildlife, while ensuring a fair return for taxpayers.”
|
My stuff has basically become useless other than the fact that it goes back a good ways, and it’s got easy-to-measure information that we can continue. I just want to keep it going. It is interesting — it is, I think. And it’s helpful.”
