Ryan Alexander, president, Taxpayers for Common Sense, issued the following statement on the Government Accountability Office’s findings that the BLM continues failing to protect taxpayers on the loss of natural gas from oil and gas operations on public lands:

“Taxpayers are losing hundreds of millions of dollars from natural gas wasted during oil and gas operations on federal lands. In a report released today, the Government Accountability Office found that the Interior Department still does not have sufficient reporting requirements in place for industry to account for gas vented or flared. The BLM must finalize its proposed rule to address some of these longstanding problems or taxpayers will continue losing money on unknown amounts of natural gas being wasted on public lands. The GAO confirms our findings in a 2014 report, “Burning Money,” which recommended that Interior establish better public disclosure of production and disposition data reported by drilling operators.”