Like growing a healthy garden, managing the budget takes a lot of maintenance. You have to weed out the unwanted, prune the suckers, and sow new seeds. At the moment, Congress is focused on weeding out the overgrowth in the federal budget. Pruning the many tax expenditures, including those in the energy sector, has been a recommendation of ours and others, as well . At the same time, the government should also reap revenue rightfully owed to the taxpayer. This needs to come from royalty payments from oil and gas development on public lands and waters, but also from the fertile ground of renewable energy development – such as wind and solar – on public lands.

The potential for renewable energy generation on public lands in the United States is enormous, and very aggressive targets have already been set to promote its expansion. But Congress lacks a statutory framework designed to allow renewable development to take root. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established a goal of 10,000 megawatts of non-hydropower renewable energy projects on the public lands by 2015, but left the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in charge of approving renewable energy projects through rights of way authorizations originally established by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) for locating power lines, pipelines, and communications towers and lines on federal land.

The more appropriate framework for conveying authorizations for commercial development of wind and solar power generation on public land is a system of competitive leasing and royalties , similar to development of other energy sources on public lands – and what renewable energy developers now find on private land. Not only would this create a more fertile environment for private investment by providing a permanent, predictable system, it would ensure taxpayers are enjoying the fruits of this investment.

Revenues from the collection of rents, royalties, and bonus bids for access to publicly held energy resources represent one of the largest non-tax income sources for the federal government. Fair and accurate collection is necessary to ensure taxpayers are receiving what they are rightfully owed. In the recent past, however, the oil and gas royalty collection system has lacked accountability, transparency, and accuracy in charging, collecting, and auditing payments to the federal treasury. For renewables, BLM’s existing “ rental fees ” for wind and solar projects on public land attempt to account for the value of renewable energy inputs – wind and solar – but cannot charge per unit of power produced, which is the better method of capturing a fair return for taxpayers. And not only do we need to ensure that revenue collection is accountable and clear, but development decisions must consider potential long term liabilities .

Even before revenue from rents and royalties from new energy development has been captured, some in Congress are trying to spend it on infrastructure projects, state aid, you name it. So while one Congressional hand created the Super Committee to cut spending, the other is counting, promising, and trading the chicks before they hatch are even laid.

Efforts to increase domestic energy production are popular on both sides of the aisle. But experience shows that cutting corners in oil and gas leasing hampers accurate royalty collection , and the risk of Solyndra’s collapse was missed in part because of the Administration’s effort to fast-track renewable energy development. Instead of acting like a venture capitalist, the government should focus on building a rich bed in which private investment in renewable energy development can grow.

As the Super Committee comes up with a way to clean up the federal budget garden, they should direct lawmakers to tend to the budding revenue from our public assets. Most importantly, that revenue needs to go to feeding deficit reduction, not to lawmakers hungry for pet projects back home.

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TCS Quote of the Week

“There is no doubt there are scandalous cost overruns associated with it. The first trillion-dollar weapons system in history.” Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), speaking about the troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project. (AP)