Taxpayers for Common Sense Co-founder Jill Lancelot spoke today about the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) draft rule to minimize natural gas waste from federal oil and gas operations:

My name is Jill Lancelot and I am Senior Advisor, and co-founder of Taxpayers for Common Sense a national, non-partisan budget watchdog organization that promotes sound fiscal policy across the federal government.

Since 1995, Taxpayers for Common Sense has actively worked to ensure that taxpayers receive a fair return on all resources extracted or developed on federal lands.

Taxpayers for Common Sense is extremely concerned that for too long, oil and gas companies have been allowed to waste billions of cubic feet of natural gas by venting or flaring the gas and have avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties. We need to assure that taxpayers are protected, that royalties are collected, and that the American taxpayer receives what we are due.

According to BLM, enough gas was lost between 2009 and 2014 to serve more than 5 million households for a year. That’s 2 ½ times the number of households in our state of Colorado.  And this number is probably grossly underestimated because of poor accounting and self-reporting.

Venting and flaring of natural gas is a waste of valuable taxpayer-owned resources and costs taxpayers millions in lost royalty revenue. Revenue we are due as the resource owners; and revenue that is vitally important for funding both state and federal priorities. In 2013 alone, $392 million was lost in sales value and $50 million was lost in royalties.

We are pleased that the Department of the Interior is updating the outdated 30 year old rules. The BLM proposed rule is an important step in the right direction. However, there are places we think the draft rule must be strengthened to ensure that taxpayers receive a fair return. We are hopeful that the public hearings will aid in that task.

BLM has a fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers to ensure that our nation’s public resources are not wasted and that taxpayers are fully compensated for their sale.

###