The United States contains vast onshore mineral estates that are owned by American taxpayers. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), within the Department of the Interior (DOI), is responsible for managing these resources and ensuring that taxpayers receive a fair return from their development. The federal onshore oil and gas leasing system fails to give taxpayers a fair return, instead leaving us with mounting financial and environmental liabilities. Over the last decade, taxpayers lost $3.8 billion from outdated rates and fees in Wyoming. While recent reforms have improved the return taxpayers receive from leasing federal lands for oil and gas development, the current system still fails taxpayers through a below-market royalty rate, policies that allow federal gas to be released into the atmosphere royalty-free, and minimum bonding requirements that fail to capture the high costs of reclaiming oil and gas wells.

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