Every year a little-known agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, collects billions of dollars in oil and gas drilling fees -- known as royalties -- from oil companies producing on federal and Native American lands. POGO's investigations over the years have discovered numerous cases of the federal government failing in its duty to collect those royalties. Today, Congresspedia is unveiling a new resource which sheds light on the topic of oil and gas royalties for citizens, Congress, journalists, and experts -- a wiki-style page which tells the story of the many controversies surrounding oil and gas royalties.
You can check out the web page here. Let us know what you think! Keep in mind that the page is open to editing and additions by the public.
-- Beth Daley
The very first sentence, "U.S. federal oil and gas royalties are payments made by firms to the federal government in exchange for the opportunity to explore for oil and gas on government-owned land or water," is incorrect. It should read "U.S. federal oil and gas royalties are payments made by firms to the federal government in exchange for the opportunity to explore for oil and gas on individual, tribal and government-owned land or water." IIM and Tribal Trust accounts are administered by the federal government, but the land is owned by individual Indians and tribes. The US government does not own the land, Indians do.
Posted by: MB Williams | May 09, 2007 at 02:21 PM