From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
Oil and gas companies and legislators in both the House and Senate have asked the Department of the Interior to help bail out the oil and gas industry by cutting royalties.1
So far, the Interior Department has said it will not reward blanket royalty releases to the entire industry, but individual companies are able to apply for royalty relief on a case-by-case basis. We need to make sure the Interior Department holds strong and opposes all royalty relief.2
Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=38140 to tell Interior Secretary David Bernhardt: Don’t bail out the oil and gas industry.
Royalties are the percentage of revenue that goes to the landowner instead of the oil or gas companies. When royalties are slashed, it helps the companies and hurts the landowners. When the drilling is on public lands, it hurts the American public.3
But here’s the real kicker, by reducing the costs, the government would be incentivizing more oil production at the very moment in time when renewables are on the rise. In fact, renewable energy sources are still on track to make up nearly 21 percent of our country’s electricity this year for the first time ever.4
Now more than ever, we shouldn’t be strengthening our dependence on dirty, destructive fossil fuels, especially when cleaner energy sources, such as wind and solar power, are growing and show little signs of stopping.
Tell the Interior Department: Say no to royalty cuts.
- Rachel Frazin, “GOP lawmakers ask Trump to assist oil and gas produces,” The Hill, April 3, 2020.
- Rachel Frazin, “Trump administration says no widespread royalty cuts for public lands drilling,” The Hill, April 10, 2020.
- Marie Cusick and Amy Sisk, “Millions Own Gas And Oil Under Their Land. Here’s Why Only Some Strike It Rich,” NPR, March 15, 2018.
- Ivan Penn, “Oil Companies Are Collapsing, but Wind and Solar Energy Keep Growing,” The New York Times, updated April 8, 2020.
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