A new analysis predicts taxpayers will reap fewer dollars after the Trump administration slashed the royalty rate for onshore oil and gas production by 25 percent last year.
More than six months after the lower rate went into effect, the nonprofit Taxpayers for Common Sense said it has not caused more industry interest and will cost taxpayers close to half a billion dollars over the coming years.
The watchdog group analyzed 22 lease sales across 11 states held by the Bureau of Land Management last year. More than half of those were held after July 4, when President Donald Trump signed the Republican megalaw that lowered the portion of revenue that oil drillers must pay the government to extract from public land.
Royalty rates are a percentage of the total value of the oil and gas extracted by a developer, which is paid to the U.S. government when drilling occurs on federal land.
