Democrats Plan Oil Royalties Inquiry (NYT)

[jpak]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/business/09royalty.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 — House Democratic leaders vowed Friday to pursue a broad overhaul of tax breaks and other subsidies to oil companies in January, saying that their first target would be an investigation of how the government collects billions of dollars in royalties on oil and gas produced on federal property.

“The Interior Department has a background of mismanagement, to put it mildly, in the collection of these royalties,” said Representative Nick J. Rahall II of West Virginia, a Democrat who will become chairman of the House Resources Committee next year.

Mr. Rahall said he planned a sweeping investigation of the Interior Department’s enforcement of royalty payments as well as the possible repeal of a 10-year-old law that allows energy companies drilling in deep coastal waters to avoid billions of dollars in payments.

“The oil and gas royalties system has never worked,” asserts a written summary of the committee’s top goals in the new Congress. “Instead it has proven to be a form of corporate welfare that has enabled oil and gas producers to undercut payments due the American people.”

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[acmavm]

1. You can hear the gnashing of the teeth of all the oil execs from

Omaha, NE.

They're watching their half-billion dollar retirement packages sprout wings and fly away (hopefully).

[kestrel91316]

2. Like Esau, who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage...................

“The oil and gas royalties system.............has proven to be a form of corporate welfare that has enabled oil and gas producers to undercut payments due the American people.”

We need to substantially increase royalty payments to the AMERICAN PEOPLE and use them to develop alternatives and increase sequestration through forest restoration. It is our BIRTHRIGHT.

[twilight_sailing]

3. We should get 20% just like any Texas Rancher

Sorry if I repeat this point over and over again.

It defies comprehension. Why in the the world would we give away our royalties?