Where’s the Outrage Over Cutting Oil and Gas Royalty Rates? | The Times-Picayune
Aerial photograph taken above Ingleside, Texas, on May 5, 2017. (Photo by Eddie Seal, Bloomberg)
The next time a Louisiana politician — or anyone else working for the oil industry — says they support expanded offshore oil development because the royalties help pay for our coastal restoration projects, feel free to stick a big Pinocchio nose on them.
Yes, those royalties help fund projects restoring our crumbling, sinking coast — a problem, state scientists agree, was caused in large measure by that same energy industry. Those royalties (not campaign contributions) is why our congressional delegation says it cheers President Donald Trump’s Drill-Everywhere-Now-Baby! policy.
That is why they (justly) applauded in unison when Trump backed off his original idea to kill the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which (finally) will be sending a (small) share of those royalties to our coast.
But if those royalties are so important, why then have we not heard outrage from those same sources when this story (Interior Dept. panel weighs lower royalty payments for offshore oil and gas drilling) broke last week?
That’s right, it suggests “cutting the federal royalty rate for deepwater drilling operations from 18.75 percent to 12.5 percent, the lowest possible rate the government can charge for such leases.”
Oh, and this isn’t the first royalty rate cut under Trump: “Interior officials lowered the rate for shallow-water drilling to 12.5 percent during a Gulf of Mexico lease sale last summer.”
You don’t need an Ivy League degree like Trump’s to understand increasing the number of wells, but reducing the royalties will end up being a big win for the oil companies, but likely a big zero for the coast. But it also will mean increased pollution and higher risk of a catastrophic disaster like the Deepwater Horizon.
Read the rest of the article at The Times-Picayune.
