Rep. Patricia Royal Caballero House District 13 | Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter
Senator Tom Udall has introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at updating oil and gas royalty rates on public lands. This move comes on the 100th anniversary of the Mineral Leasing Act, which was enacted in 1920. The current legislation seeks to revise these rates, which have remained unchanged for a century.
The present rental rate stands at $1.50 per acre for the initial five years of a lease and increases to $2 per acre thereafter. Additionally, the national minimum bid is set at $2 per acre, with a minimum royalty rate of 12.5 percent.
The proposed Fair Return for Public Lands Act addresses these figures in an effort to align them more closely with contemporary economic conditions.
According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, New Mexico's state government has potentially missed out on approximately $2.5 billion in revenue over the past ten years due to outdated federal rental rates and below-market royalty rates, as well as waste from oil and gas wells. Federal taxpayers are reported to have incurred similar losses.
