I’m writing in response to a recent op-ed, “The antiquated federal oil and gas leasing system is the real national security threat,” which highlights how the antiquated leasing system is affecting our communities. Ninety percent of U.S. public land is leased to oil and gas developers, and, once this land is leased, land management agencies can’t manage it for other uses like conservation of our water, outdoor recreation or other community benefits. Oil and gas companies can sit on the unused leases for up to 10 years, just like they are now with the industry currently holding 1.4 million acres of unused leases.
The industry can buy an acre of land for a minimum bid of 2 U.S. dollars. Of the 544,000 acres sold at auction in 2020, near 200,000 we sold at the minimum bid. On top of that, the royalty rate developers pay is 12.5 percent (one of the lowest in the world) on oil and gas extracted on public lands, this rate hasn’t been updated in 101 years since the passage of the Mineral Leasing Act. Offshore royalty rate is 18.75 percent, if we would have collected the offshore rate on every barrel of oil and cubic foot of gas from federal lands over the last decade, taxpayers would have gotten up to 12.4 billion.
Alarming as this is, we have hundreds of orphaned oil wells that leak methane, pollute drinking water and then companies leave town leaving their mess for taxpayers to clean up, costing us billions. Majority of American’s agree that impacts of oil and gas drilling on our land, air and water is a serious problem. Oil and gas leasing reform is long overdue, we need this pause to fix this broken system.
Michael Carlson, Salt Lake City