New Mexico and California Stand Up to Administration and for Taxpayers
Last Wednesday the Attorneys General from New Mexico and California sued the Trump administration to enforce a rule requiring companies to pay royalties on oil, gas and coal extracted from our public lands. That is necessary because when the Trump administration took over, one of its first items of action was to suspend enforcement of a rule put in place by the Obama administration, known as the Oil, Gas and Coal Valuation Rule, to “ensure the American public receive every dollar due for production of oil, gas and coal on public lands.” So, it is great to see champions stand up against attacks on our public lands and for the people that own them: all of us
Describing the Trump Administration’s action to stop implementation of the rule, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, “The winners here are the private mining interests that profit from paying less for our natural resources. The losers are — surprise, surprise — the American taxpayers.” New Mexico’s Attorney General Hector Balderas said, “I will stand up to President Trump to get the desperately needed funds we are owed for our oil and gas production.”
The rule would have updated how companies pay royalties on fossil fuels taken from the ground. The fossil fuel industry had figured out that they could manipulate the past system to pay less than they should through loopholes, deductions and other ways of exploiting it. In fact, instead of paying 12.5 percent to the American taxpayers, as mandated by law, coal companies were paying an average effective royalty rate of 4.9 percent, costing us and local communities of millions of dollars.
This week, the Trump Administration is set to receive comments on its plan to permanently undo this rule and reopen rule to the loophole that lets energy companies short change the public. They are asking the public to weigh in on the rule through comments.
The Trump administration has been taking a sledgehammer to many of the gains made to improve protection and management our nation’s public lands and resources over the past 8 years. This administration has stopped a review of the broken federal coal program. They have rejected the idea that climate change be considered in many aspects of federal land management decisions. And they are trying to roll back many important principles of the oil and gas program, such as ensuring a balance between development and conservation, by putting oil and gas above all on our public lands.
And that’s why it is so important to see Attorney General Balderas of New Mexico and Attorney General Becerra of California taking on these issues and fighting for the people of their state to make sure that public lands are used for public good, and not just for the fossil fuel industry.
The Wilderness Society will continue defending our public lands, and while this particular rule is just a small piece of the puzzle, it is all the more important that we fight for it. This rule is truly about making sure that fossil fuel companies are paying their fair share for use of our public lands. It is really them versus the American taxpayer and making our voice heard is crucial to defending our public lands and the values inherent in them.
