Oil and Gas Royalties

Legislation | Documents/Reports | Links | Press Releases

Congresswoman Maloney, a long-time critic of waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs, has battled Big Oil for nearly 15 years to ensure that taxpayers are paid their fair share of royalties from oil companies that drill on federal lands.

Maloney has been a leader in efforts to revise the Interior Department's oil-valuation rules. At her urging in 1997, the House Subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology held two hearings looking into the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) royalty-collection efforts which were instrumental in getting MMS to re-write its oil-valuation rules. She also worked with the General Accounting Office and the House Resources Committee to bring about stronger oversight of MMS. Representative Maloney led the successful effort in 2000 to force oil companies to pay the federal government fair market value instead of lower “posted prices” set by the industry. Because of her advocacy and the efforts of other good government proponents, in the spring of 2000, the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service released its final oil valuation rule, which resulted in the federal government collecting millions more annually in oil and gas revenues.

Maloney has also been an outspoken critic of the deeply flawed Royalty-in-Kind program, which was established by the Bush Administration as a pilot program in 2001. The program would allow companies that extract oil and gas on federal lands to pay the government "in kind," with barrels of oil and natural gas, instead of in traditional cash payments, which would now cost the companies more under the 2000 oil valuation rule. As a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Maloney helped to provide stringent oversight of the program from its first days until it was ultimately phased out by the Obama Administration in 2009.

Maloney continues to work for increased accuracy of royalties collected. She is the author of a bill to help ensure that the federal government uses the most accurate methods to collect royalties.

Legislation

06/21/2011 - H.R. 2260, Study of Ways to Improve the Accuracy of the Collection of Federal Oil, Condensate, and Natural Gas Royalties Act of 2011 [112th Congress]

01/12/07 - H.R.435, Study of Ways to Improve the Accuracy of the Collection of Federal Oil, Condensate, and Natural Gas Royalties Act of 2007 [1110th Congress]

05/18/06 - H.AMDT.838, Maloney Amendment on Auditing Funding [109th Congress]

06/21/01 - H.AMDT.102, Maloney Amendment on Royalty-In-Kind Sales [107th Congress]

03/08/01 - H.R.962, Low Income Energy Reinvestment Act [107th Congress]

06/14/00 - H.AMDT.801, Maloney Amendment on Royalty-in-Kind Sales [106th Congress]

05/21/98 - H.R.3932, Federal Oil Royalty Protection Act of 1998 [105th Congress]

03/18/97 - H.R.1106, Royalty Settlement Reform Act of 1997 [105th Congress]

Documents

Timeline of Rep. Maloney's efforts and accomplishments

 07/19/06 - Letter to the Minerals Management Service expressing concern with the MMS's methods for collecting royalties on oil and gas extractions

04/03/06 - Letter to the Minerals Management Service expressing concern about the auditing and compliance review processes for the States and Native American tribes

01/23/06 - Letter to Chairmen of the Government Reform and Resources Committees urging them to schedule hearings about whether or not oil and gas companies have been underpaying federal royalties on natural gas taken from federal lands and waters

01/23/06 - Letter to Chairmen of the Government Reform and Resources Committees urging them to schedule hearings and initiate investigations into whether or not oil and gas companies have been misreporting their earnings from oil and gas taken from federal lands at the expense of American taxpayers

09/21/04 - Letter to the Department of Interior opposing the proposed rule that the Minerals Management Service published on July 23, 2004, which would amend the existing regulations governing the valuation of gas for royalty purposes produced from Federal leases

11/10/03 - Letter to the Department of Interior opposing the proposed rule to amend the federal oil valuation regulations which went into effect in June 2000

09/09/03 - Letter to the Department of Interior expressing concern about the proposed rule which would amend existing regulations for the valuation of crude oil produced from federal leases

01/16/03 - Letter to the Department of Interior objecting to the full implementation of the Royalty-in-Kind program until solid data are available to show that the American taxpayers would be getting a fair deal under the system

More on Oil and Gas Royalties

Apr 14, 2010 Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), senior member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, greeted with concern today’s release of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on oil and gas leases on federal lands.

Mar 13, 2009 Press Release


WASHINGTON, DC – In a time when the federal deficit is skyrocketing, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) has introduced a bill which could help increase payments to the government from energy leases under Federal onshore and offshore lands by ensuring an accurate accounting of the resources extracted from those lands.

Jun 24, 2008 Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Vice Chair of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), delivered the following prepared remarks at today’s JEC hearing, “Is the Skyrocketing Price of Oil a Bubble or a New Reality for the U.S. Economy?”: 
Feb 7, 2007 Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC –   Today, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) reacted to the Department of Interior’s announcement that an official who may be most responsible for costing the American taxpayers billions of dollars in oil and gas royalties will be promoted to a position that oversees private oil and gas exploration in federal waters nationwide.
Jan 19, 2007 Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed landmark legislation that will revamp the system by which oil and gas companies pay royalties for the natural resources extracted from land owned by American taxpayers. As a complement to those changes, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) is touting legislation she recently reintroduced (H.R. 435) that would help ensure that the federal government uses the most accurate methods to collect royalties on natural resources taken by oil and gas companies from taxpayer-owned land (link to bill).
Dec 6, 2006 Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC – New legislation in Congress would help ensure that the federal government uses the most accurate methods to collect royalties on natural resources taken by oil and gas companies from taxpayer-owned land. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) introduced the bill (H.R. 6368), which would direct the National Academy of Engineering to conduct a study analyzing methods that could greatly improve the accuracy of royalty collection on the production of oil, condensate and natural gas under leases of Federal onshore and offshore lands and onshore Indian Tribal lands (text of bill).
Sep 21, 2006 Press Release
Washington, DC - A group of House Democrats today called for immediate congressional hearings and investigations into reported efforts by senior Interior Department officials to allow oil and gas companies to cheat American taxpayers out of royalty payments.  Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), Congressman George Miller (D-CA), Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and other House Democrats sent letters today to House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior Chairman Charles Taylor (R-NC), asking that oversight hearings be held on the matter before Congress adjourns for October.
Aug 31, 2006 Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC - On August 9, the Minerals Management Service announced that it is sharply restricting the activities of the State and Tribal Royalty Audit Committee (STRAC).  Today, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14) was joined by four of her House colleagues in sending a letter to Johnnie Burton, Director of the MMS, stating their strong objection to this action (letter to MMS).
May 18, 2006 Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC – At a time when oil and gas values are up and oil and gas companies are making record profits, Congress took action today that will help states and tribes ensure that royalties owed on resources taken from their lands are paid in full. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and George Miller (D-CA) successfully amended the Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 5386) to increase by  $1 million the funds available for states and tribes to conduct auditing. Data has shown that for every $1 dollar spent auditing the royalties program, $5 in money that is owed to governments or tribes is returned to them.
Apr 3, 2006 Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC - Members of Congress are expressing concern about the new federal program for collecting mineral royalties owed on Tribal and Indian lands. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), joined by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA), George Miller (D-CA), Edward Markey (D-MA), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), and Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), have asked Johnnie Burton, Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), for answers (letter to Burton: http://maloney.house.gov/documents/govreform/oil/20060403ltrMMS.pdf). MMS’s new program, which was initiated in 2001, focuses on compliance reviews of company royalty reports rather than full audits conducted under U.S. Government Auditing Standards. Compliance desk reviews are also being used for collecting royalties owed federal taxpayers and State governments.

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