U.S. to review energy royalty rates on federal land

The U.S. Interior Department said on Wednesday that it would form a new committee to review royalty rates collected from oil and gas drilling and coal mining on federal lands to ensure taxpayers receive their full value. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the committee would advise him on whether the government is getting a fair price from companies that lease public land for energy and natural resource development. The committee will replace the process put in place by former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to review and overhaul the federal coal leasing program. "The programmatic review put in place (by Jewell) was costly and unnecessary," Zinke told reporters on Wednesday. "I have established a royalty policy committee to provide advice to me about how we value collections across the board," he said...more