New Federal Rule Strikes Another Devastating Blow Against Coal Industry

The Department of the Interior changed the rules governing royalty rates that oil and coal companies must pay to the federal government to extract gas and coal from public lands. The regulation essentially uses the gross proceeds from a sell, not a percentage, to determine the royalty rates energy producers must pay to use public lands to extract oil and coal. There will be modest reductions taken into account, based on transportation and processing costs. Up until now, royalty rates did not take into account the supposedly high costs associated with climate change, environmentalist group Friends of the Earth wrote in a press statement announcing the rule change. The new rule essentially seeks to wring money out of energy providers who use public lands to extract oil and coal, as well as natural gas. Energy analysts also fear a royalty tax would stunt oil and coal production...more