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Outdated oil and gas royalty rates are costing taxpayers billions each year

Feb 27, 2020

By Center for Western Priorities

One hundred years ago today, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 into law, providing a framework for oil and gas companies to lease public lands and compensate taxpayers for the extraction of publicly-owned resources. Through massive lobbying efforts from oil and gas trade associations and corporations to keep the status quo, the law has largely remained intact since then; the latest significant update was in 1987.