Taxpayers losing millions on lease sales under outdated rates

Friday, July 25, 2025

Oil and gas production infrastructure, BLM New Mexico

The budget reconciliation bill passed earlier this month rolled back a number of reforms that had been made to the Bureau of Land Management's oil and gas leasing program by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. The IRA reforms included updating the royalty rate producers pay on oil and gas extracted from national public lands, to 16.67 percent; this month's budget reconciliation bill returned the royalty rate to its previous, outdated rate of 12.5 percent.

An oil and gas lease sale held yesterday in New Mexico demonstrates just how much American taxpayers are losing under this lower royalty rate. A Taxpayers for Common Sense analysis found that the reduced royalty rate means more than $52 million in lost revenue from the acres leased in yesterday's New Mexico sale alone. When combined with the budget reconciliation bill's other rollbacks, American taxpayers stand to lose billions in foregone revenue from this and other lease sales across the country.

The Taxpayers for Common Sense analysis also compared average bid per acre before the IRA reforms, after the IRA reforms, and in Thursday's New Mexico sale after the rollbacks. The analysis concludes that bidders are motivated by a parcel's development potential, not by more generous lease terms; reduced royalty rates and other lease terms favorable to developers merely subsidize oil and gas production, at taxpayers' expense.

The strange and mysterious history of the Joshua tree

In the latest episode of the Center for Western Priorities podcast, The Landscape, Kate and Aaron interview author Barret Baumgart about his new book Yuck: The Birth and Death of the Weird and Wondrous Joshua Tree. Baumgart became obsessed with Joshua trees during the pandemic and ended up uncovering some interesting facts and stories about them.

                            Quick hits
                        

How the National Park Service is struggling with drastic funding and staffing cuts

PBS News

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Guardian | Colorado Newsline

New poll finds 96% of Idaho voters say public lands should remain in public hands

Idaho Capital Sun

                            Quote of the day
                        

The department’s leaders say they support parks, but they’re going to aim to cut park staffing and park resources and park programs to the bone and beyond. They say they support wildland firefighting, but then they disparage all of the civil servants who are out there and create an environment where it’s not the least bit appealing to go and work for the federal government. How do they expect these things to work out?”

—Jacob Malcolm, former director of the Interior department's Office of Policy Analysis, High Country News

                            Picture This

                        

@mypubliclands

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