Natural Gas, Oil and Reinvestment in America

Mark Green
Posted October 28, 2019

America’s natural gas and oil industry continues to work for Americans – with revenues from production on federal and Native American-owned lands and offshore areas driving $11.69 billion in federal disbursements back to the states, counties, tribes and reclamation and conservation programs. That’s $2.76 billion more than the previous fiscal year and nearly double the disbursements in FY2016, the Interior Department said. Recipients included:

• $2.44 billion to states and counties
• $1.76 billion to the reclamation fund
• $1.14 billion to Native American tribes and individual mineral owners
• $1 billion to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)
• $4.9 billion to the U.S. treasury

“Royalties and revenues from federal natural gas and oil production fund programs in all 50 states. Everyone, including U.S. territories and the District of Columbia, benefit from offshore energy development via grants, through programs such as the LWCF, that support state conservation and outdoor recreation projects – not just energy-producing states.”

These disbursements are an important piece of the overall picture of the benefits from U.S. energy – mostly royalties, high bids and rents paid to the government for developing natural gas and oil on federal lands and offshore areas, which accounted for almost $11 billion of the $12 billion in revenues received by the federal government from energy development of all kinds.

Industry is paying its fair share to develop energy on public lands and offshore – and those funds in turn are benefiting the public. This is in addition to consumer benefits – fuel prices last year were nearly a dollar lower than they were in 2012 – and environmental benefits, including energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide at their lowest levels in a generation.

The $2.44 billion distributed to 35 states where energy onshore and offshore production occurs was a 31% increase over the previous year, according to the Interior Department. Over the past four decades more than $314 billion in mineral leasing revenues has been shared.

The more than $1 billion disbursed to tribes and individual Native American mineral owners is more than double the disbursements paid in FY2016. According to Interior, revenues disbursed to the 33 federally recognized tribes and approximately 37,000 individual mineral owners represent 100% of the revenues received from energy and mineral production activities on Native American lands. Meadows:

“Responsible natural gas and oil development continues to bring incredible economic and conservation benefits to communities across the nation. We are proud that the development of natural gas and oil, both onshore and offshore, allows the United States to reinvest back into important areas such as education, infrastructure and conservation.”