Royalty treatment

About 4 years ago, Guambat posted about as how US oil and gas producers were getting the royalty treatment from the Bush administration's Interior Department.

With vast slabs of US national lands given over to gas producers, and notwithstanding rising gas prices, the royalties the producers paid to the US treasury for these US assets was declining.

Well, that situation appears to have made its way onto the Obama administration's Change "to do" list.

Interior to review foreign oil and gas royalties

The Interior Department says it will study how other countries collect oil and natural gas royalties to determine whether the United States can increase money collected from energy leases.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he wants to ensure that U.S. taxpayers receive a fair return from energy resources developed on public lands and from offshore drilling.

The study follows a 2008 Government Accountability Office report that showed the United States consistently near the bottom when compared with other countries in revenue received from oil and natural gas leases.

Guambat is hoping against hope for some kind of Teapot party Dome scandal to develop out of this.