Wait, so the price of literally everything else has gone up, but those costs stayed the same for +100 years?
The bigger part, the royalty fee, was expressed as a percentage:
The rate increase was mandated by Congress under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which directed the Interior Department to raise the royalty fee from 12.5 percent, set in 1920, to 16.67 percent. Congress also stipulated that the minimum bid at auctions for drilling leases should be raised from $2 per acre to $10 per acre.
I’ll note that even the higher rate is lower than what most countries end up charging.
Wow, that’s actually a massive increase.
Good.
It’s by design. Anything that costs corporations money or benefits people will not be tied to inflation, while taxes and fines that mostly affect individuals will be raised to match inflation.
I especially enjoyed the part where the person whined about small oil companies not being able to afford the bond requirements, as if there’s a bunch of mom and pop oil companies out there just trying to get a fair shake.
Honestly, if they are extracting a resource from public land for private gain they should be paying way more or buying that land at the market rate. No more corporate welfare.
