You might think that fossil fuel's allies in Congress would lay low after a joint report from the Senate Budget and House Oversight Committees compared the oil industry to Big Tobacco for its profit-driven climate lies meant to deceive the public and thwart action—but you would be wrong.While top Democrats are calling on the Department of Justice to investigate oil companies for possible 'collusion and price fixing,' Sen. Steve Daines and Rep.
For the past 100 years, the royalty rate—the percentage of revenue oil companies pay the federal government for drilling on public lands—has not budged from the meager rate of 12.5 percent.In comparison, the rate to drill on state lands in Texas is 20-25 percent. Under the new rule, the federal rate has increased slightly, to 16.67 percent.But it's not only extraction that's a problem.