Among the reasons some are arguing for more offshore drilling and drilling on wilderness lands, is it’s a bargain. This first reported here two years ago today:
While the oil companies are recording record profits and oil-producing nations are awash in cash, the income from the oil and gas you own (if you are an American citizen) is up just 8% from 2001-2005. (About one-third of all the oil and gas produced in the U.S. comes from federal land.)
That’s eight percent at the same time the price of oil is up 90% and the price of natural gas up 30%.
Presumably production from federal lands is down 20% and that explains the small increase in income.
Sure.