In June 2006 the House of Representatives passed the controversial Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act. In a little-noticed provison, Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), whose campaign is well-financed by gas and oil interests, lowered the royalty rate for oil shale from 12.5% to 1%. Most oil shale in the US lies under federal land and if the price of shale oil becomes competitive, the royalty reduction will turn out to be an extraordinary gift of taxpayer money to the oil industry. It will also create a big incentive to dig up huge tracts of land across Colorado, Wyoming and Utah to get to the heavily subsidized oil.

It is an environmental nightmare waiting to happen and an extraordinary giveaway of public resources and we need your help to stop it. The Senate will take the bill up when it returns to session on November 13 and we need you to contact your Senator and ask him/her to vote against the royalty reduction provision.

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

The Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act will soon be up for debate and a vote in the Senate. I am writing to ask you to remove the provision inserted by Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA) that lowers the royalty rate for shale oil from its current 12.5% to only 1%.

This amounts to an unprecedented giveaway of taxpayers' money to the oil industry at a time when it enjoys record profits and does not need incentives to develop new sources of energy. Shale oil extraction is expensive and the potential environmental costs are immense.

Lowering the royalty rate creates a huge incentive for the oil industry to scar vast tracts of public land across the West and does nothing to promote conservation or sustainable energy production.

Lowering the royalty also unfairly subsidizes the actual cost of shale oil extraction giving it an unfair pricing advantage over renewable sources of energy. It is a backwards and potentially dangerous approach if we are to ever have energy independence.

Again, please oppose the oil shale royalty reduction provision in the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
October 24, 2006