Energy Environmental Blog

$21 Million Shortfall

Written by Greg Russell | Sep 16, 2009 10:07:34 PM

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the Interior Department missed out on $21 million in natural gas drilling fees due to accounting errors in its royalty-in-kind program, according to this article in the Denver Post.

A copy of the GAO's report can be found here.

[Update:  The NYT is reporting that the Interior Department has decided to end the royalty-in-kind program.  Interestingly, this program has been a large source of revenue for the government (about $6.6 billion in energy resource deliveries in 2008).

Also, the GAO recently released a report concluding that energy companies may have underpaid royalties by more than $100 million in 2006 and 2007.  (Moved up).]