Royalties | Wyoming Public Media

Changes To LWCF Trigger Swift Bipartisan Pushback

By Cooper McKim • Nov 20, 2020

Proposed projects or LWCF funding from the Trust for Public Land — The Trust for Public Land / The Trust for Public Land

The Interior Department is facing criticism for putting up barriers to conservation projects nationwide funded through the new Great American Outdoors Act.

A Royal Mess For Public Land Payments

By Amy Martin • Jan 8, 2016

This is a story about accounting.

I know, you're already clicking out of the story, right?

But wait. This is a story about accounting for your money. Lots of money you may not even know you had. It’s buried on federal and tribal lands in the form of natural resources, in states like Wyoming and Colorado. For the past few years, a controversy has been quietly raging over how much companies owe you when they extract those resources, and how much you’re allowed to know about it.

Wind River Tribes Plan Ahead For Settlement Checks

By Irina Zhorov • Apr 21, 2014

WILLOW BELDEN: In 2012, the tribes who share the Wind River Indian Reservation, the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho Tribes, came to a settlement with the federal government for a mineral royalties mismanagement case dating back to the 1970’s. The federal government has finally released the money from the settlement, and tribal members on Wind River are anxiously awaiting their checks. Wyoming Public Radio’s Irina Zhorov joins us to talk about the settlement and what it means to the Wind River Community.

To start, could you tell us what this settlement is all about.

Transparency initiative targets extractive industries

By Stephanie Joyce • Oct 28, 2013

Nearly half of Wyoming is federal land, and the government collects billions of dollars in taxes and royalties every year from industries using that land. But it isn’t always clear where that money goes, and who benefits from it. Now, an international initiative is trying to change that.

Oil and gas operators flaring more gas, paying no taxes or royalties

By Irina Zhorov • Mar 29, 2013

Oil development in the state is bringing up natural gas along with the oil, but some of the gas is getting burned off in flares and the state is missing out on taxes and royalty payments. The reason the gas is getting flared is that there are not enough pipelines in place to connect new wells to markets.

The President of the Wyoming Petroleum Association, Bruce Hinchey, says it doesn’t always make sense to build new pipelines for the relatively small quantities of gas coming up.

DOI to investigate coal sales to overseas markets

By Irina Zhorov • Feb 11, 2013

The US Department of the Interior has assembled a task force and an action plan to investigate coal exports. The move comes after a letter from US Senators Wyden, of Oregon, and Murkowski, of Alaska, asked the agency to find out whether coal companies are properly reporting their sales. Increasingly, Wyoming’s coal producers are examining markets overseas to make up for a slump in domestic sales. Companies can fetch significantly higher prices for coal in Asian markets, and by selling through an affiliated intermediary, they could report the initial sale instead of the higher, final sale.