BEREA, Ky. - Oil and gas developers are getting a sweet deal for their projects on public land, according to a new report that says taxpayers are losing out as a result.

The group Taxpayers for Common Sense claims the government isn't collecting sufficient royalties because current rules don't charge energy companies for the gas they use at drilling sites or for what is lost through the burn-off process known as flaring.

Ryan Alexander, who heads the watchdog group, said Kentucky's "lost" fuel is almost 2 percent - but in other states, it's much more.

"California was another state where there was really a high percent of gas that was extracted (and) not brought to market," she said. "Seventeen percent of the gas in this eight-year period that was extracted was either used or flared or vented into the atmosphere, and I think that's really troubling numbers."

According to the report, called "Burning Money," from 2006 through 2013, oil and gas companies drilling on federal land either wasted or used gas for free that was worth $380 million. The report recommends updating the rules on royalty payment exceptions that were made in the 1940s.

Jim Scheff, director of the environmental group Kentucky Heartwood, said it's more complicated in Kentucky because the federal government only owns 40 percent of the subsurface mineral rights on the Daniel Boone National Forest. Since the rest is privately owned, Scheff said, the government doesn't have a good handle on the extent of oil and gas development in the forest, which covers 708,000 acres from northeast Kentucky south to the Tennessee border.

"They have a pretty good handle on the amount of federal minerals that have been leased," he said, "but when it comes to the private oil and gas, they really don't know how many wells there are, how many active or abandoned wells."

Scheff said the Forest Service also "has no idea" how many miles of access roads there are.

It's known as "beneficial use" when an energy company powers its own equipment with fuel produced at a well site, and when gas is leaked or flared, it's termed "unavoidably lost." But during the study period, Alexander said, the total amount of gas that operators said they sold decreased by 26 percent - while their "unavoidable losses" increased by 23 percent.

"I think the idea of 'avoidably' or 'unavoidably' lost is a flawed concept," Alexander said. "I think we really need to be thinking about reducing as much waste as possible, and making sure that the taxpayers are being paid for every single ounce of gas that's coming out of public lands."

She added that many people don't realize that royalties are among the biggest sources of revenue for the federal government, after taxes. But, according to Scheff, because most of the mineral rights on the Daniel Boone National Forest are private, the feds have oil and gas leases on only 62,000 acres, or about one-tenth of the public land.

The report is online at taxpayer.net.


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Minnesota is coming off another windy month of April. Those strong wind gusts may have translated into some extra cash for counties with wind turbines dotting the landscape.

Minnesota has a wind and solar energy production tax, which allows jurisdictions where these systems are located to collect revenue based on the energy that's generated.

Nobles County brought in nearly $2 million in 2023, the third highest in the state.

County Commissioner Gene Metz said over time, this extra financial stream has helped cover maintenance costs.

"We did a ten year bond basically to upgrade our buildings," said Metz. "You know, we had roofs that needed work - outside, windows, that type of thing. And we upgraded a lot of our heating and technology controlling those systems."

He said it's helpful since smaller counties have a harder time attracting larger industries to help spur economic growth.

While it's become a solid income source, Metz said turbines taken out of operation for repairs, or less windy seasons can make the numbers vary in certain years.

Minnesota supporters also are eyeing bipartisan legislation to speed up the permitting process for these energy projects, in hopes it will open up much-needed space on the power grid.

Metz, also a member of the Rural Minnesota Energy Board, said he feels addressing that issue will lead to more wind farms.

He added that having additional dollars trickle down takes pressure off local taxpayers because county budgets won't be so one-dimensional.

"We depend so much on agriculture," said Metz. "In our county, 75% of the tax levy comes from agriculture, and if that has a bad year or bad period, it's just nice to have another source of income. "

While some counties have embraced renewables, local governments elsewhere have put up more resistance as proposed projects come on board.

Metz said some of that is driven by misinformation.

He advises planning officials and constituents - worried about seeing wind farms harming aesthetics on the rural landscape - to compare them with other industries that take up more space and have deeper effects on the quality of life.




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Minnesota is a leader in renewable energy - getting 54% of its electricity from zero-carbon sources last year, according to the 2024 Minnesota Energy Factsheet released today. The annual report comes from Clean Energy Economy Minnesota and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.

Amelia Cerling-Hennes, managing director of public affairs with Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, said that's 12% better than the national average.

"We're really pleased to see about 600 megawatts of wind and solar getting added, and we're anticipating that that's going to be even higher next year as some of the large utility-scale projects that are being built right now kind of come online," she said.

Carbon emissions from the power sector also dropped 54% in 2023 with the retirement of part of the Sherco coal-fired power plant. Electric vehicle registrations went up 55%. Last year, Minnesota-based Cummins began shipping electrolyzers, which generate energy from hydrogen.

Andy Kim, president of the civil engineering firm EVS in Eden Prairie, said battery storage will be increasingly paired with large-scale solar projects in the future.

"You get uninterrupted power, you improve grid stability, and ultimately, it will lead to cost savings. And we see battery storage on at least half of our projects right now. And I would not be surprised if within the next two years, we see it on 80-90% of our projects," Kim said.

Cerling-Hennes adds the state made big strides policy-wise in 2023.

"So much happened last year, starting with passing 100% clean energy by 2040. And then following that up with a really historic energy omnibus bill. We created the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority. We funded high-voltage transmission," she said.

Tara Narayanan, lead analyst for North American regional trends with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said energy efficiency is working - electricity consumption went down even as productivity went up. However, she notes that we need to ramp up the clean-energy transition even faster if we are to meet the goals set by the Paris Accords.

"Compare where we are going against where the U.S. has committed to go, we're really not on track. We're really going to have to make dramatic efforts in order to get to where we had committed to be in 2013," Narayanan said.

The state got $800 million in climate funding from President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act.


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New federal funding aims to revolutionize solar energy access within New Mexico's Native American communities and benefit the state overall.

The Environmental Protection Agency's $7 billion "Solar for All" program is designed to create new or expanded low-income solar programs.

Talia Martin, co-executive director of the National Tribal Program for GRID Alternatives, said the funding will help bridge the clean energy gap in Native American communities.

"In New Mexico, tangible impacts would be for household savings," Martin explained. "Which means working directly with the tribes to ensure that the savings are going to individual households as well as to the community as a whole."

According to Martin, the $62 million EPA grant awarded to the GRID Tribal Program is its largest ever. Nationwide, the agency's program is set to help at least 4,700 households in Native American communities. Across the U.S., the EPA said the program will enable more than 900,000 low-income households and disadvantaged communities to benefit from distributed solar energy.

Martin emphasized the program will allow GRID to help bolster solar storage capabilities and implement essential upgrades, while at the same time advancing their mission to support the self-determined efforts of Native American tribes to deploy clean energy on tribal lands, arguing it will be important to recruit contractors who understand the needs of tribal communities they're working with.

"It's an amazing window for Indian Country to be involved in energy development," Martin pointed out. "We want to just help foster all these relationships that it is going to take to do that."

The state of New Mexico also received a grant of $156 million from the program to overcome existing barriers to widespread adoption of distributed solar generation. In addition to the federal money for solar, Array Technologies announced last week it will build a new $50 million solar manufacturing campus near Albuquerque.