Dick Durbin: “I ask the Senator from California, as a followup question, so I understand it completely, these private oil companies go…”

“I ask the Senator from California, as a followup question, so I understand it completely, these private oil companies go on to public lands, drill for oil which they sell for a profit. They are charged a royalty based on the price of the oil. The impact of this amendment by the Senator from Texas would be to say to the Department of the Interior: You cannot recalculate the royalty to raise it. So we are protecting these oil companies from an increase in what they are going to pay taxpayers for drilling on public land, which means more money in their pocket. The losers are not only Federal taxpayers but States such as Texas and California and their taxpayers who lose the benefits of the money that might come back to them from these royalties?”