Political Quotes

“I want to put some things in perspective. Yes, the lands belong to the United States of America and are held in trust for the citizens of this country. But the citizens of this country and the taxpayers in this country do not participate in the expense of drilling the well. There is no argument on the eighth that is the royalty that goes to the surface owner. After all, the oil companies did buy the leases. They paid hard money for those leases. If there is a resource--in this case, oil--under the ground, they go and find it. That is not to say that every well they put in the ground is successful. We have more dry wells than we have wells producing. The American people did not make any investment in drilling that so-called dry hole, and they didn't even participate in footing the bill; the expense of putting the well down is a producer's. There is no argument with the eighth. I can simplify this very easily. 'In kind' would be right. If you want to participate in the value added to compute your royalty, as the chairman of the Energy Committee said is being attempted by MMS, then MMS should participate in the transportation and the cost of the value added. That is only fair.”