Comments closed August 31
Stop the royalty rewrite for oil, gas, and coal
Office of Natural Resources Revenue
- What
- A rule change would let energy companies pay the public less for drilling and mining on federal lands.
- Where
- The notice names no place; see the agency’s own words under Case.
- How much
- Federal royalties from oil, gas, and coal extraction fund public schools, conservation, and the U.S. Treasury.
- Decided
- Comments closed August 31, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Federal Register ↗, read October 29, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur plain-English read of the Federal Register 2026-13133 ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchThe first sentence of our What’s at risk read of the notice; the whole read is under Case.
- DecidedAugust 31, 2026, from Federal Register, the notice's DATES field (federalregister.gov API) ↗: “Comment Period: To ensure consideration, comments must be received at one of the addresses provided below by 11:59 pm EDT on August 31, 2026.”. Read October 29, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 9, 2026.
April Lockler
Acting Director of the Office of Natural Resources Revenue
A person signed this, not an agency. The window has closed and the signature stands, which is exactly when accountability matters.
Short is better. You are asking Director Lockler to answer for a decision their office made.
My name is [your name] and I'm calling from [your city and state]. April Lockler, Acting Director of the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, signed the decision on Stop the royalty rewrite for oil, gas, and coal. I'm asking that office to answer for it publicly. Please record that I called and tell me what the office intends to do.
Official channels only, about this decision. No personal phone numbers, no home addresses, no personal social accounts, and nothing abusive. The point is to make the office answer, and an abusive call is the one thing that lets it off the hook.
What the proposal said, and what the decision did
No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
PLAN's read: high threat
A rule change would let energy companies pay the public less for drilling and mining on federal lands.
What’s at risk
If this goes through
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
In the agency’s own words
Consistent with Executive and Secretary's orders, ONRR proposes to amend ONRR's Federal oil, gas, and coal valuation regulations and to specify the standard of review for Director-level appeals. This rulemaking also proposes changes that will likely reduce cost and burden to industry and the Federal Government by simplifying regulatory requirements and ultimately incentivize production to unleash energy dominance. ONRR solicits comments on all aspects of this proposed action.
Who signs it
April Lockler
Acting Director of the Office of Natural Resources Revenue
Where the notice says so
The ground
The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.
The photograph on this page: Open water on the Outer Continental Shelf off Virginia (BOEM photo). More Than Just Parks.
In court on this ground
This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.
Who holds the vote
PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.
See how your members vote ↗More fights that need you
Go deeper, free
See how your members of Congress vote on public lands
Every representative, graded on the votes that decide the fate of parks, forests, and refuges.
Open ↗The mapSee the places under active threat
A live map of the parks, monuments, and wild country in the crosshairs right now.
Open ↗A wrong fact, a dead link, a form that wouldn’t take your letter: one tap and it comes to the people who build PLAN, with this fight attached.