[Smokin' Joe]

Oil drillers must have to make up-front payments for drilling rights. The absence of the royalty threshold would have made the leasing contracts more valuable, thus increasing the up-front price that drillers would be willing to pay. As long as there was competition for drilling rights, the gov't should have gotten paid up-front for the market value of the contingent payment it was relinquishing, compared to previous years' contracts.

All true, but recall that the IEA had crashed the price with their report, and oil was far cheaper than spring water by the gallon at the grocery store. (Ten cents per gallon for sour crude, under 15 cents for sweet, depending on the source.)

So maybe they left it out on purpose just so they could sell leases, or they would have really looked bad.

Otherwise, they were busy taking land off of the minerals exploration rolls (Escalante Staircase National Monument comes to mind, and the gold mine three valleys over from Yellowstone.)

[kenavi]

So maybe they left it out on purpose just so they could sell leases, or they would have really looked bad.

Sounds like an intelligent supposition. It's the lack of transparency and rationality that rankles, that's why it is natural for people to assume a sinister conspiracy, when it is more likely the myopia of gov't bureacrats pursuing the President's pet idea du jour.