Pelosi: Oil companies should pay royalties [“They’re taking your oil without paying any royalties.”]
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated Monday that, if oil companies want to drill offshore, they should not bank on California’s coast and they'd better expect to pay more for the taxpayer-owned crude they do get.
“You want to talk about drilling offshore? Let’s talk about profits made by the oil companies without paying royalties,” Pelosi said Monday morning before members of the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention. “They’re taking your oil without paying any royalties...”
Earlier this month, Pelosi announced that she could support including offshore drilling in a larger package of changes to the nation’s energy policies. She had resisted drilling as a “hoax” that wouldn’t lower prices. But she relented after she was pushed by Republican lawmakers and her party’s own vulnerable members, who’ve seen public support for drilling soar this summer along with gasoline prices..."
I’m not sure I follow this “royalties” angle. If a ship sits on the bottom of the ocean, it “belongs” to whomever salvages it. But if the item is a couple thousand feet below that ship, and way more expensive to salvage, it belongs to “the pipple?” Do I have this correct?