Ensuring the Taxpayer a Fair Return for Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Resources Act of 2015

Ensuring the Taxpayer a Fair Return for Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Resources Act of 2015

This bill amends the Mineral Leasing Act to increase the minimum acceptable bids and rentals for leases of oil, natural gas, and tar sand on federal land.

Minimum acceptable bids and rentals shall receive inflation adjustments once every four years.

One-third of any amounts received by the United States from sales, bonuses, and royalties, including interest charges collected under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982, and from rentals of the public lands in Alaska under the Mineral Leasing Act and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970, shall be made available in specified percentages:

• for use for oil and gas inspection and enforcement;
• to remediate, reclaim, and properly plug and abandon orphan oil and gas wells on federal lands; and
• to the state within whose boundaries the leased land is located, or the deposits were derived, for state use in accordance with specified requirements.