Amidst the coronavirus crisis, oil and gas companies are pushing for a giant reduction in the royalty payments owed to U.S taxpayers, money that could pay for millions of ventilators for sick Americans. A review of data from the Office of Natural Resource Revenue finds that any action to reduce royalty payments would disproportionately benefit the biggest of the Big Oil companies. An analysis of royalty revenue from 2018 shows that 1.2 million ventilators could be bought with payments from the oil and gas industry alone.
— source foe.org | Apr 2, 2020