Government auditors criticized the U.S. Interior Department for considering and then delaying plans to raise the royalty rate for oil production on public lands, saying that’s resulted in “foregone revenue.” The department’s Bureau of Land Management scrapped plans in 2012 to raise the standard royalty rate on public lands to 18.75 percent from 12.5 percent, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released today. That delay stands in contrast to Interior’s increase of royalties on offshore production in U.S. waters. The report “drives home the point that the Interior Department, and especially BLM, may not be keeping up with times,” Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden said in response to the report. Interior Department spokeswoman Jessica Kershaw said in response to the report that “it remains a high priority for the Department to modernize its regulatory regime in order to set onshore royalty rates and ensure a fair return to […]