A new study claims that raising royalty rates across the board for fossil fuels may benefit coal when compared to other feedstocks where higher royalties would represent a larger portion of total costs.
“We find costs for natural gas would actually rise by a larger amount,” said study author Mark Haggerty, a researcher for Bozeman, Montana-based Headwaters Economics. “It’s proportionately more expensive to deliver natural gas to market when compared to coal [under increased federal royalties].”
Haggerty said a lot of changes in the energy sector have been hitting coal harder, hitting Wyoming governments and coal-dependent communities hard. The stiff headwinds for the coal industry, where some of the largest players are toppling like giant industrial dominoes, made Haggerty ask if larger royalties being proposed now by the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management would make things even worse for the coal industry.
