US President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for 2018 includes repeal of Gulf of Mexico oil activity royalty payments to four of the states with Gulf shorelines, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The budget plan proposes ending the program whereby Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana are scheduled to share $275m next year.
These royalty payments come under the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) budget.
The White House’s financial reasoning is that the move would lower discretionary spending and federal taxes while at the same time, according to administration estimates, increasing federal revenues by $3.6bn over ten years.
When introduced in 2006, the royalty sharing was intended to boost oil and gas leasing in the Gulf.
