U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Meeting Scheduled
The State Journal
30 January 2013
By Taylor Kuykendall, Reporter
A new federal advisory committee that will analyze ways to
increase transparency and accountability in the nation's
extractive industries has set a date for its first meeting.
The U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI)
Advisory Committee will hold its first public meeting on February
13 in Washington, DC. The members of the committee will work on
the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative a "voluntary,
global effort designed to increase transparency, strengthen the
accountability of natural resource revenue reporting, and build
public trust for the governance of these vital activities."
Ted Boettner, director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and
Policy was chosen to serve on the board. He said increasing
transparency in the extractive sector could "enable citizens to
hold government and companies accountable for the ways in which
natural resources are managed.
"While the central focus of the Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative(EITI) is to create a uniform standard in what energy
companies pay and what government collect in revenues on an
international basis, the scope could expand from federal to state,
tribal and could potentially include both public and private
land," Boettner said.
As of Jan. 1 the EITI website did not yet include the agenda for
the meeting.
Boettner is the only representative on the committee from West
Virginia and the only one who represents a state-based
organization.
"My hope is that our experience in West Virginia with a boom and
bust energy economy, which has led to economic underdevelopment in
some areas, can help provide lessons for other areas of the
country and the world in managing natural resource extraction. For
a long time, West Virginia did not adequately tax minerals and
today it still suffers from an inability to use these rich natural
resources to promote and invest in a sustainable economic
development model. Moreover, the state continues to struggle to
adequately tax coal property, especially compared to natural
gas and oil property," he said.
The meeting will be open to the public, but space is limited. To
register, request placement on the speaker list or submit written
comments, contact Shirley Conway by February 6 via email at
Shirley.Conway@onrr.gov, by phone at (202) 513-0598 or fax (202)
513-0682.
Additional information, including the final agenda and any
supporting materials, will be posted on the USEITI Advisory
Committee webpage at http://www.doi.gov/eiti/