First US Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative Report Released

In line with a multi-year effort to bring the United States into line with the international standards outlined by the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative, the USEITI released its first annual report on December 15, 2015 and launched a website making available all of the data from which the report draws. This information ranges from royalites paid to tax breaks to production volumes for the extractives industry in the United States and can all be downloaded by members of the public. The Executive Summary presents trends and findings derived from the vast data collection process as well as explains the process the USEITI process has gone through so far, impacts on local communities, and current governance issues at play in managing extractives industries across the country.

The Consensus Building Institute has been involved with this process since 2011, working with the original assessment conveners and later on, facilitated the creation and operations of the Multi-Stakeholder Group Advisory Committee, which brings together government agencies, industries, and civil society and is responsible for overseeing the initiative. 

The Project on Government Oversight and the National Mining Association both featured the 2015 USEITI Executive Summary in recent press releases. 

“One of the significant features of this report is that its content is the result of consensus between industry, government, and civil society. The purpose of this report is to help inform public debate about natural resource extraction management and policies. I’m hoping this new information will pique the curiosity of taxpayers and natural resource-rich communities and spur them to demand even more information,” -- Danielle Brian, Executive director of POGO

The National Mining Association's President, Hal Quinn, said that their participation with the MSG led to even greater transparency through the implementation of the new interactive website, available to the public.