At issue is the federal government's method for distributing royalties production companies pay for the oil and gas extracted from federal lands. States that produce oil and gas on federal lands within their borders receive 50 percent of the federal royalties production companies pay for oil and gas production, except for Alaska, which receives 90 percent of the collected royalties.

Coastal producing states receive 27 percent of the royalties on production in areas next to the state's territorial limit, known as the 8(g) zone after the law defining those payments. For Louisiana, the 8(g) zone stretches from 3 to 6 miles beyond the coastline.

States receive no royalties for production beyond the 8(g) zone on the outer continental shelf. The $5 billion the Minerals Management Service collects each year from oil and gas production in the Gulf goes to the federal treasury and is the second-largest source of income for the federal government behind the Internal Revenue Service.

That's the basic problem.  (Wonder why the oil companies are so hyping the potential of Outer Shelf drilling?  No state revenues.)

Sen. Landrieu, for all that she disappoints, has been tireless in her efforts to get our state its fair share of oil dough.