•  
  •  
 

Authors

Audrey A. Helm

Document Type

Student Article

Abstract

In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act took marked steps toward changing the course of the oil and gas industry for the first time in over 100 years, requiring that all federal oil and gas leases issued for the following decade have a minimum royalty rate of 16.67%. This paved the way for a major adjustment in the oil and gas industry, which has seen a 12.5% minimum royalty for the past century. In 2023, the Department of the Interior proposed to permanently codify these changes, citing purposes of ensuring a fair return to taxpayers and protecting the environment.

This Article argues that the royalty provision in DOI’s proposal, if passed through Congress, will lead to harmful effects on the economy and production while failing to fulfill its purpose of protecting the environment. Instead of raising the minimum royalty, which will inevitably stunt the growth of the domestic oil and gas industry, agencies should regulate strategically to both promote domestic production and reduce the industry’s emissions footprint on the environment

DOI

10.37419/JPL.V10.I4.2

First Page

473

Last Page

517

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.