Trends in oil production on federal versus non-federal lands

Class

Article

Department

Economics and Finance

Faculty Mentor

Randy Simmons

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Abstract

Oil prices nationwide have declined significantly over the past several months. Increased domestic oil production and new drilling technologies have been major causes for this shift. In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama cited lower gas prices as an indicator of American economic growth. "We believed we could reduce our dependence on foreign oil and protect our planet," he said. "And today, America is number one in oil and gas." The president implies his administration is responsible for the increase in domestic oil production. This implication is far from true. We expect our research to show that a disproportionately high majority of new oil drilling is taking place on private or state owned lands compared to lands under federal jurisdiction. We will present our analysis comparing the amount of oil production taking place on both federal and non-federal lands in each of the past ten years. We are also looking at the political circumstances and policy decisions that have influenced that oil production. Further, we will present case studies where companies have specifically opted to avoid drilling on federal lands because of better incentives to drill on private and state lands. Our research will be funded by Strata Policy.

Start Date

4-9-2015 9:00 AM

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Apr 9th, 9:00 AM

Trends in oil production on federal versus non-federal lands

Oil prices nationwide have declined significantly over the past several months. Increased domestic oil production and new drilling technologies have been major causes for this shift. In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama cited lower gas prices as an indicator of American economic growth. "We believed we could reduce our dependence on foreign oil and protect our planet," he said. "And today, America is number one in oil and gas." The president implies his administration is responsible for the increase in domestic oil production. This implication is far from true. We expect our research to show that a disproportionately high majority of new oil drilling is taking place on private or state owned lands compared to lands under federal jurisdiction. We will present our analysis comparing the amount of oil production taking place on both federal and non-federal lands in each of the past ten years. We are also looking at the political circumstances and policy decisions that have influenced that oil production. Further, we will present case studies where companies have specifically opted to avoid drilling on federal lands because of better incentives to drill on private and state lands. Our research will be funded by Strata Policy.