Why is the Kerr-McGee Corporation suing the Bush Administration?
The company argues that Congress never authorized the government to set price cut-offs for incentives on leases awarded from 1996 to 2000 because it had not yet produced the minimum volume required under the law to be royalty-free. “The government is trying to take away the guarantees that were enacted by Congress,” the company said in a statement. [Requires Adobe Reader] If the company wins the suit, which is considered a test case for the oil and gas industry, about three-quarters of oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico will be royalty free for the next five years, The New York Times reports.
