[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4749 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4749

To suspend the application of any provision of Federal law under which 
    persons are relieved from the requirement to pay royalties for 
production of oil or natural gas from Federal lands in periods of high 
    oil and natural gas prices, to require the Secretary to seek to 
  renegotiate existing oil and natural gas leases to similarly limit 
  suspension of royalty obligations under such leases, and for other 
                               purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 14, 2006

Mr. Markey (for himself, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. George Miller of California, 
  Mr. Emanuel, Mr. Inslee, Mr. Waxman, Mr. Pallone, and Mr. Grijalva) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To suspend the application of any provision of Federal law under which 
    persons are relieved from the requirement to pay royalties for 
production of oil or natural gas from Federal lands in periods of high 
    oil and natural gas prices, to require the Secretary to seek to 
  renegotiate existing oil and natural gas leases to similarly limit 
  suspension of royalty obligations under such leases, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Royalty Relief for American 
Consumers Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENT TO SUSPEND ROYALTY RELIEF.

    (a) Requirement to Suspend.--The Secretary of the Interior shall 
suspend the application of any provision of Federal law under which any 
person is given relief from any requirement to pay royalty for 
production oil or natural gas from Federal lands (including submerged 
lands), for production occurring in any period after the date of the 
enactment of this Act with respect to which--
            (1) in the case of production of oil, the average price of 
        crude oil in the United States over the most recent 4 
        consecutive weeks is greater than $34.71 per barrel; and
            (2) in the case of production of natural gas, the average 
        wellhead price of natural gas in the United States over the 
        most recent 4 consecutive weeks is greater than $4.34 per 
        thousand cubic feet.
    (b) Determination of Market Price.--The Secretary shall determine 
average prices for purposes of subsection (a) based on the most recent 
data reported by the Energy Information Administration of the 
Department of Energy.

SEC. 3. RENEGOTIATION OF EXISTING LEASES.

    (a) Requirement.--The Secretary of the Interior shall seek to 
renegotiate each existing lease authorizing production of oil or 
natural gas on Federal land (including submerged land) that was issued 
by the Department of the Interior before the date of the enactment of 
this Act as necessary to modify the terms of such lease to ensure that 
any suspension of a requirement to pay royalties under such lease does 
not apply to production referred to in section 2(a).
    (b) Failure to Renegotiate and Modify.--After the end of the 1-year 
period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, a person who 
is a lessee under an existing lease referred to in subsection (a) shall 
not be eligible to enter into any new lease that authorizes production 
of oil or natural gas on Federal land (including submerged land), and 
shall not be eligible to obtain by sale or other transfer any lease 
issued before the end of such period, unless such person renegotiates 
such existing lease and enters into an agreement with the Secretary 
that modifies the terms of the existing lease as provided in subsection 
(a).
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