The legislative session formally kicked off last Monday, and we have hit the ground running in a big way.

First and foremost, LOGA’s Legislative Bill Tracker is now LIVE and updated for the 2025 session. This is updated daily, so you’ll want to bookmark this to refer back to throughout the session, which is scheduled to run through the first week of June.

Now, to what all went on last week.

On Monday afternoon, we hosted the annual Republican Legislative Delegation reception. As is every year, this was a huge hit and the Jimmie Davis House was PACKED. There was a palpable buzz in the air surrounding this fresh legislature and what all we hope to accomplish. There was even a special appearance by Mike the Tiger!

For this first week, we have attended the LMOGA bill review, as well as testified in support of two bills (more on that later). We will also be hosting our own bill reviews on Tuesdays to make sure we’re all up to date and on the same page with the current legislation.

We expect more bills to be “late filed” in the coming weeks, but as it currently stands, we have 79 bills that we’re tracking:

• Bills that LOGA is supporting: 6

• Bills that LOGA is opposing: 26

• Bills that LOGA is monitoring: 47

The tracker goes into detail on all of the bills, but just a few highlights:

Of the bills in support, we have Senator Womack’s SB 168, which LOGA President Mike Moncla testified in support of on Wednesday (you can see Mike's testimony here). This bill adds a liberative prescription on mineral leases on state property.

A couple months ago, former LOGA chairman Jim Justiss received a letter from DENR stating that they would be conducting an audit on royalties going back 40 years, and to make room at his office for 4 auditors for 6 weeks. So, Justiss Oil, after surviving decades of ups and downs and having to thwart off dozens of legacy lawsuits, will now be hit with a 40-year audit on royalties.

This bill puts a cap on that – originally set for 10 years, but was actually amended in committee down to 5 years.

For comparison, here are the prescription periods for other agencies:
• Oklahoma – 5
• Severance – 3
• IRS – 7
• BOEM – 6

And then there’s Rep. McCormick’s HB 205, which Mike also testified in support of on Wednesday (see here), and would have removed the 0.5 lb limit on surface injection pressure on saltwater disposal wells. That being said, Rep. McCormick voluntarily deferred the bill to be brought up at a later date.

For the most part it seems the bills we’ll oppose will once again be anti-CCUS related.

The anti-CCUS bills are House Bills: 4, 78, 250, 251, 304, 353, 380, 396, 444, 491, 522, 537, 552, 553, 568, 585, 601, and 632

As well as Senate Bill 73, which we opposed in committee yesterday. Unfortunately, the bill did pass out of Natural Resources and now goes to the full Senate.

There are also Rep. Jacob Landry’s two Legacy bills, HB 602 and HB 634, and we are working with him to get to a position where we can support it.

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Visit the LOGA Tracker to stay up to date with all of the latest legislative action.