An energy landscape emerges: early coastal oil and gas development -- Postwar pipelines span the coast: building the three hundred-mile Muskrat line -- Offshore expansion and environmental reform: the Blue Water pipeline system -- America's first offshore oil port: LOOP and the science of...

We review the issues involved in designing a mechanism for allocating resource rights. We focus on the case of exploration and development rights for oil and gas leases in U.S. federal lands to highlight the tradeoffs at play. The main issues concern the design of the lease contract, the design...