Exploration and Production of Oil and Gas in Italy Taxation, Royalties and Surface Rents: A Proposal for a Pragmatic and Sustainable Decentralization

The exploitation of underground energy sources has for decades significantly characterizedthe economic development of many countries, both in the microeconomic aspects andmacroeconomic aspects. Despite the spread of many regardless disputes phenomena, or nimby(Not In My BackYard), the need to re-launch on new logical basis the most important fieldof research and industrial use of energy from fossil, underground source also requires a revisionof the specific tax system, in the first the so-called Royalties, in order to give their consistencywith the amendment of Title v of the Italian Constitution, aimed to increasing therole (and the responsibility for) of the local authorities. The consequence would be a generalreview strongly in favor of the local authorities and the reduction of nimby disputes, too oftenchanneled towards the search for maximum consent or maximum dissent. A virtuous evolutionthat could lead to greater legislative clarity and a «competition» between the communities,translating the nimby phenomenon in another desirable phenomenon pimby (Please InMy Back Yard).