Tara Righetti, CPL, J.D.
School of Energy Resources
SER Professor of Law Occidental Petroleum Corporation Chair in Energy and Environmental Policies Co-Director, SER Nuclear Energy Research Center Director, Jurisprudence of Underground Law and Energy (JOULE) Research Group Professor, College of Law
Tara Righetti is the inaugural Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Policies, an endowed chair jointly administered by the University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources (SER) and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.
A law professor, Righetti teaches in both SER and the UW College of Law, where her research focuses on governance, property and administrative law issues related to energy development and carbon removal, including on split estates and federal lands. She joined the UW faculty in 2014 and was awarded tenure in 2020.
Regularly sought for her expertise and aid on major energy and carbon storage projects nationwide, Righetti is a renowned expert on U.S. energy law, and her knowledge and contributions to the field of CCUS policy are unparalleled. Righetti is a leading scholar in her field, and has published peer-reviewed articles in both nationally and internationally law journals, where her scholarship is regularly cited.
In 2023/2024, she was appointed to and chaired the White House Council on Environmental Quality's Carbon Capture, Utilization and Sequestration (CCUS) Permitting Task Force for Federal Lands and Outer Continental Shelf.
A Fulbright Scholar, she conducted research at the Centre de Recherche Droits et Perspectives du Droit — Center for Legal Research and Perspectives in Law — at the University of Lille College of Law in France.
She also co-directs SER’s Nuclear Energy Research Center and is the director of the Jurisprudence of Underground Law and Energy research group.
