Randall Luthi

Randall B. Luthi (born 1955) is an attorney and rancher from Freedom, in northwestern Lincoln County in western Wyoming, who served as a Republican in the Wyoming House of Representatives from 1995—2007. He was the Speaker for his last two-year term, 2005—2007. Prior to 2005, he had been the House Majority Leader. In Wyoming, Speakers traditionally retire from the House upon the expiration of their tenure as presiding officer. Luthi was thereafter named by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne as the Director of the Minerals Management Service.

Luthi formerly served in the United States Department of the Interior during the administration of Presidents Ronald W. Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush. The first Bush transferred him to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since 2000, Luthi has been a partner in the Luthi and Voyles law firm in Thayne. Since 1993, he has also been a managing partner of the JE Luthi Ranch, a beef cattle operation in Lincoln County. From 1990—1993, he served in Washington, D.C., in career positions as Senior Counselor for Environmental Regulations in NOAA's Office of General Counsel. Earlier, he was an attorney in the Interior Department Office of the Solicitor from 1986—1990. In 2007, President George W. Bush named Luthi Deputy Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. On July 23, 2007, the administration appointed him head of the Minerals Management Services where he remained until January, 2009.

On March 1, 2010, Luthi became president of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), a Washington, D.C. based political action committee representing "the companies that develop the nation’s valuable offshore energy resources." The movement of Minerals Management Service officials to NOIA has been controversial. As NOIA president, Luthi wrote to the acting director of the Minerals Management Service on June 7, 2010, advocating rapid clarification of offshore drilling rules because "it is not a time for a lengthy and undefined ban or suspension on all drilling."

Luthi is considered an authority on royalties paid to the U.S. government by companies which produce energy from the public domain, both on land and water. From his legislative service, Luthi was instrumental in the formulation of state budgets which relied heavily upon royalties and severance taxes paid by energy companies operating on federal leases. He was also a legislative member of the Energy Council, an organization of legislative representatives from energy-producing states and Canadian provinces and private energy-related industries. The council meets quarterly to consider the latest developments in energy matters.

Luthi formerly worked as a legislative assistant in the office of former U.S. Senator Alan K. Simpson of Cody. He provided counsel on legal and legislative issues including oil and natural gas taxation. He later transferred to the office of then U.S. Representative Richard B. Cheney of Wyoming, later Vice President of the United States.

Luthi received a bachelor of science degree in law enforcement in 1979 from the University of Wyoming at Laramie. He procured his Juris Doctor law degree from UW in 1982.

In June 2007, upon the death of U.S. Senator Craig Thomas, Luthi was among thirty applicants for appointment to fill the vacancy until a special election is held on November 4, 2008. Luthi was not chosen by the Republican State Central Committee as one of the three finalists to be considered for appointment by the state's governor, Democrat Dave Freudenthal. Luthi tied for fifth place on the second ballot and lost a tie-breaking vote.

In September 2008, Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida called upon Luthi to resign from the Minerals Management Service because of a sex, drug, and oil scandal at the service that occurred between 2002 and 2006, before Luthi became director.