Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former top environmental lawyer, earned thousands of dollars from a company that leases land for oil and gas extraction. 

Kennedy made between $17,759 and $29,257 from Jan. 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, from Arctic Royalty Limited Partnership, according to his financial disclosure filed in June, Politico reported. Arctic Royalty leases land to companies in states for oil and gas extraction, including Oklahoma, Texas, and the chemical subsidiary of the company responsible for the pollution in East Palestine, Ohio, after a train derailment last year, according to the outlet. 

“I sold all my stake in this company in December,” Kennedy said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “I still indirectly own a very small interest in Arctic Royalty through my brother David’s estate. It generates approximately $1,000 per year. I own 1/10 of that estate. Because other family members are also owners, I have no power to sell off this investment.”

The income from Arctic Royalty is little compared to his overall reported income of $9 million, according to his financial disclosure.  

“Arctic Royalty was a legacy investment that my grandfather Joseph Kennedy made in the early 1950s. The stock is held by a Kennedy family partnership in which I inherited a small stake due to its inclusion in my grandfather’s 1957 trust instrument. The company does not do any drilling. It owns mineral rights and pays out royalties from companies that are exploiting oil reserves,” Kennedy said.

Still, the Office of Government Ethics requires candidates to disclose the names of the oil and gas leasing companies they may own, including their locations, which Kennedy did not do in his financial disclosure. However, Kennedy’s sister, Caroline Kennedy, showed in her 2023 financial disclosure that Arctic Royalty worked for companies that had been fined for polluting by the EPA and Justice Department, according to Politico. 

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Kennedy said last year on X that he would ban fracking, the method that injects liquid into underground rocks to open up fissures to extract oil and gas. 

Kennedy has faced several hurdles during his presidential campaign, including switching from a Democrat to an independent, meaning he must petition to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states. Kennedy is set to announce his vice presidential running mate in Oakland, California, on Tuesday. He’s also reportedly flirting with making the switch to the Libertarian Party’s presidential ticket in an effort to ease his ballot access challenges.