Energy Law
Authors:
Klass, Alexandra B. / Wiseman, Hannah J.
Edition:
2nd
Copyright Date:
2020
15 chapters
have results for Oil and Gas
Chapter 2. Oil and Gas Extraction 47 140 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Yet another means of addressing the wasteful development of oil and gas that can occur as a result of the rule of capture is to limit the amount of oil and gas that can be extracted from a given well or from a certain number of wells drilled into a formation. These limits, called “allowables” or “prorationing,” are established by states and ensure that oil and gas is not extracted too quickly, and thus that oil and gas do not remain stuck in rock pores underground. Similarly, most states limit oil and gas companies’ ability to release natural gas into the air through a process called “venting.” Many oil wells produce natural gas that comes out of the well along with oil. This “associated gas” is sometimes viewed as a waste product by drilling companies, particularly if there are not pipelines nearby that can transport the gas to market. But states view venting as wasteful and environmentally detrimental. Instead of venting, some oil and gas companies flare (burn off) the natural gas...
- Third, a large body of contract law and similar law, including leases between oil and gas companies and mineral owners, contracts between oil and gas companies and lenders, and agreements among oil and gas companies, addresses certain impacts of oil and gas development. This section briefly discusses these three types of laws.
- The rule of capture encourages oil and gas development by allowing those who are most motivated to drill to drain as much oil and gas as they wish from neighboring properties. But it also encourages inefficient production in at least two ways. First, numerous oil and gas companies might drill more wells than necessary, competing to be the first to drain neighboring properties. Second, oil and gas companies competing to be the first to drain the resources sometimes extract oil and gas too quickly. This can cause natural pressure in the underground formation from which oil and gas is produced—pressure that “pushes” the oil and gas up the well and prevents companies from having to pump oil and gas out of the well—to dissipate too quickly. It also can leave valuable oil and gas stuck within the rock pores.
- The United States is somewhat unique among countries that have oil and gas resources because private individuals own the majority of oil and gas resources in the United States. In other countries, governments own most oil and gas and either rely on a state-owned company to produce oil and gas resources or enter into an agreement with a multinational oil company to develop these resources. This section introduces the federal and state laws that apply to government-owned and privately-owned minerals in the United States.
- An increasingly common type of oil and gas development is “unconventional” extraction, which involves the use of hydraulic fracturing and other technologies to access difficult-to-extract minerals—many of which are located in very deep formations and are trapped tightly within tiny pores of rock. A large portion of the remaining oil and natural gas underlying the United States is within shale and tight sandstone formations, which have particularly small pores that are not well-connected to each other, thus impeding the flow of oil and gas from the formation. Technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing must be used to produce oil and gas from these formations. This section expands upon the introduction to U.S. oil and gas law above, focusing on federal, state, regional, and local laws that apply specifically to unconventional oil and gas development and related activities, such as withdrawal of water for hydraulic fracturing and disposal of fracturing wastes.
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Chapter 4. Environmental Regulation of Energy Production and Use 109 200 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Beyond regional governance of oil and gas, state and local governments play an important role in regulating the impacts of oil and gas development. As discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, the extent to which local governments may regulate oil and gas development varies among states. But where local governments are allowed to impose restrictions on this development, many of them establish zoning districts in which oil and gas development is or is not permitted (or is allowed conditionally and requires case-by-case approval), require environmental liability insurance and other insurance protections for operators in the event that something goes wrong at a well, and impose noise-based and aesthetic restrictions, among others. States, in turn, are primarily responsible for permitting oil and gas wells, requiring protective equipment to be used at well sites to prevent “blowouts” (explosions caused by an uncontrolled build-up of pressure); mandating specific types of and depths of...
- Thus, at the federal level, several environmental statutes and regulations that implement these statutes apply to oil and gas drilling and fracturing activity, whereas oil and gas activities are largely exempted from other important environmental statutes and regulations.
- Beyond the balancing of energy development and environmental protection required under federal laws like FLMPA, federal environmental laws contain significant exemptions for oil and gas operations. One of the broadest exemptions of oil and gas development from state law is the exemption of most oil and gas wastes from the hazardous waste portion of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which regulates the generation, transport, and disposal of wastes.
- A final exemption for oil and gas operators is from CERCLA. Although oil and gas operators are liable for the cleanup and restoration of sites where these operators have spilled hazardous fracturing chemicals and other hazardous substances, they are not liable for spills of oil and gas.
- One issue that has arisen with state-issued permits for oil and gas wells and oil and gas waste disposal wells is whether an administrative permit displaces a common law claim—in other words, whether a permitted well that pollutes water or causes another problem is protected from tort claims and other common law claims. So far, state courts have typically answered this question in the negative. For example, in Oklahoma, plaintiffs sued companies that owned and operated oil and gas wastewater disposal wells, arguing that these wells caused earthquakes that injured the plaintiffs. The Oklahoma Supreme Court found that the permit approving the disposal well—issued by Oklahoma’s Corporation Commission—did not preclude a common law claim. Indeed, the court noted that the Corporation Commission’s “jurisdiction is limited solely to the resolution of public rights” and that only a court could properly hear a private legal dispute between individuals and the companies that operated the wells.
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Introduction 1 41 results (showing 5 best matches)
- At the state level, a variety of state energy agencies and public utility commissions administer a range of state energy laws governing retail electricity and natural gas sales; intrastate and interstate oil pipelines; intrastate natural gas pipelines; oil and natural gas production on state and private lands (and even federal lands, since states retain concurrent authority to regulate oil and gas operations on such lands); the siting of interstate and intrastate electric transmission lines; and the siting of energy generation facilities such as coal plants, natural gas plants, and wind and solar facilities.
- Many aspects of energy production, sale, and use are regulated at the state and local levels instead of or in addition to the federal level. For instance, oil and gas exploration on non-federal lands is subject primarily to state property laws as well as state regulations governing spacing of wells, unitization (which involves combining various mineral tracts to ensure efficient development of oil and gas resources), safety, and environmental protection. State tort law in the form of nuisance, negligence, trespass, and waste also applies to oil and gas development. State and local zoning laws govern where and under what circumstances wind farms, solar plants, and fossil fuel plants can be built. States may impose clean energy mandates on electric utilities to require that a minimum percentage of electricity be generated from renewable or zero-emission energy resources, and states may also create property and income tax deductions and credits to incentivize the production or use of...
- This book explores in detail the federal and state laws that govern the extraction, sale, transportation, use, and disposal of energy resources. These energy resources are used primarily in the two different energy systems that we just introduced—the electricity system and the transportation system. With regard to the laws governing these energy systems, the Federal Power Act regulates the generation and use of hydroelectric energy and well as the wholesale sale of electric energy in interstate commerce and the transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce. The Natural Gas Act governs the interstate sale of natural gas and interstate natural gas pipelines and facilities, including natural gas import and export facilities. Other federal laws governing the production, sale, or use of energy include, inter alia, the Atomic Energy Act; federal hardrock mining laws; laws governing the leasing of onshore coal, oil, and gas on federal lands; the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act...
- Energy law in its most basic form is as old as the United States itself, with the common law of property rights, nuisance, trespass, and waste governing the production and ownership of early oil, gas, coal, and hard rock mineral resources. After the invention of the electric light bulb, state utility regulation laws and ultimately, the Federal Power Act, heavily regulated the electric industry. This regulation was designed to ensure access to and reasonable rates charged for this new, important energy resource in the early 20th century. Regulation of natural gas resources at the state and federal levels developed during this same time period. With the invention of the automobile, domestic and foreign oil resources took on outsized importance and, in the 1970s, led to a recognition that a more comprehensive national energy policy was critical to ensure a continued supply of petroleum at a time when the Arab Oil Embargo and diminished U.S. domestic oil production posed a threat to our...
- Numerous federal and state regulatory agencies interpret, implement, and enforce the vast array of federal and state laws that govern the energy industry. One prominent federal agency in this area is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which Congress created in 1930 as the Federal Power Commission (FPC). FERC has Congressional authority to regulate a wide variety of energy resources and industries, including wholesale electricity sales; interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil; the approval of interstate natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and export facilities; the licensing of hydroelectric
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Chapter 5. Energy Financing, Incentives, and Mandates 163 112 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The U.S. government first supported fossil fuels in the early 1900s through provisions that allowed for generous deductions of expenses—including intangible drilling costs (such as labor and tool rentals), the costs of drilling dry holes (non-producing wells), and a “percentage depletion allowance” through which producers deducted “from their gross receipts”
- Accurate and Honest Tax Accounting for Oil and Gas
- These consisted of credits for investments in clean coal facilities, amortization of air pollution control equipment for coal-fired electric plants, the oil and gas development tax benefits described above, and a “15-year Depreciation Recovery Period for Natural Gas Distribution Lines,” among other credits.
- John A. Bogdanski, Reflections on the Environmental Impacts of Federal Tax Subsidies for Oil, Gas, and Timber Production, 15 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 323, 325 (2011)
- These materials illustrate the importance of government incentives and mandates in influencing the production and use of energy resources both at the time the incentives were put in place and also, in the case of fossil fuels, long after their expiration because of the security such long-term support for an industry provides. They also demonstrate the growing set of private financing mechanisms available to developers. This Chapter does not address the numerous other forms of government support for the energy sector, such as research grants and direct investments in research and development; coal, oil, and gas leases on federal lands; or laws limiting liability for nuclear or other energy facilities.
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Chapter 7. Energy Imports and Exports 231 59 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Despite the focus on energy security and concerns about overreliance on fuel imports, fuels have long been a global product, just like many products that are imported or exported by countries based on global supply and demand forces and price differentials. And the United States has long been a major importer of fuels. However, the amount of fuels exported from the United States has recently increased due to the boom in “slick water” fracturing that occurred throughout the United States starting in the mid-to late-2000s. This boom created a glut of oil, leading many oil producers to send their product to refineries, from which the oil was then exported. The oil glut also incentivized oil producers to lobby for
- The recent boom in domestic oil and gas production, which has generally caused net imports of these products to drop, has driven U.S. producers to seek more export opportunities. However, producers that wish to export certain types of oil and gas historically faced regulatory hurdles, as discussed in the following part.
- Similar to oil (prior to Congress’s lifting the crude oil export ban), the type of natural gas export approval required from the DOE varies. Due to a Congressional amendment to the natural gas export limitations in 1992,
- Although the United States has abundant coal, natural gas, and oil reserves, fuel purchasers have long imported fuel into the United States. As introduced above, this is due to global prices as well as supply and demand. Additionally, for certain periods of time it appeared that we were running out of easily-accessible reserves of oil and gas. The U.S. government tried to incentivize oil and gas production companies to go out and drill for more difficult-to-access unconventional reserves,
- U.S. regulation of oil and gas imports and exports depends on the type of fuel being exported. For example, U.S. producers have
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Chapter 6. Energy Markets 193 119 results (showing 5 best matches)
- As introduced in Section I, the federal government generally controls the transportation of energy products interstate—including the price that pipelines and electric transmission line operators may charge for use of transportation infrastructure. It also retains control over wholesale sales of electricity and natural gas, although it has chosen to largely deregulate this sector. However, states also play an important role in regulating energy markets. States regulate the generation of electricity for the purposes of selling that electricity to retail customers, and they regulate oil and natural gas production. States also have regulatory control over access and price for intrastate electric transmission lines as well as for intrastate oil and natural gas pipelines, and they regulate retail sales of electricity and natural gas and the distribution of electricity and natural gas from utilities to retail customers. This section focuses on state regulation of the intrastate... ...and...oil
- Just as states regulate intrastate transmission and distribution of electricity and retail electricity sales, states also regulate the construction and siting of intrastate oil and natural gas pipelines, interstate oil pipelines, and distribution lines as well as retail sales of natural gas from “local distribution companies” to homes and businesses.
- One jurisdictional question with respect to oil pipelines became more important with the hydraulic fracturing boom. The boom did not just result in the production of more oil and gas from shales and tight sandstones in the United States; fracturing also produced more natural gas liquids (NGLs, which are petroleum substances that are similar to natural gas but exist in liquid form). There are
- Natural Gas Explained: Natural Gas Customer Choice Programs
- FERC regulates oil pipelines in a substantially different manner from natural gas pipelines. FERC must approve natural gas pipeline companies’ construction of pipelines before they are built, and FERC also approves the rate that these “public utilities” may charge of customers who use the pipelines.
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Chapter 3. Energy Transportation: Accessibility, Reliability, and Cybersecurity 81 84 results (showing 5 best matches)
- The viability of the U.S. energy economy rests on the vast network of energy transport infrastructure that moves oil, gas, coal, and renewable energy resources from production sites to processing facilities, and then to wholesale and retail customers through an interdependent network of rail lines, electric transmission lines, oil pipelines, natural gas pipelines, and import and export facilities. As the Department of Energy explains, this energy transport system includes over 2 million miles of interstate and intrastate pipelines, more than 640,000 miles of high-voltage electric transmission lines, over 400 natural gas storage facilities, over 300 ports handling crude petroleum and refined products, and nearly 150,000 miles of railways that transport petroleum, gas, and coal.
- Just as owners and operators of the electric generation and transmission system face a number of challenges from both natural hazards, such as trees, and human-induced threats, such as attacks on physical and cyber assets, pipelines face similar threats. Pipelines that carry oil, natural gas, and other hazardous substances around the country can corrode and leak, be punctured when construction equipment digs underground, experience physical attacks or electronic infiltration of computers that control the flow of substances through pipelines, and sometimes explode.
- As introduced above, natural gas storage facilities are connected to gas pipelines and are used to temporarily inject and store gas underground until it is needed. PHMSA regulates any facilities that are connected to interstate pipelines, although states, too, have exerted regulatory authority over these facilities. Indeed, the federal government has left much of the responsibility for the safety of gas storage facilities to the states. In 1997, the Research and Special Programs Administration of the DOT concluded that in light of existing state regulations and industry guidelines, as well as
- Unlike underground natural gas storage regulation, federal regulation of rail safety is relatively extensive, although not as comprehensive or detailed as some concerned citizens and groups would hope for.
- The boom in oil and gas development caused by fracturing has not only increased the use and construction of pipelines but also the transport of oil by rail, as introduced above. Shipments of ethanol, too, also have grown. The PHMSA and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) are the two agencies primarily responsible for regulating the rail transport of fuels, and as crude oil and ethanol rail traffic increased, they engaged in an extensive process of issuing emergency orders, recommendations to industries, and updated regulations for rail transport.
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Index 271 219 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Gas operations. Oil and gas operations, below
- Oil and gas extraction, disputes between service and mineral owners, 62
- Oil and gas extraction, onshore mineral ownership and leasing, 57–60
- Oil and gas extraction and operations, 49–50, 118–120
- Oil and gas extraction, onshore mineral ownership and leasing, 54
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Chapter 1. Energy Facility Siting 13 142 results (showing 5 best matches)
- Unlike the siting process for interstate oil pipelines, one federal agency—FERC—controls the siting and approval process for interstate natural gas pipelines. Federal control over the siting of interstate natural gas pipelines dates back to the Natural Gas Act of 1938, when Congress first gave the Federal Power Commission (now FERC) authority to regulate sales of natural gas in interstate commerce, transportation of natural gas in interstate commerce, and the facilities used for sales and transportation.
- These types of challenges to eminent domain authority by oil pipelines are growing as a result of the increasing opposition to new oil pipelines and other energy transport infrastructure in many communities. Much of the oil and gas pipeline infrastructure in the United States was constructed in the middle of the 20th century, prior to the environmental movement of the 1970s and the existence of numerous, well-organized environmental groups.
- The legal regime for siting oil pipelines is similar to the transmission line regime because state and local governments retain authority over siting. This means that states can block proposed interstate oil pipelines. The only federal involvement in interstate oil pipelines is for pipelines that cross an international border—i.e., to or from Canada or Mexico and the United States.
- Although many pipelines were built decades ago, the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing technologies beginning in the late 2000s, discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, has led to a significant increase in oil and gas production in the United States as well as efforts to significantly expand the pipeline networks needed to transport these new sources of energy. Because oil pipelines are sited and approved at the state level, it allows landowners and environmental groups a greater opportunity to participate in the regulatory process and oppose these pipelines than exists under the federal approval process that governs interstate natural gas pipelines.
- Oil and Gas Pipelines
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Table of Contents 41 results (showing 5 best matches)
Table of Cases 269 16 results (showing 5 best matches)
Chapter 8. Grid Modernization and Distributed Generation 245 92 results (showing 5 best matches)
- With regard to the use phase studies for EVs, the studies consider: (1) the emissions associated with the extraction and transportation of coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, wind, hydropower, and solar energy used to produce electricity and (2) the emissions associated with converting those energy resources into the electricity needed to charge the EV, such as the emissions from a coal-fired power plant or natural gas fired plant.
- Taking the average mix of generation sources for U.S. electricity, average annual GHG emissions are lower for EVs, HEVs and PHEVs.
- Some large utilities are taking advantage of the increased availability of commercial-scale battery storage. In California, PG&E obtained approval from the state’s utility commission to replace retiring gas generation plants with battery storage from Tesla and another energy company called Vistra Energy.
- To take advantage of economies of scale, most IOUs and many municipal utilities and electric cooperatives historically relied on coal to power large, central station generating plants because coal was readily available, easy to store on site, and inexpensive. Hydropower was also heavily used in areas where it was available. The latter part
- . Energy consumption data can also include natural gas and water use in homes and businesses.
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Copyright Page 2 results
- Concepts and Insights Series
- The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice, and this publication is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. If you require legal or other expert advice, you should seek the services of a competent attorney or other professional.
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- Publication Date: December 5th, 2019
- ISBN: 9781642425345
- Subject: Energy Law
- Series: Concepts and Insights
- Type: Hornbook Treatises
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Description:
This book has several groups of potential readers. Students and professors at law schools, undergraduate institutions, and graduate programs such as public policy, business, urban planning, and environmental studies can use the book instead of a case book or as a supplement to a case book. The material is adequately detailed to provide substantive topics that will fill an entire course or provide a more succinct description of complex issues from case books or professor-prepared readings. Attorneys, policymakers and their staff, and other individuals who encounter energy issues in their work also should find this book to be a useful introduction to the field of energy law and policy as well as a reference point for specific energy issues.
The book provides a broad yet detailed understanding of the major components of energy systems, energy infrastructure, and energy markets and the laws that guide their development. It covers all major energy policy sectors including oil and gas extraction, electricity regulation, renewable energy development, and regulation of vehicles and transportation fuels. The book is timely—describing rapidly changing policy in environmental regulation such as hydraulic fracturing, planning for electric transmission lines, state carbon reduction and clean energy mandates, and natural gas and oil exports. It also places these recent developments in the context of the many long-lasting policies that created current energy infrastructure and markets.
