Energy and Utilities Law Commons^™

Reasonable Inference Of Authority To Control Hazardous Waste Disposal Results In Potential Liability: United States V. Aceto Agricultural Chemicals Corporation, Anita Letter

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Murray V. Bej Minerals, Llc, Brett Berntsen

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Part of a dispute some 66 million years in the making, Murray v. BEJ Minerals, LLC considered for the first time whether dinosaur fossils—specifically a one-of-a-kind specimen containing entombed “dueling dinosaurs”—qualified as “minerals” for the purposes of a property transaction under Montana law. Finding no consistent statutory or dictionary definition for “mineral,” the Ninth Circuit relied on a test previously utilized by the Montana Supreme Court to hold that the dinosaur fossils constituted minerals due to their rare and exceptional qualities and were therefore part of the property’s mineral estate. The decision was promptly nullified, however, as ...

Save Our Sound Obx, Inc. V. North Carolina Department Of Transportation, Mitch L. Werbell V

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in favor of several governmental agencies seeking to construct a new bridge in the Pamlico Sound adjacent to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. For years, state and federal agencies have put forth a massive coordinated effort to address the constant weather damage and erosion which occurs to a section of North Carolina Highway 12. The court found the agencies properly cleared NEPA’s environmental review requirements for the bridge’s construction. Additionally, the opponent-litigants’ efforts to add claims challenging the project, based on new information about a shipwreck in the bridge’s ...

Enough Is Enough: Ten Years Of Carcieri V. Salazar, Bethany C. Sullivan, Jennifer L. Turner

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Ten years ago, the United States Supreme Court issued its watershed decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, landing a gut punch to Indian country. Through that decision, the Supreme Court upended decades of Department of the Interior regulations, policy, and practice related to the eligibility of all federally recognized tribes for the restoration of tribal homelands through the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of 1934. The Court held that tribes must demonstrate that they were “under federal jurisdiction” in 1934 to qualify for land into trust under the first definition of “Indian” in the IRA. Carcieri has impacted all tribes by upending ...

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Gaping Hole: Darning International Corporate Liability For Environmental Disasters And Human Rights, Veronica Threadgill

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Give Me Disproportionate Economic Hardship Or Give Me Death: The Application Of Administrative Review To The Renewable Fuel Standard – Sinclair Wyoming Refining Co. V. Epa, Andrew Rasbold

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

There Will Be Blood: The New Rules Of Oklahoma Oil And Gas Civil Liability, Hunter W. Mattocks

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

The Vicissitudes Of Life: Meier V. Chesapeake Operating, Kelsee Kephart

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Cybersecurity And Offshore Oil: The Next Big Threat, Jamie Crandal

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction And Front Pages, Collin Mccarthy

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Toll-Free Assignment Modernization And The Triumph Of Coase, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

To Narrow The Digital Divide, The Fcc Should Not Simply Extend Lifeline To Broadband, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

The Congressional Review Act And The Toxic Politics Of Net Neutrality, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Revisiting Net Neutrality, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Revisiting The Public Utility, Jim Rossi, Morgan Ricks

Morgan Ricks

This foreword introduces "Revisiting the Public Utility," a series of essays published in a special issue of Yale Journal on Regulation. We cluster the contributions to this issue around public utility regulation’s core rationales and its scope, its implications for innovation and industry stability, and its evolving approach to price regulation. The scholarship represented in this issue challenges the notion that public utility ideas are obsolete or irrelevant to modern issues in economic regulation. It questions whether public utility regulation has fallen short of its goals, and shows that there are some good reasons to question many embedded regulatory ...

Microgrids: Legal And Regulatory Hurdles For A More Resilient Energy Infrastructure, Raquel Parks

Pace Environmental Law Review

Natural disasters and climate change have made it apparent that energy infrastructure needs to be modernized and microgrids are one type of technology that can help the electricity grid become more resilient, reliable, and efficient. Different states have begun developing microgrid pilot projects including California, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. The City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the first city to propose implementing “energy districts” of microgrids that will serve as critical infrastructure, in the first phase, and then expand to commercial and community settings. This large project involves many shareholders including public utilities, government agencies, and private entities. Utilizing microgrids ...

Law, Cultural Heritage, And Climate Change In The United States, Casey J. Snyder

Pace Environmental Law Review

Climate change is a reality. What happens climatically over the upcoming centuries is partially dependent on the comprehensiveness of a global response to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. However, within a century, forecasts predict a one-meter sea level rise that could have grave implications to our society: the loss of an incalculable extent of cultural heritage. This Article examines the threat climate change poses to physical cultural heritage, like archaeological sites and historic structures, and the current framework of law, regulation, and policy in the United States meant to protect these resources. This Article blends research and data from climate ...

State Public Nuisance Claims And Climate Change Adaptation, Albert C. Lin, Michael Burger

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Article explores the potential for state public nuisance claims to facilitate adaptation, resource protection, and other climate change responses by coastal communities in California. The California public nuisance actions represent just the latest chapter in efforts to spur responses to climate change and attribute responsibility for climate change through the common law. Part II of this Article describes the California public nuisance lawsuits and situates them in the context of common law actions directed against climate change. Part III considers the preliminary defenses that defendants have raised and could raise in the California public nuisance lawsuits, including the existence ...

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Local Content Policies In The Petroleum Industry: Lessons Learned, Eduardo G. Pereira, Christopher Mathews, Heike Trischmann

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Curative Pooling When The Validity Of An Oil And Gas Lease Is Challenged (Force Pooling The Top Lessee), Matt Allen

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction, Collin Mccarthy

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

A Dirty Waste—How Renewable Energy Policies Have Financed The Unsustainable Waste-To-Energy Industry, Hale Mcanulty

Boston College Law Review

The end of the 20th Century saw a major shift in the United States’ approach to energy policy. After decades focused on fossil fuel production, the country began to realize that renewable sources of energy were the way of the future. Motivated by environmental concerns and a realization that oil is a finite resource, the federal government and local governments began adopting economic policies that rewarded investment in and production of renewable, clean technology. Governments relied on both mandates and tax incentives to encourage the use of energy from sources like solar and wind power. Waste-to-Energy (“WTE”) power is another ...

Wildearth Guardians V. United States Bureau Of Land Management, Seth Sivinski

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. BLM, the District Court of Colorado showed that economic and developmental uncertainty is an area where agencies are given broad discretion in deciding whether an impact is reasonably foreseeable and requires a further conformity analysis under the Clean Air Act. This case exemplifies the tactical limitation of using climate change and the science around it to force greater analysis of projects undertaken by federal agencies. However, the court presented a potential roadmap for successful future challenges.

Solenex Llc V. Jewell, F. Aaron Rains

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In Solenex LLC v. Jewell, the Secretary of the Interior cancelled a highly contentious oil and gas lease in Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine area, an environmentally sensitive and culturally significant area to the Blackfeet Tribe, nearly thirty years after the lease had been issued. Solenex, a Louisiana based oil and gas company and holder of the lease, brought this action to enjoin the cancellation. The District Court for the District of Columbia agreed with Solenex and found that the Secretary’s decision took an unreasonable amount of time and violated good-faith contractual obligations. On these grounds, the court found the ...

Sierra Club V. Virginia Electric & Power Company, Thomas C. Mooney-Myers

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Sierra Club alleged Dominion violated the Clean Water Act by allowing arsenic to leak from coal ash storage pits into state waters. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found for the polluter, using a narrow definition of point source. Additionally, the Fourth Circuit deferred to agency interpretation of the polluter’s permit to find no violation occurred.

Massachusetts Lobstermen’S Association V. Ross, Daniel Brister

Public Land & Resources Law Review

President Obama established the first––and only––national monument in the Atlantic Ocean on September 15, 2016. Located 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and comprised of 4,913 square miles of marine ecosystems rich in biodiversity, the protected area includes four underwater mountains and three submarine canyons. Plaintiff commercial lobster and fishing associations, seeking to overturn the designation, asserted that the Antiquities Act does not permit a president to establish marine national monuments. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia disagreed, upholding a president’s authority to protect offshore areas and vast ecosystems as objects ...

Pipelines & Power-Lines: Building The Energy Transport Future, James W. Coleman

Faculty Scholarship

The United States is in the middle of three profound energy revolutions — with booming production of renewable power, natural gas, and oil. The country is replacing coal power with renewable and natural gas power, reducing pollution while saving consumers money. And it has dramatically cut its oil imports while becoming, for the first time in half a century, an important oil exporter. The U.S. is on the cusp of an energy transformation that will provide immense economic and environmental benefits.

This new energy economy will require massive investment in energy transport — especially power lines to bring wind and solar ...