Law Commons^™

Gaming The System: Bio-Economics, Game Theory, & Fisheries Management, Richard A. Grisel

Richard A Grisel

This paper argues that game theory provides powerful, effective new tools to analyze externalities that occur in the context of strategic, multi-party, interactive decision-making. I will attempt to treat this as a non-technical paper and avoid the complex mathematics better left to economists and mathematicians. Instead, a more achievable goal is to illustrate how high-seas open-access fishing is virtually identical to a game situation, treat the fundamentals of game theory, and demonstrate that game theoretic analyses are well-suited and fruitful for designing effective policy responses to fisheries management, particularly with respect to the straddling stocks problem. Indeed, one seminal fisheries …

Injunctions Against The Opening Of Gas Storage Facilities, Jorge E. De Hoyos Walther

Jorge E De Hoyos Walther

A recent decision from the Mexican Supreme Court, clarified the issued as to whether State Courts may issued injunctions against the opening of gas storage facilities related to the gas pipelines for the distribution of natural gas.

Oil Development In Anwr: The Precautionary Principle Is Compatible With The Fish And Wildlife Service's Statutory Mandate, Trisna Tanus

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

The potential for oil production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) coastal plain, otherwise known as the 1002 Area, is significant, with a current value of $770 billion. Yet, there are considerable knowledge gaps and disagreements over the environmental impacts of oil development in ANWR. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) manages ANWR and is tasked with advancing the refuge’s mission of ecological conservation. Before it can approve oil development in ANWR, the FWS is statutorily required to ensure that oil development is compatible with ANWR’s mission. This Comment argues that the precautionary principle is embedded within the laws …

The Illusion Of The Blue Flame: Water Law And Unconventional Gas Drilling In New York, Anne Marie Garti

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Student Publications

This article explores the question of whether natural gas can still be considered a clean fuel by probing the relationship of water law and hydraulic fracturing in New York State. The paper begins by explaining the geology of tight shales, the engineering techniques needed to extract gas from solid rock, and the density and location of drilling that would be allowed under New York State law. Relying on information provided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, scientific studies, and press accounts of the unprecedented citizen advocacy on this matter, it goes on to show the sharp distinction …

Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made The Bp Disaster Possible, And How The System Can Be Fixed To Avoid A Recurrence, Alyson Flournoy, William Andreen, Rebecca Bratspies, Holly Doremus, Victor Flatt, Robert Glicksman, Joel Mintz, Daniel Rohlf, Amy Sinden, Rena I. Steinzor, Joseph Tomain, Sandra Zellmer, James Goodwin

Holly Doremus

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is destined to take its place as one of the greatest environmental disasters in the history of the United States, or for that matter, of the entire planet. Like so many other disasters on that list, it was entirely preventable. BP must shoulder its share of the blame, of course. Similarly, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) – since reorganized and rebranded – has come under much deserved criticism for its failure to rein in BP’s avaricious approach to drilling even where it was unable to respond to a worst-case scenario in …

Through Another's Eyes: Getting The Benefit Of Outside Perspectives In Environmental Review, Holly Doremus

Holly Doremus

The Deepwater Horizon blowout has important lessons to teach about environmental review. It is easy to scapegoat the former Minerals Management Service (MMS) for shoddy environmental analysis. But captive agencies are a common phenomenon. Oversight by environmental mission agencies is supposed to provide a check on their myopia. Several external reviews of MMS’s environmental analysis were conducted, but none uncovered MMS’s wildly incorrect estimates of the probability, magnitude, and consequences of a blowout. This article details the external reviews, explains why they proved ineffective, and offers suggestions for improvement. Outside review cannot be effective unless reviewers understand the importance of …

Interdictos En Contra De Contruccion De Ductos De Distribucion De Gas Natural., Jorge E. De Hoyos Walther

Jorge E De Hoyos Walther

Se analiza la más reciente jurisprudencia de la SCJN, referente a los interdictos en contra de construcción de ductos para la distribución de gas natural.

The 2012 U.S.-Mexico Agreement On Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs In The Gulf Of Mexico: A Blueprint For Progress Or A Recipe For Conflict?, Jorge A. Vargas

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article is divided into four parts. Parts I and II describe each of the four previous U.S.-Mexico maritime delimitation treaties of 1970, 1976, 1978, and 2000. These treaties represent different degrees of progress in the process of completing the maritime boundaries that geographical contiguity imposes upon these contiguous countries. This was a slow and careful process that spanned almost half a century. Part III analyzes the 2012 U.S.-Mexico Agreement on Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico from an international law perspective, with special reference to the interests of the United States and Mexico. Finally, Part IV advances …

Can Timor-Leste Rely On Its Endowments To Achieve The Strategic Development Plan Targets?, Nicolas Maennling

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Government of Timor-Leste invited the Earth Institute and CCSI to advise on the sustainable management and use of oil resources, in order to achieve higher living standards and sustainable development. One component of the project included the preparation of a sector study that assesses whether the Government can rely on agriculture, tourism and the petrochemical sectors to achieve its long term GDP growth and employment targets.

The Revival Of Reliance And Prospectivity: Chevron Oil In The Immigration Context, Elliot Watson

Seattle University Law Review

Using Duran Gonzales as an example, this Comment discusses how courts determine when and if conflicting rules of law should be applied retroactively to aliens. Specifically, it argues that the holding in Nunez-Reyes and its use of the Chevron Oil test should be applied broadly to limit the retroactive application of law in certain immigration cases. Part II of this Comment gives a brief overview of Supreme Court retroactivity jurisprudence, the discretionary application of adjudicative retroactivity as described in Chevron Oil, and the Court’s recent shift toward a more conservative approach. Part III discusses how administrative law affects that framework …

Petroleum Exploration And Production Operations, Monika Ehrman

Monika U. Ehrman

No abstract provided.

Transparencia Y Anticorrupción, Primera Llamada De Peña, Norma E. Pimentel

Norma E Pimentel

No abstract provided.

Devil In The Bidding Detail, Lisa E. Sachs, Jacky Mandelbaum, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In light of the recent boom in natural resource prices, India is one of them many countries facing heightened scrutiny of the allocation and terms of their resource deals. In India, that scrutiny has uncovered a multi-billion dollar controversy over coal block allocations that has gridlocked Parliament. More generally, citizens in resource-producing countries around the world are asking whether the public is getting a fair value for their countries resources, or whether investors and politicians are walking away with the prize. Finally, the important questions are being asked: how should resources be managed to ensure that they benefit the citizenry, …

Leveraging The Mining Industry’S Energy Demand To Improve Host Countries’ Power Infrastructure, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The initial phase of the Leveraging Mining-Related Infrastructure Investments for Development project consisted of a worldwide survey of regulatory, commercial and operating case studies of shared use of mining-related infrastructure. This Policy Paper delivers the findings for power infrastructure.

The Legality Of Drilling Sideways: Horizontal Drilling And Its Future In West Virginia, Jason A. Proctor

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Limitation Of The Epa's Oversight Authority In Clean Water Act Permitting Of Mountaintop Mining Valley Fills , Christopher D. Eaton

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Mountaintop removal mining operations in the Appalachian region have expanded significantly in recent decades. The practice decimates the mountain ecosystems by leveling forests, filling headwater streams, and producing significant runoff of heavy metals, sediment, and other pollutants that impair the aquatic environment of entire watersheds. Yet environmental permitting of the practice is relatively limited. A recent trend in litigation aimed at halting mining operations has involved challenging permits that authorize the discharge of mining overburden into headwater streams pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Army Corps of Engineers has assumed jurisdiction over such discharges under section 404 of …

Appeal No. 0839: Municipality Of Sebring, Ohio V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management And Ohio Valley Energy Systems, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Chief's Order 2011-37; (Ohio Valley Energy Systems, Grindley #1 Well)

Avoidable “Fraccident”: An Argument Against Strict Liability For Hydraulic Fracturing, Joseph A. Schremmer

Faculty Scholarship

Whether fracking is an abnormally dangerous activity for purposes of strict liability appears to be an issue of first impression. That larger issue primarily turns on a smaller one: whether fracking accidents—or “fraccidents”—are avoidable or unavoidable. To that end, this Comment argues that when practiced with reasonable care and in the vicinity of other petroleum production, fraccidents are avoidable, and thus, fracking is not abnormally dangerous. Instead of strict liability, courts should combine a negligence standard with res ipsa loquitur to determine liability of fracking companies that contaminate water sources. First, this Comment will present background on the process and …

Los Contratos Con Eficacia De Protección A Terceros: A Proposito De La Responsabilidad Civil Causada Por Daños A Los Terceros, Daniel Alexander Febrero Frantzen

Daniel Alexander Febrero Frantzen

No abstract provided.

Un-Obtainium: The Quest For Rare Earth Elements, Brahm Heyman

International Political Economy Theses

The 17 "rare earth elements" are essential for the development of new technologies. Over the last several decades, China has established a virtual monopoly on the rare earth industry, producing over 97% of the world's current demand. This was achieved by effectively undercutting other producers who stopped competing in this market. In 2010, in an effort to bolster its domestic market, China decided to reduce the amount of rare earth elements that it would export. This situation can be used to consider China's relations with the rest of the world from two perspectives. (1) The realist perspective views China's actions …

Background Paper For Second Workshop On Contract Negotiation Support For Developing Host Countries, Vale Columbia Center On Sustainable International Investment, Humboldt-Viadrina School Of Governance

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance (HSVG) have initiated a process to discuss the desirability and feasibility of mechanisms to provide negotiation support for developing host countries in their negotiations with major investors.

At a first workshop held in October 2011, participants agreed on the need for an expansion of support for developing countries in their contract negotiations.

A second workshop was held at Columbia University in July 2012 that undertook a gap analysis between the existing sources of support for developing countries in relation to complex contracts and the countries’ needs for …

Regulation, Renegotiation, And Reform: Improving Transnational Public-Private Partnerships In The Wake Of The Gulf Oil Spill, John J. Mckinlay

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Anaerobic Digestion Technology: How Agricultural Producers And The Environment Might Profit From Nuisance Lawsuits, Catherine M. H. Keske

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Appeal No. 0842: Lee & Angela Vickers V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

abandonment questions

Agenda: A Low-Carbon Energy Blueprint For The American West, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, University Of Colorado Boulder. Renewable And Sustainable Energy Institute, Western Resource Advocates, Rocky Mountain Research Station (Fort Collins, Colo.)

A Low-Carbon Energy Blueprint for the American West (Martz Summer Conference, June 6-8)

The future of the planet may depend upon our ability to increase energy supplies even as we reduce carbon emissions. This conference will address how a low-carbon energy program might evolve with a particular focus on the American West. It will focus on the future of energy in the West--on a “managed transition” to a different energy mix, on the need to nest this effort in a framework that acknowledges interconnections, and on identifying the most salient opportunities to consider the legal, political, financial, and technical challenges.

Openness In Extraction, Lisa E. Sachs, Shefa Siegel

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

More than a decade before becoming President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, a mining engineer, observed that, among the branches of property law, the distribution of mining rights most elegantly reflects the vicissitudes of social and political relations. According to Hoover, mining rights were a "never-ending contention," as old as economic and civil conflict, among four principle classes – overlord, state, landowner, and miner. "Somebody," he concluded, "has to keep peace and settle disputes."

Today, with the prices of major natural-resource commodities – including oil, coal, copper, gold, and iron ore – doubling, tripling, or rising even faster, the …

Paper On The Business Case For Transparency, Perrine Toledano

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

CCSI strongly supports the transparency of contracts and tax flows. CCSI shares the belief of many stakeholders that transparency is essential to leverage extractive industries for sustainable development and is in the mutual interest of all stakeholders. However, some industry players continue to voice the concern that increased transparency would be harmful for their business. Therefore, CCSI is working to also establish the business case for transparency.

In one such case, some industry players have been lobbying against the regulations developed by the Security and Exchange Commission to implement the mandatory disclosure provisions of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform …

The Regulation Of Mining And Mining Waste In The European Union, Yvonne Scannell

Washington and Lee Journal of Energy, Climate, and the Environment

This article reviews EU law relating to the regulation of mining and mining waste, liability for environmental damage caused by mining, remedies for environmental damage caused by mining, mine closure obligations and the nature of financial guarantees required to ensure the proper performance of environmental obligations, as well as developments in EU law which have resulted in the elucidation of human rights available at a supranational level to those subjected to severe pollution from mining activities. It notes that much of the world’s mineral resources are located in developing countries which have less sophisticated environmental regulations and greater potential to …

Foreign Investment And Indigenous Peoples: Options For Promoting Equilibrium Between Economic Development And Indigenous Rights, George K. Foster

Michigan Journal of International Law

The quotations above refer to distinct conflicts that are widely separated by time and geography but remarkably similar in other respects. The first describes events leading to the Black Hills War of 1876, in which the U.S. Army forced the Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne onto reservations to make way for gold mining by non-Indians. The second describes a violent episode in a conflict between native groups and the Peruvian government, which began in 2009 when the government took steps to expand mining and oil operations by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the Peruvian Amazon. In both cases, outside commercial interests …

El Rostro Público De La Propaganda Administrativa, Norma E. Pimentel

Norma E Pimentel

No abstract provided.