Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law Commons^™

Transparency Of Land-Based Investments: Cameroon Country Snapshot, Sam Szoke-Burke, Samuel Nguiffo, Stella Tchoukep

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Despite a recent transparency law and participation in transparency initiatives, Cameroon’s investment environment remains plagued by poor transparency.

In a new report focusing on agribusiness projects in Cameroon, CCSI and the Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement (CED) find that:

• Communities continue to be excluded from decision-making around investments.
• The government pursues a top-down approach to concession allocation and remains reluctant to recognize all legitimate tenure rights.
• The government faces threats to its legitimacy as the grievances of citizens and investors alike lead to the barring of roads by communities and investor withdrawals.

CCSI and CED therefore call for:

• A …

Transparency For Whom? Grounding Land Investment Transparency In The Needs Of Local Actors, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Transparency is often seen as a means of improving governance and accountability of investment, but its potential to do so is hindered by vague definitions and failures to focus on the needs of key local actors.

In this new report focusing on agribusiness, forestry, and renewable energy projects (“land investments”), CCSI grounds transparency in the needs of project-affected communities and other local actors. Transparency efforts that seek to inform and empower communities can also help governments, companies, and other actors to more effectively manage operational risk linked to social conflict.

Troublingly, the report finds that:

• Disclosures around land investments continue …

The Rights Of Nature Movement In The United States: Community Organizing, Local Legislation, Court Challenges, Possible Lessons And Pathways, Marsha Moutrie

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

No abstract provided.

Appeal No. 0985: L.D. Jenkins V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2020-11, 2020-109 & 2020-114; Wiley A Unit; Wiley B Unit, Wiley C. Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

Appeal No. 0986: L.D. Jenkins V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2020-11, 2020-109 & 2020-114; Wiley A Unit; Wiley B Unit, Wiley C. Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

Appeal No. 0984: L.D. Jenkins V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2020-11, 2020-109 & 2020-114; Wiley A Unit; Wiley B Unit, Wiley C. Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

Cle Working Paper No.1/2021--Grassroots And Litigation-Based Approaches To Advancing Indigenous Rights: Lessons From Extractive Industry Resistance In Mesoamerica, Justin Wiebe

Centre for Law and the Environment

Indigenous peoples are frequently recognized as excellent stewards of their traditional territories. These territories, which often exhibit extraordinary levels of biodiversity, face disproportionate and growing threats from extractive industry. In opposing these threats, Indigenous peoples increasingly rely on internationally-defined Indigenous rights, including those set out in UNDRIP and ILO Convention 169. It is uncertain, however, how these rights are most effectively advanced. In this paper, I tease out strategies — both grassroots-based and litigation-based — that show promise in this regard. Drawing on Waorani resistance to an oil auction in Ecuador and Indigenous resistance to a large-scale mining project in …

Should The European Union Fix, Leave Or Kill The Energy Charter Treaty?, Martin Dietrich Brauch

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

In the early 1990s, the European Economic Community – the predecessor of the European Union (EU) – spearheaded an initiative to promote international cooperation in the energy sector, particularly with post-Soviet States in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Out of this process the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) was born in 1994. Going much beyond international cooperation, the treaty allows foreign investors in the energy sector to sue their host States in international arbitral tribunals and claim monetary compensation when policy measures and other State action affect their interests.

Fast-forward to 2021. With 135 known cases initiated to date, the ECT’s …

Pore Space Property, Joseph A. Schremmer

Utah Law Review

Through modern technology we can use the void pore space of underground rock formations for a growing number of socially beneficial purposes. These run the gamut from unconventional oil and gas production to climate change mitigation. The common law of property and tort, however, has struggled to keep up with advancing technology in this area. Significant questions remain about the nature of property rights in pore space. Of particular interest are the limits, if any, on an owner’s right to use pore space for beneficial purposes when it extends beneath the land of another. For example, may A hydraulically fracture …

Renewable Energy And Trade: Meeting The Paris Agreement’S Goals Through A Two-Step Jurisprudential Advance, Lisa Benjamin

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Recent Case Decisions

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Yours, Mine, Our Water: Where Correlative Rights End And Taking Begins Following Texas House Bill 3246, Charles P. Hosey

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property And The Law Of Fracking Fluid Disclosures: Tensions And Trends, Cody B. Johnson

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Brazilian Gas Market And Its Regulatory Overview, Hirdan Katarina De Medeiros Costa, Karina Ninni Ramos, Israel Lacerda De Araujo, Paola Mercadante Petry, Owen Anderson, Edmilson Moutinho Dos Santos

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Updated Guidance On Consent-To-Assign Provisions In Texas Oil And Gas Leases, Jason E. Wright

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Eureka! A Petroleum Transactions Guide That Delivers (Review Of International Petroleum Law And Transactions By Owen Anderson Et Al.), Norman Nadorff

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Nawzad Yasin And Others: Part 2: Others, Owen L. Anderson

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tribute To Nawzad Yasin And Others: Part 1: Nawzad, Owen L. Anderson

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Introduction & Front Pages, Jake Ware

Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal

No abstract provided.

Mineral And Air Rights, Alvin Wade

Extension Publications

No abstract provided.

Preventing Wind Waste, K.K. Duvivier

American University Law Review

The United States has vast offshore wind resources—nearly double the total electricity consumption of the country—ideally located close to the largest population centers. This abundance has remained stubbornly untapped for over a decade, without a single commercial scale wind project built in federal waters as of early 2021.

In contrast to obstruction by the Trump administration, President Biden, in his first days in office, singled out offshore wind development as one of his priorities for tackling the climate crisis. As a result, the United States may soon see an offshore wind rush.

Onshore, the United States is a world leader …

The Energy Transition And Mining: Reconciling The Growth Of Renewable Energy With The Need For New Mineral Development, Alexandra B. Klass, Allison J. Mitchell

Articles

Under the Paris Agreement, the global governmental signatories embraced the goal to hold global average temperature increase to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” while “pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” Almost every country in the world signed on to the Paris Agreement, adopting the prevailing science that anthropocentric greenhouse gas emissions would result in rising global temperatures and catastrophic damages from climate change in the absence of immediate action. In pursuit of this goal, the signatories agreed that all member countries would work together to bring greenhouse gas emissions to zero within the …

Maybe Coal Shouldn’T Keep The Lights On: An Analysis Of Climate Change In Kentucky And Potential Legislation That Could Mitigate Its Effects, Shelby Lamar

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Presidential Progress On Climate Change: Will The Courts Interfere With What Needs To Be Done To Save Our Planet?, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The Biden Administration is undertaking numerous actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition away from fossil fuels as part of the fight against climate change. Many of these actions are likely to be challenged in court. This paper describes the various legal theories that are likely to be used in these challenges, assesses their prospects of success given the current composition of the Supreme Court, and suggests ways to minimize the risks.

Nigeria’S Petroleum Industry Bill: A Missed Opportunity To Prepare For The Zero-Carbon Future, Solina Kennedy, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Perrine Toledano, Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

With Nigeria’s National Assembly debating the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the first quarter of 2021 – after nearly two decades of attempted reform of the country’s petroleum sector – Nigeria has a unique opportunity to rethink the role of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria’s economy and build out the country’s energy sector and economic capacity for the long term. CCSI’s report Equipping the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for the Low-Carbon Transition, released before the PIB was publicized, advances suggestions on how to do so. The PIB takes notable steps toward much-needed reform of NNPC’s …

The Carbon Price Equivalent: A Metric For Comparing Climate Change Mitigation Efforts Across Jurisdictions, Gabriel Weil

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Climate change presents a global commons problem: Emissions reductions on the scale needed to meet global targets do not pass a domestic cost-benefit test in most countries. To give national governments ample incentive to pursue deep decarbonization, mutual interstate coercion will be necessary. Many proposed tools of coercive climate diplomacy would require a onedimensional metric for comparing the stringency of climate change mitigation policy packages across jurisdictions. This article proposes and defends such a metric: the carbon price equivalent. There is substantial variation in the set of climate change mitigation policy instruments implemented by different countries. Nonetheless, the consequences of …

Louisiana Oil & Gas Update, Keith B. Hall

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Regulatory Agency Capture: How The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Approved The Mountain Valley Pipeline, Aakshi Agarwal

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

The FERC’s history of approving nearly 100% of pipelines and divisive pipeline cases like the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Mountain Valley Pipeline have driven landowners’ long-standing claims of regulatory agency capture of the FERC. The present research substantiates the claim of capture with a case study of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and uncovers that the FERC is both culturally and corrosively captured. This research also suggests that the capture of the FERC began at its conception during the natural gas crisis and subsequent natural gas bubble, which caused the FERC to follow the industry’s lead. These findings indicate that the …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Pore Space Property, Joseph Schremmer

Faculty Articles

Through modern technology, we can use the void pore space of underground rock formations for a growing number of socially beneficial purposes. These run the gamut from unconventional oil and gas production to climate change mitigation. The common law of property and tort, however, has struggled to keep up. Significant questions remain about the nature of property rights in pore space. Of particular interest are the limits, if any, on an owner’s right to use pore space for beneficial purposes when it extends beneath the land of another. For example, may A hydraulically fracture an oil well on her property …