Natural Resources Law Commons^™

Shares Of Water Stock In Utah: Personal Property Or Real Estate?, Michael P. Affleck

Utah Law Review

Utah deserts supply the state with exquisite beauty and are a definitive part of Utah’s identity. However, a consequence of this arid beauty is aridity itself. Because Utah is one of the driest states in the nation, water is an important resource. Accordingly, Utah legislators have enacted statutes that ensure that those who own water will use it beneficially and that ownership of water can be transferred easily from one owner to another. Water ownership is categorized as either ownership of a water right or a share of water stock. This Note focuses on the need for a resolution in …

Mandating Disclosure Of Climate-Related Financial Risk, Madison Condon, Sarah Ladin, Jack Lienke, Michael Panfil, Alexander Song

Faculty Scholarship

Climate change presents grave risk across the U.S. economy, including to corporations, their investors, the markets in which they operate, and the American public at large. Unlike other financial risks, however, climate risk is not routinely disclosed to the public. Insufficient corporate disclosures have persisted despite the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) issuance of regulatory guidance on the topic, the emergence of voluntary disclosure frameworks and standards, and growing calls from major investors for improved disclosure. Given the inadequacy of the current regime, the SEC should take further action to fulfill its statutory mandate to protect investors and promote efficiency, …

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.

Brief Of Amici Curiae Law Professors In Support Of Defendants, Robert Abrams

Amicus Briefs

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 …

Unbecoming Adversaries: Natural Resources Federalism In Wyoming, Tara Righetti, Robert B. Keiter, Jason Robison, Temple Stoellinger, Sam Kalen

Wyoming Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Blm’S Duty To Incorporate Climate Science Into Permitting Practices And A Proposal For Implementing A Net Zero Requirement Into Oil And Gas Permitting, John C. Ruple, Jamie Gibbs Please, Nada Wolff Culver

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Almost one quarter of all U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions come from fossil fuels extracted from public lands, and these resources are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This article argues that the BLM has a statutory duty to respond to climate change, which includes the duty to avoid exacerbating climate change. The article then moves the legal discussion from aspiration to action by proposing a legal strategy, using the existing legal framework, by which the BLM can achieve net zero emissions from all new mineral development activity. While the article focuses on oil and gas development, the …

Unbecoming Adversaries: Natural Resource Federalism In Wyoming, Tara Kathleen Righetti, Robert B. Keiter, Jason Robison, Temple Stoellinger, Sam Kalen

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Wyoming’s unique cultural and physical landscape fostered dynamic federalism relationships that have oscillated between adversarial and cooperative. Too often, though, the State and its federal and tribal counterparts have found themselves in the role of unbecoming adversaries. As current and former natural resources faculty members at the University of Wyoming (UW) College of Law, we are privileged to offer a retrospective on this subject upon the law school’s centennial. In 2021, the State is facing new and daunting challenges that are straining its core industries and budget, including economic changes associated with the COVID-19 global pandemic and rapidly transforming energy …

The Role Of Trust Law Principles In Defining Public Trust Duties For Natural Resources, John C. Dernbach

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Public trusts for natural resources incorporate both limits and duties on governments in their stewardship of those natural resources. They exist in every state in the United States—in constitutional provisions, statutes, and in common law. Yet the law recognizing public trusts for natural resources may contain only the most basic provisions—often just a sentence or two. The purpose and terms of these public trusts certainly answer some questions about the limits and duties of trustees, but they do not answer all questions. When questions arise that the body of law creating or recognizing a public trust for natural resources does …

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

Scholarly Works

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 one-dimensional 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 …

Contracts On The Seabed, Christiana Ochoa

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Four million square kilometers of seabed within the sovereignty of Pacific Island nations are currently under contract for mineral exploration or exploitation. Over a million additional square kilometers of the non-sovereign seafloor are licensed for such use. Historically, these licenses have served to establish “squatters’ rights” in anticipation of a distant future when the industry would develop the machinery to exploit oceanic mineral wealth. That moment has arrived, with the first seafloor mining machines rolling off production lines in 2015-2016. Indeed, but for failed financing, the first seabed mine would now be operating in the territorial ocean waters of Papua …