Cheap Natural Gas Prices: Prelude to Energy Unreliability and Price Volatility
Cheap gas prices driven by a boom in new shale gas development, coupled with more stringent emissions controls for coal fired plants, are causing a shift from coal to natural gas as the primary source...
View ArticleDOE Conditionally Approves Second Natural Gas Export License
On Friday, May 17, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced it had conditionally authorized Freeport LNG Expansion, L.P. and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC (collectively Freeport) to export domestically...
View ArticleThe Ghost of Offshore Boundaries Past
At the 2013 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, nobody was really surprised to hear Gulf Coast and Alaska Governors calling for an expansion of offshore drilling activity and streamlined...
View ArticlePetroleum Refinery Enforcement Initiative 2.0
Enforcement with a FlairEPA has seen the smoke.This certainly is no joke.Benzene is a neighborhood scare,With upsets going to the flare.On July 10, the Department of Justice and EPA announced the...
View ArticleNew Frontiers of Environmental Advocacy
Since one of the objectives of the ACOEL blog is to promote thought and discussion, I have decided to plunge in with abandon. Hopefully the objective of promoting discourse will be met.We all have...
View ArticleThose Dam Polluters!
The Columbia and Snake River federal network of dams, and the abundance of low cost electricity it produces, has long been the cornerstone of the Pacific Northwest manufacturing economy. It has also...
View ArticleKeystone XL, the Old Testament and Attorney Compensation
A former federal district judge was fond of telling his law clerks that Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals opinions were like the Old Testament. “You can find something there to support about any...
View ArticleMinefields (Still) Ahead: EPA’s Improved Good Samaritan Policy for Abandoned...
For over forty years, the risk of incurring major liability under the Clean Water Act (CWA) has effectively discouraged “Good Samaritan” volunteers from cleaning up abandoned hardrock mine sites...
View ArticleWhat? Another homage to Joe Sax?
Yes, and here’s why: Joseph Sax’s writings remain as fresh today as when they were published. This blog— in noting his death earlier this year — described Sax’s revival of the public trust doctrine,...
View ArticlePresidential Directive Mandates Expansive and Likely Unlawful No Net Loss...
On November 3, 2015, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum establishing policies that are a significant departure from existing practice regarding compensatory mitigation for effects to...
View ArticleCat on a Hot Stove-Lid: What We Should Learn from the Gold King Mine Spill
Mark Twain once wisely warned:We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits on a hot stove‑lid. She will never sit...
View ArticleLooking Back Over 100 Years of the National Park Service, Looking Ahead to...
August 25, 2016 is the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The many planned celebrations and observances provide an opportunity for everyone to become reacquainted with these great outdoor...
View ArticlePerspectives of Twenty-four Pioneers on the Past and Future of Environmental Law
On Earth Day 2016, the Environmental Law Institute presented to the public a collection of 24 videotaped interviews conducted over the past five years to record the career experiences of many pioneers...
View ArticleCuba Delegation Part 4: Las Terrazas
I stood staring at the ruins of slave quarters on what had once been a 19th century coffee plantation situated in the northwestern part of Cuba ― Las Terrazas, in the Sierra de Rosario mountains. I...
View ArticlePresident Theodore Roosevelt: A Conservative for All Seasons
The debate on whether President Theodore Roosevelt was a conservative or a progressive experienced a recent uptick. One example of the debate is the reception to Daniel Ruddy's new book, Theodore the...
View ArticlePublic Parks in Massachusetts – Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) will soon decide how hard or easy it is to sell or change the use of public parks. Article 97 of the Massachusetts Constitution provides that the “people...
View ArticleWhen the “Why” is Wordless
This past weekend, I took a long walk in Colt State Park in Bristol, Rhode Island. The sun was sparkling off the waves on Narragansett Bay and all sorts of people were similarly drawn to the pleasant...
View ArticleH.R. 23: A VERY BAD FEDERAL WATER LAW BILL—AND A WORSE PRECEDENT
H.R. 23 is an important and most unfortunate environmental bill currently working its way through the U.S. Congress. Sponsored by California Republican Congressman David Valadeo—with a strong assist...
View ArticleAssisting in the Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey: Every Lawyer Can Help!
Also authored by Andrea Field & Mary Ellen TernesMany in the College have been asking what lawyers can do to help those in need in Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Answers to that...
View ArticlePASSING LESS GAS
While some still debate climate change, on 11/22/17, eight of the oil and gas industry’s biggest players signed on to a set of Guiding Principles for reducing methane emissions across the natural gas...
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