Energy Legal Blog

On October 16, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit revived a lawsuit filed by residents and property owners along the Mississippi Gulf coast against several corporations in the energy, fossil fuels and chemicals industries alleging that the defendants were responsible for property damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.  Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, et al., No. 07-60756 (5^th Cir. Oct. 16, 2009).  The district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ state law nuisance, trespass and negligence claims, finding that the plaintiffs had not adequately linked defendants’ operations to Hurricane Katrina and that, in any event, liability for damages relating to global warming constituted a nonjusticiable political question best left to Congress and the Executive branch.  The Fifth Circuit disagreed on both of these points, and reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings. (more…)

Both the US Senate and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on September 30 moved ahead with programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Which program goes into effect will determine whether those emissions are controlled pursuant to a nationwide cap-and-trade program that ratchets them down approximately 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 or, at least initially, pursuant to permitting and new source review (NSR) under the Clean Air Act (CAA) or public nuisance law suits. (more…)

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas dismissed a twenty-six-count indictment that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Justice Department had brought against four former BP traders for allegedly attempting to manipulate the TET propane market in 2004 in violation of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA). In doing so, the court appears to have narrowed significantly the CFTC’s (and possibly other regulators’) authority to prosecute allegations of price manipulation. (more…)

On September 21, the comment period ended for the Department of the Interior’s Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2010-2015 (DPP).  The DPP would replace the current program covering 2007-2012.  With President Bush’s removal of the Executive withdrawal on offshore oil and gas exploration, along with Congress’ allowing its ban to expire, areas of the OCS are now available for leasing that were not included in the current five-year program.  Consequently, in January, the Minerals Management Service solicited comments from the public and industry “to ensure the broadest possible review” of the areas that President Bush and Congress made available.  In February, one of Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s first acts was to announce a strategy for offshore energy development, which included the extension of the comment period an additional 180 days. (more…)