Energy Legal Blog

In response to the public uproar over rapidly rising gas prices, on April 21 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the formation of an Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group to focus on the detection of fraud in the energy markets. Numerous federal and state agencies are represented which combined have a tremendous scope of investigative powers, which makes almost any segment of the oil and gas market susceptible to scrutiny. (more…)

In a much-anticipated April 12, 2011 order FERC authorized the PJM Interconnection to stop exempting state-mandated capacity resources from the Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR) of PJM’s Reliability Pricing Model (RPM) forward-capacity auction market. An original provision of the 2006 FERC-endorsed settlement that implemented the RPM auction – MOPR puts a price floor on capacity offers into the RPM in order to prevent the exercise of buyer market power from suppressing auction clearing prices below levels required to induce new investment and entry.  (more…)

Effective September 13, 2010, the Texas Railroad Commission adopted a new rule on the plugging of inactive, onshore oil and gas wells and the removal of associated surface equipment.  In order to comply, operators are required to plug the well and remove equipment, return the well to active operation, or file for an extension. 

The rule mandates a variety of actions depending on how long particular wells have been idle. More specifically, operators of wells that have been inactive: (more…)

Power from water is again in the news as the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee moves forward on measures to increase hydropower and improve the impact of energy development on water resources. As well, the national trade group representing the hydropower industry, which includes many municipal utilities, held its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, and the excitement among the industry players was palpable.

Despite past concerns about costs, land use and water resources, there is a real opportunity to expand America’s hydropower resources and create good jobs. There are 80,000 dams in the U.S., and only 3% generate electricity. (more…)