Energy Legal Blog

Last week, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released a draft guidance describing how and when climate change considerations should factor into the environmental impact assessments that federal agencies prepare under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  The draft guidance is important for anyone proposing to build infrastructure, such as power plants, pipelines and large industrial facilities, since it will influence whether and under what conditions federal agencies  issue permits and other approvals.  Most federal approvals for large projects are subject to NEPA, which requires impact assessments as an aid to federal decision-making. (more…)

Wending its way to FERC on exception (appeal) is Administrative Judge Carmen Cintron’s January 22 initial decision finding that lead natural gas trader for hedge fund Amaranth Advisors, Brian Hunter, manipulated the price of New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) natural gas futures contracts in order increase earnings on futures look-alike contracts (primarily swaps) that Amaranth concurrently held on the largely unregulated exchanges, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Clearport, or over-the-counter (OTC).  How FERC rules on legal issues on appeal should be instructive of how the agency will define market manipulation in both natural gas and electric power markets going forward. (more…)

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) recently released its much anticipated Barnett Shale Formation Area Monitoring Projects survey.  The survey arrives amidst increasing press coverage of the opportunities and challenges of energy development in the nation’s shale regions.  Conducted over three months in the latter part of 2009, the survey focuses on characterizing air emissions associated with natural gas and oil production in the Barnett Shale.  Out of a total of 94 monitoring sites spread over 5,000 square miles and six counties, benzene levels at two sites were determined to exceed TCEQ’s short-term health-based comparison value, and at another 19 sites, TCEQ expressed concern about long-term cumulative exposure. (more…)

At a recent energy industry forum, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar left few clues as to what the Administration would decide regarding the Department’s Five-Year Leasing Program for 2007-2012 and the draft  2010-2015 plan proposed by the outgoing Bush Administration that would greatly expand offshore leasing for oil and gas exploration and production. As Salazar put it, “We’ll try to bring all those together in the next – very soon.” (more…)

PR News announced that Bracewell & Giuliani’s Energy Legal Blog will be recognized as the best “Legal PR Blog” at its annual Corporate Social Responsibility & Legal Awards Luncheon on February 24, 2010 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. This award recognizes an outstanding and influential law-related weblog or online journal written by a representative of the organization with the goal of espousing the brand or a certain message and written with flair and personality.

“Managing a crisis and working with legal counsel are two areas of communication that will always be a part of a PR professional’s responsibilities,” notes Diane Schwartz, vice president of PR News. “The Legal PR Awards shines a light both on how law firms are communicating to their stakeholders and to how the PR industry is in the driver’s seat when a crisis hits.”

More information on the award program and this year’s winners is available at http://www.prnewsonline.com/awards/csr2009_event-finalists.html.

The so-called FRAC Act, legislation introduced in June of last year by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) in the House of Representatives and Senators Casey (D-PA) and Shumer (D-NY) in the Senate, received a fresh jolt of publicity this week when the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment convened a hearing on the recently announced merger between ExxonMobil and XTO Energy, Inc., one of the nation’s largest independent natural gas producers.  While nominally about the impact of the proposed merger on the natural gas market, the hearing, chaired by Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), quickly focused in on hydraulic fracturing, the practice of injecting a high-pressure fluid mix of water, sand and a proprietary chemical mix into formations to release natural gas.  Hydraulic fracturing is specifically exempted from EPA regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act.  The FRAC Act seeks to repeal this exemption and also to require operators to disclose the chemical constituents of the fracing fluid used at any given well. (more…)