Energy Legal Blog®

The harsh reality is during times of market volatility, the old adage “survival of the fittest,” applies to all companies, but especially junior/mid-cap oil and gas companies.

Unpredictable equity and commodity markets, and lower investor confidence in particular, can make it difficult for junior exploration and production companies to raise capital on the markets, particularly if the company is heavily exposed to development costs and has little to no production revenue. (more…)

Bracewell & Giuliani will hold its Second [Annual] Oil & Gas Regulatory Symposium in Houston on October 9, 2013. Like the 2012 symposium, this year’s event will feature speakers from industry and from within the Firm. Bracewell speakers will include Rudy Giuliani and former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Details about the symposium will be made available in the coming months.

Mark Lewis, Managing Partner of Bracewell & Giuliani’s Washington, D.C. office, and associate George Fatula recently discussed the demand for new pipeline development and changes to existing infrastructure in an article for Energy & Infrastructure. In addition to shifts in production areas, Mark and George also provide insight on the challenges facing pipeline developers with regard to federal regulation.

To read the full article, click here.

President Obama describes his energy policy as an “All of the Above” approach that encourages production of traditional fossil fuels while supporting the growth of renewables. Despite an increase in overall U.S. energy production over the past four years, output in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico has dropped well below recent government projections and onshore energy production from federal lands remains minuscule. Under a second Obama term, will federal waters and lands play a leading role in U.S. energy production, or will they continue to lag behind their potential?

How federal lands policy - and related energy policy - develops under the President’s second term will reflect the dueling instincts within the Administration: the desire to push an active, even aggressive regulatory-reform program, and the desire to create a more bipartisan legacy on issues such as energy independence. We suspect we’ll see elements of both as the administration continues a reformist Executive Branch regulatory agenda while exploring more common ground among Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the caucuses.

Other changes we see on the horizon: (more…)

Regardless of the final result, one thing is certain: the debate that took place in the 2012 election cycle over energy and environmental issues was a diametrically different debate that the one that took place just four years ago. Cap-and-trade legislation? Nowhere to be seen or heard. Climate change? See cap-and-trade. Shale gas development? A competition over who favors it more. Permits for offshore oil and gas development? A debate over who has or will get them out the door fastest. Perhaps nothing signified this stunning turn of events more than President Obama’s campaign running pro-coal advertisements in Ohio that attacked Governor Romney for once saying that pollution from coal plants was dangerous to public health.

Now that the election is over and President Obama has been reelected, where does all of this rhetoric leave energy and environmental issues heading into a second Obama term? In this post my colleagues Jeff Holmstead and Scott Segal and I examine the likely impacts on the major areas of energy and environmental policy. (more…)

In a video interview following the 2012 elections, Scott Segal, head of the Bracewell & Giuliani’s Policy Resolution Group, analyzed the prospects for energy and environmental issues following the 2012 elections. Scott’s discussion focused on the regionalized nature of the election in battleground states; the close relationship between energy policy and job creation in battleground states; the “uncorking” of energy and environmental regulation after the election; Congressional oversight; climate change action; and prospects for the power, oil and gas, shale, renewable, and offshore sectors.