Energy Legal Blog®

On April 12, 2010, EPA published in the Federal Register a revised proposal for requiring petroleum and natural gas systems to report greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions starting January 2011.  The proposed rule would apply to the calculation, measurement, and reporting of vented, fugitive, and flare combustion emissions from facilities that emit equal to or greater than 25,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent per year.  Covered sources include: (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.

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…)

Following the creation of a task force to develop a national ocean policy (E&E News, June 12, 2009), the Obama administration has begun a nationwide tour of town hall-style listening sessions to further develop a framework for managing development and ecosystems in ocean waters.

The task force, led by White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley, aims to set policy on a number of key issues, including oil & gas and renewable energy development, the impacts of development on marine wildlife, river and coastal water pollution, and climate change challenges for coastal communities. The task force is following in the footsteps of two major national ocean commissions that recommended the creation of a national ocean policy five years ago. (more…)

On June 4, FERC inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU)  with the state of Washington to coordinate reviews of hydrokinetic projects located offshore in state waters.  The MOU with Washington comes on the heels of an anticipated agreement between FERC and MMS, which memorialized a truce between the two agencies as to which possessed primary jurisdiction to site hydrokinetic projects in federal waters on the outer continental shelf (OCS).  Following resolution of the dispute between MMS and FERC on issues affecting the OCS, the next big regulatory question centered on how FERC will interact with states in siting hydrokinetic projects in state waters.  The recent MOU with Washington State could shed some light on this issue. (more…)