Transmission and Transport of Energy in the Western U.S. and Canada: A Law and Policy Road Map

This collection of short essays arose from the inaugural meeting of the Idaho Symposium on Energy in the West, which was held in November, 2014. The topic for this first Symposium was Transmission and Transport of Energy in the Western U.S. and Canada: A Law and Policy Road Map. The essays in this collection provide a notable introduction to the major energy issues facing the West today. Topics include: building a resilient legal architecture for western energy production; natural gas flaring; transmission planning for wind energy; utilities and rooftop solar; special considerations for western states and the Clean Power Plan; the Clean Power Plan\u27s implications for the western grid; siting renewable energy on public lands; and implications of utility reform in New York and Hawaii for the Northwest

Contracting for Sustainable Surface Management

Oil and gas development is highly regulated Operators must comply with state and federal environmental laws to protect clean water endangered species and historical and cultural resources State conservation laws regulate well spacing setbacks from lease lines and occupied structures permitting requirements and operational rules whereas local rules may impose additional restrictions Operations on federal lands are subject to the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act onshore orders governing surface use and rules for waste prevention and hydraulic fracturing These public governance mechanisms materially influence surface use mitigation and reclamation and have greatly reduced the environmental impacts of hydrocarbon development It is against this background of public governance that splitestate landowners and energy developers negotiate terms of surface use and compensation for damages The resulting agreements fill in the gaps and complement public governance mechanisms As such surface damage agreements are a highly adaptable and effective private governance instrument to promote sitespecific surface management plans and environmental behavior and best practices brbrThis article examines the surface damage agreement as an instrument of private governance identifies opportunities to increase the governance function of surface damage agreements through the incorporation of thirdparty standards and verification and explores the potential of other private governance instruments to influence upstream surface management practice

Correlative Rights and Limited Common Property in the Pore Space: A Response to the Challenge of Subsurface Trespass in Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Carbon dioxide and other substances injected as part of carbon capture and sequestration CCS have the potential to migrate beyond the confines of the injection project creating the potential for trespass In order for CCS to be viable legal clarity on the issue of subsurface trespass is required This Article argues that the challenge of subsurface trespass associated with CCS can be overcome by conceptualizing pore space rights in the storage complex as limited common property with rights of proportionate use The traditional oil and gas framework of correlative rights can be a valuable model to promote investment encourage private ordering and discourage the underutilization of subsurface property for CC

Siting Carbon Dioxide Pipelines

More than 5000 miles of highpressure pipelines carrying carbon dioxide ÔÇ£CO2ÔÇØ traverse the western and southern United States primarily connecting natural and anthropogenic sources of CO2 sources to mature oilfields for CO2 enhanced oil recovery ÔÇ£CO2EORÔÇØ The precise route of the pipelines may be impacted by a variety of factors under both state and federal law Like oil pipelines and electric transmission lines developers of CO2 pipelines site infrastructure according to state law Accordingly state law determines whether and under which circumstances CO2 pipelines may utilize eminent domain authority to acquire property along the pipeline route States principally provide pipelines with this authority under two public interest justifications the development of natural resources or constructing and making available public access infrastructure through the imposition of common carrier requirementsThis paper analyzes the adequacy of the current regulatory framework for siting CO2 pipelines with a goal towards building a CO2 pipeline network that is flexible enough to serve both CO2EOR and CCUS purpose

The Incidental Environmental Agency

State oil and gas conservation agencies are the gatekeepers to oil and gas development as the agencies charged with granting drilling permits they decide if when where and how oil and gas will be developed As such oil and gas conservation agencies sit on the front lines in the emerging and increasingly irresolvable struggle between fossil energy development and the environment Current oil and gas conservation regulation is designed to promote development maximize recovery of the resource and protect the individual property rights of mineral owners However advocacy by environmental constituencies including surface owners and local governments has challenged the entrenched paradigm whereby production must be maximized at the expense of all other interests These efforts are pushing courts to redefine oil and gas conservation according to 21st century environmental values This article examines the emergent environmental regulation function of oil and gas conservation agencies and identifies opportunities for these agencies to regulate according to their historic mandates in a manner that is inclusive of public value

The Role of Energy Models: Characterizing the Uncertainty of the Future Electricity System to Design More Efficient and Effective Laws and Regulations

When designing environmental protection and energy regulation policies legislators and regulators rely upon the results of computer models that purport to forecast future conditions such as energy supply demand available technologies and market characteristics In a perfect world these energy models would prove to be reliable and would in turn yield projections that would enable legislators and regulators to confidently enact regulations that advance societal energy and environmental goals Unfortunately it is impossible to predict or forecast with confidence all the variables that influence regulation and the effects of any regulatory choice In this Article we suggest that principles of dynamic law can be used as guidance to design policy that is coherent with the highly uncertain context in which it operates We explore the idea that the uncertainty surrounding the outcomes of a regulation can be taken into account and made part of the regulatory design In so doing we suggest that regulations can tackle uncertainty using the same methods by which the energy modeling community attempts to understand and bound uncertainty The diverse set of projected regulatory effects produced by different models under different assumptions reveals risks and opportunities The risk of ineffective regulation and unintended consequences and the opportunity of making ÔÇ£dynamic regulationsÔÇØ that change with the pace of new informatio

Transmission and Transport of Energy in the Western U.S. and Canada: A Law and Policy Road Map

This collection of short essays arose from the inaugural meeting of the Idaho Symposium on Energy in the West which was held in November 2014 The topic for this first Symposium was Transmission and Transport of Energy in the Western US and Canada A Law and Policy Road Map The essays in this collection provide a notable introduction to the major energy issues facing the West today Topics include building a resilient legal architecture for western energy production natural gas flaring transmission planning for wind energy utilities and rooftop solar special considerations for western states and the Clean Power Plan the Clean Power Plans implications for the western grid siting renewable energy on public lands and implications of utility reform in New York and Hawaii for the Northwes