Where politics, government and energy intersect.
When it comes to settling disputes over who owns the oil & gas in Texas, the state’s law struck a federal judge as anything but fair. After reviewing an opinion by the Texas Supreme Court, he said it was more like theft. “The Garza opinion gives oil and gas operators a blank check to steal […]
Texas is a funny place when it comes to property rights. State Supreme Court rulings have said pipeline companies are not doing enough to prove they can take private land. Meanwhile, an unprecedented boom in oil and gas drilling means those same companies are scrambling to put more pipeline in the ground. The result has […]
What does Texas Attorney General (and now candidate for Governor) Greg Abbott like to do for fun? “What I really do for fun is I go into the office,” Abbott said at a speech last year, “[and] I sue the Obama adminstration.” Abbott has been openly bragging on the campaign trail of his many lawsuits against […]
Over the next three years, low-income Texans will receive approximately $800 million from the state to help pay their summer electric bills. However, on September 1, 2016, that money will run out. As a result, Texans who cannot afford to pay their electric bills are likely to go without air-conditioning during the summer. The money […]
This is part three of a three-part series devoted to looking at efforts to overhaul eminent domain in Texas and what may come next for landowners, pipeline companies, and the oil and gas industry. Read Part One here and Part Two here. At the O’Keefe’s farm outside of Beaumont, Texas, Dick and his sister Margaret […]
Colorado now has what the drilling industry there calls “the most rigorous statewide mandatory groundwater sampling and monitoring rules in the United States.” Wyoming is considering similar regulations to make oil and gas well drillers test the groundwater on nearby property before they begin to drill. Texas has over 800 rigs at work, far more […]
This is part two of a three-part series devoted to looking at efforts to overhaul eminent domain in Texas and what may come next for landowners, pipeline companies, and the oil and gas industry. Read Part One here. At the outset of this year’s regular legislative session, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle filed […]
While a rush is on to build up infrastructure to transport the vast reserves of oil and gas
Federal agencies announced Wednesday that Shell Oil has agreed to pay $115 million to install pollution controls at their refinery and chemical plant in Deer Park, Texas to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. On top of that, the company will pay a $2.6 million civil penalty, and spend another million installing a […]
In a letter to Texas Governor Rick Perry and governors of other states today, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) called on state leaders to do more to prevent disasters at fertilizer plants like the one last April in West, Texas. “The federal government isn’t doing enough right now, and I’m going to lay out what I think we […]
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