ProPublica’s Post

The environmental think tank Carbon Tracker found that 39 percent of Colorado oil and gas companies haven't completed financial assurance plans to guarantee they'll clean up after themselves—and some drillers are going out of business before they can complete the process. Carbon Tracker's report focuses on the state's new bonding rules, which were required under a voter-approved overhaul of oil and gas regulations in 2019. The report warns that loopholes in Colorado's regulations could leave the state with less money in financial guarantees than it had before the new rules. https://lnkd.in/gV8xPHrb

A weekend read: Here is why both Colorado Oil & Gas Association and GreenLatinos is claiming satisfaction from the 2024 session and what needs to happen over the next two years to keep the detente: https://lnkd.in/g7CCyJHk

Recommend checking out this op-ed from Megan Milliken Biven on the oil and gas industry's failure to clean up aging pipelines, wells, platforms & other infrastructure in the ocean--something they are legally obliged to do within a year of ending operations. She explores the enormous financial risks that are getting passed to American taxpayers but ALSO delves into the job creation potential of enforcing decommissioning obligations. It’s time to stop kicking the can, as Megan writes. Taking action on decommissioning would be a win for the environment & jobs. #OceanClimateAction https://lnkd.in/eYJk5NJy

News from the compliance world: Due to repeated non-compliance, the Alberta Energy Regulator has issued a corporate abandonment order to Tallahassee Exploration Inc. Tallahassee must decommission its sites and implement a reclamation plan. How could this have been prevented from a compliance standpoint? In our latest article, we discuss steps that your company can take to avoid this measure and what preventative measures can be put in place to avoid it altogether. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/gqtf6vdN

In June and July, the US Supreme Court issued several landmark decisions that shifted the regulatory landscape for businesses in the energy sector. In a decision released on June 28, 2024, the Court overturned the long-standing Chevron doctrine and abolished the principle of judicial deference to an administrative agency’s interpretation of ambiguous statutes. Historically, Chevron deference granted agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission latitude in interpreting regulations. Instead, the new Loper Bright decision requires courts to conduct a judicial review of agency actions, applying their judgment without deferring to the agencies. This marks a significant shift in regulatory interpretation that amplifies risks for businesses in the US energy sector. Dig deeper into our client alert here: https://lnkd.in/dvjuxFs2 #Energy #SCOTUS #EnergySector Sara Hayes, GuyLaine Charles

#OrphanOilAndGasWells #USA "Last year, representatives of New Mexico’s oil industry met behind closed doors with the very groups with which they typically clash — state regulators and environmentalists — in search of an answer to the more than 70,000 wells sitting unplugged across the state. Many leak oil, brine and toxic or explosive gasses, and more than 1,700 have already been left to the public to clean up. The situation is so dire that oil companies agreed to help try to find a solution. After months of negotiations, the state regulators who ran the meetings emerged with a proposal that they hoped would appease everyone in the room. The bill would instruct drillers to set aside more money to plug their wells, authorize regulators to block risky sales to companies that would be unlikely to afford to clean up their wells and implement a buffer zone between wells and hospitals, schools, homes and other buildings. The industry, unhappy with the state’s final language, turned against the bill it helped shape. The influential New Mexico Oil and Gas Association told its supporters that HB 133 was “a radical and dangerous approach designed to strangle the oil and gas industry” and asked them to send their elected representatives a form letter opposing it. If passed, the trade group proclaimed, the bill would “Destroy New Mexico.” The Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, which represents small oil companies, called the bill “overzealous.” .... New Mexico faces a multibillion-dollar shortfall between the money companies have set aside to plug wells and the actual cost of doing so, according to state research, a reality mirrored in many states. Across the country, more than 2 million oil and gas wells sit unplugged, but the money held in cleanup funds, called bonds, is many tens of billions of dollars short of the projected costs, ProPublica and Capital & Main found. Now, a once-in-a-lifetime effort to shrink that shortfall is underway, spurred in large part by federal funding for well-plugging efforts. ... In some, including Oklahoma and Utah, lawmakers propose bills only after oil trade groups approve the language. In many others, regulators and drillers work together through organizations such as the quasi-governmental Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission to design policy. But even when given a seat at the table, like in New Mexico, the industry has turned against reform efforts. ... Oklahoma, for example, faces an estimated shortfall of more than $7 billion between cleanup costs and bonds, according to state data analyzed by ProPublica and Capital & Main. Still, a group of Republican legislators has tried and failed for several years to increase the state’s bonding levels. ... Meanwhile in West Virginia, which has a projected bonding shortfall of more than $15 billion and some of the nation’s weakest bonding laws, a bill to strengthen regulations never made it onto a committee agenda. This is the sixth straight year that ..."

The Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises et al v. Raimondo has overturned the long-standing Chevron precedent, altering the landscape of administrative law by ending the practice of courts deferring to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes. Partner Chip Cannon and senior counsel J. Porter Wiseman explain how this seismic shift impacts regulatory frameworks and raises questions about the future of energy projects and regulatory authority. Read our insights here: https://lnkd.in/eSn8AsYw #FERC #EnergyRegulatory #Energy

My latest post for Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

After failing in the last legislative session early this year, a major update of New Mexico’s Oil and Gas Act is again in the works, this time with a sharp push from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office. The Oil and Gas Act is the bedrock law outlining how production of the two fossil fuels is regulated in the state, and it hasn’t seen a major update in decades. If finalized, the new bill would be introduced in the legislative session that begins in January. Read more here: https://hubs.la/Q02cJFmJ0 #CCNow @CoveringClimate