oil and gas

10 posts

Demystifying President Trump’s “National Energy Emergency” and the Scope of Emergency Authority

It has been just a few weeks since President Donald J. Trump returned to the White House and, wow, what a whirlwind it has been. In the midst of the constitutional extreme event brought on by the administration, this blog post seeks to do one thing: review the emergency authorities […]

Offshore Drilling Rig, Santa Barbara, CA, 6 December, 2011. Wikimedia Commons User TheConduqtor, CC3.0

Enforcing Legacy Environmental Liabilities for Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure

The Sabin Center’s newest publication, Enforcing Legacy Environmental Liabilities on the Outer Continental Shelf, examines legal strategies to hold the former owners of offshore oil and gas infrastructure, like rigs, wells, and pipelines, liable for the costs of “decommissioning” their facilities—plugging wells, removing offshore installations, and generally making the site […]

Photo of Offshore Oil and Gas Facility

Decommissioning Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure in the Face of Climate Change and the Energy Transition

On August 31, 2023, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), as part of their broader Climate Law and Finance Initiative, published two reports analyzing legal and contractual regimes governing decommissioning of offshore oil and gas infrastructure projects and identifying decommissioning-related risks […]

Federal Oil and Gas Leasing in the Courts: Why Recent Losses Could Actually be Good News for the Biden Administration

By Romany Webb During his campaign for President, Joe Biden promised to “use the full authority of the executive branch to . . . significantly reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions,” including by “banning new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.” Consistent with that promise, one week after taking […]

The Legal Basis for Staying Methane Regulations: Sabin Center Files Comments Disputing EPA’s Authority to Issue 2 Year Stay

By Romany Webb It’s no secret the Trump Administration opposes federal regulation of methane emissions. In his Energy Independence Executive Order, President Trump directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider Obama-era regulations, aimed at reducing emissions from oil and gas production. Both BLM […]

Climate Change Litigation Charts Update – October 2016

Each month, Arnold & Porter and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law collect and summarize developments in climate-related litigation, which we also add to our U.S. and non-U.S. climate litigation charts.  If you know of any cases we have missed, please email us at columbiaclimate at gmail dot com. Here are the additions […]