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- DOJ's Decision Not to Appeal the Fifth Circuit's Decision in Trafigura Trading Creates Oil Export Tax Refund Opportunities and Uncertainty On Monday, October 24, the United States Department of Justice (the "DOJ") confirmed that it did not appeal the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit's decision in Trafigura Trading LLC v. United States, No. 21-20127, 29 F.4th 286 (5th Cir. 2022). The Fifth Circuit invalidated the federal tax on domestic crude oil exported from... Continue Reading...
- Court Finds that Addressing Cumulative Impacts of Air Toxics Required for Air Permitting in Louisiana The 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana issued a decision on September 14, 2022, vacating a proposed industrial facility's permit issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality ("LDEQ") and finding that LDEQ violated the federal Clean Air Act and its duty under the Public Trust Doctrine.[1] Although the decision concerns permitting for... Continue Reading...
- Louisiana to Receive Federal Funding to Help Address Thousands of Orphaned Oilfield Sites throughout the State The U.S. Interior Department recently announced that it is awarding Louisiana with about $47 million to be used to plug and abandon the orphaned well sites throughout the state. This is part of phase one of many under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed by President Biden in November. Louisiana first turned... Continue Reading...
- Taylor Energy Company Agrees to Pay Over $43 Million and Transfer $432 Million Decommissioning Trust Fund to the United States for Longest Running Oil Spill in U.S. History On December 22, 2021, Taylor Energy Company LLC ("Taylor Energy"), a Louisiana based oil and gas company, and the United States Department of Justice reached a settlement concerning Taylor Energy's role in the longest running oil spill in United States history. The oil spill began in September 2004 when Hurricane Ivan crossed the northeastern Gulf... Continue Reading...
- CCUS and Property Rights: Considerations Facing Potential Storage Operators in Louisiana The current administration's focus on climate change has prompted a renewed interest in carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS). In July of this year, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) issued a report to Congress stating the Biden administration "is committed to accelerating the responsible development and deployment of CCUS to make it... Continue Reading...
- Chemical Manufactures Agree to $50M Settlement for PFAS Remediation As part of an ongoing investigation led by the Delaware Attorney General's Office into the potential environmental impacts of legacy industrial activities in the state, Delaware has reached a $50 million settlement agreement with DuPont Co., Corteva, and the Chemours Co. for alleged damages resulting from these companies' use of chemicals called PFAS. Dubbed the... Continue Reading...
- The Fifth Crime: Ecocide A panel of 12 lawyers from around the world recently proposed a legal definition for a new crime: ecocide. For years, the panel, along with various international groups, has sought to amend the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to include ecocide as one of the crimes within the court's jurisdiction. Currently, the ICC... Continue Reading...
- Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Could Carbon Capture Save the Climate Bust? Originally published in the Ark-La-Tex Association of Professional Landmen Register Carbon capture and storage ("CCS") is the process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from large point sources, and then transporting it to a storage location for deposit in underground formations where it will not re-enter the atmosphere. By returning CO2 emissions that resulted from the... Continue Reading...
- Environmental Self-Audit Legislation Passes the House and Senate The Louisiana Legislature has directed the Department of Environmental Quality ("LDEQ") to promulgate regulations allowing for "voluntary environmental self-audits." [1] The self-audit regulations are to include provisions protecting confidential information and providing incentives to facilities for conducting a self-audit. Environmental self-audit programs are designed to allow a facility to identify compliance issues and address them... Continue Reading...
- Hold On To Your Boilers: The Tenth Circuit May Have Re-Defined Covered Processes Under PSM Regulation The case is Scalia [Secretary of Labor] v. Wynnewood Refining Co., LLC, et al, No. 19-9533 (U.S. Tenth Circuit, October 27, 2020). Wynnewood LLC's refinery in Oklahoma processes crude oil and on a daily basis produces 70,000 barrels of gasoline, propane, propylene, butane, fuel oils, and solvents. In 2012, one of Wynnewood Refining Co's boilers—the... Continue Reading...
