A North American energy trade war may be on the horizon, according to Texas A&M Associate Professor Guillermo Garcia Sanchez, an expert on international investment and energy law. Under President Lopez Obrador (AMLO) Mexico has begun to reverse its prior policy of opening its energy markets, and foreign investors are alleging unfair and discriminatory treatment. The Canadian and U.S. governments began consultation procedures with AMLO’s administration but, after seventy-five days, failed to settle the dispute. The exhaustion of the consultation period triggers the firs ..read more

After authorizing $370 billion in new funding for new, cleaner energy sources, Congress is turning to permitting reform: All the money in the world will not help if projects don’t have permission to build. Wednesday evening, Senator Manchin released proposed text for his permitting bill, which he apparently negotiated in return for his vote to authorize the energy funding. Unfortunately, the bill is not well-designed to speed up construction of new energy sources. But with a few strategic additions it could go a long way toward speeding up permitting to secure a cleaner, more reliable, and aff ..read more

In the aftermath of the new law funding clean energy sources, Tade Oyewunmi of the University of North Dakota sends in a timely new paper on some of the challenges facing companies looking to build offshore wind energy, and some of his suggestions for streamlining. Here is the abstract for his paper, which is titled “The Regulatory State and the Emerging Offshore Wind Energy Market,” and is forthcoming in in the Arizona Journal of Environmental Law and Policy: Offshore wind energy systems are generally regarded as variable baseload technologies and can therefore serve a crucial role in a net ..read more

On Sunday, August 7, the U.S. passed new legislation that provides $370 billion dollars for a wide variety of technologies in the energy and climate sector, including renewable energy, carbon capture, and electric vehicles. The House of Representatives is expected to pass this legislation tomorrow, Friday, August 12, so it may soon be enacted into law. The strange thing about this huge spending on new energy sources is that high energy prices already promise financial rewards to anyone who can build the new energy infrastructure America needs for more reliable, affordable, and secure energy su ..read more

The Supreme Court just decided “the most closely watched environmental case in decades,” West Virginia v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the 6-3, opinion, the Court holds that the EPA cannot use Clean Air Act §111(d) to set power-sector-wide greenhouse gas emissions standards for state power plants. The Court also explains that the Major Questions Doctrine is crucial to this analysis and reflects both “separation of powers principles and a practical understanding of legislative intent.” A Justice Gorsuch concurrence, joined by Justice Alito, lays out their view of history and applica ..read more

As energy prices have risen over the past 20 months, there has been growing clamor for solutions to make our energy system more affordable and more secure. Unfortunately, these discussions are often sidetracked by debates about 1) proposals to subsidize energy use to reduce its apparent costs and 2) debates about how quickly we should transition to cleaner energy sources. The latest proposal is President Biden’s plan to suspend federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel for three months. These taxes help pay for the infrastructure—highways and bridges—that drivers use. Unfortunately, waiving t ..read more

David Spence has posted a fascinating new study of how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) oppose new energy projects—not just pipelines and fossil fuel projects, but also new wind and solar power and power-lines to support renewable power. He builds a database of NGO action on energy projects and shows how social media and polarization are driving increased opposition to new energy projects. Here’s the abstract: The modern regulatory state is a creature of 20th century politics, and the New Deal consensus that dominated thinking about the relationship between government regulation and the m ..read more

Our next EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast features David Spence interviewing the University of Minnesota’s Alexandra Klass about her research on “Network Infrastructure: Permitting & Eminent Domain.” They discuss permits for interstate power-lines, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and oil pipelines, focusing on two recent articles from Professor Klass: “Future Proofing Energy Transport Law” and  “Reconstituting the Federalism Battle in Energy Transportation.” Near the end of the podcast, they discuss energy & eminent domain, the subject of my forthcoming Minnesota Law Review article ..read more

The Regulatory Transparency Project has just posted a new video in which I debate George Landrith, President of the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, about the need to reform The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, colloquially known as the Jones Act. The video is below. The Jones Act bans shipments between U.S. ports unless they’re made on a U.S.-built, U.S.-manned, U.S.-flagged, and U.S.-owned vessel. This protects American shipyards and American sailors from foreign competition, but it raises prices for U.S. producers and consumers. The Jones Act is particularly bad for the United States’ red-hot li ..read more

The oil boom happening now in Texas is the biggest commodity boom the world has ever seen. We all know the stories of history’s oil and gold rushes—the heroes and villains, fortunes made and lost. But this boom dwarfs every previous commodity boom. I’ve just posted my new Indiana Law Journal article, which shows how this new boom is transforming oil and gas law; it’s titled The Third Age of Oil and Gas Law. But it starts by explaining how oil and gas has always been the crucible and catalyst for the most important legal trends of the modern world: the transition from common law to regulatory s ..read more