Co-author Michael Kelsheimer
Are your landmen independent contractors? Are they employees? What do they look like to the government?
Why should you care about these questions? Because your government cares. When independent contractors do not report all of their income, or take questionable deductions to reduce their earnings, Uncle Sam is deprived of income, FICA,
Co-author Jason Emmitte
The Texas Railroad Commission has clarified and strengthened Rule 13, relating to requirements for drilling, putting pipe down, and cementing wells. The amendment will go into effect on January 1, 2014.
Generally, the revisions govern the casing and cementing of all wells, unlike previous versions. Highlights are:
The Texas Railroad Commission is going through the Sunset review required every 10 years for all state agencies. If approved, the pending legislation (House Bill 2166) would:
A New Name
• Change the name of the agency to the Texas Energy Resources Commission.
Campaign Finance Reform
• Limit the ability of commissioners and
According to a Sunday blog post by Conn Carroll in the Washington Examiner, the EPA is hurrying efforts to implement regulations that would ban coal-fired power plants before the end of the year, in fear that a loss by President Obama in Tuesday’s election would put an end to what would otherwise be on
If a bird flies into your open-top oil storage tank – or your unprotected reserve pit – and dies, could you be guilty of the crime of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act? The short answer is “ Maybe”.
In United States v. CITGO Petroleum Corp., ten dead birds were discovered in storage tanks
Ron Curry is the EPA’s new administrator for Region 6, which is responsible for enforcement of federal environmental laws in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Mr. Curry replaces Al “Crucify ’em” Armendariz, who was sacked earlier this year after comments, caught on video, in which he likened his tactics to the Romans of
The oil patch breathed a collective sigh of relief on June 13 when the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would withdraw its proposal to list the dunes sagebrush lizard (which inhabits parts of eastern New Mexico and Texas’s Permian Basin) as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (the
The predator returns.
I don’t usually forward content created by others, and I try to avoid overtly political entries, but this one is from the June 14 Daily Policy Digest of the National Center for Policy Analysis. It is worth reading if you pay attention to energy and environmental policy:
“For the last three years,
My last post featured editorial kudos for the EPA’s evenhanded approach to regulation of one aspect of drilling: handling of methane and volatile organic compounds during fracking. Perhaps the accolades were premature. I speak of the recently exposed and widely distributed video of the then-new and recently-resigned EPA Region 6 director Al Armendariz invoking an
In my never-ending effort to improve my position in life by associating with people who are smarter and more knowledgable than I am (my wife being a notable example), this entry is by noted environmental lawyer Cynthia Bishop (cbishop@cbishoplaw.com) on a topic that is important to anyone in the energy business.
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