Recent News
March 2023
Task Force provides input to Legislature regarding renewable energy
LSU Law Professor Keith Hall chaired the Emerging Energy Codification Task Force, a group established by a resolution of the Louisiana State Senate to provide recommendations to the Louisiana Legislature regarding possible legislation on emerging new energy industries. The Task Force held its most recent meeting on March 21, 2023, when it gave input to the Senate on potential legislation.
LSU’s 70th Annual Mineral Law Institute held in Baton Rouge
LSU held its 70th Annual Mineral Law Institute on March 23 and 24, 2023 in Baton Rouge. The program included presentations on recent developments in oil and gas law, acquisition of royalty damages, pipeline issues, implied obligations in oil and gas leases, potential conflicts between mineral development and carbon capture and storage projects, the accommodation doctrine, amendments to Louisiana’s risk-charge statute, recent developments in offshore oil and gas activity in the Gulf of Mexico, an update on legacy oilfield contamination litigation, property mineral rights in riparian lands, and recent developments relating to carbon capture and storage projects in Louisiana.
LSU’s Annual Mineral Law Institute is the oldest annual mineral law conference in the United States and the second oldest annual conference relating to energy law issues. Professor Keith Hall, Director of the Mineral Law Institute, reported that attendance was back to pre-COVID levels, with more than 170 individuals registering for one or both days of the Annual Institute.
Chief Judge John Michael Guidry of the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal speaks on the topic of Professionalism at the 70th Annual Mineral Law Institute.
Attendees listen to a lecture at the 70th Annual Mineral Law Institute.
LSU Law students attend environmental law conference
Three LSU Law Center students attended the Foundation for Natural Resources & Energy Law’s two-day “National Environmental Policy Act” conference on March 16-17, 2023, at the historic Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
February 2023
LSU Law professor and students attend conference in Houston
Professor Keith Hall and two LSU Law Center students attended the Institute for Energy Law’s 74th Annual Energy Law Conference. The Conference included presentations on carbon capture and storage, offshore wind agreements, LNG, energy security, oil and gas master service agreements, oil and gas lien statutes, trends in energy industry acquisitions and divestitures, greenwashing claims, hydrogen, nuclear power, carbon markets, and the role of private equity in the energy transition.
IEL’s event is the oldest annual energy law conference in the U.S. and one of the premier energy law events each year. It is a few years older than LSU’s own Annual Mineral Law Institute, which is the second oldest energy law conference in the country and the oldest energy conference to focus on oil and gas law; LSU’s Mineral Law Institute will host its 70th Annual Institute on March 23-24, 2023.
Foyin Owolabi, Professor Hall, and Portia Oduro at the IEL conference in Houston.
January 2023
LSU Journal of Energy Law and Resources hosts symposium
The LSU Journal of Energy Law and Resources held an online symposium entitled “Congressional Action in the Energy Transition” on January 27, 2023. The symposium’s speakers addressed recent developments relating to offshore oil and gas leasing, offshore wind development, carbon capture and storage, and environmental social governance (ESG) issues. Professor Keith Hall spoke on “The Intersection Between Property Rights and Carbon Capture and Storage.”
LSU Law school student attends oil and gas law transaction conference
An LSU Law school student attended the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law’s two day Oil & Gas Mergers and Acquisitions Conference in Houston, Texas on January 19-20, 2023, with travel support funds from the Laborde Energy Law Center.
December 2022
LSU Law professor speaks on carbon capture and storage at Louisiana State Bar Association CLE
Professor Keith Hall spoke on “Carbon Capture and Storage: An Introduction to CCS and the Law” on December 2, 2022 at the Annual CLE Program of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Public Utilities Section in Baton Rouge.
November 2022
Professor to chair task force on emerging energy industries
Professor Keith Hall was elected chair of the “Emerging Energy Codification Task Force” on November 9, 2022. The Task Force was created by Louisiana Senate Resolution No. 161 during the 2022 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature. The Senate Resolution asks the Task Force “to study and make recommendations regarding the codification of laws relative to emerging energy technologies and related issues.”
LSU Law professor speaks on carbon capture and storage at symposium in California
Professor Keith Hall spoke on “Carbon Capture and Storage: Models for Compensating Holdout Landowners” on November 4, 2022 at the 14th Annual Lesley K. McAllister Symposium on Climate and Energy Law at the University of San Diego School of Law.
October 2022
LSU professor serves as chair of Oil & Gas Short Course in Houston
Professor Keith Hall served as chair of the 39th Annual Oil & Gas Law Short Course, which was held October 17-21, 2022, in Houston, Texas. He also gave two lectures during the Short Course, speaking on “Ownership, the Rule of Capture, and Correlative Rights” on October 17 and on “Implied covenants in Oil & Gas Leases” on October 18. LSU Law School Professor Emeritus Patrick H. Martin also spoke at the Short Course on the topic of “Conservation Regulation” on October 19.
LSU Law students travel to see their professor speak at energy law conference in Kentucky
Professor Hall served on a panel addressing “Hot Topics in Carbon Capture and Storage” at the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation’s Annual Fall Conference in Lexington, Kentucky on October 12, 2022. Three LSU Law School students attended the two-day conference.
LSU Law students attending the energy law conference enjoy a meal at a restaurant in the old courthouse in Lexington, Kentucky.
From left to right: Tyler Compston (West Virginia University law student), Mark Heath (lawyer from West Virginia), LSU Law Professor Keith Hall, and LSU Law students Will Eunice, Seth Pohlmann, and Lea Daigle.
LSU professor teams with LSU alum at conference in Houston; LSU Law students attend
Professor Keith Hall co-presented with Frank Cascio, an LSU Law alum, on the subject of “Crude Oil Marketing” at the International Oil & Gas Law, Contracts, and Negotiations Conference in Houston on October 10, 2022. Two current LSU Law School students attended the conference, which ran through October 14.
LSU Law students attend energy law conference in New Orleans
Two LSU Law School students attended the Institute for Energy Law’s 6th Annual Young Energy Professionals Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, October 5 through October 6, 2022.
University of Texas Law School professor delivers Liskow & Lewis Visiting Professor lecture
Professor Owen Anderson of the University of Texas Law School delivered the Liskow & Lewis Visiting Professor Lecture on the subject “Carbon Capture and Storage: Can It Save The Planet?” The Robinson Courtroom at LSU Law School filled with industry professionals, energy law attorneys, and law students on the evening of October 4, 2022, and a question-and-answer round followed the lecture.
Professor Anderson engages with the audience members during his lecture.
Professor Anderson also delivered a guest lecture on drilling contracts in Professor Keith Hall’s International Petroleum Transactions class on October 5.
September 2022
LSU Law professor speaks on carbon capture and storage at symposium in Tennessee
Professor Keith Hall spoke on “Reconciling Property Rights with Carbon Capture and Storage” at the Contemporary Issues in Property Law Symposium at Belmont Law School in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday, September 20, 2022.
Energy Center hosts panel discussion on careers in state government
LSU’s John P. Laborde Energy Law Center hosted a panel discussion on Energy and Environmental Law Careers in State Government on September 22, 2022. The panelists spoke about their work and gave students tips on pursuing legal careers in state government. The panelists included:
- Blake Canfield, Executive Counsel of the La. Dept. of Natural Resources
- Courtney Burdette, Executive Counsel of the La. Dept. of Environmental Quality
- Melissa Frey, Administrative Law Judge, La. Public Service Commission
- Machelle Hall, Asst. Atty. General, Land & Natural Resources Section, La. Dept. of Justice,
- Warren B. Bates, Jr., Asst. Atty. General, Land & Natural Resources Section, La. Dept. of Justice.
Prof. Hall opens the event by introducing the panelists to the students, who enjoy some free pizza before the Q&A section starts.
LSU Law professors share their expertise at home and abroad
Professor Nick Bryner is scheduled to present at several workshops and conferences in the upcoming weeks. On September 24, he will present a work-in-progress at Vermont Law & Graduate School’s 13th Annual Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship. On September 28, he will present his research on the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act on the EPA’s regulatory authority at a workshop at NYU’s Institute for Policy Integrity. The next day, September 29, Prof. Bryner will move over to the Pace University Elisabeth Haub School of Law, where he joins a panel of speakers on the topic of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 West Virginia v. EPA decision.
October will see him in Oslow, Norway, where Prof. Bryner will participate in the Steering Committee meeting of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law as the focal point for the Global Judicial Institute on the Environment on the 2nd, followed by three days of panel engagements at the Oslo International Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oslo.
Professor Keith Hall spoke on “Reconciling Property Rights with Carbon Capture and Storage” at the Contemporary Issues in Property Law Symposium at Belmont Law School in Nashville, Tennessee on September 30. He also took part in LSU’s Recent Development CLE Series in Lake Charles and here in Baton Rouge, speaking on Mineral Rights.
Director appointed to energy law committees
Professor Keith Hall, director of the Energy Law Center and the Mineral Law Institute, was recently appointed to a three-year term on the Budget Committee of the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, and to a four-year term on FNREL’s Financial Advisory Committee.
