Energy & Water

​34 companies applied for the July 15th auction to drill in Mexico’s Gulf of Mexico territory. Successful companies include:

• Exxon
• Chevron
• Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp

Output estimates are:

• $62.5 billion in private investments by 2018,
• Increase Mexico’s annual oil output by 500,000 barrels/day

Bloomberg    Houston Business Journal

Citing the vote in Denton, Texas as spooking Oklahima legislators, the Oklahoma Legislature passed a bill to curb local ordinances on drilling. It awaits the Governor’s signature.

In an interview with the city attorney for Stillwater, it is revealed that local ordinances date back to the 70s in Oklahoma and do not address fracking.

NPR | State Impact Oklahoma

Breaking Energy is covering the newly unvieled Tesla battery. The highlights, which will impact electric providers, transmission lines, and generators:

• “At the utility level, Tesla’s Powerpack battery could open up avenues for utilities to grow wind and solar energy in their power generation matrices. The Powerpack system comprises 100-kWh battery blocks grouped to scale from 500 kWh to 10 MWh – capable of two-hour or four-hour net discharge power using grid-tied bidirectional inverters.”
• “For homes, the smaller Powerwall battery will have significant impacts on consumers and utilities by operating from behind the meter. Tesla’s Powerwall offerings include a 7-kWh model ($3,000) and a 10-kWh model ($3,500), both of which would make electricity from residential rooftop solar panels available at any time and eliminate the need to sell excess solar energy back into the grid.”

Texas had been challenging some of the EPA water regulations because the proposals included mapping small water ways on private land. And, what do Texans love more their land or the federal government? Tough one.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said this week that these changes were made after revieing public omment:

• EPA maintained and expanded exclusions for farming, ranching and forestry.
•  Leaves out ditches unless they function as tributaries, flowing downstream into other bodies of water.
• No new permitting requirements for agriculture interests.

The House has passed a bill repealing the EPA new water rules. The Senate has yet to act. The Hill 

At an energy conference this month hosted by University of Texas at San Antonio Institute for Economic Development and the U.S. Department of Commerce and similar forums this month and this summer, the following trends have emerged as opportunities for US firms:

• Opportunities for unconventional or shale oil-and-gas production in Mexico
• Develop infrastructure for Mexico’s large reserves and deposits in the North & Northeast portion of the country
• Electricity Generation
• Electricity Distribution
• Telecommunications

Energy.Inchttp://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/eagle-ford-shale-insight/2015/05/utsa-economist-us-firms-can-help-shape-mexico-s.html

In 2013, Property Assessed Clean Energy Program passed the Legislature. It allows local governments to offer eocnomic incentives for clean energy.

The Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council board voted to administer PACE to allow property owners financing flexibility for  renewable energy systems.

A $100 million transmission line for the Valley is in the works. Good timing as energy deregulation of energy open the Mexican market. 

McAllen Monitor

“We will certainly continue to enforce our current regulations to protect the health and safety of our residents, but we do not know how the operators or courts will react,” she said.

City officials will not litigate the new measure as it stands. UPI

Mayor of Denton in the Denton Record:

• HB 40 goes far beyond Denton’s fracturing ban and offers no solution to the multifaceted challenges of urban drilling. 
• It took a city like Denton and its residents to shine the spotlight on the inherent and unique problems associated with urban drilling 

The Texas Water Devleopment Baord has been busy this May.

First, it finalized SWIFT application approval:

• Approved the first-ever project prioritization list for the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT).
• Determined there is the financial capacity to invite all 39 eligible applications. The projects are requesting $1.07 billion in financial assistance the first year and will total more than $4 billion in financial assistance over the next decade. SWIFT Press Release

Second, it awarded  $2,025,000 from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund to the City of Honey Grove. TWDB Press Release

• Approved the first-ever project prioritization list for the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT).
• Determined there is the financial capacity to invite all 39 eligible applications. The projects are requesting $1.07 billion in financial assistance the first year and will total more than $4 billion in financial assistance over the next decade.

SWIFT Announcement from TWDB

This week Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced $50 million in funding in 12 states for conservation and reuse projects. 

The states:  Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.

The eligible projects: studies and projects to stretch water supplies by creating pipelines, eliminating leaky open canals and upgrading existing reclamation and water treatment plants.

Bryan Eagle

Fitch has given a AAA rating to $96 million in general obligation bonds from the Texas Water Development Board. 

Businesswire

WellsFargo is seeking to give $100 Million by 2020 for water technology and drought have been an emerging focus amid its mix of conservation and clean tech grants.  InsidePhilanthropy

HB3298, which is in the Senate, wants the state to consider looking into a statewide water grid. The author, Lyle larson says the goals are:

• Study ways to transfer water throughout the state
• Store water underground to avoid evaporation.
• TWDB should study how to use the network to set up a water-trading system similar to that used in Australia.

El Paso Times

On Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor  said Texas is no longer in the exceptoinal drought cateogry. This is the first time since mid- 2012.

Permian Shale News

House Republicans voted this week to block EPA rules clarifying which “streams, tributaries and wetlands should be protected from pollution and development under the Clean Water Act.”

Opposition includes:

• Agriculture, which opposes defining small creeks and waterways 

US News & World Report

• Refuse to file a State Implementation Plan
• Limit a State Implementation Plan eto entities defined by Section 111(d)
• A resolution to tell the Feds Texas disagrees. 
• Do nothing.

TPPF

Hospitals use a lot of water. U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that hospitals use rouhgly 145,000 gallons per year per bed. 

A hospital system in California notes that there is an energy-water nexus. If the hospital switches to solar or another renewable power source, it can offset the need hospitals have for clean water.

Modern Health Care

Conoco Phillips says that water-management improvements led to cost of supply reductions by about $8 a barrel in some areas. How are they doing it?

• using brackish water or effluent instead of fresh water,
• using pipelines and various treatment systems to more efficiently move & clean water
• reusing the vast quantities of water that flow through their operations.​

Wall Street Journal: Frackers Look for Ways to Reduce Their Water Use

• Studies show brackish water has been found in 26 of the 30 aquifers in Texas
• Estimated total is 2.7 billion acre feet
  • which would cover Texas in 15 feet of water

Fort Stockton Pioneer

• 2 dozen accidents related to oil train shipments since 2013
• Rate of growth has increased from 29,605 cars in 2010 to 493,126 in 2014.
• Growth is becoming flat in 2015
• Last Friday the Federal Transportation Comission issued new rules about the transportation of oil by train
• The new rules will require:
  • Stronger tank cars
  • New braking systems
  • Speed restrictions and
  • Improved classification of the flammability of liquids carried aboard the trains.

Governing 

The Court of Apepals in this casew found waer restrictions imposed on orchards to be a taking of property.  A taking of property comes hand in hand with adequate constitution.

The case goes back to the trial court to make a determination on proper compensation to the land owners. Edwards Aquifer Authority  v. Bragg 

The salty conversations and puns are set to begin in Senate Agriculture, Water & Rual Affairs. A bill to fast track desalination as a water source in Texas is moving forward. 

Australia and Isreal have been on the desalination train for decades.  Australia having experienced a millenial drought entered desalination market in 2006 (Bloomberg). Israel produces 20% of its water needs through the world’s largest desalination facility (MIT Technology Review).

HB 2031 Austin Business Journal  Rep. Lucio III Pres Release

In an effort to stop the building of a water pipeline from East Texas to DFW, a wealthy ranch owner, whose property the water pipeline would cross, is funding water board candidates and has taken to the courts on issues.   

This foreshadows the future as Texas moves water resources to population centers.

Ft Worth Star Telegram

This week Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said the US will be in the big leagues as an LNG exporter. The US will reach the same scale as exports as Qatar, the world’s largest LNG exporter. 

US News and World Report

The U.S. Energy Information Agency, based on a new report, named the Eagleville field in the Eagle Ford Shale, the number one oil field in the nation. In 2013 it churned out 238 million barrels  — enough to meet national oil demands for nearly 13 days. Fuel Fix

Irrational logic. Practical consequences as the City of Austin raises water rates while water usage decreases. Water rates increased 13% this year.

Daily Texan

Influence of Texas in Mexico:

• Texas Shale will supply the natural gas for the electric generation that powers Mexico’s industry. 
• The US exports 29% of its oil and gas exports to Mexico
• A March economic report shows that free trade on oil from the US will lead to:
  • 124,000 new jobs
  • Boost GDP by $26 Billion from 2016 to 2030

Institutional Investor

UT Energy Poll Results:

• 58% say yes cities should be able to ban fracking like Denton did
• 25% say no

“Texas Oil and Gas Association released a poll touting a finding that 75 percent of Texans agree that the state should be in charge of regulating the oil and gas industry”

Grow almonds in California. That’s more than all the indoor residential water use in California. 

San Jose Mercury News  Governing 

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has narrowed the defintion of public purpose in its ruling in Reading Area Water Authority v. Schuylkill River Greenway Association, 100 A.3d 572 (Pa. 2014).

After the 2005 Kelo ruling, PA enacted private property reforms, like many other states. Since those 2006 laws, the courts have been busy interpretting the laws. Because laws are never perfect.

So what happened in Reading to deny eminent domain?

• A local government exercised eminent domain to obtain an easement
• The easement would allow a private developer to install sewer and waste water.
• The developer & the local govermment intended to partner  to build a public walking/recreational trail
• The green space was to be on land adjacent to a 58-acre tract of land where the private developer proposed to construct a 219-unit residential development
• The residential development needed sewer and wasewater, because condos without toilets and running water don’t sell

Legal Intelligencer

Governor Jeyy Brown proposed raising the $500 fine for water wasters to up to $10,000. The proposal will also:

• Empower local governments to collect fines
• Republicans seek to include:
  • Expedited reservoir building
  • Expedited approval of recycled water facilities 
  • Streamline water storage projects

LA Times   Sacramento Bee

Private property rights activists and anti-pipeline activists joined forces in Georgia to protest a Kinder Morgan pipeline. There’s video.  Savannah Now

Where does everyone stand in this fund raising?

• “Our Water, Our Future, supports incumbents Marty Leonard and Jim Lane and has raised the largest pot of most money so far. The PAC, with former Mayor Mike Moncrief as treasurer reported contributions of $447,633.”

  • Betsy Price Campaign, $4,500;

  • attorney Dee J. Kelly, $10,000;

  • businessman John B. Kleinheinz, $25,000;

  • Dallas auto dealership owner Carl Sewell, $25,000;

  • Dallas-based liquor distributor Barry Andrews, $10,000;

  • Texas Rangers co-owner and Dallas oil billionaire Ray Davis,

  • $10,000; Dallas oil billionaire Ray Hunt, $25,000;

  • Hunt heiress Lyda Hill, $5,000;

  • Dallas software entrepreneur Milledge Hart III, $5,000;

  • Dallas oil billionare Trevor Rees-Jones, $10,000.

  • Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton of Millsap also contributed $25,000.

  • The Fort Worth Bass family’s Good Government Fund and PSEL PAC each contributed $25,000 to Our Water, Our Future.

• Save North Texas Water political action committee, which was formed to unseat Lane and Leonard, supports the candidacies of Craig Bickley and Michele Von Luckner. Wealthy Dallas businessman Monty Bennett has been a major contributor to the PAC and candidates through MJB Operating L.P.

Tarrant Regional Water Development Board has raised the ire of private property rights activists and supporters of transperancy in government records, which has led to this incredible fundraising for a water board.

For a longer list of donors to each PAC: Ft. Worth Business Press

The Waltons. Not the TV Waltons, but the Wal-Mart Waltons. Also in the mix is the Pisces Foundation founded by Bob Fisher founded by a Gap clothing heir. 

Inside Philanthropy

Hola. Bienvenidos a Burgos Basin… Burgos Basin is:

• Home to a binational Burgos Basin energy consortium that is being blessed by U.S. and Mexican officials.
• PEMEX is investing $985 million in the Burgos Basin for  infrastructure and well development.
• Has rising oil output and may be one the largest shales in the world.

Rio Grande Guardian Bloomberg on Pemex Investment  Black & Veatch

The exact conclusion of the scientists: “high volumes of wastewater injection combined with saltwater (brine) extraction from natural gas wells is the most likely cause of earthquakes occurring near Azle, Texas, from late 2013 through spring 2014.” Scientists like details.

Multiple scientists from multiple organizations participated in this publication, including scientists from:

• SMU’s Department of Earth Sciences in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences
• the U.S. Geological Survey
• the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics and
• the University of Texas Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. 

That’s a lot of very big brains that made very big news.

The Report’s Release     Ft. Worth Star Telegram     Dallas Morning News     Houston Chronicle  Wall Street Journal

Job growth in wind and solar energy has offset losses in the downturn in coal. A Dallas, TX company, Tri-Global Energy, a provider of wind energy in Texas, is front and center as it expands its wind and solar job growth.

Texas rules wind energy. California rules solar energy. The coal slump is felt most intensely in Appalachia. 

Fearing the end of tax breaks, renewable energy is expanding rapidly. 18.5 gigawatts of renewable energy is anticipated by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.  

McClatchy Washington Bureau 

A California Appeals Court this week declared a tiered water fee structure unconstitutional. San Juan Captistrano charged people who used less water a lower rate than people who used more water. 

The California Constitution prohibits government agencies from charging more for a service than it costs to provide it.

The ruling may impact 2/3 of California’s water providers and will impact Governor Brown’s water use restriction declaration. Governor Brown called the ruling “a straight jacket.”

LA Times  Sacramento Bee

Eau de what? Yes, there is a niche market to improve the smell around fracking sites. A Texas company is trademarking its orange scented fracking. Wall Street Journal 

In an April 15th oil update to the Rio Grande Guardian, Economist Ray Perryman concludes with:

• “prices will begin to trend upward later this year”
• “declining shale production also has a somewhat corrective price effect”
• “prices are below the sustainable long-term equilibrium level, and such situations rarely persist for extended periods of time”

Recent years of peak oil and gas exploration in the U.S. and Canada + the de-regulation of Mexico’s energy market = North America Energy Renaissance.   In sum, this creates greater energy security for all of North America. 

San Antonio Business Journal

Houston Business Journal 

A California Appellate Court is soon to rule on whether tiered water rate structures are constitutional.

A case from San Juan Capistrano residents is calling into question the drought measures put in place by Governor Brown by challenging tiered water rates. The residents rely on a California state law that prohibits water agencies from charging more for water than the cost of producing and delivering it. Couple that argument with a 1996 law that prohibits price gouging by local governments, and water rate structures are being challenged. 

This case may impact as many as 2/3 of the water rates in California into chaos. 

LA Times

Last week Congressman Lamar Smith held “Reining in the EPA: A Regulation Roundtable” one of the invitees was Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

When conversation moved to a “secret” EPA map of U.S. waterways, Commissioner Miller indicated that the EPA released personal information about  farms and ranches. The information was released to “environmental extremist groups.”  It is reported that Homeland Security department called the release of the farm and ranch water maps is “a bioterrorist threat.” 

Hill Country Community Journal

SB 931 by Senator Fraser passed the Senate this week and will wind down wind incentives. Fraser says the wind industry is established and doesn’t require the incentives.

Texas wind energy production looks like this:

• Texas produces 14,000 megawatts of  wind energy
• The US as a whole produces 65,000 megawatts of wind power
• Texas has 7,500 megawatts of wind power under construction
• Wind energy construction contributes  $3.64 billion to the Texas economy
• Wind generation contributes $500,000 million annually

Dallas Morning News Opinion 

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute is hosting public meetings as it studies the challenges that have arisen in Texas due to the oil and gas boom. Workshops will occur in Midland, Arlington and San Antonio. 

For Details or to Attend, Check out TTI.

Senator Birdwell’s SB 523 passed the Senate on Thursday. His goals are two fold:

• Sunset review will lead to the maximum benefit being derived from our precious natural resource,water; and
• The need for consistent and uniform system of managing state water, greater transparency, and increased accountability.

Empower Texas has 2 complaints about SB 523:

• Pushing back the date of Sunset Review to 2023 for Sulpher River Basin Authority, which is responsible for the Marvin Nichols Reservoir
• Brazos River Authority original 2017 Sunset Date is pushed to 2023. 

It’s a tie. 40% of Americans support fracking and 40% oppose fracking. Younger Americans tend to oppose fracking in higher numbers.

EagleFordTexas.com

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed a Texas Pipeline Company to relocate a proposed Ohio pipeline to less populated areas. 

The impacted ocal governments referred to the initial route as “hastily drawn and ill-conceived with no respect to the human and environmental concerns,” Harsh words. 

AP via Marecellus.Com 

Earlier this year, California Governor Jerry Brown implemented new water use restrictions in response to the continuing drought conditions. The restrictions will impact inventories at manufacturers and retailers. 

The agency repsonsible for implmenting rules, the California Energy Commission, suggests there will be no penalties for commercial property owners that sell property with non compliant toilets and sinks. 

Sacramento Business Journal

A scientist for the Earthquake Science Center in Menlo Park, CA stated that if he live din Oklahoma, he would be very worried about the earthquakes which are caused by humans. During the last five years of quakes, the number of quakes continue to increase in Oklahoma. 

This New York Times article quotes a Republican Oklahoma State Representative as saying of a  dangerous quake, it  will be “a cloud will hang over the energy sector for a long time to come.”

According to the EPA, Texas oil and gas producers used 45 Billion gallons of water from 2011 to 2013. Leading the nation in the amount of water used and the amount of oil and gas produced.

Natural Gas Intel

Update to Farm Bureau Wins:

The state’s regulatory authority to manage water during times of drought was severly curtailed by the Corpus Christi Appeals Court last week. The Court of Appeals ruled that TCEQ overstepped its regulatory authority by carving out exceptions to its drought plan on the Lower Brazos River. 

Water attorneys look to this ruling as a basis to move toward a market based regulation of water in Texas. KETR

Previously on Information Intelligence:

This week the Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi held that TCEQ overstepped its authority by picking and choosing wins and losers when it honored a superior surface water right holder’s priority call on the water.

When TCEQ honored the priority call it did so and said, but this doesn’t apply to municipal water supplies nor to electric companies. The Farm Bureau sued because Water Code doesn’t allow a sub prioritization like this among junior watger rights holders.  

TCEQ v. Farm Bureau   Agrilife Agricultural Law Blog

The Wyoming legislature passed a bill to cloud seed 4 mountain ranges at a cost of $1.4 Million. The cloud seeding will increase the snow pack in the mountain ranges, which serves as a major source of water for Wyoming. 

Cloud seeding was studied for 10 years to ensure it could benefit Wyoming’s water supply.

AP

This week the Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi held that TCEQ overstepped its authority by picking and choosing wins and losers when it honored a superior surface water right holder’s priority call on the water.

When TCEQ honored the priority call it did so and said, but this doesn’t apply to municipal water supplies nor to electric companies. The Farm Bureau sued because Water Code doesn’t allow a sub prioritization like this among junior watger rights holders.  

TCEQ v. Farm Bureau   Agrilife Agricultural Law Blog

Mexico’s de-regulated market is moving rapidly. PEMEX is using US investment companies,  BlackRock and First Reserve, to begin construction on the second pipeline. 

Why the push to import more natural gas into Mexico? Mexico doesn’t produce enough to meet its needs. Mexico’s goal is to produce enough natural gas within 5-10 years.

San Antonio Business Journal

The 14th Court of Appeals sided with the Appraisal District to restore the value of a Valero refinery.

A jury had shaved off $190 Million from Valero’s appraised value, siding with Valero’s comparable value comparisions. 

The 14th Court of Appeals opinion states, “…the evidence is legally insufficient to support the jury’s equal and uniform valuation of Valero’s refinery,”

It’s a short term win for the appraisal district because the 14th Court of Appeals ordered a new trial. The issue of commerical appraisals will rage on at the Lege.  Southeast Record

Today General Paxton announced Attorney General Opinion KP-011 settling “Whether a public school district may expend funds for the management of county school lands to determine if a lessee of a mineral estate is fulfilling its duty to explore and develop the mineral estate?”

The answer: 

• No, a school district cannot pay for this. A County has to pay to fulfill its obligation as trustee over the school lands.
• Also, the county can’t get clever, sell the trustee lands, with potential miineral rights, to the school disrrict for $1. Trustees over school lands have fiduciary duties, a $1 sale doesn’t meet those duties. 

Because California needs larger regulatory code books, California Governor Jerry Brown has required mandatory water restrictions.  

California has experienced drought, but this year’s lack of snow pack in the Sierra’s has greatly diminished California’s hope for recovering from the drought.   For the first time since 1942 a Governor attented the measuring of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Snow Pack. 

The Water Restrictions via L.A. Times:

•  Reduce water usage by 25%

• Require golf courses, cemeteries and other large landscaped spaces to reduce water consumption. 

• Replace 50 million square feet of lawn statewide with drought-tolerant landscaping as part of a partnership with local governments.

• Create a statewide rebate program to replace old appliances with more water- and energy-efficient ones.

• Require new homes to have water-efficient drip irrigation if developers want to use potable water for landscaping.

• -Ban the watering of ornamental grass on public street medians.

• Call on water agencies to implement new pricing models that discourage excessive water use.

• Require agricultural to report more water usage information to the state so that regulators can better find waste and improper activities.

• Create a mechanism to enforce requirements that water districts report usage numbers to the state.

WallStreet Journal Courthouse News Service

The New York state fracking ban has caused joblessness in rural western New York. Across the stateline in Pennsylvania, which permits fracking, jobs are plentiful. 

The townships of Windsor and Conklin are considering seccession as populations dwindle. 

LA Times Governing 

The big issues flagged by TPPF:

• “The Clean Power Plan is unconstitutionally coercive of the states”
• “The Plan targets Texas in an unprecedented way”
• “EPA has failed to demonstrate that the plan would have any health or environmental benefits”
• “Complying with EPA’s dictates will prove economically ruinous”

National Affairs  TPPF Statement

Refreshing our recollection: A federal Court of Appeals will hear a case about these rules in April. The EPA is scheduled to adopt the rules in the Summer of 2015.

SB 1165, Senator Fraser’s companion to Chairman Darby’s HB 40 ,has passed out of Senate Committee and is headed toward floor debate.

The bills are in repsonse to the legal drama playing over the City of Denton’s ban on fracking in November. The supporters are comprised mostly of industry representatives. The opposition is  largely grassroots and cities.  

The concern of the opposition focuses on the phrase of “commercial reasonableness.” Both bills use this standard as what will contstitute a permissible municipal ordinances if these bills should be enacted.

Ft. Worth Star Telegram  Dallas Morning News Austin Business Journal

The new federal rules apply only to fracking on federal lands. The new rules do NOT apply to fracking on private land.

Goals of new rules: protect drinking water & enhance transparency

What do the new rules require?

• Drilling wells must be encased in cement through vulnerable areas 
• Pressure tests, called mechanical integrity tests, will be required 
• Geological analysis of a well site will be required before fracking takes place
• The temporary use of open waste pits will be prohibited except in rare circumstances.

Scientific American

EPA Litigation Round Up:

• 2012 EPA rules curbing emmissions will be before the US Supreme Court this Wednesday. 
  • At issue:
    • whether the EPA acted properly by considering only public-health risks
    • and not considering industry compliance costs
    • when the agency decided whether to require coal and oil-fired plants to cut most emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants.
• April brings US Court of Appeals hearing on the new coal power rules, which have yet to be finalized

WallStreet Journal

Late last week the Obama Administration released rules on fracking. Shortly thereafter, the Independent Petroleum Association of America sued to stop the implementation of the rules.

Houston Business Journal

Solar Energy Industries Association ranks Texas solar capacity 10th.

• Texas capacity is 330 megawatts, up from 129 megawatts in 2014.
• In 2015, Texas is expected to add 260 megawatts of solar capacity. 
• In 2014 solar was less than .3% of power generation in ERCOT

Texas leads the nation in wind capacity. 

• In 2014, wind was 10.6% of power generation in ERCOT

FuelFix

Kathleen Baireuther is the new leader of the Austin Technology Incubator’s energy division. 

Austin Business Journal

Utah is making its move to take over a water utility that serves the polygamous sect led by Warren Jeffs. How is Utah taking over the utlity?

• The people managing the utility are accused of embezzling $1.7million to fund personal expenses and Jeff’s following.
• Utah is asking a court to dissolve the utility and appoint new managers 
• The utility denies that $1.7 million was improperly allocated

Bryan Eagle

Refreshing recollection: Water utlities in California and Montana are being seized by eminent domain through local governments in hopes of lowering utility costs for residents.

Rep. Murr filed HB 2892 will give “property owners a seat at the table along with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the General Land Office and other state agencies when it comes to determining if a watercourse is considered “navigable.”‘

 Navigable waterway belongs to Texas. Non-navigable waterway is private property.

Rep. Murr quotes:

• “Growing up and living on a ranch, I know first-hand how important this issue is to a lot of ranchers, farmers and landowners,”
• “…a state agency can determine navigability without any input from the people who know the land the best — the landowners themselves.”
• “This bill will give notice to any potentially affected property owners and provide them a hearing in which they can participate before any finding is made that a portion of their property constitutes a ‘navigable stream.'”
• “Every landowner should receive notice when the state is considering making a designation that could affect his or her property, and have an opportunity to raise issue with that finding,” Murr noted.

Rep. Murr Press Release

Founded in 2012, the Eagle Ford Shale Legislative Caucus is led by Senator Zaffirini andf ormer Caldwell County commissioner, current State Representative John Cryier,  R-Lockhart.

Cryier represents Karnes County, the largest oil-producing county in the state.

Houston Business Journal

Senator Uresti’s SB 1788 would allow counties, producing oil and gas revenue, would be allowed to keep the royalty payments generated from the minerals under county property and dedicate that money to road funding.

This bill would override a 1960 Attorney General Opinion,  WW-870, by Attorney General Will Wilson.

Texas Lawyer

“You cannot have rational economic development at the state level if every home-rule city can adopt an ordinance through referendum or initiative that trumps the state law,” said Steven Minick of the business association.

Dallas Morning News

Governor Jerry Broan is proposing another $1 Billion for drought relief. IN 2014 California drought relief included:

• $687.4 to fund communities experiencing acute water shortages and food and housing assistance 
• $7.5 Billion bond package for water approved by the voters

LA Times Sacramento Bee

Falconhead golf course, located in suburban sprawl outside of Austin, allegedly owes its water district $778,000. Legal action ensued, as did a threat of siezing the golf course’s property, in the form of its irrigation system.

 Here’s what happened:

• The golf course and the Travis County Public Utility Agency (TCPUA) disagree as to how the golf course should use its irrigation system.
• TCPUA says the golf course owes it $778K
• TCPUA filed legal action asking for any proceeds from the sale of the golf course stay in Texas
  • A judge denied this request by TCPUA
• TCPUA wants to sieze the irrigation system and force the golf course to use its irrigation system under the terms it says apply to the course

Statesman

Georgetown has committed to using 100% solar and wind power.  The renewable energy plan includes:

• signing a deal with solar developer SunEdison for 150 megawatts of solar power beginning in 2016
• a signed wind energy deal with wind developer EDF

The cost for residents of Georgetown?

• 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity is $114/ month.
• $5 less than the average Texas customer pays

Dallas Morning News

In Arizona a solar panel company is suing a rate setting energy district for raising the energy rates for property with newly installed solar panels.    

Solar Panel Company claims:

• Antri trust claims that the rate setting energy district is eliminating potential competition

The Rate Setting Energy District claims:

• solar customers were paying  less for electricity on an annual basis
• But, solar wasn’t reducing peak demands  
• Non-solar customers were subsidizing the distributed solar customers.
• Therefore, rates were adjusted for solar customers

SolarCity Corporation v. Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, CV15-0374-PHX-DLR.

National Law Review

California Assembly Bill 1448 defines clothing lines as a form of solar energy.  Sacramento Bee

Senator Lucio has filed SB 1389 to assist the Texas oil and gas industry as it manuevers across the border.

New oil and gas business is anticpated to surge after Mexico’s push toward de-regulation.

On February 27, 2015, 20 Texans, owning406 square miles of the Panhandle, sued the state for trying to force them to join a water conservation district.  What are the landowner’s arguments:

• The property interests the landowners purchased were unmanaged water rights
• The state’s actions are “socialism” at its finest

How did we get to the point of suing the state?

•  ” In January 2013, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) mailed notices to government bodies and public water districts that it would recommend putting the 406 square miles at issue into the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1.”
• “TCEQ acknowledged and made a judicial admission at the preliminary hearing that it had no jurisdiction over private groundwater rights of the Aligned Parties.”
• SOAH assumed jurisdiction and recommended that the land be incorporated into High Plains Underground Water Conservation District No. 1. 
• TCEQ adopted SOAH Decision 12/12/14.
• 2/5/15 Rehearing Denied.
• 2/27/15 Landowners file suit in Travis County.

Courthouse News Service

HB 40 by Darby not only has a fancy bill number but addresses an interesting constitutional law question on the preemption of state law over local law.

In non-legal but SAT terms, State law is to local law like federal law is to state law. 

HB 40 will:

• Clarify that state law trumps local law on regulation of oil and gas EXCEPT:
• local laws may enact, amend or enforce inceidental surface activity IF:
• what the locals can  do is:
  • commercially reasonable
  • does not effectively prohibit oil and gas operation
  • and isn’t otherwise preempted
• what the locals can’t do, because they’d be bad kiddos:
  • ban, regulate or otherwise limit oil and gas operations

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper created the Oil & Gas Task Force to address initiatives that were on the November 2014 ballot in Colorado. If passed, the initiatives would have shut down oil and gas production in Colorado.

The goal of the Task Force is “how to most reasonably and effectively balance land use issues in a way that minimizes conflicts while protecting communities and allowing reasonable access to private mineral rights.”

The Task Force Offers the following recommendations:

• Recommend Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) rulemaking to address Local Government collaboration with Operators concerning locations for “Large Scale Oil and Gas Facilities” in “Urban Mitigation Areas,” as defined in COGCC rules.
• Require operator registration with certain Local Government Designees (“LGD”), and upon the request of a municipal LGD, submission of operational information for the purpose of incorporating potential oil and gas development into local comprehensive plans.
• The COGCC should work to ensure that the Local Government Designee (LGD) and Local Government Liaison (LGL) functions are fully utilized and that they are adequately and properly resourced.  
• The Legislature should authorize COGCC to hire 12 additional full time employees (FTEs) to increase the current number of staff responsible to inspect oil and gas wells, conduct environmental investigations and response actions, conduct intake of and track citizen complaints, process permit applications, and perform data analysis to support data and information requests from the legislature, media, public, industry, and other stakeholders.
• Staff and establish a health complaint and information line. 
• Support for a mobile air quality monitoring unit and associated staffing.
• Conduct a human health risk assessment.
• Establish a clearinghouse to communicate information regarding Colorado’s oil and gas industry. Facilitate the distribution of accurate, unbiased information to foster an improved understanding of oil and gas industry activities, practices and the federal, state and local regulatory regime, including information on opportunities for local government and general public participation in regulatory decision making processes. 
•  Convene a working group to investigate as fully as possible any and all steps that can and should be taken by government and industry to reduce the use of large trucks and trailers in oil and gas activities. 
• The General Assembly should approve SB15-100, the 2015 Rule Review Bill, endorsing all new air quality rules not otherwise legally invalid. 
• COGCC should implement and emphasize a compliance assistance program to help operators comply with complicated and ever-changing operating rules and policies, and to assure that inspectors are enforcing those rules and policies in a consistent manner. 

The Executive Order Creating the Task Force

Task Force Report

National Law Review article 

Representative Tony Dale has been elected chair of the House Energy Caucus for the 84th Legislature. 

Tony Dale Press Release

On Monday, the US Supreme Court ordered Nebraska to pay Kansas for using more than its 49% contractual share of water from the Republican River. 

Nebraksa attempted to argue that its use of more water was not knowingly, but the Supreme Court wasn’t buying it.  Courthouse News

Are we on a path to courts simply looking at whether water use exceeds the contracted amount? Maybe, which could bode well for Texas in its water fight with New Mexico. 

A water project that will pull 5 million gallons from unregulated groundwater near Wimerbley is quickly gaining attention.    AP in Laredo    Dallas Morning News   AP in Baytown   Community Impact Papers   Austin Business Journal  

Rep. Jason Isaac has filed legislation to address the issue. His bill would require a permit from the TX Water Development Board if you seek to draw water from an area, not within a groundwater conservation district, but within 5 miles of a border of a district.  HB1191

Some Republicans in Iowa are openly speaking out about their  opposition to Rick Perry due to his appointment to the board of Energy Transfer Partners.

Eminent domain and pipelines are front and center issues for Republicans in Iowa.  DesMoinesBlog

TPPF has issued a new report on fracking, here’s what they want you to know:

• There is no link between fracking & earth quakes.
  • Earth quakes are up globally, including in many areas where there is no fracking
• There is no link between fracking & groundwater contamination
  • US Department of Energy confirms there is no contamination link
• Emissions from fracking have decreased over the last 10 years
  • TCEQ in 2012 released data showing that noxious gas emissions from mobile sources is 15 times greater than fracking 
• Fracking bans cost cities 100s of Millions in lost tax revenue and gross product
  • A Ft. Worth Chamber of Commerce Perryman report shows Denton will lose:
    • $251.4 million in economic activity
    • 2,077 person-years of employment
    • $5.1 million in local tax revenue
    • $4.6 million in tax revenue for its schools 
• Local Control is not a governing principle
  • Cities are subject to the supremacy of the state, just as the state is subject to the supremacy of the federal government

Local control is not a governing principle? TPPF recognizes that cities do have some tools in tool belt, including:

• zoning authority
• Restrict when and where drilling activities can happen   

TPPF  

In 1932 Hermosa Beach banned oil drilling. The ban was lifted in the 1990s for a single project, which was later scrapped.

This week an election was held to overturn the oil drilling ban. Even though drilling would have provided millions in revenue for the city, voters approved continuing the ban on oil drilling. LA Times

The Department of Energy recommended the following data security priorities for the U.S. Energy Sector:

Houston Business Journal top 5 energy stories of the week include increasing momentum for  private investment in Mexico’s newly de-regulated energy market.
Houston Business Journal 

Iowa is polling on everything from potential Presidential candidates to private companies using eminent domain. Private companies using eminent domain is as popular in Iowa as it is in Texas.

• 57% favor pipelines
• A majority favor building wind transmission lines and pipelines

Iowans like energy projects, but they strongly dislike these same companies using eminent domain. 

• 74% oppose eminent domain by pipelines and transmission line companies
• 7% are not certain
• 19% support eminent domain for pipelines ans transmission lines

LBB recommendations in the Management and Performance Review of  the Brazos River Authority:

Projects receiving finance approval on 2/25/15 include:

• $500,000 in financial assistance to the Baylor Water Supply Corporation (Baylor, Knox, Archer, Throckmorton and Young counties) for a water supply project 
• $5,000,000 in financial assistance to the Central Texas Water Supply Corporation (Bell, Burnet, Coryell, Falls, Lampasas, Milam and Williamson counties) for a water supply project 
• $179,000 in financial assistance to the City of Malone (Hill County) for water meter replacements 
• $4,617,955 in financial assistance to the City of San Marcos (Hays, Caldwell, Guadalupe and Comal counties) for wastewater system improvements 
• $2,460,000 in financial assistance to the Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 50 (Harris County) for wastewater system improvements and a new wastewater treatment plant 
• $1,050,000 in financial assistance to the City of Reklaw (Cherokee and Rusk counties) for water system improvements

TWDB

Testimony before a California Senate Panel called the the state’s drought a threat to public health for 4 reasons:

• Rising food costs
• Increased respiratory disease
• Loss of drinking water
• During extreme weather health care and preventative health care services are disrupted, especially disrputive for low income individuals seeking health care   

Courthouse News Service

A legal analysis of the recent 9th Court of Appeals opinion in Denbury raises an interesting point that establishing common carrier status is not enough.

A common carrier might meet all its standards and establish a public use, but a jury could still deny its use of eminent domain in a particular case, if the jury does not find the facts of the case establish a “substantial public interest.”

Attorneys anticipate continued litigation over eminent domain and common carrier status.

Lexology 

On Wednesday a Travis County court heard arguments concerning whether to move the “ban the fracking ban” case to Denton.

An attorney for the state said he hopes the Legislature solves the issue first.

Refreshing Recollection, here’s what’s happened so far:

• November 2014 Denton voters approve a fracking ban
• Immediately thereafter, TXOGA files suit in Denton County to block the fracking ban
• Immediately after voters approved the ban, the General Land Office filed suit in Travis County to block the fracking ban
• Its up in the air if the two cases will be consolidated.
• The fracking ban is currently in effect

Denton Record Chronicle

A vocal group at a transmission line public meeting echoed the refrain- no eminent domain for private gain. It rhymes which makes it good for protest marches.

A Houston Company is the target of this group of landowners. The company, Clean Line Energy Partners, is seeking the federal government’s buy-in to a wind energy project in Oklahoma & Arkansas. If the federal government gets involved, then the company gets eminent domain authority. 

200 landowners showed up to a meeting. They were lock step in opinion. The highlights:

• “This project is about one thing, and that’s greed,” she said. “They don’t see our green trees, our land, our lives that are so important to us. They see a different kind of green, and that’s money.”
• Transmission lines would make their property useless and worthless
• Multiple local governments have voted in opposition to federal government involvement and in opposition to eminent domain

Project Supporters Say:

• The project will be a half-billion-dollar investment
• It will generate jobs
• It will provide 500 megawatts of low-cost, clean energy to Arkansas electric customers.
• Arkansas Wildlife Federation supports “the project as an opportunity to lower the state’s dependence on nonrenewable coal and other fossil fuels.”

Arkansas Online

Update to Regulating Groundwater, Texas Style:

• Texas A&M Agrilife Law Blog writes about the tensions running high in this fight
• Texas Tribune: Hays County Water Fight Portends Battles to Come

Refreshing Recollection from Information Intelligence:

In 2014, California for the first time began regulating the pumping of groundwater.  Sacramento Bee

With the 2015 Texas Legislature comes Texas foray into regulating groundwater. HB1191 would establish a process by which commercial entities could pump groundwater in buffer zones. TWDB would have regulatory authority over the process.

Legislators wants to pull back solar subsidies in Washington State. Solar leasing companies say pulling back subsidies does not help grow the solar industry. 

Washington Legislators say by pulling back state subsidies, the solar industry will then be able to access other subsidies which are currently not avialable.  Seattle Times

San Antonio is setting itself apart with solar energy. Here’s how San Antonio, via CPS Energy, embraced solar:

• Solar is on 2,500 roofs based on a COS Energy Program that offers rebates for homeowners
• A solar farm in the works that will power the equivalent of 70,000 homes.
  •  CPS Energy negotiated deals with solar power companies, like OCI Solar Power, the developer of the 400 megawatt solar farm.
    • It is the largest economic development agreement between a municipal utility and a private company in the U.S.,
    • Will create 800 permanent jobs by 2016.
•  A new pilot program from CPS Energy will make rooftop solar available to more San Antonio residents, including low-income households 
  • CPS Energy will buy the solar power output, and the solar developer will pay the customers for the use of their roofs.
• CPS Energy’s goal is to get solar energy in San Antonio to an output level equal to a power plant

USA Today

Munroe Falls, OH passed a fracking ban. The company that wanted to produce oil and gas sued.

Last week, the OH Supreme Court found that state oil and gas permitting requirements trump local ordinances based on specific provisions in the OH constitution. It’s a nuanced rational from Justice Judith L French:

• Local ordinances “prohibit – even criminalize – the act of drilling for oil and natural gas without a municipal permit”
• And because of the criminalization
• “… the ordinances represent an exercise of police power rather than local self-government.”
• The police power is specially mentioned in the home rule city amendment in the OH Constitution and states local ordinances “must yield to a state statute.”

The case has multiple opinions, but Justice French’s controls. Courthouse News  National Law Review

Similar cases are moving in Texas courts on the Denton fracking ban. Information Intelligence

In addition, multiple bills have been filed to ban local bans. Information Intelligence

The new State Interactive Water Plan Map can be adjusted by:

• Year
• Regional Water Demand
• Regional Existing Water Supplies
• Regional Water Needs
• Regional Recommended Water Strategies

In addition to mapping the above, the map settings (above) will generate interactive industry and water use data. The map will generate data about:

• Generates a tree map of water by region
• Generates a tree map & hard data by Water Use Categories:
  • irrigation
  • municipal
  • manufacturing
  • steam electric 
  • livestock 
  • mining

State Interactive Water Plan Map