Archives for August 2014

EPA’s Maps on WOTUS: Hard Truths

  This week saw a turning point in the heated debate that few understand over EPA’s proposed rule for regulating Waters of the US (WOTUS). EPA and American Farm Bureau have been in a skirmish of words for weeks over the true scope of the newly proposed rule, which evolved […]

More on Ground Water Takings: The Federal Courts Weigh In

  A new federal decision concerning regulatory takings adds potential support to the recent Texas decisions of Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Day,  369 S.W.3d 814 (Tex. 2012) and Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Bragg, No. 04-11-00018-CV, ____ S.W.3d ____ (Tex. App.—San Antonio, Nov. 13, 2013, pet. filed), each of which provide […]

A Reckoning in the Shale

  We are off the rails.  Hydraulic fracturing horizontal wellbores has grown exponentially since George Mitchell first broke rock with water.  Massive fields have developed, from Fort Worth to the Haynesville in Louisiana, the Ozarks of Arkansas, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, North Dakota and then back again to Texas in […]