Surface Use and Accommodation Issues in Oil and Gas Development: A Refresher and Rethink
Original Program Date :
Length: rfrome@cailaw.org
Starting with common law foundations and concluding with analysis of emerging issues involving clashes with renewable energy and subsurface activities like CCS, this presentation examines the rights of mineral owners and developers to use the surface of land. Items of focus include the scope of implied surface use rights, issues surrounding express grants of use rights, the common law accommodation doctrine, and statutory modifications through surface-owner-protection and surface-damages acts. A significant portion of the presentation will explore clashing uses of land between mineral development, renewable energy projects, and subsurface activities like carbon dioxide storage.
Joseph A. Schremmer is an assistant professor of law and the Judge Leon Karelitz Oil and Gas Law Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law. He teaches courses on oil and gas law, environmental regulation of the oil and gas industry, property law, contracts, business associations, and secured transactions. Joe has written extensively on subsurface property rights, including articles published or forthcoming in the Washington Law Review, University of Colorado Law Review, Utah Law Review, University of Kansas Law Review, Journal of Legal Education, and Harvard Environmental Law Review. He is also a co-author with Patrick H. Martin, Bruce M. Kramer, Keith B. Hall, and Tara K. Righetti of The Law of Oil and Gas: Cases and Materials (11th ed. 2021). Before entering teaching, Joe practiced law with a small general civil practice firm in Wichita, Kansas, where he represented oil and gas producers in all phases of oil and gas development, specializing in issues involving mineral title.