Origins of the Texas Railroad Commission's Power to Control Production of Petroleum: Regulatory Strategies in the 1920s

1990 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 353-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Childs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Regulatory Strategies ◽  
State Commission ◽  
Control Production

The “Railroad Commission of Texas” conjures up visions of oil and gas and power politics and perhaps the question, What does “railroad” have to do with petroleum? The Railroad Commission (RCT) also brings to mind modern America between 1930 and the 1970s, when the Texas agency controlled from 35 to 45 percent of the oil and gas produced in the United States. These images come from cultural myths of the Lone Star State, from Americans' fascination with conspiracies, and, most telling, from the lack of historical analyses of the commission, its staff, and its regulatory strategies. The prevailing views of the commission are unfortunate ones, for they not only neglect the agency's regulation of railroads, natural-gas utilities, and buses and trucks but also skew the understanding of how the state commission came to regulate petroleum in the first place, how it devised policies for doing so, and how it legitimized itself and defended that legitimacy under the weight of the East Texas crisis between 1930 and 1935.

scholarly journals Emissions of coalbed and natural gas methane from abandoned oil and gas wells in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 2283-2290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Townsend‐Small ◽  
Thomas W. Ferrara ◽  
David R. Lyon ◽  
Anastasia E. Fries ◽  
Brian K. Lamb
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Wells ◽  
Oil And Gas Wells

scholarly journals A Problem Lurking Just Below the Surface

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-525
Author(s):  
Terrell Fenner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Side Effect ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Effective Remedy

A long history of oil and gas development in Texas has made the state the number one energy producer in the United States, and the bulk of that energy is produced from fuels acquired by drilling into the vast natural resources that sit below the state. As a side effect of this long history, it is common for the surface and mineral estates in Texas to be severed, and many severances happened several generations ago. This history has spread mineral interests between dozens of owners in some cases, many who are unknown and cannot be found. Absentee ownership has diluted the value of these fractionalized interests and has made use by their non-absentee counterparts more difficult. Existing laws that have been used in the past to clear absentee owners from title have not been effective in the context of a severed mineral estate, as those laws evolved primarily to address surface interests, or to accomplish other purposes with only incidental effect on land titles. This Comment discusses the inadequacy of the current methods used in Texas to remove absentee owners from mineral titles and illustrates the need for a more effective remedy. It then offers a dormant mineral act that suits the unique cultural and economic needs of Texas and addresses the growing fractionalization of Texas’s mineral estates.

International Pipelines: Canada-United States

1981 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 146-160
Author(s):  
John Bishop Ballem
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Large Diameter ◽  
The United States ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Demarcation Line ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
Pipe Line ◽  
International Boundary

For more than a quarter century, large-diameter pipeline systems have been crossing and recrossing the international boundary between Canada and the United States as though that political demarcation line did not exist. Over the years these pipelines have carried large volumes of Canadian oil and gas to American markets and two of them, Interprovincial Pipe Line Limited in the case of oil, and TransCanada PipeLines Limited in the case of natural gas, have also moved Canadian source oil and gas through the United States to reach markets in eastern Canada.

scholarly journals Learning Curve, Change in Industrial Environment, and Dynamics of Production Activities in Unconventional Energy Resources

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong-Hyun Kim ◽  
Yong-Gil Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Production Cost ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Shale Oil ◽  
Industrial Environment ◽  
The Us ◽  
Exploration And Production ◽  
Oil And Natural Gas

Since 2007, shale oil and gas production in the United States has become a significant portion of the global fossil fuel market. The main cause for the increase in production of shale oil and gas in the US is the adoption of new production technologies, namely, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. However, the production cost of shale oil and gas in the US is comparably higher than the production cost of conventional oil and gas. In 2014, the crude oil and natural gas price decreased significantly to approximately 40 dollars per barrel, and natural gas prices decreased to 3 dollars per million British thermal unit, and thus the productivity and financial conditions for the exploration and production of shale oil and natural gas for producers in the United States have worsened critically. Therefore, technological innovation has become one of the most interesting issues of the energy industry. The present study analyzes the trends in technological innovation having a relationship with production activities. This study calculates the learning rate of 30 companies from the petroleum exploration and production industry in the United States using an improved learning rate calculation formula that reflects the changes in the oil production ratio. Thus, more statistically confident calculation results and interpretations of strategic production activities with regard to changes in the industrial environment were achieved in this study.

scholarly journals Daily Satellite Observations of Methane from Oil and Gas Production Regions in the United States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieternel Levelt ◽  
Pepijn Veefkind ◽  
Esther Roosenbrand ◽  
John Lin ◽  
Jochen Landgraf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Methane Emissions ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Oil And Gas Production ◽  
Natural Gas Production ◽  
Oil And Natural Gas

<p>Production of oil and natural gas in North America is at an all-time high due to the development and use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Methane emissions associated with this industrial activity are a concern because of the contribution to climate radiative forcing. We present new measurements from the space-based TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) launched in 2017 that show methane enhancements over production regions in the United States. Using methane and NO<sub>2</sub> column measurements from the new TROPOMI instrument, we show that emissions from oil and gas production in the Uintah and Permian Basins can be observed in the data from individual overpasses. This is a vast improvement over measurements from previous satellite instruments, which typically needed to be averaged over a year or more to quantify trends and regional enhancements in methane emissions. In the Uintah Basin in Utah, TROPOMI methane columns correlated with in-situ measurements, and the highest columns were observed over the deepest parts of the basin, consistent with the accumulation of emissions underneath inversions. In the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, methane columns showed maxima over regions with the highest natural gas production and were correlated with nitrogen-dioxide columns at a ratio that is consistent with results from in-situ airborne measurements. The improved detail provided by TROPOMI will likely enable the timely monitoring from space of methane and NO2 emissions associated with regular oil and natural gas production.</p>

A Review of the Work Accomplished by the Blind Relief Commission of Hamilton County, Ohio

1908 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-115
Author(s):  
Louis Stricker
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Field Work ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Full Information ◽  
State School ◽  
The Past ◽  
County Commissioners ◽  
State Commission ◽  
Systematic Field

Editor's Note. — The pensions for the blind of Ohio are dispensed by unpaid county commissioners. Each of the eighty-eight commissions is composed of three persons. The care with which some of these boards are beginning their work is admirably shown by the following paper. At the same time that these “Pension Commissions” were created a State Commission for the Blind was established. The County Commissions have the single problem of the State Commission that of finding employment and of ameliorating, in any way possible, the condition of the blind. Dr. Stricker clearly portrays the condition of the blind who have had no friendly organization to which to turn for advice, help, or work. Professor Van Cleve explains what the State School is doing for the juvenile blind. Mr. Charles F. F. Campbell presented a paper at the Ohio Conference of Charities and Correction to the same audience addressed by Dr. Stricker and Professor Van Cleve to show what is possible for the blind along industrial lines. Space does not permit us to print his paper, but our readers can find full information regarding the workshops for the blind in the United States at the end of the July, 1908, Vol. II, No. 2. In connection with the movement in behalf of the blind which is now developing in Ohio, it is interesting to consider the results of the systematic “field work” conducted by the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, which is ably set forth in Miss Lucy Wright's paper. It is clear to every one that the aggregation of the indigent blind throughout the country is a result of the lack of attention in the past. The Ohio pension is an attempt to relieve the needs of this accumulated group of neglected people. One of the chief purposes of the schools, workshops, societies, and state commissions for the blind is to prevent such accumulations in the future.

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