Mineral Estate Conservation Easements: A New Policy Instrument to Address Hydraulic Fracturing and Resource Extraction

• Date: 01 February 2017
• Author: Robert B. Jackson, Jessica Owley, and James Salzman

47 ELR 10112 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW REPORTER 2-2017

C O M M E N T

Mineral Estate Conservation

Easements: A New Policy

Instrument to Address Hydraulic

Fracturing and Resource Extraction

by Robert B. Jackson, Jessica Owley, and James Salzman

Robert B. Jackson is Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor, Department of Earth System Science, Woods Institute for

the Environment, and Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University. Jessica Owley is Professor of Law, University at Bualo

School of Law, the State University of New York. James Salzman is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law,

Bren School of the Environment, University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of California, Los Angeles Law School.

In a few short years, hydraulic fracturing (or fracking,

as it is colloquially called) has transformed the oil and

natural gas industries and changed the landscape of

energy policy. While helping the United States approach

energy independence, fracking has also generated major

conicts over local land-use decisions.

Although the hydrocarbons trapped in shale a nd sand-

stone formations had been viewed as unrecoverable, the

advent of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the early

2000s changed that view.1 In high-volume hydraulic

fracturing, roughly 8,000 to 80,000 cubic meters (2-20

million gallons) of water, chemicals, and sand and other

proppants2 are pumped underground at pressures (10,000-

20,000 pounds per square inch) sucient to crack open

impermeable rock formations, allowing the oil and natural

gas to ow through the well to the surface.3 A hydraulically

fractured well can now follow a thin layer of impermeable

shale or tight sandstone for k ilometers or more laterally.4

Long horizontal wellbores5 often travel under multiple

1. U.S. E I A (EIA), T

R S O  S G R: A A 13

(2013), available at http://www.eia.gov/analysis/studies/worldshalegas/pdf/

fullreport.pdf; R S & R A  E, S

G E   UK: A R  H F 12

(2012) [hereinafter R S’]; Natural Resources Canada, Exploration

, http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/

sources/shale-tight-resources/17677 (last visited Dec. 12, 2016).

2. A proppant is material used to keep cracks in the rock open after the water

used in hydraulic fracturing leaves. R S’, supra note 1, at 68.

3. Robert B. Jackson et al., , 39

A. R. E’ & R 327, 329 (2014).

4. Id. at 334.

5. A wellbore is the “hole created by drilling operations,” synonymous with

borehole. R S’, supra note 1, at 69.

landowners’ properties, requiring companies to acquire

larger leases than they need for conventional wells.

e United States, where hydraulic fracturing was

developed, is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and

natural gas.6 e country produced nine million barrels of

oil daily in 2015, more tha n one-half from hydraulically

fractured wells, with oil production almost doubling since

2000.7 In fact, the United States has gone from being the

world’s largest net importer of oil to being a global export-

ing powerhouse.8

Natural gas extraction and production are also increas-

ing, primarily derived from hydraulic fracturing. Compa-

nies produced 12.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from

shale and other impermeable formations in the United

States in 2014, approximately one-half of all gas produced

that year.9 Electricity powered by natural gas reached par-

ity with coal, at 33% domestic market share in 2015, and

natural ga s overtook coal for the rst time in 2016 as the

dominant source of electricity in the United States.10

Accompanying the rise of high-volume hydraulic frac-

turing11 has been a suite of environmental and social con-

6. Linda Doman et al., 

, T  E, May 23, 2016, http://www.

eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=26352.

7. Id.

8. See EIA, Petroleum and Other Liquids—Crude Oil Production, www.eia.gov/

dnav/pet/pet_crd_crpdn_adc_mbblpd_a.htm (last visited Dec. 12, 2016).

9. EIA,        

 , http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=907&t=8 (last

visited Dec. 12, 2016).

10. Tyler Hodge et al.,         

, T  E, Mar. 16, 2016,

http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=25392.

11. High-volume hydraulic fracturing is distinguished from other fracturing

methods because it requires larger volumes of water. See N Y S

D  E C, F S

G E I S   O, G, 



    



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