Wyomings Legal Framework for Management of Water Produced in Conjunction With Coal Bed Methane

• Jurisdiction: Wyoming,United States
• Citation: Vol. 32 No. 5 Pg. 10
• Publication year: 2009
• Pages: 10
• topic: Administrative Law,Environmental Law,Energy & Natural Resources

Wyoming Bar Journal 2009.

Vol. 32, No. 5, 10. Wyomings Legal Framework for Management of Water Produced in Conjunction with Coal Bed Methane

Wyoming Lawyer
Issue: October, 2009

Wyomings Legal Framework for Management of Water Produced in Conjunction with Coal Bed Methane

By Dennis Stickley and Lawrence J. MacDonnell

The rapid development of unconventional energy sources has presented several dilemmas for Wyoming's legal system. Case in-point: coal-bed methane (CBM). Once regarded as a dangerous by-product of the coal mining process, the recovery of CBM has resulted in a dramatic increase in natural gas production in Wyoming and several other states, as well as such countries as Canada to China.

Controversy regarding the development of CBM has come before the Wyoming Supreme Court on several occasions. The uncertainty concerning the ownership of CBM became the initial focus of judicial inquiry. In the case of Newman v. RAG Wyoming Land Co., 53 P.3d 540 (WY. 2002), the Wyoming Supreme Court reasoned that CBM was within the scope of reservations of "oil and gas" interests and not coal. While other jurisdictions have come to the opposite conclusion, the Wyoming decision was consistent with the ruling made by the U.S. Supreme Court, at least in terms of federal reservations, in the case of Amoco Production Co. v. Southern Ute Indian Tribe 526 U.S. 865, 119 S. Ct. 1719, 144 Led. 2d 22 (1999). While recent administrative decisions from the Interior...