How to Select a Tax Attorney

Understanding the IRS and the tax laws is very difficult and confusing.  When a taxpayer has a tax controversy matter with the IRS, selecting a tax attorney may be just as confusing and complicated.  Not all attorneys are created equal when it comes to the tax laws and representing clients before the IRS.  Dealing with […]

Battle Brews Over Banning Natural Gas to Homes

By Katherine Blunt May 31, 2021 5:35 am ET Cities are considering measures to phase out gas hookups amid climate concerns, spurring some states to outlaw such prohibitions. A growing fight is unfolding across America as cities concerned about climate change consider phasing out natural gas for home cooking and heating. Major cities including San […]

Ambiguity Foils Right of Way Agreement

By Charles Sartain on April 28, 2021 Co-author Brittany Blakey The central issue in the Texas case of Cook v. Cimarex Energy Co.: Did Cook grant Cimarex a right of way across Cook’s land to the location of two Cimarex wells. No he didn’t. Reversing the trial court, the court of appeals concluded that two Contracts of Release were […]

Solar Beats Minerals in a Texas Accommodation Doctrine Battle

In a precursor of disputes sure to come, in Lyle v. Midway Solar, LLC, a Texas court of appeals delivered a win for solar energy by applying the accommodation doctrine in favor of a solar developer’s actual use of the surface of the land over speculative future development of the mineral estate. The lesson for mineral […]

Oil prices rally as record winter storms hit Texas shale supplies

(Bloomberg) –Oil hit a fresh 13-month high as cold weather in Texas may see supply curbed from America’s largest shale patch. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures surged as much as 2.2% in early Asian trade, rising above $60 a barrel for the first time in more than a year. Brent crude in London rallied past […]

Texas rattles gas markets by limiting out-of-state sales during blackouts

(Bloomberg) –Texas is restricting the flow of natural gas across state lines in an extraordinary move that some are calling a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s commerce clause. Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday told a media briefing that he was banning gas from leaving the state through Feb. 21 to ensure in-state power generators […]

Falling Texas crude output becomes a global oil market crisis

LONDON (Bloomberg) –What began as a power issue for a handful of U.S. states is rippling into a shock for the world’s oil market. More than 4 million barrels a day of output — almost 40% of the nation’s crude production — is now offline, according to traders and executives. One of the world’s biggest […]