The 53rd Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute is gathered in Vancouver to discuss the laws that affect mines, mining, and the oil & gas industry. Here is a brief report on this morning’s plenary sessions–a succinct picture of the topics that interest lawyers working for the mining and oil & gas industry in western North America.
David Victor, a professor of law at Stanford University Law School and the director of the program on energy and sustainable development spoke on the implications of global warming on the laws that govern (or should govern) the energy sector. His thesis is that global warming will result in “a radical transformation in the energy industry and that with that transformation there will be radical changes in the practice of energy law.” He told us that because it is easier and politically more palatable to reduce carbon emissions from coal-powered power plants, they will bear the brunt of new laws. Because no government has a clear idea or plan to deal with emissions control or the sequestration of carbon dioxide, new laws will have to be formulated, litigated, and tested. Regarding carbon sequestration alone, these new laws will cover everything from the issue of who regulates sequestration, through who owns the pore spaces in geologic units suitable for sequestration, to who is responsible in the long term for the maintenance and care of sequestered carbon dioxide. And those are the easy questions. You will have to read his paper for the hard questions.
Next Jack Thrasher, a barrister with Osler, Hoskins & Harcourt LLP in Calgary spoke of cross-border oil sands ventures. Regardless of popular outcry and the posturing of politicians, the reality is that cross-border ventures to develop oil sands projects and to treat and refine the crude will become every more popular. Thus we find ourselves in a morass of Canadian law, United States law, Aboriginal rights, NAFTA, and ultimately international law. He did a masterful job of setting out the engineering and technical facts that affect cross-border oil sands ventures and hence the laws that promote and fail successful and unsuccessful ventures.
Finally Ross Kodner, a legal technologist with MicroLaw Inc., set out to scare all the lawyers present. Certainly he scared me and I am not even at risk. His topic: the ethics and technology of e-discovery; what to do when you are sued and some irresponsible staff person deletes a crucial computer file or worse, fails to delete an incriminating file. He reminded us that no file is ever truly deleted and that even junior techno-peasants can usually bring them back to life easily enough. The law is unclear: a series of do what is reasonable injunctions. It will take many court decisions to define what is reasonable. His parting message: hire a professional, get your e-records keeping policy up-to-date and in line with regulations, and keep a close eye on impending litigation.
