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27-400: In the early days of oil exploration, drilling was governed by the law of capture , which states that the owner of land on which a well resides has the right to any oil from that well even if it was drained from the land of his neighbors. This provided an incentive for each land owner to extract the oil as fast as possible. Each state tried to regulate its own oil by such measures as proration,

54-408: A number of U.S. states , establishes a rule of non-liability for captured natural resources including groundwater , oil , gas , and game animals . The general rule is that the first person to "capture" such a resource owns that resource. For example, landowners who extract or “capture” groundwater, oil, or gas from a well that bottoms within the subsurface of their land acquire absolute ownership of

81-519: A time, then four years, and finally the compact was made permanent in 1979. Some economic historians have described the regulation of oil output under the compact as an example of a price fixing cartel. The production controls of the IOGCC and the Texas Railroad Commission have been cited as precursors to the establishment of OPEC 's caps on member state oil production. The stated purpose of

108-653: Is a proximate cause of the subsidence of the land of others." An exception to the rule of capture is that a person who drills for groundwater, oil, or gas may not extract the substance from a well that bottoms within the subsurface estate of another by drilling on a slant. When presented with oil and gas cases, early common law jurists were somewhat reluctant to recognize a corporeal possessory interest in substances that they considered to be fugacious or “wild and migratory” and therefore subject to loss by drainage. Among U.S. states , two different theories of ownership of oil and gas arose. Some states, such as Texas , have adopted

135-504: Is governed by the compact and several bylaws. The compact did not provide for any resources to support IOGCC; a later bylaw stipulated that its expenses would be paid "from voluntary contributions from the member states and other sources of revenue approved by the Commission". These sources, which include federal grants, have proved to be enough to allow the commission to function. IOGCC uses an Oklahoma government email address and domain but it

162-578: Is not a state, not a federal agency and does not have to register to lobby the federal government. A plethora of information is available but relatively little of it has come directly from the organization itself. IOGCC claims an exemption from the Open Public Records Act and has removed a provision within its by-laws that formerly said its records are open to the public. To identify best practices, IOGCC surveys member states and assesses their activities. It catalogues innovative programs and shares

189-789: Is the bicameral legislature of the United States government, and is made up of two chambers: the United States Senate (the upper chamber) and the United States House of Representatives (the lower chamber). Together, the two chambers exercise authority over the following legislative agencies: The legislature also oversees the Library of Congress (LOC), a national library dedicated to national records, which administers various programs, agencies, and services including: The federal judiciary consists of courts established under Article Three of

216-800: The Freedom of Information Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act . These further cloud attempts to enumerate a list of agencies. The executive branch of the federal government includes the Executive Office of the President and the United States federal executive departments (whose secretaries belong to the Cabinet ). Employees of the majority of these agencies are considered civil servants . The majority of

243-578: The Interstate Compact to Conserve Gas and Oil . The purpose of the compact was to eliminate the glut of oil and raise prices for consumers. The interstate compact was seen as an alternative to direct federal regulation that would allow oil producing states to retain more control. While the National Guard occupied wells in Oklahoma and Texas in 1931–1932, an Oil States Advisory Committee drafted

270-607: The independent agencies of the United States government are also classified as executive agencies (they are independent in that they are not subordinated under a Cabinet position). There are a small number of independent agencies that are not considered part of the executive branch, such as the Congressional Research Service and the United States Sentencing Commission , which are legislative and judicial agencies, respectively. The U.S. Congress

297-421: The 1930s and 1940s, the commission functioned as a price fixing cartel. According to the legal scholar Blakely Murphy, the commission operated under the guise of resource conservation but primarily existed to protect the interests of oil producers. A large part of the human contribution to global warming is from the emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) as a result of burning fossil fuels . One way to reduce

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324-618: The Thomas-McKeon Bill, which proposed an interstate oil compact and a Federal Interstate Oil Board to recommend quotas. However, the bill was abandoned after oil industry representatives withdrew their support. From 1933 to 1935, oil was regulated under the National Industrial Recovery Act and the Petroleum Code, which in effect left production control in the hands of industry representatives, with no representation for

351-560: The United States [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Legislative definitions of an agency of the federal government of the United States are varied, and even contradictory. The official United States Government Manual offers no definition. While the Administrative Procedure Act definition of "agency" applies to most executive branch agencies, Congress may define an agency however it chooses in enabling legislation, and through subsequent litigation often involving

378-592: The United States Constitution . These are the The United States bankruptcy courts , while not established as Article III courts, are legally designated as "units of the district courts." The judicial branch includes the following agencies: The President of the United States is the chief executive of the federal government. He is in charge of executing federal laws and approving, or vetoing, new legislation passed by Congress. The President resides in

405-418: The commission had six members: Colorado , Illinois , Kansas , New Mexico , Oklahoma and Texas . It now has 31 member states, 7 associate states and 10 international affiliates (including 7 Canadian provinces and territories). The governor of each member state appoints an official representative who can vote on policy recommendations, and any number of associate representatives who can vote in their place if

432-482: The compact was "conserve oil and gas by the prevention of physical waste thereof from any cause". States that ratified the compact agreed to enact legislation for this purpose. Article VI of the compact constituted "The Interstate Oil Compact Commission," renamed as the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission in 1991, and its duty was to make recommendations for preventing the physical waste of gas and oil. Initially

459-516: The contribution is to capture the CO 2 before it enters the atmosphere and sequester it by injecting underground in depleted oil and natural gas fields, saline formations and coal beds. Recognizing that the oil and gas industry has a lot of experience with injecting CO 2 into the ground for enhanced oil recovery , the IOGCC launched the Geological CO 2 Sequestration Task Force in 2002 to investigate

486-482: The exclusive right to capture the substances, a non-corporeal interest. The difference between the two theories is primarily of import in determining remedies . Subsurface ownership boundaries are the same as those upon the surface, projected downward to the center of the Earth. This concept is based upon a Roman legal principle of property law , cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos (for whosoever owns

513-553: The information with states, and it hosts biannual meetings that draw together representatives from the government, the oil industry and environmentalists. IOGCC is an advocate for states' rights, arguing that state regulation is more effective than "one size fits all" federal regulation. As well as creating reports, it creates model statutes as a guide for legislation by states. Issues that IOGCC has worked on include national energy policy , carbon sequestration , environmental stewardship , hydraulic fracturing and produced water . In

540-544: The issues surrounding sequestration. A two-phase study was funded by the Department of Energy . Phase I concluded that the states had the knowledge and experience to regulate sequestration safely. In phase II, started in 2006, the task force prepared a report that included a model statute for the states with explanations on how to implement it. The IOGCC has three awards: Law of capture The rule of capture or law of capture , part of English common law and adopted by

567-595: The limiting of production to some fraction of capacity; but then two great oil fields, the Oklahoma City Oil Field and the East Texas Oil Field , were discovered. This, along with the Great Depression , led to much waste and very low prices, with a catastrophic effect on the industry. The problems were large enough that the states recognized the need for cooperation. The compact was formed in 1935 as

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594-602: The official representative is not available. The list of members can be found on the IOGCC website. Many representatives are state regulators overseeing gas and drilling, but as of 2010 at least seven were industry executives and lobbyists. The commission meets biannually, but much of its work occurs in small committee meetings throughout the year. To govern operations, it has steering, finance, resolutions and nominating committees. Other committees are Energy Resources, Research and Technology; Environment and Safety; International; Public Lands; Public Outreach; and State Review. The IOGCC

621-426: The soil, it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths). The rule of capture creates an incentive for owners to drill as many wells as possible on their land so as to extract the groundwater, oil, or gas before their neighbors may capture it. Very dense drilling can result in dissipation of the pressure within an aquifer or oil and gas reservoir and therefore overdrafting of the aquifer or incomplete extraction of

648-511: The states. The Supreme Court found these regulations unconstitutional in 1935, and the idea of an interstate compact was revived. On December 3, 1934, Oklahoma Governor-elect E. W. Marland met with the governors of Kansas and Texas to discuss an interstate compact. This led to the drafting of the Interstate Compact to Conserve Oil and Gas, which was ratified by Congress on August 27, 1935. At first, Congress ratified it for only two years at

675-463: The substance even if it is drained from the subsurface of another’s land. The landowner who captures the substance owes no duty of care to other landowners. For example, a water well owner may dry up wells owned by adjacent landowners without fear of liability unless the groundwater was withdrawn for malicious purposes, the groundwater was not put to a beneficial use without waste, or (in Texas) "such conduct

702-539: The substance. To mitigate that danger, many states have sought to supersede the rule of capture with conservation acts. Such acts enforce prorationing, pooling, and limits on density of drilling to avoid physical waste and ensure maximum ultimate recovery. The means of protecting aquifers from over production include both production limits and well-spacing regulations. States following the ownership-in-place theory typically have actions available, including adverse possession and trespass. List of federal agencies in

729-407: The “ownership-in-place” theory for oil and gas that landowners own a corporeal possessory interest (similar to a fee simple ) in the substances beneath their land, but their ownership is a determinable fee subject to the rule of capture. Other states, like Oklahoma , have adopted the “exclusive-right-to-take” theory that landowners do not own the substances that underlie their land but merely retain

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