Breakfast Speaker - Rebecca Watson
Federal Policy Changes
Impacting Oil and Gas Operations
Date: Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Location: Denver Athletic Club, 1325 Glenarm Place, Third
Floor DPC Rooms 1&2, Denver, CO 80204
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Rebecca Watson, Attorney with Welborn Sullivan Meck
& Tooley
In 2008, candidate Obama put energy policy as his number one
priority-- and once elected his pick for the Secretary of the
Interior, Colorado's Ken Salazar began to implement energy policy
changes. In the 2011 State of the Union, President Obama embraced
natural gas and argued his policies had reduced dependence on
imported oil. What are the Obama federal land energy policies and
what is ahead?
From Secretary Salazar's "new sheriff in town" announcement in
Denver and cancellation of 77 Utah leases in February 2009 to his
first Secretarial Order putting renewable energy as the Department's
top priority and "fast-track" solar polcies to the May 2010 oil and
gas leasing reforms and Wildlands policy-Secretary Salazar has made
big changes in federal land energy policy. The presentation will
look at the context for these actions, the results, the industry's
response and what is on the horizon. On the horizon: new BLM rules
for fracking and flaring natural gas on public lands, sage-grouse
and other ESA species management, "second bites" at land use plans
(Master Leasing Plans, lease parcel pre-sale NEPA, land use plan
revisions) and fall-out from the lease issuance and categorical
exclusion lawsuits.
Rebecca Watson is a shareholder with the law firm of Welborn
Sullivan Meck and Tooley, P.C. and Secretary of Western Energy
Alliance. Ms. Watson has more than 30 years of legal and policy
experience in the fields of conventional and renewable energy,
mining, natural resources and federal environmental law. As a trial
lawyer and federal policy-maker she has been involved in a number of
significant natural resource issues. As Assistant Secretary of the
Interior Department, she had oversight of the Bureau of Land
Management, Minerals Management Service and the Office of Surface
Mining and led 12,000 employees and managed a $1 billion budget.
Questions? Call 303-457-2119 or email
Anne O'Neill at The
Meeting Edge
Cost: DPC Member Rate $20 and Guests $30
