The Co-Chairs of Energy & Mineral Law Foundation’s Fall Symposium are Karen Greenwell, of Wyatt Tarrant & Combs in Lexington, Guy Hensley, of Warrior Met Coal in Brookwood, AL and Larry Skrzysowski, of EQT in Pittsburgh.

As a longtime Lexington resident, Karen Greenwell extends a welcome to all those who are attending the Fall Symposium. To get a visitor’s perspective, LSU Professor Keith Hall, also chairman of EMLF’s newsletter committee, interviewed Hensley and Skrzysowski about fun things to do in Lexington and – most importantly – the quality of the Fall Symposium Program.

Food and Drink

Keith: Larry and Guy, before asking you about the substance of the Fall Symposium, I want to ask you about things to do in Lexington. I have always had a good time in Lexington and, when my students have attended the Fall Symposium, they had a great time too. Let’s start with food and drink. Some of my students are attending the Fall Symposium again this year, and after the Symposium is done on Thursday, several of them are taking a tour of a bourbon distillery located in Lexington. I understand that the tour shows you around the distillery, explaining how the distillery works, and that they give you tastings of various bourbons. It sounds like fun, and for those who want to get outside of Lexington, they could go to the Kentucky’s “Bourbon Trail.”

Keith: But aside from drinking, do you have any favorite restaurants or bars that you want to recommend for Lexington?

Guy and Larry: Hard to go wrong with BBQ!

Larry: My favorites aren’t fancy. You’ll find me at either Blue Door Smokehouse or MiMi’s Southern Cooking.

Horse racing at Keeneland and other Fun in Lexington

Keith: Another group of my students are planning to attend the horse races at Keeneland. I have done that before and it is a lot of fun. You can sit and watch the horse races, while eating and drinking from the enclosed stands. Or you can go down to the ground level and be close to the horses as they come out. Also, on Thursday morning, the conference has both a run/walk networking event and a beginner yoga networking event. I probably will join the running group.

Keith: Guy, what is your favorite thing to do in Lexington?

Guy: I’m not the best person to ask. Probably ask Kentucky fans why they got rid of Bear Bryant? Read here for some history behind coaching greats Bear Bryant and Adolph Rupp.

Keith: I sense a little bit of putting salt in the wound! Maybe it’s best that I turn to the substance of the Symposium!

Substance of the Fall Symposium

Keith: The Symposium’s agenda includes several presentations that caught my eye. As a former litigator who now occasionally work as an expert witness, I am very interested in the presentation on “Ethics of Using Expert Witnesses.” Also, I am interested in the presentation on the regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which some people call ‘forever chemicals.’

Keith: Guy, the coal industry is highly regulated. I see on the Fall Symposium agenda that one of the presentations is going to talk about regulatory challenges, now that the Chevron doctrine has been overruled. Is this something that you have been watching?

Guy: I have been watching this with great interest. In the absence of Chevron, how will courts fill the void? No one knows for sure. While they wait for new opportunities, any interested party should revisit principles of due process and canons of statutory construction.

Keith: Guy, there is a presentation on Black Lung Trust Fund Liability for failed self-insurers. Is this something that coal companies are watching?

Guy: Yes. As a result of coal company bankruptcies over the past decade, the Department of Labor has shown interest in improving the chances that successful federal black lung claimants are able to receive benefits in the future. On the other hand, the insurance market is a tough one for coal companies.The resulting tension between regulatory and economic factors suggests that prudent coal companies consider self-insuring as a component of their risk management strategies.

Keith: Larry, I suspect there might be some different presentations that are catching your eye. It looks like the Fall Symposium has some topics for the traditional oil and gas lawyers, including a couple of presentations relating to mineral title issues, such as how to interpret mineral deeds or reservations for a fraction of the minerals, and the possibility in Pennsylvania that a tax sale could wash out oil and gas rights. Has EQT faced these issues?

Larry: Simply put, yes, and we deal with them quite frequently. Mineral title issues such as deed and reservation interpretations are a fact of life in oil and gas development – especially in Appalachia.

Keith: Larry, there are a couple of presentations on carbon capture and storage. Are folks at EQT thinking yet about how CCS might interact with oil and gas development when a CCS operator and an oil and gas operator have rights in the same property?

Larry: Yes—but it’s complicated. To borrow a sports analogy (I’m a huge baseball fan) – I believe we are in the first inning of CCS development and the role oil and gas operators will play in its development.

Keith: Bruce Kramer is well-known as an oil & gas scholar, but he also was an authority on local government regulation and its effect on energy industries. He is going to talk about local regulation of carbon capture and storage, but oil and gas companies have to deal with local government efforts to regulate oil and gas activity. Professor Kramer’s talk no doubt will be of interest to folks interested in CCS, but it sounds like the local regulation topic would be relevant to oil and gas operators, too. Do you agree?

Larry: I 100% agree. The topic of local government regulation cuts across the entire energy sector, whether you are talking about traditional coal, oil and gas development, or newer renewable development like wind and solar.