C|M|LAW Professor and Associate Dean Heidi Gorovitz Robertson served on the organizing committee for a jointly-sponsored conference on the development of shale oil and gas in Ohio.  The conference, Utica Shale:  Issues in Law, Practice and Policy, took place at C|M|LAW  on September 13 and 14, 2012.  It was co-sponsored by CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Crain’s Cleveland Business, Bricker & Eckler, LLP, Hull & Associates, Inc., Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC, Tucker Ellis LLP, and the University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio.  Other members of the planning committee were Andrew Thomas (Levin College), Matthew Warnock (Bricker & Eckler) and Glenn Morrical (Tucker Ellis).

The conference brought together many of the major players in the quickly emerging field of shale oil and gas development.  Included on the panels were representatives from JobsOhio, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Nature Conservancy, economists, lawyers, geologists, engineers, and academics from a number of fields.  Panel  topics included economic development, environmental and policy concerns, legal issues such as leasing, litigation, new and recent regulations, and tax and accounting considerations.

Associate Dean Robertson spoke on two panels at the Utica Shale conference.  As part of the Legislative and Regulatory Update, she spoke on the future viability of local ordinances that purport to control or ban drilling within a locality when state legislation clearly seeks to preempt them.  In addition, she spoke on a panel on Lessons Learned from the BP Gulf Coast Oil Spill.  Along with Baker Hostetler attorney and C|M|LAW Adjunct Professor Maureen Brennan, she spoke about those lessons and how they might apply as Ohio moves quickly to develop and regulate the shale oil and gas industry.

For more information about the Utica Shale conference, click here: https://www.law.csuohio.edu/newsevents/events/2012091312451530