News
Gold King Mine Spill Exposes the Legal Hurdles to Cleaning up Mines
This post was written by Katherine "Kate" Sanford who worked with WSMT as a summer intern from June 1 through August 10, 2016. On August 5, 2015, Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) contractors inadvertently broke through a retaining wall at the closed Gold King...
Ten Welborn Attorneys Named Among the Best in America for 2017
Ten of Welborn's attorneys in fourteen Practice Areas were listed in the Best Lawyers in America® 2017. Congratulations to Carolyn Burr, Laura Lindley, Ed Blieszner, Rebecca Watson, Keith Tooley, Brian Tooley, Kendor Jones, J. Kenneth Barbe, Hampton O’Neill, and John...
EPA Haze Rule – U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit Stays EPA From Implementing Final Haze Rule in Texas and Oklahoma.
The federal Clean Air Act requires the states and the federal government to establish and meet targets for visibility in protected national parks and wildlife areas through regulations that control air pollutants in ambient air. 42 U.S.C. §§ 7410, 7491, 7492(e)(2)....
Kendor Jones Awarded the Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award
Congratulations to Welborn Shareholder, Ken Jones who was selected as a 2016 Distinguished Recipient of the Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award by the Trustees of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation at their Annual Institute. The Clyde O. Martz Teaching Award was...
Wyoming Trespass Statutes Survive Constitutional Challenge
What do you do when someone enters your property to collect information about its status with the intent to convey that information to a governmental or regulatory agency without your permission? In Wyoming, you contact your local legislator. In 2015, the Wyoming...
Bears Ears . . . What Does it All Mean?
Last week, Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), formally introduced his revamped House Bill, the Public Lands Initiative, which seeks to designate millions of acres of proposed Wilderness, establish large motorized recreation areas, and expedite the...
Unintentional Misconduct and Standardless Discretion: The Department of Interior’s New Rules for Valuing Oil, Gas and Coal
The Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) within the Department of the Interior issued new royalty valuation rules on July 1, 2016. Although the goal of the regulations is to simplify the calculation of royalties on federal oil, gas and coal, the 65 pages of...
Supreme Court Grants Operational Flexibility to Owners of Multiple Conditional Water Rights
The Colorado Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Upper Eagle Reg'l Water Authority v. Wolfe, 2016 CO 42 creates opportunities for owners of more than one conditional water right to make those rights absolute in advance of demonstrating the need for both, and the “catch”...
Amy Seneshen Elected Managing Partner
Welborn Shareholder, Amy Seneshen, has been elected Managing Partner of our firm. Read the Press Release for more details.
How to Prevent Loving Colorado’s Outdoors to Death by Rebecca Watson
Read The Denver Post article authored by Welborn Shareholder Rebecca Watson entitled How to Prevent Loving Colorado's Outdoors to Death.
BLM Fracking Rule Dead—For Now
It was an interesting week for BLM’s hydraulic fracturing rule first finalized and then immediately challenged on March 26, 2015. On Monday (June 20, 2016), the BLM filed its final brief in the Tenth Circuit arguing that the Wyoming Federal District Court erred when...
Look Out! A Colorado Court Finds that a Mineral Reservation in the Habendum Clause of a Deed, Not the Granting Clause, is a Valid Reservation
An old rule of thumb for title examiners was that a mineral reservation needs to be in the granting clause, not the warranty clause, of a deed to be valid. As the courts have moved to seeking to determine the parties’ intent in a deed, these old rules have been...