United States energy law is a function of the federal government, states, and local governments. At the federal level, it is regulated extensively through the United States Department of Energy. Every state, the federal government, and the District of Columbia collect some motor vehicle excise taxes. Specifically, these are excise taxes on gasoline, diesel fuel, and gasohol. While many western states rely a great deal on severance taxes on oil, gas, and mineral production for revenue, most states get a relatively small amount of their revenue from such sources. The practice of energy law has been the domain of law firms working on behalf of utility companies, rather than legal scholars or other legal actors (such as private lawyers and paralegals), especially in Texas, but this is changing. Some officials from energy agencies may take jobs in the utilities or other companies they regulate, such as the former FERC chairman did in 2008. The American Bar Association (ABA) has a Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, which is a "forum for lawyers working in areas related to environmental law, natural resources law, and energy law." The Section houses several substantive committees on environmental and energy law that release current information on topics of interest to practitioners and news of committee activities. The ABA recognized 'environmental and energy law' as one of the practice areas where legal work may be found in 2009. The United States' oil production peaked in February 2020, at about 18,826,000 barrels per day.
Common law Under the common law, persons who owned real property owned "from the depths to the heavens". Therefore, real estate traditionally has included all rights to water, oil, gas, and other minerals underground. The United States Supreme Court has held that as far as air rights, "this doctrine has no place in the modern world," but it remains as a source of law to this day, or "fundamental to property rights in land." An easement or license to drill for oil, gas, or minerals generally runs with the land, and thus is an appurtenant easement. However, a utility easement generally runs with the owner of the easement, rather than running with the land, and as such, is an example of an easement in gross. The West digest system, used in WestLaw, has allocated several topics in energy law:
114 – Customs duties 145 – Electricity 190 – Gas 371 – Taxation. There are many library research resources available about American oil and gas law.
Supreme Court cases The Supreme Court of the United States rarely rules on energy law, but they do so when the Circuits are split, or in other particular circumstances. In the vast majority of cases, the rule of four requires that at least four Justices agree to issue a writ of certiorari. On July 18, 2025, the Supreme Court held in Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas that only a party who has been directly harmed in a licensing proceeding before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can seek judicial review of such a licensing decision. The State of Texas and a company sought judicial review of the NRC's decision to issue a license to a company that applied for license to deal with nuclear material. Texas and the other company filed comments in the proceeding and opposed issuance of the license. They sought judicial review and the 5th Circuit, usually eager to oblige the government of Texas, vacated the license, and NRC petitioned the court." Kavanaugh's majority decision was not joined by all conservatives, but was joined by Chief Justice Roberts and the three liberal justices; Gorsuch wrote a minority opinion dissenting with Thomas and Alito.
Federal laws
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