Abstract:
Barry will talk about the environmental legislation for the offshore that is presently in Parliament. He will identify what he considers key gaps in the legal framework for oil and gas operations, both offshore and onshore. These gaps are all the more important given controversy over petroleum exploration and production technologies like fracking and coal bed methane.
About the Speaker:
Barry Barton is a professor of law at the University of Waikato. His field of research is energy, natural resources and environmental law. In energy law, the issues of climate change, energy policy and energy security hold a growing importance, and present special legal challenges. Barry has worked on energy regulation and the relationship between regulation and effective markets; and has reassessed the popular view that market liberalization obstructs energy sustainability. He has examined the regulatory work of the Electricity Commission and Commerce Commission.