PRELIMINARY January 8, 2008 (Subject to change) Syllabus Gasoline: A Legal History Professor Devlin/Spring 2008 Meets Tuesday and Thursday 9:00-10:30 a.m. Room No Casebook Assigned Readings shown with classes Recommended Background Reading The Prize Daniel Yergin The course will examine the history of gasoline as a transportation fuel and over the last 125 years and its ubiquitous role in the development of law in the United States, judicial, legislative, and administrative (and political). The course is designed to address legal issues involved in the production, distribution, and marketing of gasoline and related fuels, consider ethical and professional questions related to the subject matter, and to integrate the subject matter with the analytical and practical skills required in the practice of law. The breadth of the issues to be explored is ambitious and multidisciplinary, including such varied legal topics as environment, antitrust, trademarks, government price, rationing, and other controls, pricing, franchising, commodities futures, advertising, and legislative and regulatory policy. We will delve into such issues as oil company divestitures and mergers and their effects on gasoline distribution and prices, franchise relationships, lead additization, underground storage tanks, price gouging, below-cost selling, and the use of discount for cash and promotions. The course will conclude with consideration of the involvement of the U.S. legal system in the ultimate question What comes after gasoline? We will address various renewable and alternative transportation fuels in light of legislative and administrative promotional and mandating action.
There will be no tests or casebook. There will be assigned readings of decisions, legislation, government reports, industry analyses, and articles, shown below with the related class schedule. Additional readings will be assigned during the semester. Class participation will be considered as permitted i.e., an added.5 to the graded mark on papers. One book that is suggested for general background reading is Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (Simon & Schuster (1991) (available, I believe, in paperback.) References to The Prize are listed with other readings below. There will be no final exam. Students will choose topics for one paper from a list of topics available in the first two weeks of class. Other germane topics of the student s choice will be considered as appropriate. Papers should be a minimum of about 20-25 pages (c. 5,000+ words\ in length, double-spaced), not including notes (preferably footnotes, but end-notes will be acceptable). The papers will be marked on the basis of demonstrated research (footnotes demonstrate scholarship), logical presentation and argumentation, and legal writing style. Creative titles and approaches are encouraged. Papers will be due on April 24 in both hard copy and electronically to my e-mail address which will be provided in class. January 15-17 Overview The Beginnings of Gasoline and the Standard Oil Breakup Early Development of automotive transport fuels Readings: Lead Poisoning: A Historical Perspective at http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/perspect/lead.htm 8,500 Years of Lead 79 Years of Leaded Gasoline by Jamie Lincoln Kitman at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20000320/timeline Ethyl War by William Kovarik at http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/ethylwar/ [the Internet references are for perusal and reference] Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1 and 2; Standard Oil Co. (New Jersey) v. U.S., 221 U.S. 1 (1911);
January 22-24 Trademarks and Brand Development Introduction and Overview January 24,29, and 31 Gasoline Distribution and Marketing - From the Teens into the 1930s Readings: U.S. v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U.S. 150 (1940); The Prize, Chapter 11 From Shortage to Surplus: The Age of Gasoline February 5 WW II and rationing Emerging from WW II into The Hydrocarbon Age 1 Readings: The Prize, Part IV February 7 The late 1940s into the 1960s Standard Stations and Distribution Expansion in the Post-World War II Era Robinson-Patman Act Issues Readings: Standard Oil Co. of California v. U.S., 337 U.S. 293 (1949) Robinson-Patman Act, 15 U.S.C. 13(a)-(f) F.T.C. v. Sun Oil Co., 371 U.S. 505 (1963), Simpson v. Union Oil Co., 377 U.S. 13 (1964) February 12 Overview - The 1970s OPEC Price and Allocation Controls Readings: Petroleum Chronology of Events 1970-2000 available at DOE website http://eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/analysis_publications/chronology/p etroleumchronology/2000.htm 1 The phrase is borrowed from Part IV of The Prize.
February 14* Price and Allocation Controls February 19 and 21* Carter, COWP, and the Iranian situation Decontrol CAFÉ Standards, etc Strategic Petroleum Reserves Readings: To be assigned February 26 Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 and Gasohol Octane Posting Readings: Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 (to be provided); Octane Posting 15 U.S.C. 2821-24; scan FTC How to Comply with the FTC Fuel Rating Rule at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/fuelrate.htm February 28 March 4 State Legislation Dealer Day in Court Statutes Petroleum Marketing Practices Act Readings: Petroleum Marketing Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. 2801-06 Divorcement and Divestiture Readings: Exxon Corp. v. Governor of Maryland, 437 U.S. 117 (1978) March 6 Overview - 1980s to present Commodities trading in crude, gasoline, and heating oil Readings: To be assigned
March 11 and 13 LUST MTBE Readings: On LUST, see U.S. EPA Underground Storage Tanks, at http://www.epa.gov/swerust1/ and, for Texas, http://www.epa.gov/swerust1/states/tx.htm ; also see Boulder Area Sustainability Information Network on Leaking USTs at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/basin/waterworks/lust.html ; On MTBE, see U.S. Energy Information Administration, MTBE, Oxygenates, and Motor Gasoline at http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/special/mtbe.html March 18 and 20 Spring Break No Classes March 25 Gasoline Distribution and the Antitrust Laws Readings: Atlantic Richfield Co. v. USA Petroleum Co., 495 U.S. 328 (1990); Texaco Inc. v. Hasbrouck, 496 U.S. 543 (1990); State Oil Co. v. Khan, 522 U.S. 3 (1997) March 27 and April 1 No classes to be rescheduled April 3 Pricing and Below Cost Selling & Price Gouging Laws FTC and DOJ investigations Readings: on below cost selling, see Florida Motor Fuel Marketing Practices Act, Florida Statutes, Chapter 526, 526.301 et seq.; on price gouging, see Fla. Stat. 501.160 and Code of Ala. 8-31-3; see proposed
post-katrina Federal legislation Energy Emergency Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (H.R. 3808); FTC Report, Gasoline Price Changes: the Dynamic of Supply, Demand, and Competition (July 5, 2005), at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/07/gaspricefactor.htm ; Testimony of Chairman of the FTC on Post-Katrina Pricing before U.S. Senate Committees (Nov. 9, 2005) at http://www.ftc.gov/os/testimony/051109gaspricetest3.pdf April 8 Clean Air Act Amendments - RFG and Boutique Fuels Readings: To be assigned April 10 Unocal and RFG Readings: FTC Press Releases at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/07/unionoil.htm and http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/06/chevronunocal.htn April 15 and 17 Mergers at the Millennium FTC and GAO studies Readings: FTC, Remarks of Chief Economist, The Cost of Filling Up: Did the FTCV Approve Too Many Energy Mergers? at http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/froeb/050331abareport.pdf and Statement of FTC Chairman Muris on GAO Study (press release) at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/05/gaostatement.htm ; Texaco Inc. v. Dagher, U.S. Supreme Court Docket No. 04-805 (Decided February 28, 2005) April 22, 24 and 29 Fuels in the 21 st Century Future Fuels Brazil as Paradigm Readings: DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center at http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/index.html
Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub.L. 109-058) see DOE Booklet, On the Road to Energy Security, available at http://www.energy.gov/about/epact.htm Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection, and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-140) Copyright Francis J. Devlin 2008