Our own Karen Bogisch, lawyer focusing on matters of oil and gas, presented a most informative program on the current picture of the oil and gas industry in Texas. As background, she set the stage with current facts and figures on both consumption and production of energy in the US. Petroleum and natural gas make up about a third each and renewable energy provides only 12% of consumption. Further facts were presented on US petroleum production and consumption, imports and exports, on sources of oil and gas in the US, energy use within ERCOT, and the news that Texas is a leader in production and use of renewable energy. Then beginning with the background of Texas titles, Karen defined and explained the vocabulary of her profession: severed estates (surface, mineral, water), mineral interests, royalty interests vs. mineral interests, and the actual court approved definition of a mineral. The final portion of Karen’s presentation explained the “rule of accommodation,” which is applied to disputes between surface owners and mineral owners over use of the surface for mineral development, and then illustrated the rule with several actual court cases which showed the development of this rule over time.