Heidi Gorovitz Robertson’s research gives a voice to landowners

With the oil and natural gas industry booming in the United States, landowners and local governments struggle to influence the decision making processes that affect their properties. Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson helps them gain some control.

Robertson, a professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, says she has always been interested in the intersection of environmental and property law. 

“But in recent years, my research has focused on areas where energy law connects with environmental law, regulation and local governments,” she says.

Landowners and local governments struggle to retain control over their planning and property rights, as state governments work to create easy access to the oil and gas economy, Robertson says. 

“Landowners believe their property rights should allow them to bar pipeline companies from accessing their land,” she says. “They are learning, however, that this is not the case, since Ohio and federal law treats pipelines as public utilities.”

Robertson says she hopes her research will help local jurisdictions find better ways to use the tools the law provides to voice their concerns and influence the oil and gas development decisions that affect them.