From chess match to street fight: The world's courtrooms are the battleground for the future of fossil fuels

In Alaska, Michigan and Norway, partisans on the left and right are sparring in the courtrooms to implement their vision for the future of energy. Operations from small shale plays to multi-billion-dollar offshore installations suddenly hang in the balance as the regulatory outlook becomes increasingly cloudy. World Oil editors discuss a few of these latest moves, and how oil companies are reacting, including:

• Trump tries to establish a foothold for drilling in the ANWR, just as Norway's Supreme Court prepares to decide on its Arctic drilling future;
• Michigan revokes a long-standing pipeline easement, with direct impact on Canada's refining capacity;
• The U.S. and Canadian drilling rig count continues its climb, and what this says about confidence in a Biden administration