A. All regulatory agencies which have authority to issue or promulgate any general or special rule or regulation, or which issue, monitor compliance with, or otherwise regulate any permit or license, relative to oil and gas development, all as defined in this Section, shall index and summarize the rules or regulations in a manner which, if the language of the rule or regulation has general applicability to other types of businesses or other situations, plainly state or otherwise indicate:

(1) The extent of their applicability to oil and gas development.

(2) The types of permits or licenses which will be required, or which may be required, of any entity in the oil and gas development business.

B. Such index and summaries shall be filed with the office of the commissioner of conservation within the Department of Natural Resources, hereafter referred to as "the commissioner", by December 1, 1992. The commissioner shall make a written acknowledgement of his receipt of the index and summaries and the date thereof.

C. Any agency required to index and summarize its rules and regulations related to oil and gas development shall also file with the commissioner the information required in Subsection A regarding any agency rule or regulation which is finally promulgated or adopted after December 1, 1992, within twenty days of such final promulgation or adoption, along with an indication of its place in the index and summary previously filed with the commissioner.

D. The commissioner may make a written critique of any submission of an index and summaries which the commissioner determines to be unclear or confusing as it relates to oil and gas development, which critique shall contain reasons and/or clarifying questions. The agency shall respond to the critique in a form acceptable to the commissioner within twenty days. It is the intention of this Section that the various departments and offices which have authority to issue rules and regulations under law retain that authority. The commissioner shall only have the authority under this Section to critique submitted indexes and summaries so as to require a satisfactory response to his written reasons or questions concerning how they relate to oil and gas development.

E. After the commissioner has received and approved all of the indexes and summaries required to be received by December 1, 1992, he shall then proceed to merge and compile the indexes and summaries received so as to create a Unified Oil and Gas Regulatory Index. The commissioner shall complete the index within six months. Upon completion of such unified index, the commissioner shall proceed to promulgate such index, and any subsequent amendments, in the manner provided for in this Chapter. However, the commissioner shall only make such technical revisions of the index during such procedure as is authorized by the agency which promulgated the original rule or regulation.

F. One copy of the Unified Oil and Gas Development Regulatory Index shall be made available to each of the regulatory agencies and to other persons at a reasonable price to be set by the commissioner.

G. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no rule or regulation or permit or license provided for in Subsection A shall be effective, nor shall it be enforced, nor shall its content be considered by any court or any administrative hearing officer or board or other judicial or quasi-judicial body as a valid administrative construction or interpretation of any law, to the detriment of any applicant for a permit related to oil and gas development after December 1, 1992, in any civil or criminal action or proceeding if the filing, or the response to a critique by the secretary, of the index and summaries containing such rule or regulation or license or permit has not been timely made as required in this Section.

H. For purposes of this Section, the following terms shall have the following definitions:

(1) "Index and summaries" means a list of all rules and regulations in numerical order which have general or specific applicability to oil and gas development and environmental matters, with accompanying summaries indicating how the rule applies to oil and gas development.

(2) "Oil and gas development" means the activity of exploring for, locating, transporting property to an oil or gas well drilling site, and the constructing, operating, or maintaining of the land, equipment, buildings, structures, or other property at such site until the well is completed and capable of producing.

(3) "Permit or license" means any permit, license, variance, registration, compliance schedule, order, or any other grant of right or privilege, or any change, renewal, or extension thereof, relative to oil and gas development.

(4) "Regulatory agency" means any office or unit of the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Revenue, the Mineral Board, and the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission or Department.

(5) "Rule or regulation" means any general or special rule, as that term is defined in R.S. 49:951(6), relative to oil and gas development.

Acts 1991, No. 735,§ 1, eff. July 18, 1991; Acts 1992, No. 589,§ 1, eff. July 15, 1992.