Fayette County, WV Loses Appeal to Block Injection Well

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An effort by Fayette County, WV to ban injection wells in the county has gone down to a final defeat. In January 2016, three liberal Democrat county commissioners from Fayette County, with the backing and help of the radical WV Mountain Party, voted to ban injection wells in the county (see WV County Officially Bans Injection Wells; Children Brainwashed). The ban was intentionally written so broadly it would also ban the operation of more than 500 vertical oil and gas wells in the county. The next day EQT sued to overturn the ban (see EQT Sues WV County that Banned Injection Wells, Seeks Injunction). One of the chief architects of the ban, from the Mountain Party, admits the ban was intended to stop all oil and gas activity in the county (see Anti Admits Fayette County, WV Ban Aims to Shut Down All O&G Wells). Fearing they would lose the EQT lawsuit, in March 2016 the Fayette commissioners backed away from the position of banning everything to do with drilling in the county. They revised the proposed ban regulation as a tactic to avoid losing their court case (see Fayette WV Commissioners Change Ban to Focus on Injection Wells). It didn’t work. In June 2016, a federal judge tossed out Fayette’s illegal ban (see Federal Judge Rules Fayette County Injection Well Ban Illegal). But that didn’t stop the lib Dems who, with the assistance of the radical Appalachian Mountain Advocates, appeal the federal judge’s decision (see Fayette County, WV Appeals Federal Court Ruling on Injection Well). That appealed case went to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has just ruled that Fayette County was out of line (copy of the decision below). Counties can’t make up their own oil and gas regulations–that right is reserved to the state…

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