Litigation

Blue Ridge Mtn Res/Magnum Hunter | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Triad Hunter

MHR Wiggles Out of One Midstream Contract, Sues to End Another
March 23, 2016March 23, 2016

Two weeks ago Magnum Hunter Resources (MHR), a driller focused almost exclusively on the Marcellus/Utica and going through bankruptcy protection proceedings, struck a deal with pipeline company Texas Gas Transmission Inc. to terminate four existing contracts with company to use its pipelines. MHR was pressuring Texas Gas to cancel the contracts it has with MHR subsidiary Triad Hunter, but Texas Gas was resisting. In the end Texas Gas agreed to cancel the contracts provided they get a $15 million “unsecured claim” which grants Texas Gas the right to be near the front of the line to get paid $15M when MHR is either sold or emerges from bankruptcy proceedings. MHR isn’t, however, having as much success with canceling signed contracts for another of its subsidiaries in the Bakken Shale region. Bakken Hunter has an existing, signed contract with Oklahoma midstream company Oneok. Citing the recent Sabine Oil & Gas ruling in which that company was allowed to cancel midstream contracts during bankruptcy (see Midstream Nightmare Comes True: Judge Lets Driller Cancel Contracts), MHR is asking a Delaware bankruptcy court to allow them to wiggle out of the Oneok deal. In addition to updates on these two situations, we also have news that the Securities and Exchange Commission is at least partially blaming two former Magnum Hunter employees–a chief financial officer and chief account officer–for the company’s financial predicament…
Read More “MHR Wiggles Out of One Midstream Contract, Sues to End Another”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Medina County | Ohio | Portage County | Regulation | Statewide OH

OH Antis Circulate Petitions for Bans Already Tossed by Courts
March 22, 2016March 22, 2016

The Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is a radical environmental group backed with Big Green money that exists to fleece local towns into adopting bans on fracking and pipelines. Last year we carried an expose of the group (see PA’s CELDF Unmasked as Troublemakers in Ohio Utica Shale). Much of their community agitating work is done in Ohio. Time after time their so-called “community bill of rights” initiatives are shot down by Ohio courts. The latest instance (and there have been many) was earlier this month when the U.S. 8th District Court of Appeals overturned the CELDF-created bill of rights law passed in the Cleveland suburb of Broadview Heights (see Mad Moms Hopping Mad Over Court Decision re Broadview Heights, OH). You would think towns would learn that a) these initiatives invariably are challenged and thrown out by the courts, and b) if the initiatives interfere with a local business that sues the town, the CELDF is nowhere to be found (see Anti Group CELDF Won’t Help Grant Twp Pay $1M Judgement). But there’s plenty of insane people–like those circulating petitions in Medina and Portage counties to get a CELDF-backed bill of rights initiative on the local ballot. The very same initiative already shot down by Ohio courts in other locations…
Read More “OH Antis Circulate Petitions for Bans Already Tossed by Courts”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Fayette County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation | Wastewater | West Virginia

Fayette WV Commissioners Change Ban to Focus on Injection Wells
March 21, 2016March 21, 2016

The Democrat commissioners of Fayette County, WV are scrambling to try and keep their jobs after enacting what is turning out to be a disastrous ordinance to ban all fracking, injection wells, drilling, etc. In January, three liberal Democrat county commissioners from Fayette County, WV, 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). In fact, the ban is intentionally written so broadly it will 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). Not long after, a U.S. District Court judge slapped an injunction on the county preventing them from enforcing the ban at least until a hearing scheduled for later this month (see Judge Stops WV County from Enforcing Injection Well Ban, For Now). One of the chief architects of the ban, from the Mountain Party, admits the ban is 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). Facing a lawsuit they will lose, the commissioners have backed away from the position of banning everything to do with drilling in the county. They’ve revised the proposed ban regulation as a tactic to avoid losing their court case–but everyone sees through this latest pathetic attempt. Sensing they won’t win their court case to ban drilling as well as injection wells, they’ve opted to toss the drilling part and go for just banning injection wells. We hope the voters and taxpayers in Fayette County vote the three commissioners out at the next election for their anti-drilling malfeasance…
Read More “Fayette WV Commissioners Change Ban to Focus on Injection Wells”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

Canadian Company Fights Back Against Green Bully Greenpeace
March 21, 2016March 21, 2016

One of the favorite ways Big Green groups bully companies and municipalities is by using lawsuits against them. We see it all the time in the oil and gas industry. Example: THE Delaware Riverkeeper and Clean Air Council–both based in the Philadelphia area–filed a lawsuit against the Town of Middlesex in Butler County, PA (see ACLU Bullies Threaten Butler County Landowners over Martian Lawsuit). Butler County is on the opposite side of the state from where Riverkeeper and the Clean Air Council are supposed to be operating. Such is how they work. Another favorite tactic is to launch smear campaigns against the industry. One of the most radical Big Green groups is Greenpeace. They’re famous for smear campaigns–full of lies. They tried to run such a campaign against a Canadian forestry company–and the company fought back, in court. And now the court will make Greenpeace open up their records for close scrutiny. Cockroaches like Greenpeace can’t stand the light of day shining into their activities. They’re worried. And that got us to thinking. Why northeast drillers and midstream companies use the example of this forestry company as their model to fire back at THE Delaware Riverkeeper, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Food & Water Watch, and a plethora of other odious groups? Let’s force them to open up their books and expose them for the colluding frauds they are…
Read More “Canadian Company Fights Back Against Green Bully Greenpeace”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Athens County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Statewide OH

Mad Moms Hopping Mad Over Court Decision re Broadview Heights, OH
March 15, 2016March 15, 2016

In 2012 Broadview Heights, OH, a Cleveland suburb, passed an illegal “Community Bill of Rights” law that bans oil and gas drilling in their township. Ohio law specifically and plainly states that only the state–not local municipalities–have the sole right to regulate the oil and gas industry. The law was promptly thrown out by a lower court, which resulted in anti-drilling groups including the Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN) and Mothers Against Drilling in Our Neighborhoods (MADION), with Big Green money backing from the odious PA-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), appealing the decision. It eventually made its way up the chain to the 8th District Court of Appeals. The nutters were so ecstatic when the 8th District agreed to hear the case, they celebrated with “street dramatizations” (see Antis Celebrate OH Appeals Court Hearing with Street Dramatization). They’re not celebrating anymore. The 8th District has ruled against the Broadview Heights law. Not only that, the 8th District is the first court to directly address the so-called “bill of rights” argument. In a crushing blow to the nutters, the 8th District Court said, in essence, “No. Towns don’t have inalienable rights to create laws that supersede the state’s laws.” However, nutters never go away–they blat and bleat and carry on, as they are doing now with this decision. At least we have some resolution in Ohio. This decision is a resounding refutation of the CELDF and their predatory behavior of pressuring towns into passing “bill of rights” laws that ban drilling and fracking…
Read More “Mad Moms Hopping Mad Over Court Decision re Broadview Heights, OH”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

Reaction to Dimock Court Decision Continues
March 15, 2016March 15, 2016

Last week a brain dead, OJ-style jury awarded two families $4.25 million (one of the families already being millionaires) in the six year-old case claiming Cabot Oil & Gas contaminated water wells in Dimock, PA with their drilling activities (see Dimock Jury Levies $4.25M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case). The jury rewarded the plantiffs for being unreasonable and refusing to allow their water to be fixed–because methane in water CAN be fixed. The plantiffs held out, hoping to shake down Cabot, and they got an obtuse jury to agree with them. The case is still generating shock waves with both supporters of shale energy, and irrational detractors of fossil energy. Below is reaction to the decision from the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners (NARO), the litigious radicals at Food & Water Watch, and from Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research…
Read More “Reaction to Dimock Court Decision Continues”
Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines

DB Brief on Court Decision re Driller Canceling Pipeline Contract
March 15, 2016March 15, 2016

Last week MDN brought you the news that midstreamers’ nightmare had come true–with a decision in a Texas court case that allowed a driller who had declared bankruptcy to cancel previously signed contracts for a pipeline gathering system (see Midstream Nightmare Comes True: Judge Lets Driller Cancel Contracts). The fear is that more drillers will use this new tactic of declaring bankruptcy in order to shed previously signed deals with pipeline companies. Is that fear legitimate? After all, this was a single case for a single driller/pipeline company. Will it be used as a precedent in other cases? We spotted a policy brief from powerhouse banking company Deutsche Bank, their Equity Research division, addressing the question of just what are the implications coming from the Texas decision…
Read More “DB Brief on Court Decision re Driller Canceling Pipeline Contract”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dimock Jury Levies $4.25M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

Here’s what just happened. A family in Dimock, PA admits, under oath on the witness stand, that their water had too much methane in it BEFORE Cabot Oil & Gas began to drill nearby. The same family, the Elys, later built a 22-room, $1 million mansion on the same property AFTER they admit there was trouble with the water. And a jury decides to find Cabot at fault–and award that family $2.75 million. The other family got $1.49 million. That’s called brain-dead. A total miscarriage of justice–stupidity on the same level as the OJ Simpson jury. The AP has written a story trumpeting the verdict, and every liberal backwater newspaper across the continent is now carrying it. It makes no difference that Cabot has asked the judge to set aside the verdict–a very real possibility. It makes no difference that Cabot will appeal the verdict if the judge doesn’t set it aside (there was no evidence in the case!)–and will likely win such an appeal. The damage is now done in the court of public opinion. No-nothings will read the headline and say, “Yep, Josh Fox had it right in Gasland. That nasty gas driller polluted those poor people’s wells in Dimock. Jury said so.” Case closed. This is a dark day in our fight against fossil fuel haters and climate change radicals. They will regurgitate this verdict from now until long after we’re all dead…
Read More “Dimock Jury Levies $4.25M Judgement Against Cabot in Dimock Case”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide NY | Susquehanna County | Williams

Cabot Says Constitution Pipeline Delayed Yet Another Year – Thx NY
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

In what appears to us to be a “might as well get all of the bad news out in one day” strategy, Cabot Oil & Gas announced yesterday (after losing a case related to water contamination in Dimock, PA) what everyone already knows: The Constitution Pipeline is delayed for yet another year. The Constitution is illegally being held up by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The pipeline, approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2014, will run from Susquehanna County, PA to Schoharie County, NY where it will connect with two interstate gas pipelines. You can only clear trees until the end of March because threatened and endangered bats (don’t ask). New York has managed to delay the pipeline for another entire season. Instead of being ready later this year, the pipeline is now delayed until the second half of next year. Here’s what we want to know: When will Williams (building the pipeline) and Cabot, the major backer and beneficiary of the pipeline, sue New York in federal court to force the issue? When will they realize that Cuomo is NEVER going to approve it–that they will have to force the state to allow it? It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. New York is run by a dictator…
Read More “Cabot Says Constitution Pipeline Delayed Yet Another Year – Thx NY”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Statewide PA | Transco | Williams

Dela. Riverkeeper Sues FERC Again – Over Leidy Pipeline Expansion
March 11, 2016March 11, 2016

It’s another week, so it must be time for another lawsuit from THE Delaware Riverkeeper against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Literally. Last week THE Delaware Riverkeeper, aka Maya van Rossum, filed a lawsuit against FERC to try and shut the agency down (see THE Delaware Riverkeeper Sues FERC, Tries to Close it Down). Not trusting their frivolous lawsuit will actually go anywhere, this week Riverkeeper filed another lawsuit (in a string of many)–this one aimed at making FERC reverse a decision to allow an expansion of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co.’s (Transco’s) Leidy Southeast pipeline. A year ago Riverkeeper filed a lawsuit against the same project in an attempt to stop tree clearing–a tactic that ultimately failed (see Dela. Riverkeeper Loses Bid to Stop Transco Expansion in PA). When will a judge slap Riverkeeper with a fine for its continued practice of filing frivolous lawsuits? Here’s the latest…
Read More “Dela. Riverkeeper Sues FERC Again – Over Leidy Pipeline Expansion”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dimock Trial Update: Jury Deliberates, Asks Judge for $$ Guidance
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

Now that the trial against Cabot Oil & Gas–a trial in which the two families from Dimock, PA allege Cabot caused the water wells of two families to become contaminated with methane–has gone to the jury for deliberation, the Democrat-controlled Scranton Times-Tribune and local TV station WNEP have all sudden woken up and started to cover the trial again. They simply ignored the trial for nearly two weeks as witness after witness for the plantiffs was exposed on the witness stand as lying or shading the truth. It was so bad, the Times-Tribune and WNEP simply stopped reporting the news. Now that the jury has taken more than six hours to deliberate and have asked the judge about monetary compensation–indicating they may actually find for the plantiffs–the anti-drilling Times-Tribune and WNEP is all atwitter. They’ve decided to begin covering the story again…
Read More “Dimock Trial Update: Jury Deliberates, Asks Judge for $$ Guidance”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Anti-Driller Vera Scroggins Assaults Phelim McAleer at Dimock Trial
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

Vera Scroggins is a little-known anti-driller from Susquehanna County, PA who sometimes pops up in the news for trespassing on Cabot Oil & Gas drill sites (see PA Fracktivist Permanently Banned from Cabot Property). We know she has a potty mouth–just witness her abusive treatment of Phelim McAleer (creator of the FrackNation documentary) a few years ago, insulting him and swearing at him (watch this video). It seems Vera has a violent streak too. Yesterday outside the courthouse in Scranton, PA where two Dimock families suing Cabot have a trial under way, Phelim tried to interview and ask questions of a Dimock family not part of the court case, Craig and Julie Sautner. Phelim is persistent, like any good reporter, and he had his camera rolling as he repeatedly asked them to respond to the plaintiffs’ lawyer’s admission that no chemicals contaminated the water in Dimock–as they (the Sautners) have claimed. Vera was with the Sautners and tried to keep McAleer away from them. At one point she physically struck him, several times, all caught on tape. The police were called but no charges have been filed (yet). Here’s the video to show what happened…
Read More “Anti-Driller Vera Scroggins Assaults Phelim McAleer at Dimock Trial”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

Radicalized Children Try to Force Climate Change Action in Court
March 10, 2016March 10, 2016

In August 2015 MDN told you about a lawsuit brought by a group of left coast radicalized children who want to force the federal government to become communist and “force action” on mythical climate change (see Group of Kids Sues U.S. Govt to Force Action on “Climate Change”). This past January the case proceeded with industry groups joining the government as defendants (see Climate Change Lawsuit by Radicalized Children Gets Interesting). What’s happening is that adults are using children to force a radical/Fascist agenda on the American public. The so-called children had their first day in court yesterday. The defendants–the government and groups like the American Petroleum Institute–asked the judge to throw out the case…
Read More “Radicalized Children Try to Force Climate Change Action in Court”
Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Processing Plants

Midstream Nightmare Comes True: Judge Lets Driller Cancel Contracts
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

Two weeks ago MDN warned you of a court case that has the potential to upend the midstream (pipelines & processing plants) market–here in the Marcellus/Utica and across the country (see Shock: Judge May Allow Drillers to Cancel Gathering Pipeline Deals). That potential has now been realized. Judge Shelley Chapman, in a case in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, has ruled that Sabine Oil & Gas may cancel a pipeline gathering contract with Cheniere’s Nordheim Eagle Ford Gathering in Texas. Nordheim spent $84 million building a pipeline system to Sabine’s wells. In return for laying out that kind of money, Sabine, as is always the case, signed a multi-year contract with Nordheim (10 years in this case), ensuring Nordheim would make make a profit on its up-front investment. The judge is allowing Sabine to cancel the deal several years into the contract. If a driller signs a contract and that signature is no longer any good, will anyone build pipeline systems anymore?…
Read More “Midstream Nightmare Comes True: Judge Lets Driller Cancel Contracts”
Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dimock Trial Update: Judge Says Plaintiffs Didn’t Suffer Damage
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

The judge in the famous Dimock water contamination case has ruled that the plaintiffs have not proven any kind of damages, so he tossed out the negligence claim against Cabot Oil & Gas. That is, he just tossed out most of the remaining case! The only claim left now for the jury to decide, beginning today, is whether or not Cabot created a “nuisance” with their drilling activities. Translation: Cabot Oil & Gas did not, in any way, contaminate water wells in Dimock with their drilling activities. That is now proven in a court of law. Once again MDN friend Tom Shepstone, who has done a superb job of covering the trial, files this report about the judge tossing the last major charge against Cabot, and about more expert testimony that demolishes the plantiffs’ so-called expert witness Tony Ingraffea…
Read More “Dimock Trial Update: Judge Says Plaintiffs Didn’t Suffer Damage”
Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia

Mountain Valley Pipeline Wins Right to Survey in VA w/o Permission
March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

Mountain Valley Pipeline is a $3.5 billion, 301-mile pipeline that will run from Wetzel County, WV to the Transco Pipeline in Pittsylvania County, VA. The project, which filed an official application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last October, is being built by EQT, NextEra Energy and several other partners (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Files FERC Appl, Now Just Matter of Time). The project has faced stiff opposition from landowners in West Virginia (see Mountain Valley Pipeline Sues 103 WV Landowners for Survey Access). The project has also faced opposition from landowners in Virginia. However, things just got a lot easier for Mountain Valley when it comes to surveying a potential route through the Old Dominion state. The Virginia Supreme Court on Monday decided NOT to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that allows pipeline surveyors to access a property WITHOUT the landowner’s permission. That decision means the lower court ruling, which allows surveyors unpermissioned access, to stand…
Read More “Mountain Valley Pipeline Wins Right to Survey in VA w/o Permission”