Anti-Shale Group Continues to Try and Block Apex Wells in SWPA
A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT (Penn-Trafford), located in Westmoreland County, PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out (legally) at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in May 2020 (see Penn Twp Frack Ban Case Strikes Out at PA Supreme Court). However, Protect PT soldiered on (with Big Green $$), even after its crushing Supreme Court defeat. Apex Energy proposed drilling two wells (the Drakulic Well project) on a pad in a rural part of Trafford, PA, a boro straddling Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Protect PT challenged the original permits and a time extension of the permits (see PA EHB Allows “Narrow” Appeal of 2 Apex Energy Well Permits). We are nearly a year later, and the case still plays out. A hearing is set for Jan. 15 to examine whether the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) lawfully issued drilling permits to Apex Energy. Read More “Anti-Shale Group Continues to Try and Block Apex Wells in SWPA”
We’ll be blunt. Incoming Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday is already a disappointment for us. He recently posted details of his transition team to a special website. The co-chair of the transition effort is former RINO Governor Tom Corbett. That’s one strike. While there are several good members on the Energy & Environment Committee, Corbett and Sunday have included a radical anti-fossil fueler from the far-left PennFuture organization on the Energy Committee. How utterly disappointing (and a second strike). 
In January 2024, MDN brought you the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a plan by Catalyst Energy to convert an existing conventional gas production well on Route 646 in Cyclone (Keating Township, McKean County, PA) into a shale wastewater injection well (see 
A lawsuit that slipped by us (and is still playing out) that began in Carroll County, OH, has major ramifications for landowners and drillers across the state. The case is EAP Ohio LLC v. Sunnydale Farms LLC, et al. in which 13 oil and gas leases were executed in 2008 and 2009 in Carroll County, Ohio. The 2008 Leases contained an identical royalty clause that limited post-production deductions to three categories: transportation, compression, and/or dehydration to deliver the gas for sale. After drilling wells on those properties, EAP (Encino Energy) deducted several other items from royalties, including costs incurred for processing, treating, fuel, gathering, and trucking. The lawsuit tussles with the issue of how terms are defined and whether these “extra” categories are allowed under the lease’s language. 
In November, MDN told you that Diversified Energy and EQT Corporation had settled a class action lawsuit originally brought by several West Virginia landowners (see 
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could fundamentally change how the federal government conducts environmental reviews. We first told you about the case last week (see 
One month ago, we brought you the news that Diversified Energy and EQT Corporation had settled a class action lawsuit originally brought by several West Virginia landowners (see 
Two pipeline industry titans are going after each other again. Energy Transfer and Williams previously tangled over an aborted proposed merger, a saga that stretched from 2015 until it was finally settled in 2023 (see 
The U.S. Supreme Court is gearing up to hear arguments for and against a proposed railway that would connect Utah’s oil-rich Uinta Basin to Colorado. Other than this is a railroad story (and you know we’re suckers for a good railroad story), how does it connect to the Marcellus/Utica? The case could fundamentally change how the federal government conducts environmental reviews. This case revolves around what should and should not be part of a so-called environmental review. A Circuit Court of Appeals wanted more nonsense included in such a review. The conservative Supreme Court is now going to review their work with a potential eye on overruling them. 
There is an important development for landowners AND drillers in a class action case that began some seven years ago. A civil suit was brought by Harrison County oil and gas owners against Antero Resources Corp., claiming the company had deducted post-production costs from royalties not allowed under the leases they had signed. In 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia ruled mostly in favor of the landowners. The District Court sent two certified questions to the state Supreme Court. The Supremes ruled on both issues in November. The court ruled that energy companies cannot deduct post-production costs without explicit lease language, favoring royalty owners over drillers. 
In July, the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) opened up the shuttered Austin Master Services (AMS) radiological waste management solutions company in Martins Ferry (Belmont County), Ohio, to begin cleanup work at the facility (see 
In October 2023, the Biden Department of Energy (DOE) published a new rule that cracks down on gas furnaces in homes, essentially phasing out many existing models and requiring new ones to meet onerous new standards (see 
We’ve been tracking the up down up down up down situation at Freeport LNG (where some Marcellus/Utica molecules flow) since it came online in 2019. Freeport was mostly offline for the first half of this year following an episode of cold temps in January (see 
MDN first reported on a lawsuit by a group of Wyoming County, PA, landowners back in January 2019 (see