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FERC Chairman Says Court “Erred” in Vacating Transco REAE Cert
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in late July vacating (nullifying) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of Transco’s Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project to bring gas from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and Maryland (see DC Circuit Libs Reverse FERC Approval of Transco Northeast Expansion). At a FERC open meeting yesterday, FERC Chairman Willie Phillips (a Democrat!) said, “I want to make clear that I think the court erred in vacating our authorization.” However, Phillips said that decision and one other will force FERC to rethink how it reviews gas infrastructure projects moving forward.
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In July 2022, MDN brought you news of a possible frac-out, or “inadvertent return” that happens when drilling mud pops out of places where it’s not supposed to — places outside the borehole being drilled (see 
On July 12, Williams asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for permission to bring the final pieces of the Regional Energy Access Expansion (REAE) project online by the end of July (see 
The liberal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a string of rulings this year that have greatly damaged the country’s LNG export industry. Those rulings, if left unchallenged, put future LNG growth in this country in doubt. So says energy expert David Blackmon, writing for the Forbes magazine website. The D.C. Circuit has been coloring WAY outside the lines by using White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) criteria for what should be included in environmental reviews conducted under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
In 2015, a group of nearly 60 landowners in northeastern Pennsylvania who had leased their land for fracking filed a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko, Statoil (now Equinor), Mitsui E&P, and Access Midstream (later bought by Williams), alleging the companies had improperly deducted post-production costs (e.g., gas gathering and transportation expenses) from royalties owed to the landowners in breach of their respective leases. The lawsuit also alleged collusion and conspiracy to defraud the landowners. The lawsuit was on hold for many years while other lawsuits played out. Earlier this year, a federal court in Scranton unpaused this lawsuit, and yesterday, the judge ruled, tossing out the landowners’ claims.
Here’s a lawsuit that flew under our radar — until now. Several landowners in West Virginia sued Jay-Bee Oil & Gas, alleging “improper royalty deductions” were made from royalty checks for post-production work from 2010 to 2023. The landowners (their lawyers) convinced a court to turn the lawsuit into a class action. Jay-Bee denies the claims in the lawsuit but has agreed to settle the dispute to avoid additional litigation by paying $42.6 million into a settlement fund established to disburse payments to participating class members.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan used a considerable amount of fossil energy and emitted tons of carbon dioxide to jet over to Dubai last December to participate in the COP28 confab, where he released a final rule that was “two years in the making” to force the U.S. oil and gas industry to cut methane emissions by using budget-busting new technologies and onerous (frequent) inspections (see 
MDN has an exclusive update on a lawsuit by several West Virginia surface landowners who are suing Diversified Energy over Diversified’s failure to plug their unproducing conventional wells. At the prompting of the Sierra Club, the landowners attempted to turn the lawsuit into a class action. Yesterday, a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of WV struck down the class action request, meaning a couple of surface owners from the original lawsuit can proceed with their lawsuit. The outcome won’t affect anyone else. However, a second related case and a second request for a class action are still alive.
The United States has 13 courts of appeals, also known as U.S. Courts of Appeals, that sit below the U.S. Supreme Court. These courts are organized into 12 regional circuits, each with a court of appeals, that cover the 94 federal judicial districts. One of the 13 courts — for the District of Columbia — has jurisdiction over cases involving federal agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The judges of the D.C. Circuit have recently delivered a flurry of decisions that appear contradictory concerning (overturning) FERC actions.
New York State has become the North Korea of the United States. It is narrow and parochial and devoid of freedom. If you operate a business in New York and you are not in a protected or favored class, or if your business does not bribe someone in the Democrat Party, you are in danger of losing that business. New York is aggressively hostile to any business remotely connected to fossil fuels. A “bitcoin miner” operating in beautiful Upstate NY, near the shore of Seneca Lake, uses a clean-burning (very small) natural gas power plant to power its 15,300 computer servers. The radical Democrats running the state, including Gov. Kathy Hochul, want it shut down and gone. Last October, NY antis were close to achieving their objective. But what’s this? The bitcoin miner is hanging tough and challenging the state in court. The facility is still online!
In March, we reported that two Democrats and one anti-drilling RINO who run Bucks County, PA government (a Philadelphia suburb) fell for the bait by Big Green and filed a lawsuit against Big Oil companies for supposedly, knowingly, causing the Earth to toast to a cinder (see 
In May 2023, the Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a proposed new rule that would slap onerous and very expensive new requirements on pretty much all natural gas pipelines in the country, including 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipelines; 400+ underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities (see 
Here’s a sobering fact: A web of red tape and environmentalist lawfare in the courts have derailed six of the last seven proposed interstate pipeline projects that could have delivered Appalachian natural gas to New England, the Southeast, and other regions of critical demand. The only pipeline to survive was the Mountain Valley Pipeline, and it took a literal Act of Congress to get it across the finish line. Here’s another sobering fact: Oil and gas pipeline approvals have dropped by 50% during the Biden-Harris administration (compared to the last three presidents before Biden). The precipitous drop was on purpose.