Litigation

Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Regulation

Expert Says Binghamton Fracking Ban is “Legally Dubious”
January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

Robert Alt, a Fellow in Legal and International Affairs at The John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs at Ashland University (Ohio) has written an op-ed article in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin on the topic of “legally dubious” moratoriums like the one recently passed by the City of Binghamton. Given that according to forthcoming new drilling regulations from the state Department of Environmental Conservation there would be no drilling in Binghamton anyway, Alt asks the question, just what “message” did City Council send?

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

PA Supreme Court’s Indecision on Local Regulation of Drilling
January 10, 2012January 10, 2012

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a four-year-old case over how much leeway local municipalities have in regulating drilling within their borders. Does the court’s refusal to hear the case mean local governments will have more, or less, latitude than they do now? Depends on who you ask.

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Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Monongalia County | Northeast Natural Energy | Regulation | West Virginia

Morgantown Marcellus Wells Coming Online
December 21, 2011December 21, 2011

MDN chronicled the battle earlier this year between Northeast Natural Energy and the city of Morgantown, WV over Northeast’s plan to drill two Marcellus Shale gas wells near the city. In short, the Morgantown City Council tried to ban drilling both inside and outside city limits—up to one mile outside—which would have prevented Northeast from drilling the two wells.

Morgantown attempted to use a state law which indicates cities can take such actions outside their borders if they believe there is an imminent threat to residents of the city. The ban went to court, and a judge overturned it, clearing the way for Northeast to drill.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

Lawsuit on the Horizon for WV’s New Marcellus Law?
December 20, 2011December 20, 2011

Please see an important update at the end of this article.

West Virginia’s new Marcellus drilling law is not yet a week old (see this MDN story for a summary of what’s in the new law), and already some who are unhappy with the law are talking lawsuit. The Charleston, WV Rotary Club hosted a luncheon at the Civic Center on Monday with a panel discussion presenting four different viewpoints on the new law. None of the four, who included those who favor drilling and those who don’t, were happy with the final version. But one in particular, Dave McMahon, a Charleston public interest lawyer, is threatening to sue over the new law.

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Endeavour International | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | SM Energy

Endeavour Leaves SM Energy at the Altar, SM Ready to Sue
December 15, 2011December 15, 2011

Yesterday, U.S. oil and gas exploration firm Endeavour International Corp announced they were bailing out of a deal to buy the Marcellus holdings of SM Energy (no stated reason for abandoning the deal). This was the single-sentence press release they issued:

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Judge Denies Request to Restart Water Deliveries in Dimock PA
December 14, 2011December 14, 2011

Last Friday, Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board Judge Bernard Labuskes, Jr. denied an appeal from 11 families in the Carter Road area of Dimock Township, PA who were asking that water shipments from Cabot Oil & Gas be restored. The 11 families, from an original group of 19 families, decided to not accept a remediation solution ordered by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that directed Cabot to pay the families up to twice the value of their homes and to install filtration systems that would remove all methane from their water supplies.

Because of their ongoing refusal to accept the remediation solution offered, preferring instead to pursue litigation with Cabot, the DEP finally told Cabot they could end water deliveries to those families as of Nov. 30—deliveries that have been ongoing for more than two years.

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Bradford Drilling | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Norse Energy | Statewide NY

Bradford Drilling Sues Partner Norse Energy for No Drilling
December 12, 2011December 12, 2011

Norse Energy Corp, the U.S. subsidiary of the Norwegian energy company, owns leases for 180,000 net acres in New York State, 130,000 of those acres being in the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays. Norse bet the farm on New York allowing shale gas drilling long before now, and they lost (NY is still months, if not years away from allowing shale gas drilling). Norse has put their New York acreage on the auction block, looking for another company to buy it.

In the meantime, one of Norse’s drilling partners is suing them for lack of drilling according to their agreement. That agreement had nothing to do with shale gas, but instead was drilling in the Herkimer formation, a limestone-type layer in central New York. Norse seems to indicate they may restart Herkimer drilling at some point. From the Norse press release:

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Accidents | Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Dueling Press Conferences in Dimock PA
December 7, 2011December 7, 2011

In the ongoing press event that is Dimock, PA, yesterday Gasland creator Josh Fox and actor Mark Rufalo, among others, gathered in Dimock to keep up the pressure and to continue to demagogue what has really happened in Dimock. See MDN’s previous coverage for background. A brief summary of events leading up to yesterday’s dueling press conferences:

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Accidents | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

EPA Tells Dimock Families Their Water is Safe to Use
December 5, 2011December 5, 2011

A new email from the federal Environmental Protection Agency says the water wells for 19 affected families in Dimock, PA have tested fine and do not pose a threat to those families. Yet, some of those families are still grabbing headlines by playing the victim, claiming their water is undrinkable. Who to believe?

The Dimock situation is difficult to understand, being shrouded in so many layers of publicity stunts it’s hard to know what the real story is. As near as MDN can tell, in a nutshell:

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Energy Companies | Forest County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | McKean County | Minard Run Oil | Pennsylvania | Warren County

Drillers Sue US Govt over Allegheny National Forest Delays
November 15, 2011November 30, 2022

According to a lawsuit filed on Monday, the U.S. government is obstructing legitimate and legal gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) in northwestern PA. A court in Erie, PA has been asked to find them in contempt and force them to allow drilling to proceed on a timely basis.

A brief background on the ANF and why the lawsuit was filed:

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Coterra Energy (Cabot O&G) | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Susquehanna County

Court Tells Dimock PA Residents to Share Medical Records
November 10, 2011November 10, 2011

A group of more than 60 residents in the Dimock, PA area sued Cabot Oil & Gas in 2009 claiming they had been exposed to pollution as a result of hydraulic fracturing in the area. The lawsuit wants Cabot to pay for medical monitoring as part of the settlement, but they refused to allow Cabot access to their medical records in order to verify their claims. Last week a court told the claimants if they want Cabot to pay, they will have to share their medical records.

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Air Quality | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

PA Clean Air Council Sues EPA, Force Drillers to Reduce Ozone
October 31, 2011October 31, 2011

The Pennsylvania anti-drilling group Clean Air Council is suing the federal EPA in an effort to force the EPA to clamp down on Marcellus drillers who the Clean Air Council says are creating too much ozone during drilling.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Monroe County | Pennsylvania

Mt Airy PA City Council Sues DRBC to Prevent Fracking
October 26, 2011October 26, 2011

Mt. Airy City Council voted on Oct. 13 to sue the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) to prevent the Commission from allowing hydraulic fracturing to move forward in Mt. Airy.

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Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Range Resources Corp | Regulation | Washington County

Range Resources Sues Cecil Township Over New Ordinance
October 13, 2011March 24, 2012

Cecil Township in Washington County, PA—a suburb of Pittsburgh—recently passed an ordinance changing shale gas drilling from a permitted use to a conditional use, meaning each well drilled would have to be approved by the township on a case by case basis. It requires drillers to do twice the work—once in filing a permit application with the state, and a second time with the local municipality. Range Resources, one of the nation’s largest Marcellus Shale drillers (and with operations in Cecil), has just filed a lawsuit requesting the new ordinance be overturned.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Warren County | Wastewater

Columbus Twp, PA Ban on Injection Wells Rescinded
October 13, 2011October 13, 2011

Under threat of a lawsuit, supervisors in Columbus Township (Warren County, PA) reversed their previous ban on the disposal of fracking fluids in two injection wells in the township (see this previous MDN story about the lawsuit).

Injection wells are deep wells used to dispose of fracking fluid from those drillers who do not recycle all of the fracking fluid used in their drilling operations. The fluid is pumped into the wells under high pressure, forcing it deep into the ground. Ohio has hundreds of such injection wells due to a better underground geography. However, PA currently has only a relative handful of injection wells (less than a dozen?), including the two in Columbus Township.

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Susquehanna County

Shale Gas Mineral Rights Case Appealed to PA Supreme Court
October 12, 2011October 12, 2011

We have a new development in the ongoing case from Susquehanna County, PA where a lower court upheld the “Dunham rule” declaring oil and gas are not part of mineral rights. The Dunham rule, a PA law precedent that’s been in place since 1882, was challenged by PA Superior Court (see this MDN story), threatening to overturn dozens if not hundreds of leases and deeds in Pennsylvania. The landowners in the case have now appealed directly to the PA State Supreme Court in an effort to lay this to rest and have the Dunham rule upheld.

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