Litigation

CNG/LNG | Exporting | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines

Court Ruling on Gulf LNG Case Is Big Win for M-U Pipelines
August 26, 2026August 26, 2026

A federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday threw out all eleven claims that environmental groups and Louisiana fishermen filed against Venture Global’s CP2 LNG export terminal and the pipeline that will feed it. The terminal sits 1,300 miles from Washington County, Pennsylvania — but buried in this decision is a holding that should make every Marcellus/Utica pipeline developer very happy. The case is For a Better Bayou v. FERC, No. 24-1291 (consolidated with Nos. 24-1292 and 25-1157). It was argued March 24 and decided August 25. Senior Judge Douglas Ginsburg, a Reagan appointee, wrote for a unanimous panel that also included Judge Karen Henderson (George H.W. Bush) and Judge Patricia Millett (Obama). Read More “Court Ruling on Gulf LNG Case Is Big Win for M-U Pipelines”
Butler County | Energy Companies | Exxon Mobil | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Mercer County | Pennsylvania | XTO

3rd Circuit Revives XTO Bid to Arbitrate PA Royalty Claims
August 25, 2026August 25, 2026

A federal appeals court has handed XTO Energy (ExxonMobil’s shale subsidiary) a win in a long-running Western Pennsylvania royalty lawsuit, ruling Monday that XTO did NOT give up its right to push some landowners into private arbitration — even though it spent 55 months litigating the case before it asked. The case is Salvatora v. XTO Energy Inc., a cousin of the Kriley case MDN has also followed. Same defendant, same Pittsburgh courthouse, same plaintiffs’ firm, same complaint: landowners say XTO shaved too much off their royalty checks for “post-production costs” — the gathering, compression, and processing charges that move gas from the wellhead to a buyer. Read More “3rd Circuit Revives XTO Bid to Arbitrate PA Royalty Claims”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

2nd Circuit Upholds NY DEC Water Permit for NESE Pipeline
August 24, 2026August 24, 2026

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit last Friday slammed the door on Big Green’s attempt to yank the New York water permit for the Williams/Transco Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline. Six environmental groups asked the court to vacate the Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certification (WQC) that the New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued in November 2025. In a summary order issued Aug. 21, a three-judge panel said no. The permit stands. NESE, already under construction, keeps building. Read More “2nd Circuit Upholds NY DEC Water Permit for NESE Pipeline”
Columbia County | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Transco | Williams | Wyoming County (PA)

Williams Wins Right to Sell PA Solar Credits from Compressor Arrays
August 20, 2026August 20, 2026

In a case the judges themselves called one of first impression, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court just handed one of the country’s biggest natural gas pipeline companies the right to earn — and sell — Pennsylvania solar energy credits. Williams wants to put two 11-megawatt (MW) solar arrays next to a pair of Transco compressor stations in Wyoming and Columbia counties. The panels won’t touch the electric grid. They’ll simply feed the compressor stations and shrink Williams’ power bill. The Public Utility Commission said twice that meant no solar credits. On August 19, the court said the PUC was wrong. Read More “Williams Wins Right to Sell PA Solar Credits from Compressor Arrays”
Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | XTO

XTO Wins PA Royalty Case, Then Asks Judge to Undo the Judgment
August 18, 2026August 18, 2026

In March, MDN told you that Butler County landowners were appealing after a federal judge tossed their royalty class action against XTO Energy (see Landowners Appeal Dismissal of XTO Lawsuit re Royalties in W. Pa.). That appeal is now on hold — because on Aug. 6, the same judge wiped out his own judgment and declared it void. And the party that asked him to do it was XTO, which won the case. Read More “XTO Wins PA Royalty Case, Then Asks Judge to Undo the Judgment”
AI | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Pickaway County

Ohio Supreme Court Sides w/ Data Center Foes on Ashville Vote
August 13, 2026August 13, 2026

A unanimous Ohio Supreme Court has ordered the tiny Pickaway County village of Ashville to let voters decide the fate of a data center and natural gas power plant — a project the village council tried to fast-track by declaring it an “emergency” not subject to a public vote. The court didn’t buy it. But before opponents celebrate too hard, the ruling doesn’t guarantee a vote will actually happen this November — county election officials still get to decide whether the deal is even the kind of thing voters can weigh in on at all. Read More “Ohio Supreme Court Sides w/ Data Center Foes on Ashville Vote”
Belmont County | Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Ohio | Rice Energy

OH Point Pleasant Deep Rights Case vs. Rice Ends Days Before Trial
August 11, 2026August 11, 2026

One of the biggest landowner-vs.-driller cases in Ohio shale history just ended — with no verdict, no dollar figure, and a two-page piece of paper. On July 29, a group of Belmont County mineral owners and Rice Drilling D LLC (owned by EQT) jointly asked a federal judge to throw out the case for good, roughly two months after it was supposed to go in front of a jury. Eight years, 580 docket entries, and one of the most consequential lease questions in the Utica — settled behind closed doors. Read More “OH Point Pleasant Deep Rights Case vs. Rice Ends Days Before Trial”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Monroe County | Ohio

Big Green Runs Back to Court to Block Drilling in Ohio’s Wayne NF
August 10, 2026August 10, 2026

Here we go again. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) finally issued three permits to drill on Wayne National Forest (WNF) land in Monroe County, Ohio, back in May — the first new drilling permits in Ohio’s only national forest in years. Predictably, the same coalition of green groups that has kept a lid on WNF for the better part of two decades ran straight back to federal court to try to stop them. Read More “Big Green Runs Back to Court to Block Drilling in Ohio’s Wayne NF”
Butler County | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Pennsylvania | XTO

6 Landowners Sent to Arbitration in XTO Butler Co. Royalty Suit
August 10, 2026August 10, 2026

A federal magistrate judge has excluded six people (well, five leases covering six people and one municipal authority) from the 2,300-plus-member class suing XTO Energy over royalty underpayments in Butler County — not because XTO won a big legal fight, but because both sides agreed these particular leases require arbitration, not a courtroom. This is the latest chapter in Kriley v. XTO Energy Inc., the six-year-old Butler County royalty case MDN has followed since February (see Long-running Lawsuit Against XTO Energy Over Royalties in W. Pa.) and again in June (see XTO Energy Looks to Compel Arbitration in W. Pa. Royalties Case). Read More “6 Landowners Sent to Arbitration in XTO Butler Co. Royalty Suit”
Energy Companies | EOG Resources | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Noble County | Ohio

Case Closed: EOG Settles w/ Ohio Landowner Who Stopped Its Wells
August 6, 2026August 6, 2026

EOG Resources has settled — and apparently bought out — the Noble County, Ohio landowner who beat it at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last year in a fight over whether a driller can use one owner’s surface to drill horizontally into the neighbors’ minerals. The case, EOG Resources, Inc. v. Lucky Land Management, LLC, produced a published appellate ruling that’s now a go-to precedent on surface rights for horizontal (lateral) drilling anywhere severed mineral estates exist — which describes most of the Marcellus/Utica. MDN first flagged this case a year ago when we caught the 6th Circuit’s reversal (see below) but couldn’t pin down the county or the full backstory (see 6th Circuit Reverses Lower Court, Blocks EOG from Surface Drilling). We now have it, and it’s a heck of a story. Read More “Case Closed: EOG Settles w/ Ohio Landowner Who Stopped Its Wells”
Crime | Energy Services | Eureka Resources | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Lycoming County | Pennsylvania

AG Sunday Hits Eureka with 16 More Crimes for Williamsport Spill
August 6, 2026August 6, 2026

Two months ago, we told you PA Attorney General Dave Sunday had charged Eureka Resources with seven crimes over years of leaking tanks at its Standing Stone plant in Bradford County (see Eureka Resources Charged with 7 Crimes for PA Wastewater Leaks). That was the appetizer. Sunday has now filed a second, separate criminal case against the defunct wastewater company — this one aimed squarely at the Aug. 17, 2025 spill that sent 16,000 gallons of oily frack waste out of the Williamsport Second Street plant and into the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. Sixteen counts this time. And for the first time, Eureka is charged under laws that protect water, not just laws that govern waste. Read More “AG Sunday Hits Eureka with 16 More Crimes for Williamsport Spill”
AI | Antero Midstream | Antero Resources | Electrical Generation | Energy Companies | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio

Veolia Lands 350 MW OH Microgrid 6 Days After Paying Antero $371M
August 4, 2026August 4, 2026

On July 30, French environmental services giant Veolia announced it had been picked by “a major project developer” to operate and maintain a 350-megawatt (MW) microgrid that will power an artificial intelligence data center campus in Ohio. The press release carried a New Albany, Ohio dateline. It’s a genuinely big deal — a behind-the-meter power plant that will supply 100% of a data center campus without leaning on the grid at all. Here’s the dots nobody else has connected. This is the same Veolia that Antero Resources and Antero Midstream spent six years suing over a botched frack wastewater plant in West Virginia. And Veolia announced this shiny new Ohio contract exactly six days after wiring Antero a check for $371 million. You can’t make this stuff up. Read More “Veolia Lands 350 MW OH Microgrid 6 Days After Paying Antero $371M”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Kinder Morgan | Litigation | Pipelines | Tennessee Gas Pipeline

2 Lawsuits in 6 Days: Big Green Targets the Permit Behind Every Pipe
August 4, 2026August 4, 2026

Two federal lawsuits landed in the same Washington, D.C. courthouse six days apart last month, and while both are nominally about pipelines in Mississippi and Alabama, Marcellus and Utica readers should pay close attention. Not because of where the pipe goes — but because of which pipelines the greens dragged into their complaints as Exhibit A. Read More “2 Lawsuits in 6 Days: Big Green Targets the Permit Behind Every Pipe”
Enbridge | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | North Carolina | Pipelines

Enbridge NC Pipe Update: Landowner Settles, Greens Swarm Open House
July 30, 2026July 30, 2026

Back in May, we told you about a new 28-mile intrastate natural gas pipeline Enbridge Gas North Carolina (EGNC) wants to build in Chatham and Lee counties, running from Siler City southeast to Moncure (see Enbridge Plans New 28-Mile Gas Pipe in Chatham & Lee Counties in NC). At the time, we had almost no details. Three months later, we have plenty — including an answer to the question we couldn’t answer in May: which regulator actually blesses this thing? The short answer: none of them, at least not the way you’d expect. Read More “Enbridge NC Pipe Update: Landowner Settles, Greens Swarm Open House”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Electrical Generation | Indiana County | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania

Antis Turn to Big Green Fundraiser for Lawfare Against Homer City
July 22, 2026July 22, 2026

In April 2025, Knighthead Capital Management, Homer City Redevelopment (HCR), and Kiewit Power Constructors Co. announced a plan to convert the former Homer City Generating Station, previously the largest coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania (Indiana County, 50 miles east of Pittsburgh) into a more than 3,200-acre natural gas-powered data center campus, designed to meet the growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (see Largest Gas-Fired Power Plant in the U.S. Coming in Western Pa.). When completed and online, the planned 4.5 GW power plant will use roughly 790 MMcf/d (million cubic feet per day) of Marcellus/Utica gas. The project, now under construction, is already transforming the local economy (see Homer City Economic Boom Now Under Way from Data Center Project). Yet antis are *still* trying to use lawfare to block it. Read More “Antis Turn to Big Green Fundraiser for Lawfare Against Homer City”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New Jersey | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Clean Ocean Action Sues NJ Agency for Approving NESE Pipe
July 21, 2026July 21, 2026

Last November, New Jersey (and New York) issued a federal Clean Water Act permit to build the Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline project (see Trump Won: New York & New Jersey Issue Water Permits for NESE Pipe). In addition to various state and federal permits required for NESE, the project needed approval from the New Jersey Tidelands Resource Council, a 12-member panel appointed by the state governor and working with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) staff. The Tidelands Council issued its approval of NESE in May of this year (see Obscure NJ State Agency Grants Approval for Williams NESE Pipe). The green group Clean Ocean Action is now suing NJ over the Tidelands approval. Read More “Clean Ocean Action Sues NJ Agency for Approving NESE Pipe”