Brooke County | Forced Pooling | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia
Lawsuit to Block West Virginia’s New Forced Pooling Law Tossed Out
Back in March, MDN told you about a bill passed by the West Virginia legislature, Senate Bill (SB) 694, which finally brings forced pooling for shale wells to the Mountain States after eight years of trying (see WV House Passes Forced Pooling Bill, Done Deal When Gov Signs). Shortly after passage, Gov. Jim Justice signed the bill into law. SB 694 went into effect on June 7, some 90 days following passage. However, two farmers from Brooke County sued Gov. Justice to overturn the new law claiming it is unconstitutional (see Landowners Sue to Block West Virginia’s New Forced Pooling Law). The lawsuit was thrown out last Wednesday.
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Last week MDN told you that three radical environmental groups challenging an air permit issued by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the Renovo Energy Center, a Marcellus-fired power plant in Clinton County, PA, won a partial summary judgment lowering the amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) the new plant can emit (see 
In a small but important victory against Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s effort to force the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax scheme, the PA Supreme Court on Wednesday opted not to overturn a Commonwealth Court decision that blocks the state from participating in RGGI until several lawsuits play out. The state Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), under Wolf’s thumb, argued the state should be allowed to enforce the new tax in advance of a resolution to the lawsuits. Nope. Not gonna happen. It now appears it will be early next year before RGGI can go into effect–if ever.
In May 2021, the radicals from PennFuture, the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, and the so-called Center for Biological Diversity (better named the Center for Leftwing Conformity) challenged an air permit issued by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the Renovo Energy Center, a Marcellus-fired power plant in Clinton County (northcentral), PA (see 
Antero Resources is one of the largest drillers in the Marcellus/Utica (with major assets in West Virginia). The company is the fifth largest natgas producer in the country and the second largest LNG exporter. It’s also one of our favorite Marcellus/Utica drillers. As good and careful as companies like Antero are when hiring, sometimes there’s a rotten apple found in the barrel. Such was the case with a former employee who headed up the company’s operations in WV–where most of its drilling happens. The former employee took bribes and kickbacks from a vendor over a period of years (2012-2015), steering contracts to that vendor. The vendor’s performance was not as good as other competitors. At the end of years of litigation, Antero has finally been awarded compensation from a jury, and a bit extra from a judge, to make up for the actions of their rogue employee.
You have to hand it to the wackadoodles of the Sierra Club–they sure are creative. They look for any way they can to block American fossil energy. They try to stop drilling for oil and gas via frack bans. They are behind many of the efforts to ban new customers from connecting to natural gas lines in “blue” cities (the ignorant fools fall into the trap almost every time). The Clubbers try to block the transportation of oil and gas by launching lawsuits against pipelines. And now, they are trying to block clean-burning American natural gas (far cleaner than any other gas extracted on the planet) from being exported to help our allies in Europe. The Clubbers and their radical brethren at a group called Healthy Gulf have challenged a “dredge and fill” permit granted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Driftwood LNG facility now under construction near Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Olympus Energy (formerly Huntley & Huntley) drills in the Greater Pittsburgh region, in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Last year Olympus filed an application to build a new well pad in a rural part of Allegheny County, in West Deer Township. So-called “concerned citizens” (anti-fossil fuel zealots) got amped up to oppose the rural project (see 
New York State’s Governor, Kathy Hochul, and Attorney General, Letitia James, issued virtually the same press release yesterday to announce they’ve killed yet another small business in New York State. In an amusing display of vanity, Hochul and James (both Democrats and political rivals, James wants Hochul’s position as Governor) issued slightly different versions of the same press release, each putting her own name first in the release. The release says James R. Lee and his corporate affiliates–Lee Oil Company, Inc., Whitesville Producing Corporation, Whitesville Production Corp., Allegro Oil & Gas Inc., and Allegro Investments Corporation–owned or operated hundreds of oil wells in Steuben and Cattaraugus counties. A state lawsuit claimed some 400 of those wells were not properly plugged. The state won a $2 million judgment against Lee and his companies for lack of compliance, the biggest such award in state history related to plugging old wells.
In January 2020, the retirement systems for public employees of various municipalities, including the Allegheny County (PA) Employees’ Retirement System, filed a lawsuit against Energy Transfer and subsidiary Sunoco Logistics alleging top management made false and misleading statements about the construction of three Mariner East 2 and the Revolution natural gas pipeline projects in Pennsylvania. The lawsuit alleges because of those statements, the share price of their stock fell, and investors lost a boatload of money. In April 2021, the lawsuit survived a motion to dismiss by Energy Transfer (see 
Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s (TGP) plan to flow more Marcellus gas to Westchester County, NY, and New York City, to be used for Consolidated Edison customers, is called the East 300 Upgrade Project. The East 300 project took a giant leap forward in April when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued permits that allow TGP to upgrade two existing compressor stations (in PA), and build a brand new compressor station in West Milford (Passaic County, NJ), just across the border and not far from Westchester County (see 
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (Traitor Joe) from West Virginia made a huge gamble in agreeing to vote for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Manchin got an agreement from Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to allow a vote on a separate bill sometime in the fall that will help the stalled 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline (94% done) to get completed. The gamble is that Pelosi will actually allow a vote and, if so, that she will use her iron fist to ensure it passes. Legal experts have reviewed the “deal” Manchin made with the devil and conclude it’s far from certain MVP will finish.
Gas Field Specialists, headquartered in Potter County, PA, is an oilfield services (OFS) company that works in the Marcellus Shale in northern Pennsylvania. The company also does OFS work in western New York State. According to a settlement reached with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Gas Field Specialists will pay a former employee (rig worker/mechanic) $184,000 after firing him because he had cancer.