Both Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) are facing an existential threat from the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circus.
Read More “Leftist Judges on the 4th Circus Put ACP, MVP Pipes in Peril”
In late December, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that so-called “stripper wells” can be taxed under the 2012 Act 13 law, slapped with an impact fee assessment if those wells produce more than 90 thousand cubic feet per day (Mcf/d) of gas in a single month, any month (see PA Supreme Court Rules Strippers Not Exempt from Impact Fee)?
Read More “PA Supreme Court Tires of Strippers – Turns Down PIOGA Request”
We spotted a write-up on a recent court decision coming from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in which a West Virginia landowner had a signed Marcellus lease requiring PetroEdge (later Statoil) to drill three wells on or under their property. And yet the courts have sided with the driller, essentially allowing the driller to wiggle out of the terms of the lease.
Read More “Fed Court Says WV Driller Doesn’t Have to Produce Gas to Keep Lease”
On the morning of October 27, Marc Jones, an employee of Deep Well Services, was working at a Shell well pad in Tioga County, PA when “a large piece of equipment fell on him, pinning him to the platform 65 feet in the air where he was standing” (see Accident Kills Rig Worker on Shell Well Pad in Tioga County, PA). The blunt force trauma, hitting him in the head, killed him.
Read More “Family of Worker Killed at Tioga County, PA Well Pad Sues Shell”
In 1990 a landowner freely sold (rather than have taken by eminent domain) land in Lawrence County to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for a new highway project. In 2012 the landowner filed a lawsuit claiming when selling the land, she did not sell the mineral rights. She wants to lease under the property for shale drilling. Yesterday Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania denied her request.
Read More “Do PA Landowners Retain Mineral Rights When Selling Land to State?”
This is super sleazy. You might want to put on a rain slicker to keep the crap from sticking to you as you read it. Last week Chester County, PA commissioners asked to join a lawsuit against Sunoco’s Mariner East pipeline projects. The commissioners also voted to end easements allowing Sunoco access to the pipeline as it runs through county property, access needed so they could do work on it.
Read More “Chester County Commissioner Uses Pipeline Lawsuit as Fundraiser”
You can feel the excitement and anticipation building. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the Constitution Pipeline from northeast Pennsylvania into central New York in 2014, more than four years ago. This year, 2019, may be the year construction finally begins–and the year antis who have fought this pipeline every inch of the way finally LOSE.
Read More “Exciting! DC Circuit Passes Constitution Pipe Case Back to FERC”
Anti fossil fuel freaks have scored a victory in reducing the amount of electricity available to New Jersey’s southern shore area (rolling blackouts anyone?). There was a plan to convert a now-closed coal-fired electric generating plant to use natural gas, fed to it by a new (very short) pipeline.
Read More “Cape May NatGas Power Plant Dead – Scrub Pines Pipeline Too?”
The light at the end of the tunnel for Constitution Pipeline just got brighter. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to pass the ball back to them so they can reconsider whether or not to overrule New York State’s blockage of a permit for the Constitution. FERC’s action signals they may be ready to rule against NY and allow Constitution to begin construction.
Read More “FERC Signals it May Overrule NY to Allow Constitution Pipe”
Dominion Energy has about had it up to *here* with the clown judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circus. Dominion asked for all of the judges sitting on the Fourth Circuit to rehear a case that blocks the pipeline from drilling *under* the Appalachian Trail because of a lawsuit brought by colluding Big Green groups trying to kill the entire project. The clowns refused.
Read More “Dominion Appealing Atlantic Coast Pipe Case to U.S. Supreme Court”
We’ve written extensively over the years about the Ohio Dormant Minerals Act (DMA) and even about the Ohio Marketable Titles Act (MTA), both of which impact Utica shale rights. There has been an ongoing question of whether or not the MTA can be used to return previously severed mineral rights back to a surface landowner. The answer to that question appears to have been rendered in a court decision made earlier this month.
Read More “OH Court Says Marketable Title Act Applies to O&G Rights”
NEXUS Pipeline, a $2.6 billion, 255-mile interstate pipeline that runs from Ohio into Michigan, has been fully online for the past four months (see More of NEXUS Pipe Goes Online, FERC Approves Compressors). Yet anti-fossil fuel groups continue to litigate and try to shut it down. One such lawsuit was just tossed by one federal court, and another lawsuit just filed briefs in a different federal court.
Read More “Fed Court Tosses One NEXUS Lawsuit, Hears Another”
Big Green insanity continues at the so-called Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF). The only thing they “defend” is their own twisted philosophy of trying to gouge out the eyes of the oil and gas industry in PA–even at the expense of de-funding their own beloved PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR).
Read More “PEDF Once Again Demands Court Gut Funding for PA DCNR”
There had been an ongoing legal squabble in Trumbull County, OH over a proposed Utica gas-fired electric plant in Lordstown, located next door to another gas-fired plant (see Squabbling Over 2nd Lordstown Utica-Fired Elec Plant Near an End). The squabbling ended Friday when the two sides agreed to settle their differences.
Read More “Legal Dispute Resolved for 2nd Lordstown Utica-Fired Elec Plant”
In November seven anti-pipeline residents of Chester and Delaware counties (Philadelphia suburbs) filed a lawsuit against the Mariner East pipeline projects–1, 2 and 2X–alleging the pipelines are unsafe. It didn’t take long for others to jump on the litigation bandwagon:
Read More “Delaware County Asks to Join Lawsuit Against Mariner East Pipes”
PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a sleazy politician, is investigating so-called environmental “crimes” committed by shale companies in a bid to boost his chances of being the next nominee to run for governor (see PA AG Investigates Shale Drillers for “Enviro Crimes”). One of Shapiro’s sham investigations is into Range Resources and the long-ago settled “Haney” court case.
Read More “PA AG Continues Marcellus Witch Hunt, Impanels Grand Jury”