Litigation

Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | PennEast Pipeline | Pipelines | Regulation

The War to Build PennEast Pipeline Continues
November 15, 2018November 15, 2018

It’s been almost a year since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted final approval for the PennEast Pipeline project, a $1 billion, 120-mile natgas pipeline that will stretch from northeast PA to the Trenton area of New Jersey (see FERC Grants Final Approval for PennEast Pipe – Real Battle Begins). DTE Energy’s NEXUS Pipeline, a 255-mile pipeline from Columbia County in Ohio to Southern Michigan, received its FERC approval around the same time. NEXUS is already built and flowing, PennEast hasn’t turned the first shovelful of dirt yet. What’s going on?
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

EQT Tries to Gut WV 1982 Minimum Royalty Law for Flat Rate Leases
November 14, 2018November 14, 2018

EQT certainly isn’t following Dale Carnegie’s advice on How to Win Friends and Influence People. Just the opposite, as the company continues to squeeze every last penny it can out of landowners’ pockets who hold old “flat rate” leases in West Virginia. We’ve reported on EQT’s efforts to overturn WV’s Senate Bill (SB) 360, passed earlier this year and signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice (see EQT Still Fighting WV Minimum Royalty Law for Flat Rate Leases). That law disallows post-production deductions for flat rate leases, ensuring landowners receive a minimum 12.5% royalty. In April, EQT sued to overturn the original law, from 1982, on which SB 360 rests–the law that guarantees a 12.5% royalty. Get rid of the original law, and the later law (disallowing deductions) disappears too.
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Energy Companies | EQT Corp | Industrywide Issues | Lease & Royalty Payments | Litigation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Class Action Against EQT re Royalty Deductions Heads to Court
November 13, 2018November 13, 2018

It’s been five years in the making, but finally a class action lawsuit that began in 2013, on behalf of 10,000 West Virginia landowners and royalty rights owners against EQT’s practice of deducting post-production expenses from royalty payments, will finally get its day in court in two weeks. That’s what we learn from an extended article published by ProPublica and the Charleston Gazette-Mail on the topic of WV drillers and their practice of “whittling away payments” from rights owners. Just over a month ago MDN told you about an elderly WV couple who won their private lawsuit against EQT on the same matter (see EQT Loses Post-Production Deduction Lawsuit to WV Couple). Based on the outcome of that lawsuit, EQT should be a tad nervous about this class action proceeding to trial.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Apex Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Westmoreland County

Anti Group Loses Penn Twp Frack Ban Case in PA Commonwealth Court
November 12, 2018November 12, 2018

The last time we checked in (June) on a brewing frack ban in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, a challenge to a local ordinance which allows Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley to drill and operate wells rested with a county judge. Things have since rapidly progressed. We’re guessing the local judge ruled in favor of allowing the wells to be drilled because the case was appealed to PA Commonwealth Court. Late last week the judges in Commonwealth Court issued a ruling in favor of Penn Township’s “special exception” permits awarded to Apex Energy, allowing them to drill shale wells.
Read More “Anti Group Loses Penn Twp Frack Ban Case in PA Commonwealth Court”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

9th Circuit Temporarily Halts Global Warming Lawsuit by 21 Kids
November 9, 2018November 9, 2018

Last Friday the supremely disappointing U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop a lawsuit brought by lawyers (ab)using a group of 21 children against the United States for not doing enough about mythical man-made global warming (see U.S. Supreme Court Allows Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids to Proceed). Both the Obama and Trump Dept. of Justice have asked various courts to stop this lunacy. The lawsuit aims to force the end of using all fossil fuels in the United States, to address so called man-made global warming. It would plunge our country back into the Stone Age, with people living short, brutish lives, should such a thing occur. But we digress. That case survived numerous challenges and was set to go to trial Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon when it was briefly paused by the Supremes. The case, as of last Friday, was back on. But now this: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has stepped in and temporarily stopped the lawsuit again–for the next 15 days.
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Brooke County | Electrical Generation | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Regulation | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Gas-Fired Power Plant
November 5, 2018November 5, 2018

ESC Brooke County power plant concept drawing

Last Thursday the West Virginia Supreme Court effectively ended opposition against building natural gas-fired power plants in the Mountain State. We’ve brought you a number of articles detailing how the coal lobby has tried its best, via numerous lawsuits, to block three Marcellus-fired power plants from getting built (see Murray Energy Continues to Block Gas-Fired Plants in WV). The final attempt to stop these projects is to challenge air permits issued by the WV Public Service Commission. Isn’t that rich? Coal objecting to air permits for natural gas electric plants, which pollute far less than coal. The WV Supreme Court took up a challenge by Big Coal (i.e. coal baron Robert Murray) against one of the projects located in Brooke County. Last week the Supremes ruled in favor of the gas-fired plant. Victory! So when will construction begin?
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

U.S. Supreme Court Allows Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids to Proceed
November 5, 2018November 9, 2018

The U.S. Supreme Court is a Supreme Disappointment. Lawyers representing (we’d call it mentally abusing and using) a group of 21 children filed a lawsuit in 2015 that aims to force the end of using all fossil fuels in the United States, to address so called man-made global warming. That case survived numerous challenges and was set to go to trial Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. The Trump Dept. of Justice petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the case from advancing to trial (see DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Stop Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids). Chief Justice John Roberts subsequently slapped a halt on the case and ordered both sides to give him more information (see U.S. Supreme Court Stops Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids, Temporarily). However, the Supremes, in a decision issued Friday, refused to dismiss the case. But all is not lost.
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Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Transco | Williams

Transco Wins “Precedential” Fed Court Decision to Use Eminent Domain
November 1, 2018November 1, 2018

Williams’ Transco Pipeline has just won a major eminent domain court case for its Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline project that will have implications for all pipelines. Yes, Atlantic Sunrise is now in the ground and flowing natural gas (see FERC Approves Atlantic Sunrise for Startup! Pipe Opens Sat. Oct. 6). However, a small group of landowners in Lancaster County opposed to Atlantic Sunrise resisted and would not allow Transco to build. So Transco sued and won a court order, based on the right of delegated eminent domain granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to immediately take possession of those properties and build the pipeline. The landowners continued to fight the order and the case eventually ended up in federal court.
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

2017 PA Enviro Rights Amendment Case Spawns New Drilling Lawsuits
October 30, 2018October 30, 2018

A panel discussion at last week’s Shale Insight event focused on a pair of Pennsylvania lawsuits that has the potential (indeed already is) changing the drilling landscape in PA. The first lawsuit discussed was the decision from June 2017–“Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” PEDF is an anti-fossil fuel group. They convinced the PA Supreme Court to issue a decision that tosses out a decades-old “balancing test” in decisions about drilling and instead said land-use and permitting decisions must now meet standards established by the state’s so-called Environmental Rights Amendment (ERA). The PEDF decision is creating big question marks for drillers and has spawned a flurry of lawsuits to define which standards to use. The second case discussed at Shale Insight was the “Briggs” case that tossed out the rule of capture in PA for shale drilling. Both cases have the potential to greatly limit Marcellus drilling in PA.
Read More “2017 PA Enviro Rights Amendment Case Spawns New Drilling Lawsuits”
Energy Services | Equitrans/EQT Midstream | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pipelines | Regulation | Statewide VA | Virginia

U.S. Supreme Court Asked to Hear MVP Eminent Domain Case
October 30, 2018October 30, 2018

A group of 13 landowners in Virginia whose property was force taken by Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) using eminent domain is appealing a case they already lost in federal court to the U.S. Supreme Court. The landowners claim MVP has taken private land–their land–to use for private/corporate gain and not (as the law requires) taken for a “public” benefit. Eminent domain allows the taking of private land for public benefit, but not taking private land for private benefit. The issue really revolves around the question of, What is a public benefit? Can a private company use government powers because what they provide benefits the public? The big question is, will the Supreme Court, which gets some 8,000 such appeals each year, make this appeal one of the 80 or so they consider?
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | CNX Resources | Energy Companies | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Westmoreland County

PA Antis Suffer Crushing Defeat in SWPA Zoning Case re ERA
October 29, 2018October 29, 2018

An important court case was decided on Friday in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court that potentially impacts all shale drilling in the state. You will recall that seven selfish towns sued the state over the 2012 Act 13 law and it’s provision that would substitute a statewide, uniform and fair set of zoning ordinances for drilling in place of a patchwork, crazy quilt system of local ordinances for oil and gas drilling. Seven selfish towns (including Robinson Township) wanted their own ordinances and sued, ultimately winning at the Supreme Court (see PA Supreme Court Rules Against State/Drillers in Act 13 Case). Since winning the “Robinson” case, antis have used local ordinances to try and block or greatly restrict drilling. But sometimes a town uses the Act 13 decision to allow drilling in more places. Antis don’t like it, but last Friday’s decision ratifies you can’t take one (restricting drilling) without the other (not restricting drilling), if that’s what a town wants to do.
Read More “PA Antis Suffer Crushing Defeat in SWPA Zoning Case re ERA”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Pipelines | Statewide OH | Williams

Williams Withholds Payment Forcing Pipeline Builder into Bankruptcy
October 24, 2018October 24, 2018

On Monday Welded Construction, a pipeline construction contractor headquartered in Perrysburg, OH, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because, they say, Williams is refusing to pay them $23.5 million for work completed, and that refusal/dispute leaked out into the marketplace and created a “liquidity crisis” (crisis of confidence) with other Welded customers and their projects. By filing for bankruptcy protection, Welded hopes to create “breathing room” and settle folks down and reassure them their projects are OK.
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American Water Management | Earthquakes | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Litigation | Ohio | Regulation | Trumbull County | Wastewater

ODNR Says Trumbull Injection Well Can Reopen with “Acceptable” Plan
October 23, 2018October 23, 2018

American Water Management Services (AWMS) owns a wastewater injection well in Trumbull County that supposedly caused a low-level earthquake (that nobody could feel) in 2014. Two wells located at the site, both operated by AWMS, were “temporarily” shut down by the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources following the quake (see ODNR Temporarily Shuts Down Injection Wells After Low-Level Quake). AWMS appealed the closure of the wells all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. ODNR is still trying to block one of the two wells from opening by saying AWMS *could* open the well–if they submit an acceptable (comprehensive) plan.
Read More “ODNR Says Trumbull Injection Well Can Reopen with “Acceptable” Plan”
Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Lancaster County | Litigation | Pennsylvania | Pipelines | Williams

Lancaster Nuns Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Pipeline Case
October 23, 2018October 23, 2018

The Sisters of the Corn (our name for the a group of nuns in Lancaster County, PA) are not giving up their hypocritical lawsuit against Williams for building the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline across their property. As we told you in September, the sisters planned to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case, claiming infringement of religious freedom (see Lancaster Nuns Appeal Atlantic Sunrise Pipe Case to US Supreme Court). The sisters made good and filed. Yesterday morning they held a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to try and catch a little more attention for their hypocritical case.
Read More “Lancaster Nuns Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Pipeline Case”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

U.S. Supreme Court Stops Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids, Temporarily
October 22, 2018October 22, 2018

On Friday we told you that the Trump Dept. of Justice had petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily stop a court case from advancing to trial next week (see DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Stop Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids). Lawyers representing a group of 21 children filed a lawsuit in 2015 that aims to force the end of using all fossil fuels in the United States, to address so called man-made global warming. That case survived numerous challenges and was set to go to trial Oct. 29 in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. But on Friday, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts slapped a halt on the case and ordered both sides to give him information by Wednesday of this week. So, we have progress. Still not reason to celebrate, but moving in the right direction.
Read More “U.S. Supreme Court Stops Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids, Temporarily”
Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Litigation

DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Stop Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids
October 19, 2018October 19, 2018

Lawyers representing a group of 21 children filed a lawsuit in 2015 that aims to force the end using all fossil fuels in the United States, to address so called man-made global warming (see Group of Kids Sues U.S. Govt to Force Action on “Climate Change”). In January 2017, the kids’ lawyers got to depose the incoming Secretary of State and former ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson (see Radicalized Kids Suing Over Global Warming to Depose Tillerson). In March of this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit refused to stop this charade (see 9th Circus Allows Climate Lawsuit by Radicalized Kids to Proceed). The Trump Administration continues to try and stop this nonsense. Yesterday the Dept. of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to put a hold on the case.
Read More “DOJ Asks Supreme Court to Stop Climate Lawsuit by 21 Kids”