PA DEP’s $8.9M Methane Migration Fine Appealed by Range Resources
Last June the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) sent Range Resource a notice they planned to fine the company a whopping $8.9 million for methane migration into water wells and a nearby stream in Lycoming County, PA (see PA DEP Slaps Range with Record $8.9M Fine for Methane Migration). The DEP said the Range well, drilled in 2011, had been leaking methane since at least 2013 (improperly cemented well casing) and the methane had “contaminated the groundwater-fed wells of private water supplies, and a nearby stream.” But the DEP never actually sent a bill for the fine to Range. Why? Because Range immediately appealed the DEP’s initial notice to the PA Environmental Hearing Board. It now appears the appeal process will drag on at least until the dog days of summer–in July…
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Yesterday Range Resources, the fourth largest driller in the Marcellus, announced the company is laying off 55 people companywide, with 31 of those positions located in Washington County, PA. Another 20 positions will be eliminated in Range’s home office located in Fort Worth, TX. Two of the jobs disappearing will be in Williamsport, PA, and the final two in Oklahoma. Range CEO Ray Walker used the same identical language he’s used twice before (lazy PR department?) in saying, “Low commodity prices have created a harsh reality that everyone in our industry is facing.” Indeed. The oil and gas industry is facing the toughest market it’s had in 30 years…
Here’s a story we LOVE bringing you. A Pennsylvania county judge, Senior Judge Brendan J. Vanston (Lycoming County), has just told an anti-driller to put up or shut up. Inflection Energy had been legally permitted to begin drilling a well in Loyalsock Township in Lycoming County. As they so often do, an anti-driller objected, filing an appeal to stop the drilling in an attempt to delay it by (ab)using the courts. The judge said, in essence, “OK, if you want to play this game, you need to put up $5.69 million as a bond–money you will lose if you don’t prove your frivolous case.” We predict the case will quickly disappear and Inflection will begin drilling…
Not long after she took office, Pennsylvania’s Democrat Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, brought criminal charges against XTO Energy for an accidental spill in Lycoming County, PA that happened two years before she was in office (see 
A major defeat for Pennsylvania’s anti-drilling groups, including THE Delaware Riverkeeper, was just handed down by the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in a Lycoming County zoning case. In Gorsline v. Board of Supervisors of Fairfield Township, anti-drilling neighbors, including Brian and Dawn Gorsline, Paul and Michele Batkowski and others (collectively “Gorsline”) sued to stop a conditional use permit granted by Fairfield Township to allow Inflection Energy to construct a well pad on the property of Donald and Eleanor Shaheen. The case was weak, but the lowest court in the PA court system–the Court of Common Pleas (i.e. county court)–said the ninny nanny neighbors had a right to strip away the Shaheen’s property rights to allow drilling on their own property. The PA Commonwealth Court obliterated the faulty reasoning of the lower court and has, significantly, redefined how courts should interpret the results of the Act 13 zoning lawsuit that allows local municipalities the right to restrict shale drilling. The Commonwealth Court decision (full copy below) has kicked the legal legs out from under those seeking to use an amicus brief filed by THE Delaware Riverkeeper in the Act 13 case…
Yesterday the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection announced an agreement/settlement with three Marcellus drillers operating in the northeastern portion of the state. The three–Chesapeake Energy, XTO Energy and SWEPI (i.e. Shell) were fined a collective $374,481 for methane migration related to their drilling activities at three locations (three different counties) in 2011 and 2012. The bad news is that 13 private water wells between the three incidents were negatively affected, along with several local creeks. The good news is that the problems are all fixed. Methane migration is an eminently fixable condition. Here are the details for each fine, including what happened and where it happened…
Yesterday MDN told you about the new, negative tone being set at the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection by its new leader, Sec. John Quigley, by fining Range Resources for a case of methane migration (see