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Mealey's Fracking

  • February 21, 2025

    Group’s Letter Notifies Trump Of Potential Litigation Over Energy Emergency Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) on Feb. 20 sent a letter to President Donald J. Trump to “hereby put you on formal notice of your violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act in connection with actions taken pursuant to Executive Order 14156 entitled ‘Declaring a National Energy Emergency.’”

  • February 20, 2025

    Groups Say Trump Violated Law By Reopening Continental Shelf To Fracking

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Environmental advocacy groups on Feb. 19 sued President Donald J. Trump and his administration in Alaska federal court, arguing that the president’s executive order reopening areas of the outer continental shelf for hydraulic fracturing violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which they say authorizes the president to withdraw unleased lands of the outer continental shelf from drilling but does not give the president the power to reopen areas that have been withdrawn.

  • February 19, 2025

    Trump Orders Creation Of National Energy Dominance Council

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump has issued an executive order establishing a National Energy Dominance Council, which will be chaired by the secretary of the Interior and will advise the president on “how best to exercise his authority to produce more energy to make America energy dominant.”  The order also makes the secretary of the Interior a standing member of the National Security Council (NSC) for the first time.

  • February 18, 2025

    Federal Agency Seeks To Hold Methane Rule Case In Abeyance, Cites Policy Changes

    BISMARCK, N.D. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has filed a brief in North Dakota federal court arguing that it should hold in abeyance a lawsuit over the implementation of a rule promulgated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) establishing standards for methane and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the oil and gas sector, saying that “given the changes in the policy of the United States over the last few weeks, Defendants respectfully request that the Court defer judicial review in this case in the interest of justice and efficiency.”

  • February 14, 2025

    Government Asks Federal Judge To Deny Tribe Intervention In Utah Fracking Case

    SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. and Utah governments asked a federal judge in Utah to deny a motion filed by the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation to intervene in a settled case involving Clean Air Act (CAA) violations at a fracking operator’s oil and gas production facilities on the tribe’s reservation, stating that the tribe makes the same argument it did during negotiations for a consent decree reached between the government and the operator and “does not meet the standard for intervention as of right or permissive intervention.”

  • February 11, 2025

    EPA Seeks Abeyance In Methane Tax Case To Sort Out Position In New Administration

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 10 filed a brief in Michigan federal court supporting his unopposed motion to hold in abeyance a case in which a business advocacy group and an oil and gas association challenge the constitutionality of the methane waste emissions charge levied under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The parties agree that, with the change in presidential administration, the EPA needs time to determine how it wishes to proceed in the case.

  • February 07, 2025

    North Dakota Seeks Ruling That Agencies Are Not Complying With Fracking Injunction

    BISMARCK, N.D. — The state of North Dakota has filed a brief in North Dakota federal court arguing that it should rule that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and other agencies are not fully complying with a preliminary injunction that the court issued in 2023 that enjoins and restrains the DOI from implementing its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing lease sales in the state.

  • February 07, 2025

    Panel: Marketable Title Act Did Not Extinguish Royalty Rights In Age-Old Dispute

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — In a complex dispute over royalty interests dating to 1900, an appeals panel in Ohio has held that a trial court correctly ruled against royalty holders who argued that the Ohio Marketable Title Act (MTA) had extinguished the rights of a competing group of royalty interest holders who hold title to the same tract of land.

  • February 06, 2025

    Groups: Federal Agency Violated Law With Fracking Permits For San Joaquin Valley

    FRESNO, Calif. — Environmental advocacy groups have sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other federal agencies in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to stop “unlawful permit approvals” for new oil and gas wells on public land in the San Joaquin Valley, which the groups say violate multiple federal laws.

  • February 06, 2025

    Bill Would Prohibit Presidents From Declaring A Moratorium On Hydraulic Fracturing

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bill introduced by a U.S. representative from Texas that would prohibit a president from declaring a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing without authorization by an act of Congress has been referred to two House committees for consideration.

  • February 05, 2025

    Justices Say Trial Court Erred In Ruling About Commencing Of Drilling Operations

    CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas appellate justices have reversed in part and remanded in part a case involving a breach of contract dispute, ruling that a trial court erred when it concluded that an oil and gas operator cannot breach a joint operating agreement (JOA) by failing to timely “actually commence” a proposed drilling operation.

  • February 05, 2025

    Secretary Of The Interior Orders Sweeping Changes In Bid For ‘Energy Dominance’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Keeping in step with the executive orders pertaining to energy development issued by President Donald J. Trump on his first day in office, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum officially started his tenure by issuing six orders designed to “unlock America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development” by identifying “immediately” all emergency and legal authorities available to “facilitate the identification, permitting, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, distribution, exporting and generation of domestic energy resources and critical minerals.”

  • February 04, 2025

    Senator Balks At Energy Secretary’s Approval, Wants Fossil Fuel Heads Barred

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Feb. 3 issued a press release condemning the Senate’s confirmation of Chris Wright to be the secretary of Energy in the second administration of President Donald J. Trump, saying “Chris Wright is a bought-and-paid-for fossil fuel industry executive and hasn’t met a tract of land or aquifer of water he wouldn’t despoil through fracking.”  The senator has introduced a bill that would prohibit the appointment of former fossil fuel executive officers and fossil fuel lobbyists from serving as the heads of certain governmental departments.

  • February 04, 2025

    Nearly 9 Years Later, Judge Denies As Moot Delaware River Basin Fracking Case

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Feb. 3 granted a motion to dismiss and held that a long-running dispute over hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River Basin (DRB) is moot on grounds the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has instituted a comprehensive ban on fracking in the DRB.

  • February 04, 2025

    Fracking Defendants Say Water Contamination Plaintiffs Fail To Plead Viable Claims

    PITTSBURGH — Two defendants in a class action over allegations that fracking waste fluid has contaminated residents’ water supply have filed a reply brief in support of their motions to dismiss in Pennsylvania federal court, arguing that the plaintiffs have not pleaded, and cannot plead, any viable claims against them.

  • January 31, 2025

    Petitioners Seek High Court Review Of Fracking-Related Antitrust Conspiracy Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Petitioners are seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of a ruling by a federal appellate panel that affirmed a lower court’s decision and determined that the petitioners did not plead sufficient facts at the trial level to establish a plausible antitrust conspiracy on the part of certain shale oil producers with regard to allegations that they colluded to fix oil prices to control the cost of gasoline in violation of the Sherman Act.

  • January 29, 2025

    Judge With History Of Not Recusing Himself In Fracking Cases Erred, Panel Says

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appellate panel has ruled that a trial court judge erred in not recusing himself from a mineral rights dispute due to his personal and pecuniary interest in the case, which “presents the appearance of impropriety,” and which the panel said has been a pattern for this particular judge in other litigation involving hydraulic fracturing company EQT Production Co.

  • January 28, 2025

    High Court Gets Letter About President’s Energy Order As It Decides Fracking Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates following oral arguments held in a case about whether the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires a federal agency to study the environmental consequences of projects beyond the proximate effects caused by the specific action over which that agency has regulatory authority in relation to the construction of a hydraulic fracturing railway project in Utah, the acting solicitor general has sent a letter to the justices stating that “because of federal respondent’s invocation of the [Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)] regulations, we wish to inform the Court that, on January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order” titled “Unleashing American Energy,” which requires the chairman of the CEQ to move toward rescinding the CEQ’s NEPA regulations.

  • January 27, 2025

    Oil, Gas Royalty Settlement Objectors Brief 10th Circuit On Attorney Fee Challenge

    DENVER — A trial court in approving more than $17.3 million in attorney fees as part of a $52 million oil and gas royalty settlement ignored the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling in Strack v. Continental Resources, which requires percentage-based common fund fee awards to be tested by a lodestar cross-check, and failed to follow the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals mandate to apply controlling Oklahoma law, objectors argue in separate appellant briefs filed in the 10th Circuit.

  • January 24, 2025

    Judge Nixes Company’s Bid To End Fracking Case, Says Material Questions Exist

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied an oil company’s motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit alleging it is liable for an injury sustained by a worker at a hydraulic fracturing well pad, ruling that “the self-serving evidence submitted by the parties is insufficient to show that there are no questions of material fact” in the case.

  • January 22, 2025

    Panel Partially Reverses Mineral Rights Ruling Based On Reading Of 1948 Deed

    CINCINNATI — A panel of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has partially reversed and remanded a lower court’s decision in a long-running and complex mineral rights dispute, ruling that the reasoning that found in favor of the defendant, Gulfport Energy Corp., on its claim to the rights on a 165-acre tract of land was “mistaken” based on the language of the 1948 deed.

  • January 21, 2025

    Fracking Proponents Say Alaska Lease Appeal ‘Moot’ In Light Of Agency’s Report

    SAN FRANCISCO — Hydraulic fracturing proponents who sued the Biden administration over the delay caused by a temporary halt of the hydraulic fracturing lease program in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska moved in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss their appeal on Jan. 20 on grounds that the final record of decision (ROD) for ANWR’s Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Program issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on Dec. 8 “completed DOI’s supplemental environmental review and expressly lifts the Moratorium for the oil and gas program rendering all claims in this appeal moot.”

  • January 21, 2025

    President Trump’s Orders Reopen Arctic To Fracking, Call For ‘Unleashing’ Energy

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Of the many executive orders President Donald J. Trump issued Jan. 20, three of them pertained to energy policy, with one declaring a national energy emergency, one rescinding the cancellation of hydraulic fracturing leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and another “unleashing American energy” by encouraging energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including on the Outer Continental Shelf.

  • January 16, 2025

    Abandoned Wells, Groundwater Case Is Valid Based On Fraud Allegation, Judge Says

    DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado has denied two motions to dismiss a lawsuit over abandoned hydraulic fracturing wells that the plaintiffs contend pose a threat to human health and have the potential to contaminate groundwater, ruling that the plaintiffs have “sufficiently alleged fraud with particularity” against the company and its principals.

  • January 10, 2025

    Fracking Operator Says Fine Of Nearly $5.9M Violates Its Constitutional Rights

    DENVER — A hydraulic fracturing operator has sued the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) in state court arguing that it should not have to pay $5,897,892.10 in penalties related to notices of violation issued by the ECMC because “the extreme breadth” of the order calling for the penalties “violates the Commission’s mandate to regulate oil and gas activity to protect the public health, safety, welfare and the environment in a ‘reasonable manner.’”