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Mealey's Fracking

  • November 27, 2024

    States, Energy Companies Tell D.C. Circuit EPA Methane Rule Violates Federal Law

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Multiple states have filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the “presumptive standards” for existing sources listed in the 2024 methane rule instituted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency violate the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by “diminishing the States’ statutory authority” to create their own plans that consider their specific circumstances, including “the remaining useful life” of chemical facilities within their borders.  The same day, members of the energy sector also filed a brief contending that the EPA’s standard is “unlawful and arbitrary and capricious.”

  • November 26, 2024

    High Court To Review Delegated Oversight Of Telecommunications Subsidies

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has granted two petitions for a writ of certiorari and consolidated cases concerning whether Congress violated the nondelegation doctrine by authorizing the Federal Communications Commission to delegate a subsidy program to a private entity, both arising out of the en banc Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that the program violates the “private nondelegation doctrine.”

  • November 22, 2024

    Delay Over Alaska Fracking Leases Was ‘Reasonable,’ Biden Administration Says

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Biden administration has filed a response brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that 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 was “reasonable and necessary to ensure the program’s compliance with” the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), adding that Congress imposed no specific deadlines for lease sales in the Tax Act.

  • November 22, 2024

    Standing Debated At Length As Judges Hear Arguments On Fracking Permit Challenge

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys for environmental groups, the U.S. government and hydraulic fracturing operators on Nov. 21 debated before the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals the issue of whether the groups had standing to challenge federal fracking permits in New Mexico’s Permian Basin and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, with the groups insisting that they have alleged plausible injury, and the government and the fracking proponents maintaining that Congress has granted federal agencies authority to grant applications for permits to drill (APDs).

  • November 20, 2024

    Fracking Railway Petitioner, Government Say Lower Court Ruling Must Be Reversed

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The petitioners who seek reversal of a lower court ruling that held that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) failed to adequately examine the risk of wildfires and the impact on groundwater posed by the construction of a proposed rail line in Utah that would carry products related to hydraulic fracturing to and from the shale formation in the Uinta Basin have filed a reply brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that reversal of the lower court’s decision is required because that ruling “went well beyond the project’s legal relevant effects and demanded consideration of non-proximate and non-environmental effects.”  The same day, the U.S. government filed a reply brief that supports the petitioners but differs slightly in that it argues that the petitioners “go too far to the extent they ask this Court to impose the same standard of proximate cause that applies in tort suits.”

  • November 19, 2024

    Texas Panel Dismisses Oil Rig Injury Case For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    HOUSTON — A Texas appellate panel has ruled that a trial court could not exercise general jurisdiction over the case of a man who sued an oil rig operator for personal injuries, saying the companies in question were not “essentially at home” in Texas and, therefore, the case is dismissed.

  • November 18, 2024

    Parties Reach $6.5M Deal To Plug Abandoned Wells, Settle Protracted Dispute

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia has granted preliminary approval to a $6.5 million class settlement in a protracted dispute over abandoned wells between hydraulic fracturing operators and landowners, with the deal calling for the fracking defendants to plug 2,600 wells across West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Tennessee through the end of 2034.

  • November 13, 2024

    Under Proposed Rule, EPA Would Collect Annual Charge On Methane Emissions

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 12 announced that it has issued a proposed final rule promulgating a regulation to facilitate compliance with the requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA), also known as the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP), under which the EPA will collect an annual charge on methane emissions that exceed waste emissions thresholds specified by Congress.

  • November 12, 2024

    U.S. High Court Grants Motion To Divide Argument In Fracking Railway Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 12 granted the federal government’s motion for divided argument in a case in which petitioners seek reversal of a lower court ruling that held that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) failed to adequately examine the risk of wildfires and the impact on groundwater posed by the construction of a proposed rail line in Utah that would carry products related to hydraulic fracturing to and from the shale formation in the Uinta Basin. However, the Supreme Court denied a motion for divided argument filed by the respondent. The Court did not elaborate on its decision.

  • November 08, 2024

    Biden Administration Opposes Bid To Stay Alaska Coastal Plain Fracking Case

    SAN FRANCISCO — The Biden administration on Nov. 7 filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opposing a motion by drilling proponents in a long-running, complex dispute over hydraulic fracturing in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska who want to hold their own appeal in abeyance.  The administration argues that “it makes little sense to hold this appeal in abeyance when its resolution may help resolve issues that could arise in subsequent litigation.”

  • November 08, 2024

    Panel: Verdict For Fracking In Well Damage Case Stands; Injunction Not Warranted

    WOODSFIELD, Ohio — An appellate panel in Ohio has affirmed a jury verdict in favor of a hydraulic fracturing company for harm to its mineral rights interests caused by a salt brine well operator, ruling that the evidence showed that the well operator knew that its activity could cause the injury in question.  The panel also upheld the trial court’s decision not to award punitive damages or issue a permanent injunction, finding that the instruction on malice was properly given to the jury.

  • November 07, 2024

    Report: 400,000 Acres To Be Available For Fracking In Alaska’s Coastal Plain

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Nov. 6 released the final supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) for hydraulic fracturing in the Coastal Plain of Alaska, which calls for 400,000 acres, the minimum required under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017(Tax Act), to be offered for fracking in the northwest portion of the Coastal Plain.

  • November 07, 2024

    Company Asserts Lease Rights To Access Property For Oil And Gas Operations

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — An energy company sued a revocable trust in Ohio federal court on Nov. 7 arguing that it has the right to access a property held by the trust for the construction and installation of a gathering pipeline under an oil and gas lease.

  • November 07, 2024

    3rd Circuit: Fracking Royalties Were Not Underpaid Based On Lease Interpretation

    PHILADELPHIA — A panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling in a hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute, concluding that royalties were not underpaid based on the proper interpretation of the lease agreements involved.

  • November 06, 2024

    San Diego Sues Oil Companies For Colluding, Conspiring To Fix Gas Prices

    SAN DIEGO — The city of San Diego has sued Hess Corp. and other oil and gas companies in California federal court contending that they violated antitrust laws when they engaged in a conspiracy to raise and fix the price of crude oil, which keeps gasoline prices at an artificially high level in the United States.

  • November 05, 2024

    Group: Companies Conspired To Fix Prices By Restricting Supply Of Oil

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A group of individuals and businesses on Nov. 4 sued oil and gas producers in New Mexico federal court seeking damages for engaging in a “conspiracy to coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production, which has had the effect of fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of crude oil, and thereby the price paid by end-users of oil-derivative products, including but not limited to gasoline,” in violation of the Sherman Act and numerous state antitrust and unfair competition laws.

  • October 30, 2024

    Energy Companies Debate Deeds, Mineral Rights At 6th Circuit

    CINCINNATI — Energy companies involved in a mineral rights dispute presented oral arguments on Oct. 30 before the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, debating whether documents pertaining to a 165-acre tract established that the oil and gas beneath its surface was reserved, in light of the fact that the rights were reserved for a neighboring related tract.

  • October 30, 2024

    Objectors Appeal $17.3M Attorney Fees Award In Settled Oil, Gas Royalty Class Suit

    OKLAHOMA CITY — Two objectors in an oil and gas royalty payments class lawsuit that has gone on for more than a dozen years and that was settled for $52 million filed two separate notices of appeal after a federal judge in Oklahoma granted a renewed motion for $17,333,333 in attorney fees.

  • October 30, 2024

    Amicus Briefs Endorse Fracking Railway Ruling; 1 Cites Chevron Deference Reversal

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Eight amicus curiae briefs and two motions for divided argument have been filed in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case in which petitioners seek reversal of a lower court ruling that held that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) failed to adequately examine the risk of wildfires and the impact on groundwater posed by the construction of a proposed rail line in Utah that would carry products related to hydraulic fracturing to and from the shale formation in the Uinta Basin.  The Constitutional Accountability Center filed an amicus brief in support of the respondents, arguing that in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which reversed what is known as Chevron deference, the Supreme Court should reject the petitioners’ interpretation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

  • October 24, 2024

    Fracking Royalty Owners Seek Class Certification, Say Case Is Not Too Complex

    WHEELING, W.Va. — The plaintiffs who are suing Southwestern Energy Co. and Southwestern Production Co. LLC (collectively, Southwestern) alleging that they paid diminished royalty payments regarding hydraulic fracturing mineral rights have filed a reply brief in West Virginia federal court in support of a motion for class certification, contending that Southwestern takes “a time-honored but unremarkable approach in its argument, largely insisting that this case is far more complex than it really is and that untold numbers of individualized inquiries requiring endless ‘mini-trials’ stand firmly in the way of certifying the proposed class.”

  • October 22, 2024

    Fracking Operator To Pay $9.4M To Settle Emissions Case Brought By EPA, New Mexico

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a $9.4 million settlement with a hydraulic fracturing operator to resolve violations of new federal standards under the Clean Air Act (CAA) related to toxic emissions from crude oil and natural gas facilities and to settle claims brought under the state administrative code of New Mexico.

  • October 21, 2024

    Parties’ Supreme Court Briefs Debate Duty Under NEPA Related To Fracking Railway

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Colorado county on Oct. 18 filed a respondent’s brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that the petitioners that want it to reverse a lower court ruling that held that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) failed to adequately examine the risk of wildfires and the impact on groundwater posed by the construction of a proposed rail line in Utah that would carry products related to hydraulic fracturing to and from the shale formation in the Uinta Basin and now ask the Supreme Court to impose limits on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) “that have no basis in its text whatsoever.”  The same day, environmental groups filed their respondents’ brief contending that the lower court reached a “sensible result” and reversal is not warranted.

  • October 07, 2024

    U.S. High Court Denies Stay Of EPA Methane Rule Sought By States, Energy Sector

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 4 issued a combined order denying two related applications to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. by some states and members of the energy sector asking the court to stay the 2024 methane rule instituted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

  • October 07, 2024

    2 California Municipalities: Energy Companies Conspired To Violate Antitrust Law

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two California municipalities sued multiple oil and gas companies in New Mexico federal court contending that they have engaged in a conspiracy with Wall Street investors, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and others to restrict the production of crude oil, which the municipalities say constitutes a “per se unlawful restraint of trade under numerous state antitrust and competition laws.”

  • October 04, 2024

    Fracking Advocate Seeks Ruling That Lease Cancellation In Alaska Was Unlawful

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An organization that supports hydraulic fracturing has filed a reply brief in Alaska federal court arguing that it is entitled to summary judgment on its claims that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) decision to cancel federal fracking leases in the Coastal Plain of Alaska was unlawful and was based on pretext.