Mealey's Fracking : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Fracking

December 06, 2022
Wyoming Sues Federal Agency For Violating Law By Not Holding Fracking Lease Sales

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The state of Wyoming has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in Wyoming federal court contending that its cancellation of federal oil and gas lease sales for hydraulic fracturing in Wyoming was “arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law.”
December 05, 2022
Federal Review Of Fracking Permits Was Insufficient, N.D. Tribe Tells 8th Circuit

ST. LOUIS — Federal government officials “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in approving permits for a non-Indian energy company’s hydraulic fracturing well project along Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota on the reservation of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) Nation, the tribe says in an opening brief in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging a summary judgment ruling for the government defendants.
December 05, 2022
Los Angeles City Council Bans New Oil Wells, Lets Current Ones Remain For 20 Years

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council in a unanimous vote with three council members absent on Dec. 2 passed a resolution banning new oil wells and calling for existing wells to cease operation within the next 20 years.
December 02, 2022
Study: Fracking Affects Water Sources, Constituting Threat To Aquatic Ecosystems

ADA, Ohio — A research study conducted by a team at Ohio Northern University that was provided to Mealey Publications on Dec. 1 finds that excessive withdrawals of water in the Ohio River basin for the purpose of hydraulic fracturing operations constitute a threat to aquatic ecosystems.
December 01, 2022
U.S. Driller Says Slovak Republic Hindered Investment, Causing $568M In Damages

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Nov. 30 published a U.S. oil company’s memorial asserting that the Slovak Republic caused it to lose more than $568.2 million in potential profits by failing to remove protesters from a work site and imposing unnecessary regulatory requirements, thereby indirectly expropriating its investment.
November 30, 2022
Company To Pay $16.29M To Fix Water Polluted By Pennsylvania Fracking Operation

MONTROSE, Pa. — Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Nov. 29 announced that hydraulic fracturing company Coterra Energy Inc. will pay $16.29 million for the construction of new public water supply lines in Dimock Township after it pleaded no contest to charges that it committed environmental crimes related to discharging methane into local groundwater.
November 29, 2022
Judge Seeks Joint Solution From Wisconsin Tribe, Enbridge In Pipeline Nuisance Row

MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin Indian tribe and the operators of a crude oil and natural gas pipeline were ordered by a federal judge on Nov. 28 to meet and come up with a joint plan to deal with a possible rupture of the pipe at a river crossing on the tribe’s reservation.
November 29, 2022
Group Argues Fracking Lease Case Against Federal Agency Is Not Moot

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An environmental group has filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that its lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) related to the federal lease sale for hydraulic fracturing in the Gulf of Mexico is not moot because, contrary to the DOI’s argument, the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) does not affect a court’s ability to grant effective relief for the claims in the case, and it is silent on the central question in the appeal.
November 28, 2022
Company Says Fracking Operator Cites No Authority In Attempt To Nix Royalty Case

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A hydraulic fracturing operator filed a brief in Ohio federal court arguing that it should deny another fracking company’s motion for summary judgment on all claims in a breach of contract case related to two assignments of overriding royalty interests (ORRI) in oil and gas deposits because the other company cites no authority for its position.
November 23, 2022
Companies Remove Fracking Case And Say Other Defendant Was Fraudulently Joined

WHEELING, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing company has removed to West Virginia federal court a royalty dispute brought by a mineral rights owner who seeks a declaration from the district court that he is the lawful owner of the oil and gas rights under a specific estate and is therefore entitled to all related royalty payments.
November 23, 2022
Fracking Company Asks 9th Circuit To Let It Intervene In Federal Lease Dispute

SAN FRANCISCO — A hydraulic fracturing operator has filed an opening brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that an environmental group that is challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) approval of 667 fracking leases is also attempting to deny the operator’s due process rights to defend their specific leases. The operator argues that it is a necessary party to the litigation.
November 23, 2022
Groups Seek To Intervene In Case Over Dimensions Of National Monuments

SALT LAKE CITY — Environmental advocacy groups on Nov. 22 moved in Utah federal court seeking to intervene in a lawsuit pertaining to the dimensions of two national monuments, arguing that it is entitled to intervention as a matter of right under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a) because the size of the monuments has implications for potential hydraulic fracturing activity in the region.
November 22, 2022
Chevron: Fracking Ban Is Not A True Land Use Regulation; Justification Lacking

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Chevron U.S.A. Inc. has filed a brief in California Supreme Court arguing that a local ordinance banning hydraulic fracturing is “not a true land use regulation in the relevant sense” and contending that the environmental groups who filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the measure fail to identify any “locality-specific land use justifications” for the ban.
November 22, 2022
Federal Agency: Landowners’ U.S. Supreme Court Pipeline Challenge Lacks Merit

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court contending that it should not review a petition filed by landowners who oppose a hydraulic fracturing pipeline on grounds that the petition lacks merit and does not conflict with precedent.
November 21, 2022
Jurisdiction Is Lacking, Federal Agencies Say, In Mineral Rights Dispute

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has moved in Wyoming federal court seeking to dismiss an oil company’s complaint that it has the right to drill a traversing well through a tract of federal land belonging to the BLM without getting its permission because the surface owner has granted the oil company an easement. The BLM argues that the lawsuit is not ripe and that there is no longer a live controversy.
November 21, 2022
Mineral Rights Owner: Fracking Operator Broke Contract By Drilling Horizontal Well

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A company that owns oil and gas mineral rights has sued a hydraulic fracturing operator and a drilling contractor in Ohio federal court contending that it illegally produced gas by drilling into a shale formation underneath the company’s property for which the operator did not possess a permit.
November 14, 2022
Mineral Rights Company Says Fracking Operator Failed To Pay Royalties Properly

BISMARCK, N.D. — A company that owns hydraulic fracturing mineral rights sued a fracking operator on Nov. 14 in North Dakota federal court, contending that it is liable for failing to pay mineral owners statutory interest on payments when the company is late in paying them the royalties they are owed.
November 14, 2022
U.S. Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling Favoring Worker Fired By Fracking Company

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 14 decided not to hear a case in which a federal appellate court denied a hydraulic fracturing company’s petition for rehearing en banc related to its previous ruling that the company violated federal law when it terminated the employment of three workers during the COVID-19 pandemic without providing advance notice.
November 10, 2022
Family Says Fracking Operators Polluted Drinking Water With PFAS, Other Chemicals

WASHINGTON, Pa. — A family in Pennsylvania has sued hydraulic fracturing companies in state court contending that they are liable for contaminating their drinking water with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and exposing them to radioactive material from drilling activities in wells located on the family’s property.
November 09, 2022
In A Precedential Ruling, 3rd Circuit Denies Nuns’ RFRA Challenge To Pipeline

PHILADELPHIA — In a precedential opinion, a panel of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 8 ruled that a lawsuit brought by Roman Catholic nuns who opposed a hydraulic fracturing pipeline underneath the grounds of their property pursuant to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) constituted an impermissible collateral attack on the certificate granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) because the order’s claim should have been raised with the commission.
November 07, 2022
Group Tells 10th Circuit Air Quality Rules Failed To Consider Fracking Emissions

DENVER — The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of air quality standards for the Denver Metro Area that were submitted by the Colorado Department of Public Health (CDPH) on grounds that they failed to address the effects of hydraulic fracturing emissions.
November 07, 2022
Investor Seeks To Compel Inspection Of Records Connected To Fracking Merger

WILMINGTON, Del. — An investor has filed a complaint in Delaware state court seeking to compel the inspection of books and records pertaining to a proposed merger between a well services company and a hydraulic fracturing operator, contending that the documents are needed to ascertain whether members of the well services company were motived by their own self-interests when they pursued the transaction in question.
November 04, 2022
Judge Axes Some Claims By Fracking Groups Related To Pause Of Federal Leases

LAKE CHARLES, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana, in response to a report and recommendation by a magistrate judge, on Nov. 3 partially dismissed a lawsuit brought by hydraulic fracturing trade groups that argue that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) violated federal law by not holding regular fracking lease sales.
November 04, 2022
Judge Says Certification Of Fracking Royalty Payment Class Is ‘Impractical’

DENVER — A federal judge in Colorado has denied class certification for plaintiffs who sued multiple hydraulic fracturing companies seeking payment related to surface owner royalties, ruling that although the plaintiffs stand to gain “millions of dollars,” some absent members of the putative class benefit from the status quo and stand to lose from the payment methodology the class asserts. He also ruled that joinder was “impractical.”
November 03, 2022
Groups Oppose Agencies’ ‘Flawed’ Reaffirmation Of Trump-Era Fracking Decisions

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Native American group and environmental advocacy organizations have filed a petition in New Mexico federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its decision to reaffirm the “flawed authorization” of the Trump administration that issued hydraulic fracturing leases for 42 parcels of land and approved approximately 120 applications for permit to drill (APDs).