Mealey's Fracking
-
April 26, 2022
Lender Sues Fracking Company For Breach Of Contract In Failing To Pay Fee
DENVER — A financial organization sued a hydraulic fracturing company on April 25 in Colorado federal court alleging that the company breached a loan contract by failing to remit a success fee to the lender.
-
April 26, 2022
Judge In Fracking Lease Case Seals Documents, Refuses To Quash Subpoenas
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio on April 14 granted several motions in a hydraulic fracturing lease dispute, ruling that some documents could be filed under seal but denying the leaseholders’ request to quash subpoenas for third parties and refusing to sanction the fracking company for its behavior during discovery.
-
April 25, 2022
Judge Dismisses Mineral Rights Case Based On Deed That Could Not Be Reformed
BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota on April 20 dismissed a mineral rights lawsuit brought by an oil and gas company after granting summary judgment to a defendant energy resources company, ruling that the deed that applied to the land in question was part of an over conveyance of rights and, therefore, it was impermissible for the oil and gas company to reform the deed.
-
April 22, 2022
Leaseholder Says Fracking Companies Denied Her Mineral Ownership Interest
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A woman with a leasehold interest in oil and gas mineral rights on April 19 sued two energy companies in New Mexico federal court contending that they failed to recognize her ownership of her interest and denied her the opportunity to participate in the development of the mineral interest, and instead converted that interest for their own account.
-
April 22, 2022
Investor Sues Energy Company For Securities Violations, Says Statements Were False
TRENTON, N.J. — An investor on April 14 sued an energy company in New Jersey federal court contending that it, along with its board of directors, violated federal securities laws by filing a “materially incomplete and misleading” proxy statement regarding a proposed acquisition of the company.
-
April 21, 2022
Company Seeks To Compel Documents In Fracking Contract Dispute
MIDLAND, Texas — A hydraulic fracturing well services company and its affiliates moved in Texas federal court on April 20 to compel a nonparty to produce documents in a lawsuit brought by a petroleum engineer following the dissolution of a contract between the fracking company and the engineer’s company. The fracking company maintains that the nonparty has documents that pertain to the lawsuit.
-
April 21, 2022
Judge Rejects Some Fracking Patent Claims, Says Valid Questions Remain On Others
AKRON, Ohio — A federal judge in Ohio on April 12 partially dismissed patent infringement claims brought by a company that makes materials used in hydraulic fracturing operations, finding that material questions of fact remain regarding whether the patent claims are invalid “on the basis of anticipation or obviousness.”
-
April 20, 2022
Insurers Owe No Coverage For Insured’s Willful Act Of Promoting Use Of Lead Paint
SAN FRANCISCO — A trial court properly determined that insurers owe no coverage to an insured’s successor for an underlying public nuisance suit arising out of the use of lead paint in residences because the insurers cannot be held liable for the insured’s willful act of promoting the use of lead paint in residential homes under California insurance law, the First District California Court of Appeal said April 19.
-
April 18, 2022
U.S. High Court Refuses To Hear Pipeline Permit Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on April 18 denied certiorari in a pipeline permitting dispute in which a pipeline company had insisted that review was urgently needed because the lower court’s decision that vacated the federal order allowing construction of the pipeline had applied “a variety of conflicting standards.”
-
April 13, 2022
Split Texas Appeals Panel: Water Pollution Claim Barred By Statute Of Limitations
HOUSTON — A split appellate panel in Texas on April 12 affirmed summary judgment dismissal of a groundwater contamination lawsuit against an oil and gas drilling company on grounds that the statute of limitations had run on the claim filed by the landowners who sought to hold the company liable for pollution.
-
April 11, 2022
Insurer Appeals Finding That Coverage Owed For Damages Caused By Fracking Work
PITTSBURGH — An insurer filed a notice of appeal on March 25 in the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, challenging a Pennsylvania federal judge’s ruling that an insurer must indemnify its insured for damages to natural gas wells caused by an insured’s fracking work.
-
April 08, 2022
Briefly: Parties In FERC Pipeline Permit Row Debate Role Of ‘Historic’ Rainfall
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 7 grilled an attorney for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regarding the need for a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) related to the construction of a pipeline in light of sediment erosion from “historic” amounts of rainfall, with one judge wondering if the fact that “things went South” on the project revealed that the initial order approving the pipeline was “not effective.”
-
April 08, 2022
Native American Group Urges 10th Circuit To Vacate Fracking Permits
DENVER — A Native American association and environmental groups on April 6 filed a reply brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that it has jurisdiction to vacate at least 199 challenged permits to conduct hydraulic fracturing operations in the Mancos Shale formation, which they say were approved unlawfully without a complete environmental review.
-
April 08, 2022
State Agency Says Pennsylvania Board Should Rule Fracking Dispute Is A Nonsuit
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on April 7 filed a brief in support of a motion for nonsuit filed by a hydraulic fracturing company, arguing that the residents who brought a groundwater contamination lawsuit against the company did not present any evidence and cannot carry their burden of proof.
-
April 08, 2022
Group: Stipulated Settlement, Dismissal In Fracking Dispute Should Be Approved
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An environmental group on March 25 filed a reply brief in District of Columbia federal court contending that it should approve a stipulated settlement agreement between the group and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in a federal hydraulic fracturing lease dispute and should reject the arguments of fracking industry intervenors and the state of Wyoming who oppose voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit. The group maintains that the opposition to voluntary dismissal is “incongruous for several reasons.”
-
April 08, 2022
Federal Agency Seeks Remand Of Fracking Lease Decision To Conduct More Analysis
DENVER — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on March 31 filed a reply brief in Colorado federal court contending that it should grant remand without vacatur to permit the agency to conduct additional analysis and review its approval of hydraulic fracturing plans in three national forests because remand will present “minimal disruption to the legal status quo.”
-
April 08, 2022
Study: Proximity Of Pregnant Women To Fracking Wells Is Linked To Adverse Outcomes
CALGARY, Alberta — Researchers at the University of Calgary on April 4 released a study indicating that the proximity of pregnant women to hydraulic fracturing wells resulted in “significantly higher” rates of “major congenital anomalies” in newborns.
-
April 07, 2022
Woman With Fracking Royalty Interest Appeals Case Dismissal To 10th Circuit
DENVER — A woman who holds royalty interests in tracts of land in Colorado on April 4 filed a notice of appeal to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals seeking review of a lower court’s decision in favor of an energy company in a dispute over whether the company fraudulently induced the woman to sell her interests.
-
April 07, 2022
Fracking Leaseholders Say Contract Addendum Supersedes Arbitration Provision
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A real estate company that has oil and gas holdings related to its properties on March 28 filed a brief in Ohio federal court contending that an addendum to a hydraulic fracturing lease strikes or supersedes an arbitration provision in the agreement and, therefore, the motion to dismiss and compel arbitration filed by the fracking company should be denied.
-
April 07, 2022
Group Sues Federal Agencies For Failure To Determine Fracking’s Threat To Lizard
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) on March 23 sued Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for the FWS’s alleged failure to determine whether the Temblor legless lizard warranted protection from oil and gas exploration and drilling operations in the Midway-Sunset and McKittrick oil fields under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).