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Mealey's Fracking

  • May 07, 2024

    Parties Reach Agreement In Principle To Settle Fracking Securities Litigation

    HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas has issued an order directing the parties in a shareholder lawsuit against a hydraulic fracturing operator and three of its senior executives to file a settlement agreement and a motion for preliminary approval in light of the parties’ joint motion notifying the district court that they have reached an agreement in principle to settle the case.  The parties did not provide details related to the agreement.

  • May 07, 2024

    State Says Production Request Valid In Federal Fracking Lease Dispute With DOI

    BISMARCK, N.D. — The state of North Dakota on May 6 filed a reply brief in North Dakota federal court contending that its production request in its ongoing dispute with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) should be granted because the BLM is not complying with its duty to provide information related to the agencies’ decision to cancel certain hydraulic fracturing lease sales, which the state calls “the Stop.”

  • May 06, 2024

    Fracking Agency In Federal Case Says Alaska Lease Cancellation Violated The Law

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Following a ruling by a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that transferred a dispute over federal hydraulic fracturing leases to federal court in Alaska, a state fracking agency on May 3 filed an opening brief in support of vacating a lease cancellation decision, arguing that when the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) canceled its leases, it “failed to recognize that a purported violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (‘NEPA’) cannot in any circumstance be the basis for rescinding a program step that is statutorily-mandated . . . even if such a NEPA violation might be a basis for pausing the discretionary aspects of implementation of the same program.”

  • May 03, 2024

    Government Failed To Honor Native American Fracking Rights, Plaintiffs Say

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Native Americans who have been engaged in a long-running land dispute with the U.S. government regarding alleged mismanagement of oil and natural gas resources in the Bakken Shale formation, including claims that the government has withheld payments owed to the plaintiffs, have filed a post-trial reply brief in federal court arguing that the government’s case is “another example of Defendant’s failure to honor a trust doctrine that ‘is one of the cornerstones of Indian law.”

  • May 02, 2024

    Ohio Attorney General: Fracking Waste Facility Is In Contempt, Violating Permit

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — On May 1, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed the first written charges alleging contempt against a waste management company and its affiliates in Ohio state court and seeking an order compelling it to show cause as to why it has not complied with orders requiring it to resolve violations of its permit for a hydraulic fracturing waste facility.

  • May 01, 2024

    Panel Rules Federal Agency’s Pipeline Expansion Approval Was ‘Reasonable’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 30 affirmed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) approval of a certificate for the expansion of a pipeline, ruling that objections to the project “lacked merit” because FERC’s certification was “reasonable and reasonably explained.”

  • May 01, 2024

    Panel Dismisses Oil Company’s Appeal Of Zoning Ruling For Lack Of Jurisdiction

    LOS ANGELES — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has dismissed for lack of jurisdiction an appeal by an oil company that sought to overturn a California federal judge’s ruling that a decision by municipal authorities that nullified the company’s zoning clearance to conduct drilling operations was valid.  The panel did not elaborate on its reasoning for dismissing the appeal.

  • April 29, 2024

    Amici: Pipeline Case Involves Constitutional Issues; Supreme Court Should Hear It

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two groups have filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should hear the appeal of landowners who oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which would carry hydraulically fractured gas 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.  In one brief, the Young Americas Foundation (YAF) contends that the landowners’ challenge deserves to be heard because it involves “important constitutional issues” such as the separation of powers doctrine.

  • April 29, 2024

    Oil Company Ask 10th Circuit To Reverse Royalty Ruling In Long-Running Dispute

    DENVER — An oil and gas company on April 26 filed its opening brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging an order and final judgment that terminated a long-running hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute, arguing that the lower court erred when it adopted a ruling from a previous judge that granted an energy company summary judgment on its claim for its royalty share of a $17.5 million consideration paid by another party in the litigation as part of a settlement.

  • April 26, 2024

    Groups Want Appeals Court To Reverse Ruling That Nixed Fracking Permit Challenge

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Environmental advocacy groups filed their opening appeal brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 25, arguing that they have standing to challenge the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) decision to grant permits to conduct hydraulic fracturing operations in New Mexico’s Permian Basin and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, which the groups say was done in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other federal laws.

  • April 25, 2024

    FERC Waives Right To Respond To Supreme Court Petition Challenging Pipeline

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has waived its right to respond to a petition filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by landowners who oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which would carry hydraulically fractured gas 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.

  • April 24, 2024

    Companies: Verdict Favoring Them ‘Deserves Respect,’ New Trial Unwarranted

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hydraulic fracturing companies that won a verdict in Ohio federal court in a royalty dispute have filed a brief opposing plaintiffs’ motion for new trial, arguing that “the jury’s verdict deserves respect” and the motion for new trial “does not come close to clearing the high standard required.”

  • April 23, 2024

    Company: Judgment Still Proper Despite Ruling In Separate, Similar Fracking Case

    DENVER — A hydraulic fracturing operator on April 22 filed a brief in Colorado federal court arguing that the revision to a ruling in a separate but related case does not change its applicability to the case at hand as a supplemental authority that supports the fracking company’s position that it deserves judgment on the pleadings.

  • April 22, 2024

    BLM Protects More Than 13M Acres From Fracking In Alaska

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on April 19 announced that it has adopted a final rule for the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) that will “ensure maximum protection for significant resource values on the more than 13 million acres of Special Areas in the western Arctic, while supporting subsistence uses and needs for Alaska Native communities.

  • April 17, 2024

    Fracking Advocates File Notice Of Appeal Ruling That Denied Bid To Alter Judgment

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Hydraulic fracturing advocates have filed a notice in Alaska federal court indicating that they will appeal to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a federal judge’s ruling that denied their motion to alter a judgment in favor of the Biden administration in a dispute of the president’s moratorium on federal fracking leases.

  • April 16, 2024

    Fracking Company: Mineral Rights Plaintiffs’ Case Fails; Lease Ownership Not Shown

    CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a reply brief in West Virginia federal court arguing that a mineral rights class case brought against it should be dismissed because the plaintiffs fail to rebut the company’s cited authority that requires the plaintiffs to establish a chain of title evidencing their ownership in the leases that were allegedly breached.

  • April 16, 2024

    Agency Levies $1.11M Fine Against Energy Company For Pennsylvania Gas Leak

    PITTSBURGH — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has levied a $1,114,000 fine against midstream energy company Equitrans LP for air quality, waste and oil and gas violations related to an uncontrolled gas release from the company’s natural gas storage facility at Rager Mountain, as well as a storage well known as George Reade 1.

  • April 12, 2024

    Amici Urge Supreme Court To Hear Fracking Railway Case Due To Circuit Court Split

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Multiple parties have filed amicus curiae briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a petition for review filed by a group that says a lower court erred when it found that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) failed to take a hard look at the risk of wildfire and the impact on groundwater posed by 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.  In one amicus brief, NACCO Natural Resources Corp. says the lower court’s ruling conflicts with the approaches of other federal courts.

  • April 08, 2024

    Ohio Landowners Seek Ruling That They Are Lawful Owners Of Disputed Mineral Rights

    NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio — Multiple family trusts have sued hydraulic fracturing operators and other landowners in Ohio state court seeking a declaration that the trusts are the true and lawful owners of the mineral rights connected to their property and seeking damages for “false and malicious defamation” of the plaintiffs’ title to the property by one of the fracking companies, which the plaintiffs say has caused them “special pecuniary damage” and has put a “cloud” on their title to the property.

  • April 05, 2024

    Companies Tell 10th Circuit The BLM Exceeded Its Authority With Well Ruling

    DENVER — An oil company has appealed to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals asking it to reverse a lower court’s decision that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acted within its scope of authority when it denied oil companies’ attempts to drill a traverse well under a split estate, contending that the district court erred when it failed to hold that the BLM’s decision to require the company and its affiliate to file a federal application for permit to drill (APD) for a traversing well exceeded its statutory authority.

  • April 05, 2024

    Groups Appeal Ruling That Nixed Their Challenge To Fracking In Ohio State Parks

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Environmental advocacy groups have filed a notice of appeal in Ohio state court, seeking reversal of a decision by a trial court judge who dismissed their case that challenged the Ohio Oil & Gas Land Management Commission’s (OGLMC) decision that called for hydraulic fracturing in state parks.

  • April 03, 2024

    Judge Nixes Contract Claim In Fracking Royalty Case Based On 1996 Transaction

    CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia has dismissed with prejudice a breach of contract claim by landowners who have sued hydraulic fracturing companies asserting several causes of action related to royalty interests in certain parcels of land used for fracking. The judge held that the landowners did not own the royalty interests in question because they had been assigned to one of the fracking companies in a conveyance of rights transaction dating back to 1996.

  • April 03, 2024

    Judge Stays Mineral Rights Case, Says Issues Remain As To Point Pleasant Shale

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A judge in Ohio federal court stayed a mineral rights dispute between landowners and hydraulic fracturing companies pending resolution of an issue in federal bankruptcy court, but partly granted and partly dismissed a slew of motions for summary judgment by all parties, ruling that genuine issues of material fact remain and he cannot “conclusively determine” whether the disputed shale formation is “below the Utica Shale.”

  • April 03, 2024

    Residents’ 2nd Supreme Court Petition Challenges FERC’s Power To Seize Property

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Landowners who oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) because it would be built on their land have filed a second petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that their non-delegation doctrine challenge to the constitutional authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was properly filed and contending that FERC has no power to seize private property.

  • April 02, 2024

    Leaseholders: Fracking Royalty Verdict Was ‘Seriously Erroneous,’ New Trial Needed

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Leaseholders who lost their royalty case against hydraulic fracturing companies on April 1 moved in Ohio federal court seeking a new trial “to avoid the injustice resulting from a seriously erroneous jury verdict that went against the clear weight of the evidence as well as prejudicial error caused to Plaintiffs by failing to properly instruct the jury as to contract interpretation.”