Mealey's Fracking
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January 13, 2022
Judge Modifies Order Quashing Fracking Lease Subpoena As Scope Is Narrowed
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A federal judge in Wyoming on Jan. 7 granted a mineral rights owner’s motion for reconsideration of the district court’s ruling to quash subpoenas she filed against energy companies in an antitrust lawsuit pertaining to the monopolization of hydraulic fracturing rights. The judge held that the mineral rights owner “significantly narrowed the scope” of the subpoena and in so doing took “reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden” on the companies.
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January 13, 2022
Geologist Who Got Share Of Royalties Says Companies Breached Fracking Contract
PITTSBURGH — A geologist who performed land evaluations for energy companies in exchange for a share of royalties from any hydraulically fractured oil or gas produced on the land he surveyed filed an amended complaint Jan. 10 in Pennsylvania federal court contending that the energy firms breached their contract with him by improperly deducting costs from the money it paid him.
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January 13, 2022
9th Circuit Says 2 Fracking Companies May Intervene In Federal Lease Dispute
SEATTLE — A panel of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Jan. 5 reversed and remanded a lower court’s decision and held that a hydraulic fracturing company had satisfied the requirements to intervene in a federal lease dispute.
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January 12, 2022
Federal Agency: Amended Fracking Lease Case Fails Due To ‘Threshold Defects’
LAKE CHARLES, La. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on Dec. 27 filed a brief in Louisiana federal court arguing that it should dismiss the amended complaint in a case in which hydraulic fracturing trade groups argue that the DOI violated federal law by not holding regular fracking lease sales, on grounds that the lawsuit “suffers at least three threshold defects.”
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January 11, 2022
Attorneys Debate Agency’s Environmental Analysis Of Federal Oil Lease Sales
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Jan. 10, the District of Columbia U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments and questioned attorneys regarding whether the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) conducted a flawed environmental analysis for oil lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.
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January 11, 2022
Briefly: Pipeline Company Reasserts Contention That Opposition Is ‘Meritless’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hydraulic fracturing pipeline company on Jan. 7 filed a final joint brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the arguments of environmental groups seeking to prevent construction of the pipeline lack merit and that the project should continue because its federal authorization was upheld years ago.
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January 10, 2022
States Say Federal Agency Is Denying Them Their Rightful Fracking Lease Revenue
NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana, along with 12 other states, on Jan. 6 filed a brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. violated federal laws when he issued an executive order halting federal hydraulic fracturing lease sales, which the states say deprived them of revenue to which they are “statutorily entitled.”
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January 10, 2022
Briefly: Judge Dismisses Case Over Keystone XL Pipeline Permit Due To Mootness
GALVESTON, Texas — A federal judge in Texas on Jan. 6 dismissed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the cancellation of a permit for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, saying that the case is moot because the company that had been building the pipeline abandoned the project.
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January 04, 2022
Fracking Pipeline Company: Supreme Court Review Still Warranted In Permit Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hydraulic fracturing pipeline company on Dec. 20 filed a supplemental brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that its petition for review is not mooted by the fact that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted the company’s application for a temporary certificate for the construction of the pipeline pending completion of proceedings at the circuit court level.
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January 04, 2022
Panel Strikes Down Portion Of Fracking Ordinance Related To Population Density
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A state court panel in Pennsylvania in a Nov. 30 unpublished opinion struck down part of a city ordinance to limit hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the city had improperly used its legislative authority in approving the portion of the ordinance that was based on a Census Bureau map that had not been updated with current information regarding population density.
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January 04, 2022
Fracking Company Says Class Certification ‘Premature’ In Breach Of Contract Case
PITTSBURGH — A hydraulic fracturing company on Dec. 14 filed a brief in Pennsylvania federal court opposing class certification in a breach of contract case on grounds that the leaseholders’ motion to certify is premature.
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December 29, 2021
Man Says He Has Established Basis For His Hydraulic Fracturing Patent Claim
PITTSBURGH — A man who says he has an ownership interest in a hydraulic fracturing valve system that is used by a valve manufacturing company on Nov. 16 filed a brief in Pennsylvania federal court contending that the company’s motion to dismiss his intellectual property case should be denied because he says he has “more than adequately” established the basis for the relief he seeks.
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December 28, 2021
Investor: Company Violated Securities Laws In Promoting Fracking In Africa
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A shareholder in an oil and gas exploration company on Dec. 13 sued the company and its officers in New York federal court contending that they violated federal securities laws when they issued false and misleading statements that caused him and other investors to purchase stock at artificially inflated prices.
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December 23, 2021
Tribes, Federal Government Seek Denial Of Dakota Access Supreme Court Petition
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With no conflict in authority and no important issue presented, a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by pipeline company Dakota Access LLC challenging an ordered environmental analysis for a pipeline project should be denied, tribal respondents argue in their Dec. 16 brief in opposition in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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December 21, 2021
Native American Group: Agency Violated Federal Law In Approving Fracking Permits
DENVER — A Native American association and environmental groups filed a brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 16 arguing that a lower court erred when it dismissed their case against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in which they argued that the agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by predetermining the outcome of its NEPA analysis for hydraulic fracturing permits in the Mancos Shale formation.
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December 21, 2021
Tribe Objects To Magistrate’s Endorsement Of Judgment For DOI, Fracking Company
BISMARCK, N.D. — A magistrate judge’s recommendation to grant summary judgment to the Department of the Interior (DOI) and an energy development company on an Indian tribe’s claims that the government acted arbitrarily in issuing permits for a hydraulic fracturing drilling project should be rejected and the permits should be revoked because the well sites endanger the tribe’s only supply of drinking water, the tribe argues in Dec. 17 objections to the recommendation.
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December 21, 2021
Petitioners: California High Court Must Review ‘Novel’ Ruling On Fracking Measure
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The citizen group and the medical doctor seeking reversal of a lower court’s ruling pertaining to a hydraulic fracturing ordinance on Dec. 17 filed a reply brief in California Supreme Court contending that the underlying opinion in the appeals court “establishes a novel test for preemption” that conflicts with the Supreme Court’s precedents.
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December 20, 2021
Shareholder Says Fracking Company Violated Securities Laws With Proposed Merger
DALLAS — A shareholder in a hydraulic fracturing company on Dec. 15 sued the company and its officers in Texas federal court alleging that they violated securities laws when they filed “materially incomplete and misleading” documents in connection with a planned merger.
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December 13, 2021
Company: Residents May Not Amend Order Related To Fracking’s Impact On Water Quality
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A hydraulic fracturing company on Nov. 29 filed a brief with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) arguing that residents who allege that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) erred in its finding that the fracking operator did not contaminate their water supply should not be allowed to amend an interlocutory order because they offer no facts to support the “ambiguous request for relief” and they have failed to comply with the EHB’s rules.
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December 10, 2021
Federal Agencies Say Groups Lack Standing To Oppose Fracking ‘Take’ Decision
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Federal agencies on Nov. 16 filed an answer in Alaska federal court contending that environmental groups lack standing and fail to state a claim in their challenge to the incidental take regulation (ITR) issued by those same federal agencies that allows the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA) to “take” polar bears and walruses to pursue hydraulic fracturing in Alaska’s Northern Slope.