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

Mealey's Fracking

September 09, 2022
Briefly: Class Seeks Pipeline Company’s Documents For Securities Fraud Action

PHILADELPHIA — Plaintiffs in a securities fraud class action on Aug. 30 moved in Pennsylvania federal court to compel the production of documents from a hydraulic fracturing pipeline company related to a district attorney’s investigation into the pipeline company’s projects in Chester County, Pa. The plaintiffs also argue that the pipeline company misled them about the lawful procurement of valid permits for construction.
September 08, 2022
Groups Say Federal Agencies’ Violations Call For Fracking Permits To Be Vacated

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two environmental groups on Sept. 7 sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in District of Columbia federal court challenging its decision to grant permits for hydraulic fracturing, arguing that the agency violated federal laws by not taking a “hard look” at a specific project’s environmental impact and, therefore, the court should vacate the permits and declare them “arbitrary, capricious and unlawful.”
September 07, 2022
Investors In Fracking Sand Fraud Case Seek Improper Damages, Company Says

WILMINGTON, Del. — A company and its CEO on Sept. 1 filed a letter brief in Delaware federal court contending that investors who sued them for alleged securities fraud related to the purchase of equity interests in a company that mines and sells sand specifically for use in hydraulic fracturing operations seek an allocation of damages that is inconsistent with the record in the case.
September 07, 2022
Judge Says Federal Agency Did Not Violate Law By Postponing Fracking Lease Sales

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A federal judge in Wyoming on Sept. 2 ruled that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) did not violate federal law when it postponed hydraulic fracturing lease sales in five western states because evidence indicated that the environmental assessments performed in association with those lease sales were not sufficient.
September 06, 2022
Stockholder Says Well Services Company Violated Securities Laws In Fracking Merger

NEW YORK — On Sept. 2, a shareholder in a hydraulic fracturing well services company sued the company and its board of directors in New York federal court alleging that they violated federal securities laws when they tried to sell the company to another fracking operator and when they tried to prevent a stockholder vote on the transaction.
September 02, 2022
Panel Reverses, Says $71.61M Award To Exxon In Well Dispute Was Reasonable

HOUSTON — A Texas appellate panel on Sept. 1 reversed and reinstituted a $71.61M jury award to Exxon Mobil Corp. in an indemnity dispute over the conveyance of oil and gas wells in Louisiana that were the subject of underlying environmental contamination litigation, ruling that the evidence supported a finding that the settlements in those underlying cases were reasonable.
August 31, 2022
Utah Says President Biden Abused Authority With Decision On National Monuments

SALT LAKE CITY — The powers of the president under the Monuments and Antiquities Act and the dimensions of two national monuments, two issues that have been hotly contested across multiple presidential administrations, are once again at issue in litigation as Utah and two counties on Aug. 24 sued President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in Utah federal court challenging his decision to reverse his predecessor’s order that decreased the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Bears Ears National Monument, which has implications for potential hydraulic fracturing activity in the region.
August 31, 2022
Panel Remands Lease Dispute For Agency’s Deficiencies In Environmental Enforcement

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 30 remanded without vacatur a federal hydraulic fracturing lease dispute in the Gulf of Mexico, ruling that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) “unreasonably refused to consider possible deficiencies in environmental enforcement.”
August 30, 2022
Briefly: Pipeline Company Says Securities Fraud Case Belongs In Texas

NEW YORK — A pipeline company on Aug. 23 filed a brief in a New York federal court contending that a shareholder lawsuit against the company, which alleges violations of federal securities laws, should be transferred to Texas federal court where the conduct at issue occurred, the defendants primarily work and most witnesses are located.
August 30, 2022
States Seek To Intervene In Federal Fracking Case To Protect Economic Interests

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Aug. 26, four states moved in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene in a lawsuit over the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) approval of the sale of 173 oil and gas lease parcels for fracking on 144,000 acres of public lands across eight western states, contending that they need to protect their interests, which are not adequately represented by any other party.
August 29, 2022
Fracking Company: Cross-Unit Drilling Does Not Violate State Or Federal Law

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A hydraulic fracturing company on Aug. 26 filed a brief in Pennsylvania federal court contending that a family farm, which is a plaintiff in a fracking lease dispute, has failed to show that a state law that allows “cross-unit” drilling of fracking wells violates the clauses in the contracts that pertain to the leases in question.
August 24, 2022
Briefly: Groups Say Federal Court Is Proper For Pipeline Case Against State Agency

RICHMOND, Va. — The Sierra Club and other environmental advocacy groups on Aug. 3 filed a reply brief on the merits in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that it has exclusive jurisdiction over a permit dispute against a state water control agency related to the construction of a pipeline to carry hydraulically fractured gas because the issues are “inextricably intertwined” with federal law.
August 24, 2022
Landowner Says His Fracking Lease Case Is ‘Well-Pled,’ Dismissal Is Not Proper

OKLAHOMA CITY — A landowner on Aug. 8 filed a brief in Oklahoma federal court opposing a fracking operator’s motion to dismiss his case alleging violations of the fracking lease between the parties, arguing that the company has not met its burden of preclusion doctrines and that his complaint is “well-pled.”
August 22, 2022
Citing ‘Irreparable Injury,’ Judge Overturns Pause On New Federal Fracking

MONROE, La. — A federal judge in Louisiana on Aug. 18 enjoined the Biden administration from implementing a pause on new oil and gas leases on public lands and in offshore waters, ruling that states that rely on hydraulic fracturing revenue, such as Louisiana, have shown that the losses they would suffer constitute “a substantial threat of irreparable injury.”
August 19, 2022
Fracking Operator Says Groups Lack Standing To Challenge Federal Leases

BOISE, Idaho — A hydraulic fracturing operator on Aug. 16 filed a reply brief in Idaho federal court arguing that it should dismiss a lawsuit brought by environmental groups challenging federal fracking leases across the Interior West because the groups lack standing to seek cancellation of the company’s real property and contractual interests.
August 18, 2022
Study: Proximity To Fracking Wells Increases Chances Of Childhood Cancer

DURHAM, N.C. — A study published in “Environmental Health Perspectives” on Aug. 17 found that children who have at least one hydraulic fracturing well within 2 kilometers of their birth residence had two to three times the odds of developing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) compared with those children with no fracking wells near them.
August 17, 2022
Fracking Association Seeks To Intervene In Permit Case To Protect Lease Interests

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The New Mexico Oil & Gas Association (NMOGA) on Aug. 15 moved in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to intervene in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) brought by environmental groups that challenge the DOI’s approval of 3,535 applications for permit for drill (APDs) for hydraulic fracturing on grounds that the permits in question are held by NMOGA’s members and, therefore, the case affects the companies’ abilities to develop “valid existing leases and real property interests.”
August 17, 2022
Briefly: Fracking Company Says Intervention Warranted In FERC Order Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hydraulic fracturing company on Aug. 15 filed a reply brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending it should be permitted to intervene in the review of an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) related to a pipeline dispute because the case implicates the fracking operator’s legal and economic interests “in a fashion that is directly traceable to the challenged action by FERC.”
August 16, 2022
Federal Agencies, Groups Agree To Deal That Closes 11 Wells In California

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and environmental groups on Aug. 12 agreed to a settlement under which the BLM will perform an environmental assessment (EA) and will order a hydraulic fracturing operator to abandon 11 currently idle fracking wells near the Carrizo Plain National Monument in California.
August 15, 2022
Agency Agrees To Re-Evaluate Fracking On Federal Land Under Settlement Agreement

DENVER — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and environmental groups on Aug. 11 reached a stipulated agreement filed in Colorado federal court under which the BLM will reconsider the eligibility of lands open to oil and gas leasing through hydraulic fracturing, and it will prepare a new environmental impact statement that will “inform the amendment process” for the resource management plan (RMP) pertaining to a region in Colorado that includes 3.1 million acres on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains.
August 12, 2022
Fracking Company’s Remediation Compliance Statements Not Actionable, Judge Rules

HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas on Aug. 10 ruled that although shareholders in a securities class action against a hydraulic fracturing company and three of its senior executives sufficiently pleaded the necessary elements of their federal securities law claims against some of the defendants, they failed to properly plead that the defendants’ substantial compliance statements were actionable or that one of the defendants acted with the requisite scienter.
August 05, 2022
5th Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc In Fracking Employment Termination Case

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 19 issued the mandate in which it reversed a lower court and held that a hydraulic fracturing company violated federal law when it terminated the employment of three workers during the COVID-19 pandemic without providing advanced notice, denying the fracking operator’s petition for rehearing en banc.
August 05, 2022
Company Seeks Dismissal Of Fracking Lease Case Based On Previous Litigation

OKLAHOMA CITY — A hydraulic fracturing company on Aug. 2 filed a brief in Oklahoma federal court contending that it should dismiss a landowner’s case in which he alleges that the company “orchestrated a scheme” to defraud him and violate his fracking lease because those are “baseless inflammatory accusations” and the landowner has not actually pleaded any of those claims. The company also argues that the claims fail based on an order of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC).
August 05, 2022
Federal Legislation Would Restrict Funds From States That Prohibit Fracking

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A congresswoman from New York on Aug. 3 introduced legislation that would direct the secretary of Energy to restrict certain grants to any state that has in effect a law prohibiting hydraulic fracturing.
August 04, 2022
Fracking Company Says Summary Judgment Not Warranted In Federal Lease Dispute

BOISE, Idaho — A hydraulic fracturing company on July 21 filed a brief in Idaho federal court as an intervenor defendant, arguing that the court should deny partial summary judgment to environmental groups that allege that federal agencies violated the law when they issued fracking leases across the Interior West.