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

Mealey's Fracking

November 10, 2023
Panel Reverses, Remands Case Over Mineral Interests Based On Experts And Evidence

EL PASO, Texas — A Texas appellate court panel has reversed and remanded a trial court’s summary judgment ruling in a dispute over whether a hydraulic fracturing operator trespassed onto another fracking company’s mineral interests by contaminating the area of operation with fracking wastewater. The panel said the plaintiff offered evidence of harm and produced experts that were reliable (Iskandia Energy Operating Inc. v. SWEPI LP, No. 08-22-00103, Texas App., 8th Dist., 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 8288).
November 10, 2023
Appellate Justice Says State Agency Has ‘Sole’ Authority To Regulate Gas Wells

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A state appeals court justice in West Virginia has reversed a lower court ruling and held that a city cannot hinder a hydraulic fracturing operator’s ability to begin drilling once the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) has issued a permit. The justice said a city’s approval scheme is in direct conflict with state law that vests the WVDEP with “sole and exclusive authority” to regulate the “permitting” and “location” of horizontal gas wells.
November 09, 2023
Judge Dismisses Case Over Fracking Permits Due To Groups’ Lack Of Standing

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has dismissed a dispute over federal permits for hydraulic fracturing, ruling that environmental groups failed to allege a cognizable injury in fact and therefore could not establish standing.
November 09, 2023
5th Circuit Affirms Contract Dispute Award, But Remands For Further Consideration

NEW ORLEANS — A panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has affirmed a $11,897,689.39 jury award in a hydraulic fracturing breach of contract case but remanded the case to have the trial court consider whether it should allow the appellant to pursue discovery relating to the possibility that a settlement between the plaintiff and other parties in the dispute should be subtracted from the final judgment.
November 09, 2023
Arkansas Appellate Panel: Energy Company Improperly Reduced Royalty Payments

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas appeals panel has affirmed a lower court’s ruling that an energy production company made improper deductions from royalties payments in violation of Arkansas state statutes.
November 08, 2023
Judge Dismisses, Allows Some Claims In Federal Fracking Permit Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has dismissed multiple claims related to the issuance of federal permits to drill for hydraulic fracturing for lack of standing but has held that claims involving the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) record of decision (ROD) related to land use are valid.
November 07, 2023
Amici Tell 10th Circuit Biden Exceeded Authority With National Monuments Decision

DENVER — On Nov. 6, multiple parties filed amicus curiae briefs in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in support of Utah and two counties that have appealed the ruling of a lower court on grounds that that court erred when it dismissed the state and counties’ claims against the Biden administration for its decision to reinstate the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments because the action exceeded the scope of the Antiquities Act.
November 07, 2023
Groups: Fracking Company’s Willow Project Supplemental Authority Not ‘Pertinent’

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A coalition of environmental groups and Native Americans on Nov. 6 filed a brief in Alaska federal court contending that a hydraulic fracturing operator’s notice of supplemental authority that asks the district court to consider a ruling in a separate fracking lease case is “neither pertinent nor significant.”
November 03, 2023
Health Professionals Call For Ban On Fracking Due To ‘Grave Threats’

ALBANY, N.Y. — The group Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY) has released a report finding that based on “the rapidly expanding body of evidence,” there are “a plethora of recurring problems” with hydraulic fracturing such that “the only method of mitigating its grave threats to public health and the climate is a complete and comprehensive ban on fracking.”
November 02, 2023
Oil Company Agrees To Pay $16 Million To Resolve Alleged Royalty Underpayments

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Public Affairs in a Nov. 1 press release announced that a natural gas company has agreed to pay the United States $16 million in exchange for resolution of allegations that the company underpaid royalties it owed to the United States pursuant to federal and Native American land leases under which it produces natural gas.
November 01, 2023
Mineral Rights Holders Oppose Stay In Dispute Over Royalty Payments

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Mineral rights holders on Oct. 31 filed an opposition brief in West Virginia federal court arguing that it should deny a stay of the case sought by a hydraulic fracturing operator because it is “completely unnecessary and would only function to further prolong resolution” of a dispute over royalty payments under leases between the parties.
October 31, 2023
Utah Tells 10th Circuit Biden Exceeded Authority With National Monuments Order

DENVER — Utah and two counties on Oct. 30 filed an opening appellant brief in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that a lower court erred when it dismissed their claims against the Biden administration for its decision to reinstate the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments because the action exceeded the scope of the Antiquities Act.
October 31, 2023
Judge Says Agency Acted Within Its Authority In Denying Drilling Rights

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A federal judge in Wyoming on Oct. 30 ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acted within its scope of authority when it denied an oil company’s attempt to drill a traverse well under a split estate because the BLM is permitted to regulate subsurface activity on federal land to protect federal minerals.
October 30, 2023
Judge Nixes Lease Dispute, Says Plaintiff Did Not Exhaust Administrative Remedies

BISMARCK, N.D. — A federal judge in North Dakota has dismissed an oil and gas lease dispute against federal agencies and an energy company and has ruled that a hydraulic fracturing operator’s motion to dismiss is moot in a lawsuit regarding a mineral leasehold interest located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, concluding that the plaintiff must exhaust administrative remedies before bringing suit in federal court.
October 26, 2023
Panel Denies Landowners’ Bid For An Injunction In Mountain Valley Pipeline Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied an emergency motion for injunctive relief sought by private landowners who object to the route of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
October 25, 2023
Company Tells 6th Circuit Lower Court Erroneously Interpreted Land Deed

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An energy company filed an appellant brief in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that a lower court erroneously interpreted the scope of a reservation of oil and gas in a deed when it dismissed the company’s claims in a complex mineral rights dispute and held that the company did not have claims to specific tracts of land.
October 25, 2023
Judge Says Portion Of PFAS Pollution Case Related To Fracking Wells May Proceed

HARRISBURG, Pa. — A judge on the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) has partially dismissed a landowner’s lawsuit against the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), ruling that the EHB lacks jurisdiction over claims that the DEP failed to take action to deal with water contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) but concluding that the landowner’s claim that the “drilling, alteration or operation of oil or gas wells” played a role in contaminating his water supply was valid (Bryan Latkanich v. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, et al., No. 2023-043-B, Pa. EHB).
October 25, 2023
Fracking Operator Removes Lease Dispute Valued At $100,000 To Federal Court

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A hydraulic fracturing operator has removed to Ohio federal court a lease dispute in which landowners contend that the company owes them $100,000 because it breached the agreement between the parties when it failed to pay the full bonus amount due under the contract (William E. Davis, et al. v. Gulfport Appalachia LLC, No. 23-3448, S.D. Ohio).
October 24, 2023
Fracking Operator: Shareholder Case Fails, Does Not Plead Particularized Facts

HOUSTON — A hydraulic fracturing operator and three of its senior executives filed an answer in Texas federal court denying class action claims brought by shareholders who contend that the company and its officers violated federal securities laws. The defendants also argue that the complaint fails to satisfy the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) by not pleading particularized facts showing that the defendants made material misstatements.
October 23, 2023
Owner Of Automated Fracking Patent Says Tech Is Novel, Valid

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a new appeal to the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. Well Services Inc. (USWS) says its patented method for automating hydraulic fracturing “addresses many of the problems stemming from” human “powering and coordinating” of hydraulic fracturing operations and was wrongly declared anticipated and obvious by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
October 20, 2023
Fracking Advocates Say Ruling On President Biden’s Lease Moratorium Is Moot

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Hydraulic fracturing advocates have moved in Alaska federal court for vacatur of the court’s ruling granting summary judgment to the Biden administration in a dispute over the president’s moratorium on federal fracking leases, arguing that the claims in the case are now moot because the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has canceled the leases and the cancellation constitutes a new final agency action.
October 18, 2023
Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stripped Of Cases After Attorney Relationship Disclosed

HOUSTON — A chief bankruptcy judge who served as a HONX Inc. asbestos bankruptcy mediator and oversaw a fracking bankruptcy will no longer hear cases after the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals filed an official complaint against him in the wake of the disclosure of a romantic relationship with a lawyer employed by counsel that appeared before him.
October 17, 2023
Louisiana, Energy Companies: Injunction Ruling On Federal Lease Sale Was Correct

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana and energy companies have filed a brief in the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that a lower court “acted well within its discretion” when it granted a preliminary injunction that prevented a federal agency from implementing changes to the process by which it conducted the competitive sealed-bid auction of offshore oil-and-gas leases known as Lease Sale 261.
October 16, 2023
Supreme Court Grants Certiorari In 2nd Challenge To Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 13 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari in a second case challenging the doctrine of Chevron deference and ordered that it be briefed on a schedule allowing argument “in tandem” with a pending case pertaining to the same issue, both of which involve challenges to regulations that require fishing vessels to pay federal monitors.
October 06, 2023
Company ‘Improperly’ Disputes Class Certification In Fraud Case, Investors Say

HOUSTON — Shareholders in a class action against a hydraulic fracturing company and three of its senior executives filed a sur-reply brief in Texas federal court arguing that the fracking operator seeks to “improperly turn class certification into summary judgment on an incomplete record by repeatedly filing selective excerpts of deposition testimony on disputed factual issues that have no bearing on whether a class may be certified.”