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Mealey's Fracking

  • March 07, 2025

    Bill That Would Reverse Ban On Fracking In Maryland Awaits Committee’s Decision

    ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A bill that would reverse a ban on hydraulic fracturing in Maryland has been referred to a committee.

  • March 07, 2025

    Federal Agencies Deny They Violated Law In Approving Offshore Drilling

    LOS ANGELES — Federal agencies have filed an answer in California federal court denying all allegations brought against them by environmental groups who have sued seeking declaratory and injunctive relief on grounds that the agencies’ approval of ExxonMobil Corp.’s offshore oil and gas drilling lease violates multiple laws because the government’s determination that the lease was in the national interest failed to “failed to consider several highly relevant factors.”

  • March 06, 2025

    Groups Want In On Offshore Fracking Case Filed Against Biden Administration

    LAKE CHARLES, La. — Environmental groups have moved in Louisiana federal court for permission to intervene in a lawsuit brought by states and hydraulic fracturing industry groups that argue that former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s orders that withdrew offshore waters from oil and gas leasing, which were issued just before he left office, are unlawful.

  • March 06, 2025

    9th Circuit Clerk Officially Dismisses Federal Fracking Lease Dispute In Alaska

    SAN FRANCISCO — The clerk of the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has issued an order officially dismissing an appeal brought by hydraulic fracturing proponents against the Biden administration over the delay caused by a temporary halt of the fracking lease program in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.  The fracking supporters had moved to voluntarily dismiss their appeal on grounds that the final record of decision (ROD) for ANWR’s Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Program issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) on Dec. 8 “completed DOI’s supplemental environmental review and expressly lifts the Moratorium for the oil and gas program rendering all claims in this appeal moot.”

  • March 06, 2025

    Fracking Operator Removes Fraud Case To Federal Court

    WHEELING, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing operator has removed to West Virginia federal court a case brought by a couple who contend that the company committed fraud when it withheld information about a surface use agreement that exists related to property that the couple bought. The surface use agreement stems from a consent decree with a fracking services company that calls for remediating parts of the property.

  • March 05, 2025

    North Dakota Says Biden Administration Energy Plan Violated Multiple Laws

    BISMARCK, N.D. — The state of North Dakota has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in North Dakota federal court arguing that the resource management plan, which is known as the Amended RMP, issued by the DOI during the Biden administration regarding plans to develop federal land for hydraulic fracturing “violates multiple federal statutes, is arbitrary and capricious, and should be vacated several times over.”

  • March 05, 2025

    Panel Rules Original Fracking Lease Remains Operative Despite Gaps In Activity

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — An appeals panel in Pennsylvania has affirmed a trial court’s ruling in a hydraulic fracturing drilling dispute, finding that the original lease related to land to be used for oil and gas exploration continued to be operative despite gaps in activity on the site in question over a series of years.  As a result, the rights claim asserted by a second drilling company related to the property did not apply, the panel said.

  • March 05, 2025

    Bill Would Require Disclosure Of Chemicals Used For Fracking In Ohio State Parks

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A bill that would require hydraulic fracturing companies to disclose all of the chemical components they use in the process of drilling wells in state parks in Ohio has been referred to the Ohio House Committee on Natural Resources.

  • February 28, 2025

    Class Representative In Oil, Gas Royalty Settlement Opposes Attorney Fee Challenge

    DENVER — Parties objecting to the more than $17.3 million in attorney fees awarded as part of a $52 million oil and gas royalty settlement have failed to show that final approval was granted in error, the class representative, Chieftain Royalty Co., argues in an appellee brief filed in the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

  • February 25, 2025

    Hydrofracking Exclusion Does Not Bar Coverage For Suits Arising Out Of Explosion

    MIDLAND, Texas — A Texas federal judge entered judgment in favor of an insured in a dispute over reimbursement for underlying lawsuits arising out of an explosion at a saltwater facility after determining that the insurer failed to show that a jury verdict in favor of the insured was against the weight of the evidence and after determining that the policy’s hydrofracking exclusion does not bar coverage for the underlying suits.

  • February 21, 2025

    Group’s Letter Notifies Trump Of Potential Litigation Over Energy Emergency Order

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) on Feb. 20 sent a letter to President Donald J. Trump to “hereby put you on formal notice of your violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act in connection with actions taken pursuant to Executive Order 14156 entitled ‘Declaring a National Energy Emergency.’”

  • February 20, 2025

    Groups Say Trump Violated Law By Reopening Continental Shelf To Fracking

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Environmental advocacy groups on Feb. 19 sued President Donald J. Trump and his administration in Alaska federal court, arguing that the president’s executive order reopening areas of the outer continental shelf for hydraulic fracturing violates the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), which they say authorizes the president to withdraw unleased lands of the outer continental shelf from drilling but does not give the president the power to reopen areas that have been withdrawn.

  • February 19, 2025

    Trump Orders Creation Of National Energy Dominance Council

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump has issued an executive order establishing a National Energy Dominance Council, which will be chaired by the secretary of the Interior and will advise the president on “how best to exercise his authority to produce more energy to make America energy dominant.”  The order also makes the secretary of the Interior a standing member of the National Security Council (NSC) for the first time.

  • February 18, 2025

    Federal Agency Seeks To Hold Methane Rule Case In Abeyance, Cites Policy Changes

    BISMARCK, N.D. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has filed a brief in North Dakota federal court arguing that it should hold in abeyance a lawsuit over the implementation of a rule promulgated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) establishing standards for methane and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the oil and gas sector, saying that “given the changes in the policy of the United States over the last few weeks, Defendants respectfully request that the Court defer judicial review in this case in the interest of justice and efficiency.”

  • February 14, 2025

    Government Asks Federal Judge To Deny Tribe Intervention In Utah Fracking Case

    SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. and Utah governments asked a federal judge in Utah to deny a motion filed by the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation to intervene in a settled case involving Clean Air Act (CAA) violations at a fracking operator’s oil and gas production facilities on the tribe’s reservation, stating that the tribe makes the same argument it did during negotiations for a consent decree reached between the government and the operator and “does not meet the standard for intervention as of right or permissive intervention.”

  • February 11, 2025

    EPA Seeks Abeyance In Methane Tax Case To Sort Out Position In New Administration

    GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 10 filed a brief in Michigan federal court supporting his unopposed motion to hold in abeyance a case in which a business advocacy group and an oil and gas association challenge the constitutionality of the methane waste emissions charge levied under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The parties agree that, with the change in presidential administration, the EPA needs time to determine how it wishes to proceed in the case.

  • February 07, 2025

    North Dakota Seeks Ruling That Agencies Are Not Complying With Fracking Injunction

    BISMARCK, N.D. — The state of North Dakota has filed a brief in North Dakota federal court arguing that it should rule that the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and other agencies are not fully complying with a preliminary injunction that the court issued in 2023 that enjoins and restrains the DOI from implementing its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing lease sales in the state.

  • February 07, 2025

    Panel: Marketable Title Act Did Not Extinguish Royalty Rights In Age-Old Dispute

    YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — In a complex dispute over royalty interests dating to 1900, an appeals panel in Ohio has held that a trial court correctly ruled against royalty holders who argued that the Ohio Marketable Title Act (MTA) had extinguished the rights of a competing group of royalty interest holders who hold title to the same tract of land.

  • February 06, 2025

    Groups: Federal Agency Violated Law With Fracking Permits For San Joaquin Valley

    FRESNO, Calif. — Environmental advocacy groups have sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other federal agencies in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to stop “unlawful permit approvals” for new oil and gas wells on public land in the San Joaquin Valley, which the groups say violate multiple federal laws.

  • February 06, 2025

    Bill Would Prohibit Presidents From Declaring A Moratorium On Hydraulic Fracturing

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bill introduced by a U.S. representative from Texas that would prohibit a president from declaring a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing without authorization by an act of Congress has been referred to two House committees for consideration.

  • February 05, 2025

    Justices Say Trial Court Erred In Ruling About Commencing Of Drilling Operations

    CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas appellate justices have reversed in part and remanded in part a case involving a breach of contract dispute, ruling that a trial court erred when it concluded that an oil and gas operator cannot breach a joint operating agreement (JOA) by failing to timely “actually commence” a proposed drilling operation.

  • February 05, 2025

    Secretary Of The Interior Orders Sweeping Changes In Bid For ‘Energy Dominance’

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Keeping in step with the executive orders pertaining to energy development issued by President Donald J. Trump on his first day in office, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum officially started his tenure by issuing six orders designed to “unlock America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development” by identifying “immediately” all emergency and legal authorities available to “facilitate the identification, permitting, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, distribution, exporting and generation of domestic energy resources and critical minerals.”

  • February 04, 2025

    Senator Balks At Energy Secretary’s Approval, Wants Fossil Fuel Heads Barred

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., on Feb. 3 issued a press release condemning the Senate’s confirmation of Chris Wright to be the secretary of Energy in the second administration of President Donald J. Trump, saying “Chris Wright is a bought-and-paid-for fossil fuel industry executive and hasn’t met a tract of land or aquifer of water he wouldn’t despoil through fracking.”  The senator has introduced a bill that would prohibit the appointment of former fossil fuel executive officers and fossil fuel lobbyists from serving as the heads of certain governmental departments.

  • February 04, 2025

    Nearly 9 Years Later, Judge Denies As Moot Delaware River Basin Fracking Case

    HARRISBURG, Pa. — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Feb. 3 granted a motion to dismiss and held that a long-running dispute over hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River Basin (DRB) is moot on grounds the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has instituted a comprehensive ban on fracking in the DRB.

  • February 04, 2025

    Fracking Defendants Say Water Contamination Plaintiffs Fail To Plead Viable Claims

    PITTSBURGH — Two defendants in a class action over allegations that fracking waste fluid has contaminated residents’ water supply have filed a reply brief in support of their motions to dismiss in Pennsylvania federal court, arguing that the plaintiffs have not pleaded, and cannot plead, any viable claims against them.