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

Mealey's Fracking

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 Asks 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.”
April 02, 2024
Agency Says It Complied With Federal Laws When It Approved Fracking Project

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has filed a brief in support of a cross-motion for summary judgment seeking a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) complied with federal laws when it approved federal permits to drill for hydraulic fracturing and arguing that the groups opposing drilling have failed to demonstrate that the BLM’s decision was “arbitrary and capricious.”
March 27, 2024
Judge: BLM Made Some Errors But Considered Alternatives In Fracking Lease Sale

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has partially granted and partially denied several cross-motions for summary judgment in a dispute between environmental groups and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) related to hydraulic fracturing leases, ruling that the BLM erred at times when assessing the Wyoming sale’s impact on groundwater and wildlife but saying that he was “unpersuaded” by the groups’ allegation that the BLM failed to consider a reasonable slate of alternatives when setting the Wyoming lease sale’s scope.
March 26, 2024
Judge Says Agency’s Fracking Lease Sales Did Not Violate Federal Land Policy Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not violate its duty under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) to avoid “unnecessary and undue degradation” of the environment when it authorized multiple hydraulic fracturing lease sales across several Western states.
March 25, 2024
Plaintiffs In Royalty Dispute Seek Answer On Remand Bid Before Jurisdiction Ruling

DENVER — Plaintiffs who sued a hydraulic fracturing company filed a brief on March 22 opposing the company’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a royalty dispute, arguing that a Colorado federal court should rule on the plaintiffs’ pending motion to remand the case to state court before addressing the company’s motion.
March 21, 2024
Split Michigan High Court Denies Leave To Appeal Fracking Ban Initiative Case

LANSING, Mich. — A divided Michigan Supreme Court has denied leave to appeal sought by residents who challenged the constitutionality of a provision in state law that says signatures on an initiative petition, in this case one to ban the practice of hydraulic fracturing, will not be counted if the signature was obtained more than 180 days before the filing of the initiative petition.
March 20, 2024
Judge Says Mineral Rights Owners’ Claims For Trespass In Ohio Shale Are Valid

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge on Ohio has denied a drilling company’s partial motion to dismiss a drilling rights case, ruling that the plaintiff, a corporation that owns mineral interests in the Point Pleasant Shale formation, has sufficiently pleaded trespass and other causes of action for the drilling company’s intrusion into formations that are beyond the boundaries of its leases in the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale formations.
March 14, 2024
High Court Review Of Ruling In Fracking-Related Railway Case Needed, Groups Argue

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Intervenors in litigation pertaining to a proposed rail line in Utah that would carry, among other things, products related to hydraulic fracturing to and from the shale formation in the Uinta Basin have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should hear their case because the lower court erred in its application of Department of Transportation v. Public Citizen as it applies to the standard for environmental review required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and a Circuit Court split exists.