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

Mealey's Fracking

July 31, 2023
Pennsylvania Appeals Panel Affirms Fracking Injury Award Of More Than $1.3M

HARRISBURG, Pa. — In an unpublished nonprecedential opinion, a Pennsylvania appellate panel has affirmed an award of $1,304,906.17 in damages to a man who was injured while working on an oil rig, ruling that the trial court properly exercised its discretion in various procedural decisions made throughout the trial.
July 27, 2023
U.S. Supreme Court Vacates Stay, Says Mountain Valley Pipeline May Proceed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on July 27 granted a motion to vacate the stay orders issued by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that halted development of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
July 26, 2023
Damage Caused By Insured’s Fracking Work Is Not Occurrence, Panel Reiterates

PHILADELPHIA — Following a panel rehearing, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 25 reiterated that an insurer owes no coverage to its insured for damages to natural gas wells caused by the insured’s fracking work because neither faulty workmanship nor failure to perform a contract in a workmanlike manner can be construed as an occurrence as required by the policy.
July 13, 2023
4th Circuit Stays Development Of Mountain Valley Pipeline Pending Review

RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel stayed development of the Mountain Valley Pipeline pending an appeal by environmental advocacy groups that say the approval of the project violates federal law.
July 10, 2023
Fracking Company: Agency’s Failure To Process Permits Calls For Immediate Relief

DENVER — A hydraulic fracturing operator has moved in Colorado federal court seeking immediate mandamus relief, arguing that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has failed to process the company’s applications for permits to drill (APDs) in a manner consistent with the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA), which it says establishes obligatory procedures related to APDs.
July 10, 2023
Pipeline Company Says Groups’ Bid For Stay Fails Because Court Lacks Jurisdiction

RICHMOND, Va. — Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC (MVP) filed a response to supplemental authority in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that the court should deny a motion for a stay of agency actions sought by pipeline opponents because the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) removes the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the petition and “shows that Petitioners cannot prevail on the merits.”
July 07, 2023
Amici Support Groups’ Bid To Stay Pipeline Case Based On Separation Of Powers

RICHMOND, Va. — Legal scholars filed an amicus curiae brief in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals arguing that it should grant a stay sought by environmental groups that oppose the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) pending a review of the approval granted to the pipeline project by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) because “an act of Congress violates the separation of powers when it directs the result in pending litigation without amending substantive law.”
July 06, 2023
Willow Project Master Plan, Wrongly Approved Twice, Violates Law, Groups Say

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Environmental groups filed an amended complaint in Alaska federal court seeking declaratory relief against federal agencies for their second approval of a master plan for an oil and gas development plan in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) known as the Willow Project, after a federal judge vacated the government’s initial approval of the plan for violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
July 06, 2023
Native Alaskans, Others Say Willow Project Wrongly Approved, Federal Law Violated

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Native American group and environmental organizations filed an amended complaint in Alaska federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against federal agencies for their decision to approve the Willow Master Development Plan for the hydraulic fracturing operation referred to as the Willow Project, arguing that the plan was wrongly approved because it violates multiple federal laws.
July 06, 2023
Judge Stays Compliance Order, Says Fracking Company May Continue To Operate

DENVER — A state court judge in Colorado has granted a stay requested by a hydraulic fracturing company that allows it to continue operating despite an order from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) finding that the company violated a compliance agreement by not storing and treating fracking waste in a manner that protects public health.
July 06, 2023
Royalty Owner Says Fracking Company’s Bid To Compel Arbitration Is Invalid

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A mineral rights owner filed a brief in Ohio federal court opposing a hydraulic fracturing operator’s motion to compel arbitration in a royalty payment dispute, arguing that the provision in the mineral lease that purports to require arbitration of the claim is invalid under Ohio’s general principles of contract law.
June 30, 2023
Patent Dispute Over Tool Used In Oil, Gas Drilling Industry Partly Reinstated

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that although a Texas federal judge correctly construed two disputed claim terms, his subsequent finding of noninfringement with regard to a patented tool and method for moving oil and gas drilling pipes must be reversed, in part.
June 30, 2023
Insurer Says 3rd Circuit Properly Found Faulty Workmanship Is Not Occurrence

PHILADELPHIA — Rehearing of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling in favor of an insurer in a dispute over coverage for damages to natural gas wells caused by the insured’s fracking work is not warranted because the panel correctly found that neither faulty workmanship nor failure to perform a contract in a workmanlike manner can be construed as an occurrence under the policy at issue, an insurer says in response to the insured’s petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc.
June 29, 2023
Fracking Company Says Bid To Quash Subpoena In Abandoned Wells Case Fails

WHEELING, W.Va. — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a brief in West Virginia federal court contending that it should deny a landowner’s motion to quash a subpoena in a case pertaining to abandoned wells on jurisdictional grounds and because the landowner has not met his burden for resisting discovery.
June 28, 2023
Residents Say City Violated Law By Approving Permit Altering Drilling Zone

FORT WORTH, Texas — Residents have sued Arlington, Texas, in a state court alleging that the city council violated the state law on open meetings when it approved a permit for oil and gas wells after failing to post adequate notice of the company’s application.
June 26, 2023
Fracking Sand Company CEO Denies Allegations In Securities Fraud Case

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The CEO of a company that was sued for securities fraud related to its business of selling allegedly high-quality sand used as a proppant for hydraulic fracturing operations has filed an answer to the amended complaint in the case, denying all allegations.
June 26, 2023
Company Says Archdiocese Is Wrong About Jurisdiction In Drilling Dispute

LOS ANGELES — An energy company has filed an opposition brief in a California court arguing that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles erroneously claims that the court lacks jurisdiction to rule on the company’s complaint for breach of contract in relation to a dispute over the operation of an oil and gas production facility on land owned by the archdiocese.
June 23, 2023
Federal Judge: Trespassing Pipeline On Tribal Land Must Be Shut Down In 3 Years

MADISON, Wis. — An Indian tribe is entitled to permanent injunctive relief and monetary damages for the past and continued trespass of an oil pipeline that crosses the tribe’s reservation because it runs along easements that have expired and the threat of rupture has increased due to the movement of a river, a Wisconsin federal judge held in ordering the pipeline’s owner and operator to cease operations on the reservation within three years.
June 23, 2023
Groups Sue Agency For Allowing More Drilling In San Joaquin Valley Of California

FRESNO, Calif. — Environmental advocacy groups on June 22 sued the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for alleged violations of federal law as a result of the BLM’s approval of drilling permits on public land in the San Joaquin Valley of California.
June 21, 2023
Company: Court Should Deny Class Certification Bid In Fracking Securities Case

HOUSTON — A hydraulic fracturing company has filed a brief in Texas federal court arguing that it should not grant class certification in a securities fraud lawsuit because the company has rebutted the presumption of classwide reliance by demonstrating a lack of price impact as to the alleged misrepresentations at issue.
June 21, 2023
Energy Company: It Would Be ‘Clear Error’ To Let Mineral Rights Ruling Stand

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An energy company has filed a reply brief in Ohio federal court arguing that it should reconsider a ruling that dismissed many of the company’s claims in a complex mineral rights dispute because it would be “clear error” to let the ruling stand in light of the court’s analysis of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine.
June 12, 2023
Parties’ Letters To Court Debate Nature Of Case About Fracking Railway Line

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has sent a letter to the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that an environmental advocacy group has engaged in “mischaracterizations” in its response to another letter sent to the D.C. Circuit by 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. The STB contends that the final destination of the products remains general rather than specific.
June 09, 2023
Companies Say Fracking Patent Expert’s Opinions Are ‘Unsupported And Unsound’

MIDLAND, Texas — Fuel distribution companies that are defendants in a hydraulic fracturing patent dispute moved in Texas federal court to exclude certain opinions of the plaintiff’s expert on grounds they are “unsupported and unsound” theories of infringement.
June 09, 2023
Groups Seek Agencies’ Records Explaining Failure To Hold Fracking Lease Sales

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Fracking trade groups have filed a reply brief in Wyoming federal court arguing that it should grant declaratory relief and direct the parties to proceed directly to the remedies phase of consolidated litigation the groups and Wyoming have brought against the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) for its failure to conduct mineral lease sales for hydraulic fracturing in the third and fourth quarters of 2022.
June 08, 2023
Magistrate Judge Says Fracking Fraud Case Barred By Statute Of Limitations

PITTSBURGH — A federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania on June 7 ruled that a case brought by an energy company against a law firm and its representatives for fraud related to the purchase of oil and gas assets in the Marcellus Shale formation was barred by the statute of limitations because the energy company waited too long to file the case.