Last Friday, a four judge panel of a New York appeals court upheld two local zoning laws that prohibit activities related to oil and gas exploration and development, including hydraulic fracturing. The decisions in Norse Energy Corp. USA v. Town of Dryden and Cooperstown Holstein Corp. v. Town of Middlefield mark the first appellate ruling… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Litigation
Subscribe to Litigation RSS FeedTexas Court Allows Defamation Claim Against Landowner to Proceed
Posted in Groundwater, Hydraulic Fracturing, Litigation, Texas, U.S. EPAOn Monday, Texas’s Second District Court of Appeals partially affirmed a District Court order allowing Range Resources Corporation’s (“Range”) defamation and business disparagement claims against a landowner to proceed. A copy of the court’s opinion is available here. This is the latest development in a case that gained notoriety when a video purporting to show… Continue Reading
Ohio Court: State Oil And Gas Law Pre-Empts Local Drilling Regulations
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, Land Use, Legislative, Litigation, Ohio DNRThe nationwide oil and gas boom has exposed a rift in the relationship between state and local governments seeking to regulate shale drilling and development. This tension has been playing out in several key shale states – for example, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will soon issue its opinion in the Robinson Township case, which will… Continue Reading
Ohio Supreme Court: Oil and Gas Commission Cannot Review DNR Permit Decisions
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, Litigation, Ohio DNRYesterday the Ohio Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, ruled that the state’s Oil and Gas Commission lacks jurisdiction to hear appeals of drilling permits issued by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The Oil & Gas Commission is a five-member advisory council that hears appeals from persons claiming to be aggrieved or adversely… Continue Reading
Texas Withdraws From Federal Challenge To USEPA’s Air Standards For Oil And Gas
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, Litigation, Texas, U.S. EPAOn January 10, 2013, the State of Texas and two of its agencies (the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) filed a joint motion in the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia to voluntarily dismiss their challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new air pollution standards regulating… Continue Reading
Seven States File Notice of Intent To Sue USEPA Over Methane Emission Standards
Posted in Air Emissions, Hydraulic Fracturing, Litigation, New York, U.S. EPAOn December 11, 2012, a group of seven states led by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneidermann notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of their intent to sue the agency. The states–Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont–claim that EPA failed to address methane emissions standards for the oil and gas… Continue Reading
Longmont Sued By Colorado Oil and Gas Association
Posted in Colorado, Hydraulic Fracturing, Land Use, LitigationLast week we reported that the state of Colorado would not directly sue the town of Longmont to challenge the ban on hydraulic fracturing that town voters enacted in the November election. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper did note at the time, though, that his administration would “stand ready to support an energy company that does… Continue Reading
Colorado Will Not Sue Longmont To Overturn Hydraulic Fracturing Ban
Posted in Colorado, Hydraulic Fracturing, Legislative, LitigationIn our prior coverage of Longmont, Colorado’s citywide ban on hydraulic fracturing and waste disposal, which was enacted by local referendum last month, we noted that the state had threatened to sue Longmont for the second time this year if the ballot measure passed. In response to hydraulic fracturing regulations the city adopted in July, the… Continue Reading
NYT Article Sheds Further Light on Longmont Referendum
Posted in Colorado, Hydraulic Fracturing, Legislative, LitigationBefore the Thanksgiving holiday we provided a two-part blog post discussing divergent approaches to local regulation of shale operations by various Colorado towns. As a follow-up to those posts, we note that over the past weekend the New York Times published a thorough article detailing Longmont, Colorado’s recent history of shale regulation and litigation. The… Continue Reading
Colorado’s Local Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing In Flux Post-Election
Posted in Colorado, Hydraulic Fracturing, Legislative, LitigationIn response to new laws and regulations addressing shale development, local governments in several key states increasingly are taking action to address local impacts of hydraulic fracturing — irrespective of whether the state agrees with their approach. The Robinson Township case in Pennsylvania, about which we have written several times recently, is a prime example. As we recently… Continue Reading
Pennsylvania Appellate Court Bars PUC From Withholding Impact Fees
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, Land Use, Legislative, Litigation, PennsylvaniaIn our post on Thursday we covered the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s decision to withhold impact fees from localities with ordinances or rules limiting hydraulic fracturing. In that post we noted that certain plaintiffs in the Robinson Township case requested an order from a state appellate court blocking that decision. On Friday, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth… Continue Reading
Pennsylvania PUC Withholds Township’s Impact Fees Due To Local Drilling Ordinances
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, Land Use, Legislative, Litigation, PennsylvaniaLast week the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) issued the first of what could be numerous rulings denying a township its share of impact fees from shale drilling because its local land use ordinances overly regulated drilling. Specifically, the PUC found in its October 18 order that the township of South Fayette’s ordinances were preempted by existing state environmental… Continue Reading
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Hears Argument On Two Hydraulic Fracturing Cases
Posted in Hydraulic Fracturing, Land Use, Legislative, Litigation, PennsylvaniaThe future shape of hydraulic fracturing development in Pennsylvania now rests in the hands of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. On consecutive days last week in Pittsburgh, the Court heard oral argument in two key cases that may transform the state’s legal and regulatory landscape as to natural gas exploration and development. First, on Tuesday, October… Continue Reading
Maryland Enacts Legislation On Liability for Damage Caused By Oil And Gas Exploration
Posted in Groundwater, Hydraulic Fracturing, Legislative, LitigationOn May 22, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed House Bill 1123, which addresses the state legal standards for civil liability for damages caused by exploration and production activity in deep shale deposits in the Marcellus Shale formation. The Marcellus Shale territory stretches into significant portions of the western parts of Maryland. The Maryland legislature passed HB… Continue Reading