The same day that the United States opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration and production, France passed a law banning the production of all oil and gas by 2040. Although the latter measure is largely symbolic, the contrast between the two countries’ approaches to energy could not be more striking. Continue reading
Nothing Says “Kentucky” Like Fried Chicken …
Or a claim for “bourbon pollution.” The plaintiff in Brown-Forman Corp. v. Miller undoubtedly phrased his claim in more formal language, but the heart of his complaint was that the “angel’s share” escaping from bourbon barrels on his neighbors’ properties was promoting the growth of “whiskey fungus” on his.* Continue reading
Is it an Unfair Trade Practice When You're the Buyer?
Most consumers are at least familiar with the existence of unfair trade practice statutes and anti-trust law. Likely very few, however, have stopped to consider whether those statutes apply to the leasing of oil and gas interests in the Marcellus Shale. Yet, those are the precise questions at issue in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Chesapeake Energy Corp. et al., No. 2015IR0069 (Pa. Ct. Comm. Pl. Dec. 15, 2017). Continue reading
Natural gas prices decline sharply in WV in last 10 years
The oil and gas industry’s West Virginia trade association, WVONGA, issued a press release yesterday attributing $1.5 billion in savings to residential ratepayers from lower gas prices. Those lower gas prices, of course, are due in no small part to the remarkable shale gas boom spurred by advancements in hydraulic fracturing. Continue reading
The Battle for Monterey County
In Monterey County, Chevron has taken the lead in a pitched battle over local government’s ability to regulate oil and gas development. At issue is “Measure Z,” a citizens’ initiative passed in November 2016 that impedes county-wide oil and gas development by, among other things, banning hydraulic fracturing, wastewater injection, and the drilling of new oil and gas wells. Continue reading
Awards of E-Discovery Conversion Costs are More than “Small Beer”
Discovery is expensive. But the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court order making it slightly less so, at least for a prevailing party. Continue reading
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Strikes Down Act 13 (Again)
I have a post on Spilman Thomas & Battle’s website – link here – concerning the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s most recent decision on Act 13, the comprehensive oil and gas legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2014. Continue reading
EPA Sued Over (Alleged) Failure to Meet RCRA Rulemaking Requirements for Oil and Gas Wastes
The production of oil and gas generates waste; that much seems beyond dispute. What is presently in dispute in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, however, is the extent to which the United States has met the rulemaking requirements for regulating that waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”). Continue reading
Supreme Court of Colorado Confirms that Local Governments Cannot Ban Hydraulic Fracturing
From May to August, I was preoccupied with bar examination (Pennsylvania) and wedding preparation. That’s no excuse, however, not to mention two of this year’s most important shale law decisions. In the twin decisions in City of Longmont v. Colorado Oil and Gas Assoc. and City of Fort Collins v. Colorado Oil and Gas Assoc., the Supreme Court of Colorado held that Colorado state law preempts local government regulation of hydraulic fracturing. In doing so, the Supreme Court of Colorado effectively confirmed what it had held 24 years earlier in the context of the City of Greeley’s city-limits drilling ban. See Voss v. Lundvall Bros., 830 P.2d 1061 (Colo. 1992). Continue reading
Fayette County, West Virginia, Wastewater Storage & Injection Ban Overturned
Earlier this summer, Fayette County, West Virginia, learned what many other local governments have already come to know: local bans on state and federally-regulated oil and gas activity are, in most cases and jurisdictions, unenforceable. Continue reading
Joseph Schaeffer 