Allege

Aruba Petroleum Inc.’s motion for a new trial in a drilling/hydraulic fracturing (fracking) nuisance case has been denied by a Texas judge and the company plans to appeal the $2.95M judgment against it.

A Wyoming-based trucking company is facing potential fines of more than $1 million, and criminal charges against the driver of the truck for allegedly dumping saltwater from oil and gas operations in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale, according to the state Department of Mineral Resources (DMR).

A federal judge last Monday certified five separate class action cases against EQT Corp. and Consol Energy Corp. that could potentially add up to 15,000 plaintiffs in Southwest Virginia alleging that the companies cheated them out of millions of dollars in royalty payments (seeDaily GPI,Sept. 18). In dispute are past payments for coalbed methane (CBM) gas production in the far western corner of the state dating back 23 years.

Some of the same environmental groups that have asked FERC to reconsider a May order approving Tennessee Gas Pipelines’ Northeast Upgrade Project have asked the agency to rescind its order approving Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) Northeast Supply Link project until a full environmental impact statement has been conducted.

Pennsylvania’s General Assembly moved with amazing speed late last week to install a drilling moratorium on upscale, ex-urban Philadelphia counties, attaching the provision in a must-pass budget measure (SB 1263) that Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has agreed to settle a lawsuit with a group of landowners in Bradford County, PA, who allege the company’s Marcellus Shale drilling operations contaminated their groundwater supplies.

As a hard-core group of concerned consumers from the San Francisco Bay Area suburbs continues to allege health hazards from smart meters, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) last Thursday proposed a radio wave-free option for customers who are convinced that radio frequencies produced in the meters cause serious health problems. PG&E proposes to simply turn off the radios in the smart meters for customers requesting it.

Two conservation groups are suing the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) for allowing natural gas development in the watershed prior to a moratorium instituted last year. The plaintiffs have asked the court to have the drilled wells removed, “and the sites cleaned up and restored to natural conditions.”

Two lawsuits filed in Dallas last Wednesday allege that units of Devon Energy Corp., Encana Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. contaminated water wells in the Barnett Shale with hydraulic fracturing and the storage of drilling waste.