Attorneys

Attorneys for energy companies and landowners looking to advance shale development in New York State said proceedings in state appellate court last Thursday went well and they expect to hear rulings on two key cases in six to eight weeks, or by mid-May.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and several state attorneys general Monday signed a letter asking President Obama to pull the final rule on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and Indian lands at the federal level.

Attorneys involved with a legal challenge to portions of Act 13, Pennsylvania’s new omnibus Marcellus Shale law, say a decision by the state’s Commonwealth Court could come within a month and will have far-reaching consequences regardless of which way the court rules.

New Mexico Environmental Law Center attorneys have gone to the state’s appeals court seeking to overturn a decision by appointees of Gov. Susana Martinez to roll back a climate change law opposed by the oil/gas industry. The law was passed two years ago in a Democratic administration before Martinez, a Republican, took office.

Attorneys involved with a legal challenge to portions of Act 13, Pennsylvania’s omnibus Marcellus Shale law, say a decision by the Commonwealth Court could come within a month and will have far-reaching consequences regardless of which way the court rules.

Attorneys for the oil and gas industry in Pennsylvania are asking U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin to find the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in contempt for refusing to follow his 2009 order to process oil and gas development proposals in the Allegheny National Forest.

Attorneys for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and an EQT Corp. subsidiary plan to appeal a Doddridge County judge’s ruling allowing a surface owner to have a gas well permit issued by the DEP revoked.

Attorneys for Ensco Offshore Inc. and the federal government are jointly pursuing an extension of the deadline for the Interior Department to act on offshore permit applications so that the two sides can continue ongoing settlement negotiations.

Kerr-McGee attorneys say they are still “evaluating our options” as to whether to appeal last week’s court ruling ordering the producer, which is now part of Anadarko Petroleum, to pay $22.9 million for the alleged underreporting of oil and natural gas royalties.