Bans

In a stunning setback for shale development in New York state, an appellate court ruled unanimously last week to uphold two local bans on oil and gas activities. Attorneys representing landowners and energy companies told NGI that they have already started the process to appeal to the top court in the state, the Court of Appeals.

Norse Energy Corp. USA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, just days after a New York judge ruled the cash-strapped company had to deposit millions into an escrow account for a legal dispute with a drilling company.

A local ordinance that bans oil and gas operations in the Town of Middlefield, NY, has been upheld by the Otsego County Supreme Court, the second time in a week that a New York state judge has ruled in favor of such a law.

The city of Morgantown, WV, made no moves to appeal to the state Supreme Court a judge’s ruling that struck down its ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking). It is instead considering its options to seek additional safety measures from Northeast Natural Energy (NNE).

Officials in a New Jersey township have joined environmental groups in opposition to plans to expand one of the state’s natural gas pipelines, which would bring Marcellus Shale gas to markets in the state and the New York City metropolitan area.

Ted Danson, film and television star turned ocean conservationist, Wednesday called on Congress and President Obama to reinstate the bans on drilling off the East and West coasts, as well as to block drilling in Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

The Senate was expected to pass over the weekend a continuing resolution that does not renew two bans: the 27-year-old congressional moratorium on offshore oil and natural gas drilling; and the ban on oil shale exploration in the Intermountain West.

Bills covering liquefied natural gas (LNG), bans on incandescent light bulbs and solar water heating are buried in committees in the California legislature as it moves toward its final week before scheduled adjournment Sept. 14. Only a proposal on customer-produced renewable power generation (SB 451) appeared on Thursday to have any chance of passage, according to a veteran energy industry lobbyist in Sacramento.

AES Corp. has filed a complaint in a Maryland circuit court, seeking to overturn a Baltimore County ordinance that bans the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities along its part of the Chesapeake Bay.