The civil contempt trial of Interior Secretary Gale Norton got under way Monday in a federal court in Washington, DC, with the lead attorney for Native Americans declaring that Norton and the department “have abused this court” and the “integrity of the judicial process” by failing to comply with orders in 1999 that directed the agency to clean up its management of individual Indian trust accounts.
Civil
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FERC Bows to Capitol Hill Pressure with Reporting Requirement
FERC’s plan to impose a (price and volume) reporting requirement on transporters and sellers into the California natural gas market (RM01-9) has drawn mixed reactions from industry, but most agree that the Commission was pressed by Congress to take this action.
FERC Plan to Curb CA Prices Comes Under Attack
While the power industry has tended to be fairly civil so far in its criticism of FERC’s plan to mitigate prices on real-time transactions in California during emergencies, lawmakers representing the state are letting the Commission have it with both barrels.
Texas Sues ExxonMobil For Oil, Gas Royalties
Texas Attorney General John Cornyn filed a civil lawsuit last week against ExxonMobil of stealing millions of dollars in oil and gas revenue from land owned by the state’s taxpayers. Cornyn accused the company of defrauding Texas for at least 25 years by “knowingly and wrongfully” producing oil and gas from 50 acres of publicly owned right-of-way property in East Texas.
Texas Sues ExxonMobil for Oil, Gas Royalties
Texas Attorney General John Cornyn filed a civil lawsuit lastweek against ExxonMobil, accusing it of taking millions of dollarsin oil and gas revenue from land owned by the state’s taxpayers.Cornyn accused the company of defrauding Texas for at least 25years by “knowingly and wrongfully” producing oil and gas from 50acres of publicly owned right-of-way property in East Texas.
Lawsuit Says El Paso Negligence Caused Blast
The first civil lawsuit was brought Tuesday against El PasoNatural Gas for the deadly explosion in southeastern New Mexico,accusing the pipeline of negligence in failing to “properlyinspect, maintain and operate” its system.
Supreme Court Takes on Coal-Seam Gas Case
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it will resolve a civilcourt case between a group of oil companies, headed by BP AmocoProduction Co., and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe over rights androyalties to natural gas produced from coal in the San Juan Basin.The Supreme Court will hear arguments in April with a decision dueby the end of June.