Hear

The Indiana Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will hear a case involving a 30-year contract for the state to purchase coal-to-substitute natural gas (SNG) from a proposed $2.8 billion gasification plant in southwestern Indiana.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reaffirmed the state’s 131-year history of mineral rights law on Wednesday, unanimously ruling in favor of a Susquehanna County couple that had filed suit over the rights to the Marcellus Shale gas under their property.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the state Oil and Gas Commission does not have jurisdiction to hear an appeal of oil or gas well permits issued by the chief of the Division of Mineral Resources, a branch of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR).

An attorney representing a Pennsylvania township that is challenging Act 13, the omnibus Marcellus Shale law, said the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) has no authority to review local drilling ordinances, and accused the agency of acting with “malicious intent” by doing so.

A lawsuit filed by Range Resources Corp. against a Texas couple that accused the company of contaminating its drinking water may proceed, said the Texas Second District Court of Appeals in Fort Worth, which found that the lawsuit does not run afoul of a state law against litigation intended to stifle public protest.

The state of Wyoming has petitioned the Supreme Court to hear its challenge of the Clinton-era “roadless rule,” which places restrictions on road-building to carry out energy exploration and production, logging and other commercial activities on more than 58 million acres of forest lands.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear an appeal of a property rights case and rule on whether the owner of the property in the Marcellus Shale also owns the shale gas it contains.

Natural gas bulls continue to hear no good news from analysts, who have begun to lower their price expectations for 2012.

Nearly 200 people crowded the phone lines of an open meeting Monday night to hear public comments surrounding the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) Natural Gas Subcommittee’s initial report on hydraulic fracturing (fracking).