Petition

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments this week in a controversial mineral rights case that could have enormous implications over ownership rights in the Marcellus Shale.

She was blamed by many for breaking up The Beatles, and what John Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono and his son Sean Lennon are trying to do to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) won’t endear her to oil and gas producers either.

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.

ATP Oil & Gas Corp. on Friday said it has filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas “to undertake a comprehensive financial restructuring.”

The backer of a bid to hike the severance tax levied on natural gas producers operating in Arkansas last week submitted 69,717 signatures to a petition to get the initiative placed on the November ballot. Former gas utility executive Sheffield Nelson needed to gather 62,507 signatures. The signatures gathered have not yet been reviewed and could be challenged. Nelson wants to hike the severance tax to 7% from the current range of 1.25-5%. His opponents include energy industry members as well as the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce and anti-tax hike group Arkansas for Jobs and Affordable Energy. Nelson, a Republican who was a chairman of Arkla Inc. and a two-time gubernatorial candidate, is the leader of the Committee for a Fair Severance Tax (see Shale Daily, June 29).

Peregrine Keystone Gas Pipeline LLC has abandoned its plans for a gathering system in the Marcellus Shale of southwest Pennsylvania, the final chapter in the efforts of three companies that had sought public utility status for projects in the state.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied a petition by environmental groups seeking to halt construction of a natural gas pipeline that would traverse three counties in the heart of Marcellus Shale country in northern Pennsylvania.

It’s all about not standing in the way of cheap energy, economic growth, jobs and energy security, according to more than 100 groups representing U.S. industry, from North Dakota grain growers to Dow Chemical to the Ohio Bowling Association, that petitioned Tuesday to keep the federal government from erecting barriers to hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

A major interstate natural gas pipeline association has filed a petition in federal court challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final rule mandating the reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.