pipelines
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of July 03, 2023
Post-Production Costs: Title: District Court Denies Diversified’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings in Abandoned Wells Class Action Suit ⚡
On Thursday, June 1, 2023, the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia denied Defendant Diversified Energy Co.’s (Diversified) Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings in the case of McEvoy v. Diversified Energy Co. PLC. Plaintiffs had filed a class action against Diversified, alleging Diversified had a duty to plug and decommission thousands of abandoned gas wells in West Virginia. On May 10, 2023, Diversified filed a Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings for Failure to […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of June 26, 2023
Pipelines: Federal Judge Orders Natural Gas Company to Remove Pipeline from Tribal Land ⚡
On Friday, June 16, 2023, a federal judge in the Western District of Wisconsin issued an order in the case of Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation v. Enbridge Energy Company, Inc., finding for the plaintiff tribe. The tribe had brought suit against Enbridge, which owns and operates a pipeline that crosses 12 parcels of tribal land, on July 23, 2019, alleging that the pipeline is at risk of erosion and rupture due to erosion of […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of June 12, 2023
Municipal Regulation: Berkeley Petitions for Rehearing of Ninth Circuit’s Decision Striking Down Natural Gas Piping Prohibition ⚡
On May 31, 2023, the City of Berkeley, California, filed a petition requesting a rehearing en banc after an April 17th opinion in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that a city may not ban the installation of natural gas equipment in new buildings. Berkeley had implemented an ordinance banning natural gas infrastructure in newly constructed buildings claiming that the ordinance would reduce environmental and health hazards associated with natural gas consumption. The California Restaurant Association (CRA) sued, arguing that […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of May 29, 2023
State Regulation: Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Proposes Amendments to Low-Income Usage Reduction Program Regulations ⚡
On Thursday, May 18, 2023, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing amendments to the Low-Income Usage Reduction Program (LIURP) regulations. LIURP regulations apply to natural gas distribution companies and electric distribution companies that are “covered” as per 52 Pa. Code § 58.2 and require them to provide energy conservation services to low-income households in the state. The LIURP regulations were first passed in 1988 and last amended in 1998. In 2016, the PUC published a Secretarial Letter […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of May 15, 2023
Pipelines: DOT Proposes New Pipeline Leak Detection Rules ⚡
On Friday, May 5, 2023, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration proposed a new rule aimed at improving the detection and repair of leaks from old gas pipelines. The rule will take advantage of the $196 million in grants that were provided on April 5, 2023, to create the necessary jobs to repair, replace, and rehabilitate over 2.7 million miles of pipelines. As explained in the most recent announcement, if the actions proposed in rule are finalized, an approximate $2.3 billion in annual benefits […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of May 08, 2023
Pipelines: Supreme Court Reopens Landowner Eminent Domain Case Against Mountain Valley Pipeline ⚡
On Monday, April 24, 2023, the Supreme Court granted an appeal filed by six landowners in their case brought against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a statute that has allowed private companies, like Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC, to exercise eminent domain authority to construct pipelines across Virginia and West Virginia. Cletus Woodrow Bohon et al. v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission et al., No. 22-256, The D.C. Circuit originally affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the suit, holding that, as required by the Natural […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of April 17, 2023
Pipelines: DOT Grants $196 Million for Pipeline Repair and Improvement Projects ⚡
On Wednesday, April 5, 2023, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced $196 million in grants that will fund 37 projects across 19 states for the purpose of fixing old, leaky pipelines. The main goal of the projects is to improve public health and safety by cutting down on methane emissions from faulty gas pipes. The announcement emphasizes the job growth that will result from the grant, noting that hundreds of individuals from rural and urban communities will find employment repairing, replacing, […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of March 13, 2023
Pipelines: US Fish and Wildlife Service Finds Mountain Valley Pipeline Unlikely to Threaten Existence of Five Regional Species ⚡
On Monday, March 1, 2023, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published a revised impact assessment for the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 304-mile natural gas pipeline that will span from the Wetzel County region of West Virginia to the Pittsylvania County region of Virginia. In their assessment, the FWS’s conducts jeopardy analyses for five particular species of plant and animals that inhabit the region across which the pipeline will be constructed. The overall “rangewide status” of the species […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of February 6, 2023
Public Health: DOI Publishes Draft Guidance for $500 Million Grant to States for Orphaned Well Cleanup ⚡
On January 30, 2023, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) released draft guidance on the $500 million grant that is being provided to states under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the purpose of orphaned well cleanup. This grant will be used to build the infrastructure and create the jobs necessary for “well site plugging, remediation, and reclamation.” The guidance indicates what information states must provide to receive a “Phase 1 Formula grant,” which includes the allotted $500 million in funding based on […]
Shale Law Weekly Review—Week of January 30, 2023
Hydraulic Fracturing Bans: Fossil Fuel Companies Petition Supreme Court to Reverse Ban on All New Permits for Oil Production on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf ⚡
On January 25, 2023, the American Petroleum Institute, Exxon Mobile, and DCOR petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision by the Ninth District Court of Appeals to uphold an injunction against all new well-stimulation treatment permits in the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf. In their petition, the three companies first argue that the Ninth Circuit erred in upholding the Department of the Interior’s finding that “hypothetical future approvals of permits to conduct well-stimulation treatments” […]
