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Mealey's Fracking

  • February 27, 2026

    Senator Sets In Motion Congressional Review Of National Monument Protections

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Republican senator from Utah has introduced into the congressional record an opinion issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that has determined that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2025 resource management plan (RMP) for the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is reviewable under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).  The move is a step toward revoking the RMP and possibly opening the area for hydraulic fracturing.

  • February 26, 2026

    Companies Ask High Court To Deny Petition In 2nd Michigan Pipeline Case

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a second case involving the dispute between the state of Michigan and the owners of an oil and gas pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac, the pipeline owners have filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that it should deny review of a petition filed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because the Sixth Circuit correctly rejected the state’s sovereign immunity claim that it asserted when the pipeline companies sued the state for terminating an easement that is required to operate the pipeline.

  • February 25, 2026

    Attorneys Debate Federal Court Removal Deadline In Pipeline Case At Supreme Court

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 24 heard oral arguments in a case in which a pipeline company’s attorney argued that “federal courts retain their traditional equitable authority to excuse the 30-day removal deadline” and the Michigan solicitor general contended that the company seeks “an atextual escape hatch” with respect to federal removal of the attorney general’s state court lawsuit that sought to shut down operation of the company’s oil and gas pipeline on grounds that it posed a “risk of release.”

  • February 25, 2026

    Panel Affirms Jury Verdict In Favor Of Energy Company In Fracking Royalty Dispute

    TYLER, Texas — A state appellate court panel in Texas has affirmed a trial court verdict in a hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute, saying that it could not conclude that the jury’s ruling in favor of an energy company with regard to deductions in royalty payments to landowners was “against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence.” The panel also held that, in light of the evidence, the jury could conclude that the energy company did not “fail to provide” the landowners with the royalty payment information to which they were entitled.

  • February 23, 2026

    Groups: Federal Plan To Drill In National Petroleum Reserve Is ‘Capricious’

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Native American groups sued the secretary of the Interior and two federal agencies in Alaska federal court, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief for their decision to adopt the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) 2025 Integrated Activity Plan (IAP), which adopted the BLM’s 2020 IAP that opened more than 82% of the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A).  The groups say the 2025 IAP violates multiple federal laws because it is “arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.”

  • February 23, 2026

    High Court Won’t Review Italian Company’s Claims Over Improper Preclusion

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 23 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by an Italian energy company that argued that a New York state court improperly found that it was precluded from bringing claims in litigation due to the res judicata effect of an earlier arbitration award in a separate dispute between its subsidiary and affiliates of another energy company relating to the parties’ agreement for the handling and sale of liquid natural gas (LNG).

  • February 18, 2026

    Amici Say Tribe’s Objections To Wisconsin Pipeline ‘Have Merit,’ Defend Injunction

    MADISON, Wis. — Sierra Club and other advocates for the environment on Feb. 17 filed an amicus curiae brief in Wisconsin federal court in support of a Native American tribe that obtained an injunction against Enbridge Inc. and its affiliates to cease operation of an oil pipeline that crosses the tribe’s reservation, arguing that Enbridge would be in the same position had the tribe not objected to the state agency’s approval of the project and contending that the tribe’s objections “have merit.”   Enbridge has moved to stay the injunction, which had been issued in 2023 after a federal judge determined that the condition of the pipeline presented a “real and unreasonable risk” of nuisance.

  • February 17, 2026

    Judge: Complex Contract Case Belongs In Tribal Court; Agreement Not Breached

    SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge in Utah has dismissed a contractor’s claims that a Native American tribe breached its agreement with him in a long-standing and complex dispute over revenue the contractor said he was owed for work he performed pursuant to oil and gas leases on tribal lands.  The judge ruled that the matter called for deference to the jurisdiction of the Tribal Court and emphasized the importance of exhausting tribal remedies as required by the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals guidance.

  • February 09, 2026

    Fracking Operator Amends Answer, Seeks To Compel Arbitration In Royalty Dispute

    PITTSBURGH — As a long-running hydraulic fracturing royalty dispute continues, hydraulic fracturing company XTO Energy Inc. has filed an amended answer in Pennsylvania federal court denying allegations against it while maintaining its objection to class certification and reiterating its intent to compel arbitration of “any arbitrable claims brought by absent class members.”

  • February 09, 2026

    Panel: Indian Lands Interest Holders’ Claims Fail In Ongoing Pipeline Dispute

    ST. LOUIS — In a long-running dispute between individuals with ownership interests in Indian trust lands and a pipeline company that operates on those lands, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled in favor of the pipeline company, finding that the interest holders’ claims for trespass, breach of contract and unjust enrichment fail because no legal ruling gives the interest holders the “equitable possessory interest” to tribal lands held in trust such that they have an individual cause of action for trespass under federal common law; however, the panel remanded the case on the issue of whether it can be consolidated with a similar case that is pending.

  • February 06, 2026

    Government: Injunction Should Be Stayed In Dispute Over Pipeline On Tribal Land

    MADISON, Wis. — The U.S. government has filed a statement of interest in Wisconsin federal court in a dispute related to an oil pipeline that crosses a Native American tribe’s reservation, supporting the pipeline company’s request that the court stay an injunction that required the company to cease operation on certain parcels within the Bad River Reservation on or before June 16, 2026.  The government argues that a shutdown of the pipeline, with no alternative means to transport the same amount of energy products, damages its interests.

  • February 06, 2026

    Judge Refuses To Halt Alaska Fracking On Grounds The ‘Winter Factors’ Were Not Met

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge in Alaska has denied a motion for preliminary injunction sought by Native American groups who oppose the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) plans to conduct hydraulic fracturing operations in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPRA), ruling that the plaintiffs failed to satisfy even one of the “Winter factors,” which pertain to granting an injunction.

  • January 27, 2026

    10th Circuit Affirms $17.3M Attorney Fee Award In Fracking Royalty Dispute

    DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 26 affirmed a lower court’s award of more than $17.3 million in attorney fees as part of a $52 million oil and gas royalty settlement on grounds that the trial court assessed the award’s reasonableness by weighing it using Oklahoma’s statutory factors and conducting a lodestar cross-check and there was no abuse of discretion.

  • January 27, 2026

    More Than 5 Years On, Tribal Groups Amend Federal Fracking Lease Complaint

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Native American tribal groups have filed an amended and supplemental complaint in Alaska federal court in a legal proceeding that began in 2020 challenging the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) approval of an oil and gas leasing program on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic Refuge) on grounds that it violates numerous federal laws.

  • January 27, 2026

    Interior Secretary Denies Groups’ Claims In Dispute Over Offshore Fracking Leases

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has filed an answer in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denying allegations against him and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups challenging Burgum’s and others’ “unlawful decision” to hold a sale for offshore hydraulic fracturing leases.  Burgum asserts affirmative defenses contending that the groups have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

  • January 27, 2026

    Court: Gas Companies’ Claims About Compensation Are Utilities Commission’s Purview

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that class action claims brought by natural gas producers against an energy company related to allegations that it sold or used the natural gas the producers delivered to the energy company’s pipeline without providing compensation are a matter that falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the state public utilities commission.

  • January 26, 2026

    Judge Says Residents Fail To Present Evidence In Dispute Over Royalty Payments

    TULSA, Okla. — A federal judge in Oklahoma has granted judgment as a matter of law to individuals and companies in the energy industry following a trial on residents’ claims that they were defrauded through an underpayment of royalties on natural gas produced from their wells. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to present evidence that would permit a jury to find in their favor with respect to any of their claims.

  • January 26, 2026

    California Sues Federal Agency Challenging Orders Approving Las Flores Pipelines

    SAN FRANCISCO — The state of California on Jan. 23 filed a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging what it says are three unlawful orders issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) related to a pair of onshore pipelines called the Las Flores Pipelines, which are part of the Santa Ynez Unit (SYU) that transports oil from offshore platforms to onshore facilities in Santa Barbara, Calif.

  • January 26, 2026

    After Nearly 6 Years, Groups Amend Arctic Drilling Case Against Federal Agencies

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Environmental advocacy groups have amended a complaint they initially filed in 2020, opposing the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) plan to open the Coastal Plain of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to hydraulic fracturing.  In the second amended and first supplemental complaint, the groups add to the list of federal laws that they say the defendants have violated through actions that are “arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with law.”

  • January 26, 2026

    Panel Reverses, Says All Evidence Was Not Considered In Ruling On Fracking Pooling

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia appellate panel has reversed and remanded a ruling by a state oil and gas commission related to its decision to approve an application for pooling and unitization of a drilling unit for hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the commission did not consider all of the evidence, including the objections of some residents who said that they did not receive a good faith offer for their interests prior to the commission’s approval of the application.

  • January 21, 2026

    Defendant: Fraud Complaint Demonstrates ‘An Unfathomable Level Of Laziness’

    TYLER, Texas — A defendant in a lawsuit brought by a receiver for multiple entities in a fraud lawsuit against individuals and companies related to nonexistent hydraulic fracturing technology on Jan. 20 filed a pro se response to the amended complaint, denying all allegations against him and arguing that “the entire complaint demonstrates an unfathomable level of laziness,” bordering on “gross incompetence.”

  • January 20, 2026

    Alaska, Trump Administration, For Differing Reasons, Say Fracking Case Fails

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska and the Trump administration on Jan. 16 filed separate briefs in support of motions to dismiss a lawsuit brought by environmental groups that are challenging President Donald J. Trump’s executive order that reopened areas of the outer continental shelf (OCS) for hydraulic fracturing. The state argues that the case should be dismissed for lack of standing because the plaintiffs have not alleged imminent and particular harm in the District of Alaska. The Trump administration, which insists it has sovereign immunity, contends that jurisdiction is lacking.

  • January 15, 2026

    Federal Government Says California Law That Restricts Drilling Rights Is ‘Invalid’

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The U.S. government on Jan. 14 sued the state of California in California federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, arguing that a state law that restricts oil and gas drilling “effectively nullifies vested federal lease rights” and is invalid because it constitutes an obstruction that is “contrary to the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

  • January 12, 2026

    Mineral Rights Holders Appeal Well Unitization Ruling To 5th Circuit

    NEW ORLEANS — A mineral rights holding company has appealed to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a decision by a Louisiana federal judge to dismiss the holding company’s claims against a hydraulic fracturing operator on grounds that because a Pugh clause in a mineral lease between the parties “lacks the clarity necessary to encompass” compulsory unitization of wells, the lease was indivisible despite periods in which certain wells were not producing.

  • January 09, 2026

    Judge Denies Oil Company’s Bid For Injunction In Fracking Contract Breach Case

    TOPEKA, Kan. — A federal judge in Kansas on Jan. 8 denied an oil company’s motion for a preliminary injunction to prevent the minority owner of leasing rights from conducting hydraulic fracturing operations during the pendency of the oil company’s lawsuit against the minority owner for allegations of breach of contract. The judge said that the oil company failed to “meet its burden to sustain the extraordinary remedy” it requested.