Abduljabbar Malik v. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp

USDC for the District of New Jerse

Matthew Uronis v. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvani

Wayne Harrison v. Cabot Oil & Gas Corp

USDC for the Middle District of Pennsylvani

Fontenelle Natural Gas Infill Drilling Projects, Sweetwater and Lincoln Counties, Wyoming, Final Environmental Impact Statement

DALEN Resources Oil & Gas Co. (DALEN Operator) and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., Presidio Oil Co., and several other companies (collectively the Lincoln Road Operators) propose to continue infill drilling their existing lease acreage (collectively approximately 179,760 acres) within the Fontenelle II and Lincoln Road development areas. The Fontenelle II and the Lincoln Road development areas are immediately adjacent to each other. Both proposed actions would be implemented in northeastern Lincoln and northwestern Sweetwater counties, Wyoming adjacent to and east of Fontenelle Reservoir and the Green River. The project areas are approximately 30 miles northeast of Kemmerer, Wyoming and 70 miles northwest of Rock Springs, Wyoming

Environment, Energy, and Economy: Impacts of Natural Gas Pipelines in 9 Watersheds of North-Central Pennsylvania

While exploitation of the Marcellus Shale constitutes a major economic opportunity for leaseholders and the state of Pennsylvania, it also has brought persistent concerns over the environmental and economic impacts this may have on air and water quality, forest health, property values, and wildlife. This project examined 3 specific aspects of natural gas related activity in 9 watersheds of various drilling intensities in north-central Pennsylvania. The impacts of gathering pipeline in particular were examined, including their role in forest fragmentation, the energy return on investment (EROI) associated with their construction, and how this energy return was distributed over the well’s lifetime to date. The results revealed that gathering pipelines likely caused minimal losses in forest cover from 2005 to 2010 in 4 of the 6 sites featuring drilling activity. Losses could be attributed to pipelines even in high intensity sites that initially had less forest cover than the low intensity sites. The EROI of pipelines included both their embodied energy and their construction costs, and was found to constitute less than 3% of the energy return, given three different scenarios of EROI analysis in which wells of a low (1.3 trillion Btu) or high (2.6 trillion Btu) lifetime productivity were compared to energy costs of pipeline lengths with three different diameters (12, 20, and 24 inches). Finally, reporting data obtained from the state Department of Environmental Protection was analyzed to produce decline curves for 54 wells in Susquehanna and Bradford counties. Fifty of the wells reached their maximum production within a year of being drilled, and by the wells’ second reporting periods (an average of 546.98 days after completion), 31 of the 46 applicable wells were producing less than half of their maximum. The study revealed that drilling activity in the area is proceeding according to the high development scenario projected by The Nature Conservancy, but that space between pads and total pipeline lengths is smaller than initially predicted. The results suggest that increasing the number of wells on a well pad is key to a number of improvements. Forest fragmentation as well as impacts on biological communities would be minimized with fewer disturbances and less pipeline. This would require drillers to consolidate leases, but would also result in a smaller investment of energy in pipelines. Municipalities should be aware that gathering lines may open up “highways” of drilling activity and should be allowed to maintain their zoning rights. Finally, multiple wells per pad would ameliorate the replication of impacts sacrificed for what could be a lifetime far less than the 40-50 years suggested by drilling advocates

Digest of Hydraulic Fracturing Cases

As U.S. coal exports increase and new infrastructure is proposed to improve access to markets in Asia, controversy has arisen regarding the scope of environmental review that should be carried out by government. In particular, there is significant disagreement as to whether the end-use of exported coal and the emissions generated by its combustion fall within the scope of environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). This paper considers this issue, examining the requirements of NEPA and its implementing regulations, as well as current practice by Federal agencies

West Virginia

This Article summarizes and discusses important cases, legislation, and regulations issued or enacted pertaining to the oil and gas jurisprudence of West Virginia between September 1, 2010, and August 31, 2011. The Authors acknowledge that the term important is subjec- tive; nevertheless, they endeavor to discuss the most germane cases and regulations affecting the oil and gas industry. This Article is divided into two parts. Part One discusses a very important regulation promulgated by the Office of Oil and Gas, a division of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, regarding water use by the oil and gas industry when drilling horizontal wells. Noticeably absent from this Part is any discussion of major legislation affecting the oil and gas industry. During the requisite period, no significant legislation was enacted, which the Authors subjectively deemed worthy of discussion. Nevertheless, the legislature introduced numerous bills, which if enacted, would have substantially impacted the oil and gas industry. Part Two of this Article discusses developments in West Virginia\u27s case law regarding oil and gas. In this Part, the Authors will discuss and analyze major decisions issued by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ( Supreme Court of Appeals ), one important case litigated in the Circuit Court of Monongalia County, West Virginia, and the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia

A Survey of Typical Claims and Key Defenses Asserted in Recent Hydraulic Fracturing Litigation

Small energy companies using hydraulic fracturing, along with horizontal drilling, are unlocking vast oil and natural gas deposits trapped in shale all over the United States. Over the past few years, several key technical, economic, and energy policy developments have spurred increased use of hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas extraction over a wider diversity of geographic regions and geologic formations.2 However, with the expansion of hydraulic fracturing, there have been increasing concerns voiced by the public about potential impacts on drinking water resources, public health, and the environment

Factual Causation: The Missing Link in Hydraulic Fracture—Groundwater Contamination Litigation

A speech-based material that early can assess a child's hearing is needed to provide an indication of a hearing impaired child's language development. Being able to identify and discriminate between different sounds is a requirement for interpreting speech. Hearing assessments that examine speech perception can therefore, unlike, for example, pure tone audiometry, examine a hearing impaired child's perceptual language skills and provide a basis for intervention. The purpose of this work is to evaluate a new auditory material on 3-year-old children. The auditory material is based on the Ling-6-sounds and the main question was which of the sounds in the test were adequate for test of discrimination. Furthermore, it was investigated how the test works with children aged 3:0–3:11 years and how age and gender affect the result. Twenty-four children aged 3:0–3:11 years were tested using a computer based test. The goal  for the child was to discriminate between pairs of sounds and react to an odd pair. Several instruction techniques were tested by two different test administrators. The results of the tests indicated that equal pairs of sounds (/do/-/do/, /s/-/s/) gave more correct responses. The test section where only two different pairs were used generated more adequate responses than the test section with six different pairs. Differences in age influenced the outcome more than sex and different instructions. There is also a need for improved instructions and sounds. Generally, children became more involved in the test when given instructions that were short and direct