The E&P industry is continuing to face public criticism of its use of fresh groundwater in fracing wells and its failure to disclose the chemicals added to frac water. On February 5, the Investor Environmental Health Network (IEHN) issued a press release announcing that shareholders have filed resolutions with Cabot O&G, Chevron,…
The Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a case that could have important implications for landowners and oil and gas exploration companies: Merriman v. XTO Energy, No. 11-0494. Merriman’s attorneys are asking the Court to reverse the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, at Waco, which they contend…
A client recently suggested that I should write about landfarming – the practice of disposing of drilling mud and cuttings by spreading it over land. Drilling mud is the common term for the fluid used in the process of drilling a well. It is made up of a mixture of…
FrackNation is a documentary by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney, journalists from Ireland, in response to Josh Fox’s Gasland. It recently premiered in several locations and now can be seen on Mark Cuban’s cable channel AXS. I watched it this week, and it can be seen again on AXS February…
Texas Wesleyan Law Review’s Energy Symposium is March 21 and 22 in Fort Worth. It is focused on Hydraulic Fracturing and Shale Gas Development in the U.S. and abroad. Looks like a good program. Energy Symposium Brochure.pdf
The University of Texas’ Burear of Economic Geology has issued a draft report updating an earlier report on water use by the oil and gas industry in Texas. Among its conclusions: Movement of shale plays into oil-rich areas of the Eagle Ford and West Texas’s Permian Basin have resulted in…
News items of interest: The University of Pennsylvania’s Center of Excllence in Environmental Toxicology has organized a group of researchers from UPa, Columbia, Johns Hopkins and the University of North Carolina to study whether the drilling in the Marcellus Shale play is hazardous to human health. http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/taking-a-harder-look-at-fracking-and-health/ Here is a…
Here’s another amazing NASA photo, showing light from drilling activity in the Bakken Shale Play: You can see more photos here, At NPR’s Robert Krulwich blog.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to decide whether the Lesser Prairie Chicken should be listed as an endangered species. Its Texas habitat is in the Panhandle and West Texas. The bird’s habitat extends into Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma: The listing could have an adverse…
In a prior post, I wrote about a new development at the Texas Railroad Commission: granting permits for “allocation wells” – horizontal wells drilled across lease lines without pooling the leases. Since I wrote that post, our firm was retained to represent the parties protesting EOG Resources’ application for a permit…