Laws & Regulations

"Oklahoma’s highest court is about to make a decision that could really shake up the way fracking companies do business in the state."

Labor unions and environmentalists say the ultra-secret Trans Pacific Partnership trade treaty could nullify U.S. laws meant to protet Americans. They oppose the administration's bid for "fast-track" authority to present it to Congress on a take-it-or-leave it basis."

"Three powerful accidents in recent years highlight weaknesses in the oversight of how natural gas providers maintain the largest pipelines in their networks, accident investigators said today as they issued more than two dozen safety recommendations."

"WASHINGTON, DC -- Anadarko Petroleum Corp. [Friday] paid a record $5.15 billion settlement to the U.S. government and others – the largest environmental enforcement recovery payment ever obtained in a lawsuit by the Department of Justice."

"A county's ban on hydraulic fracturing and drilling conflicts with both state and U.S. law, a federal court in New Mexico found this week."

"With natural gas drilling on the horizon in Western Maryland, dairy farmer Billy Bishoff welcomes the chance to supplement his income by collecting lease or royalty payments on the natural gas that lies beneath his family's 330 acres a few miles northwest of Deep Creek Lake."

"The Canadian company that wants to build the Keystone XL pipeline took legal action Tuesday to secure remaining right of way from a group of holdout Nebraska landowners."

"The Freedom spill endangered 300,000 locals; now, a replacement company – run by many of the same people – faces eight environmental citations"

"John Cruden served with U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam, taking his law school aptitude test in Saigon and eventually becoming a government lawyer. Earlier this month, he started a new job running the environment and natural resources division at the Justice Department. For Cruden, 68, the new role means coming home to a place where he worked as a career lawyer for about 20 years."

"A Northern California man who was convicted of masterminding a plot to blow up two federal facilities and had his 20-year sentence cut short because prosecutors failed to turn over all their evidence to defense lawyers says he was entrapped by a female FBI informant for whom he harbored romantic feelings."