Last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson in Harrisburg denied a request for a Lone Pine order in a natural gas migration case, Roth v. Cabot Oil & Gas, Civil Action No. 3:12-cv-898 (M.D. Pa. Oct. 15, 2012). That decision offers an opportunity to consider some issues arising from claims that shale gas development (fracking) in Pennsylvania has caused personal injury or property damage as the result of contamination of neighbors’ water wells or other migration of natural gas to neighbors’ property.
As described below, Roth came out in the plaintiffs’ favor. Several other decisions over the past few years, as well as certain provisions of the amended Oil and Gas Act (Act 13) and the oil and gas regulations, would tend to make litigation against natural gas operators easier.
