Articles, Alerts & Perspectives

The American Oil & Gas Reporter

(by Kevin Garber, Blaine Lucas, Keith J. Coyle, and Jay Hammond)

PITTSBURGH, PA.–Driven by demand growth in the industrial and electric generation sectors as well as expanding pipeline and liquefied natural gas export volumes, U.S. natural gas consumption is expected to reach record levels this year. However, production also is forecast to soar to new heights, partly as a result of increasing associated gas production in tight oil resource plays.

According to U.S. Energy Information Administration projections, dry natural gas production will increase by 6.7 billion cubic feet a day in 2018, outpacing estimated year over-year demand growth. Expecting surging supplies to likely translate into relatively low dry natural gas prices for some time, Appalachian Basin natural gas producers continue to work to reduce costs and improve efficiency, while taking advantage of attractive opportunities.

From a business perspective, oil field services remain a primary point of focus for Marcellus and Utica operators in their efforts to reduce costs and improve efficiency, with service providers delivering innovative products to make more productive wells at a lower cost per unit of production. Furthermore, shale gas producers remain focused on consolidating their activities geographically, including selling noncore assets to smaller (often largely debt-financed) operators looking for particular assets less attractive to larger operators (including shallow oil and, in certain circumstances, liquids from shale).

Consolidation continues apace in the shallow conventional natural gas production industry as well. Apart from joint ventures, acreage swaps and other traditional transactions, shale gas producers in the Appalachian region also are pursuing more novel operational strategies to reduce costs and increase profits despite relatively steady natural gas prices. …

PA Business Central 

Family leave, sexual harassment, sexual orientation discrimination, overtime salary threshold and duties tests, employer health care insurance and related tax reporting requirements, mandatory drug testing, executive compensation, disability benefits claims procedure, contraceptive coverage, legal marijuana use, the proper classification of workers as independent contractors or employees, salaried or hourly, paid or unpaid interns: all are among the labor and employment issues that employers have long been grappling with.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

The latest change in employment law came on March 7 when The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, held that discrimination against transgender/LBGTQ employees is discrimination based on sex, and therefore, it violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court held the opinion in the case EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. of Detroit, Michigan.

When the plaintiff, Aimee Stephens, began working as a funeral director, he presented himself as a male and was named Anthony Stephens. Stephens was fired after she informed the funeral home that she would no longer be presenting as a male but would transition and dress as a female. The funeral home argued that Stephens’ continued employment would negatively impact its business clients, and the change in sexual orientation violated the Christian values of the funeral home’s owner. The three-judge panel concluded that the funeral home could not use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to justify such discrimination, and decided in favor of Stephens.

Two weeks earlier, in a 10-3 decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in NYC, whose territory covers Connecticut, New York and Vermont, ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covered sexual orientation discrimination. …

Pipeline & Gas Journal 

(by Keith Coyle)

Having recently filled the two most important political appointments at the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the Trump administration appears ready to take further action on two rulemaking proceedings that could reshape the nation’s federal safety standards for hazardous liquid and natural gas pipelines.

Howard R. Elliott was recently sworn in as PHMSA’s administrator. Elliot brings more than four decades of experience in the freight rail industry to his new leadership position, including expertise in the areas of hazardous material safety and security.

He previously received the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Holden-Proefrock Award for lifetime achievement for hazardous materials safety, served on AAR’s Risk Management Working Committee and Security Committee, and is a member of the American Society of Industrial Security and the FBI-DHS Domestic Security Alliance Council. Administrator Elliot’s background and experience suggests that he is well-positioned to lead PHMSA, the federal agency responsible for ensuring the safe transportation of energy products by truck, rail, vessel or pipeline.

The same can be said of Elliot’s new deputy, Drue Pearce, who became PHMSA’s newly appointed deputy administrator. Pearce previously served as the federal coordinator for Alaskan Natural Gas Transportation Projects and as an official in the Department of Interior during the George W. Bush administration.

She also served as a member of PHMSA’s Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee, the federal advisory committee that reviews PHMSA’s proposed pipeline safety regulations, and as a member of the Alaska House of Representatives and Alaska State Senate. Pearce’s prior public service and familiarity with the pipeline industry leaves her well-prepared to assume a significant role at PHMSA, particularly on pipeline safety matters. …

The Legal Intelligencer

(by John McCreary)

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 inserted a new subsection (q) into Section 162 of the Internal Revenue Code which denies deductions for payments made in settlements of sexual harassment or sexual abuse cases, and “related” attorney fees, when those settlements are subject to a confidentiality agreement: “(q) Payments related to sexual harassment and sexual abuse. No deduction shall be allowed under this chapter for:

• Any settlement or payment related to sexual harassment or sexual abuse if such a settlement or payment is subject to a nondisclosure agreement, or
• Attorney fees related to such a settlement or payment.”

This provision was added by amendment in the Senate and accepted by the House in the final enactment.

The Conference Committee Report (the report) on the amendment does not disclose the rationale for the change, but it is safe to infer that it was inspired by the sordid revelations about widespread sexual harassment that were making headlines when it was passed on Dec. 20, 2017. See, e.g., https://www.ajc.com/news/world/from-weinstein-lauer-timeline-2017-sexual-harassment-scandals/qBKJmUSZRJqgOzeB9yN2JK/ (published on Dec. 19, 2017). The report contains no interpretive guidance on the meaning of “related to” as used in the statute, nor does it define what is meant by a “nondisclosure agreement.” The report simply notes that while Section 162 generally allows for the deduction of “ordinary and necessary” business expenses, various subsections disallow deductions for certain payments, such as portions of damages awarded under antitrust laws, illegal bribes or kickbacks, and criminal fines. In reaction to the headlines Congress has concluded that confidential payments resolving sexual harassment claims can no longer be considered “ordinary and necessary.”

As with many efforts by Congress to provide quick fixes to perceived problems, the unintended consequences of this quick fix will likely create more uncertainty and controversy than will be resolved. …

Trends

(by Gary Steinbauer)

On February 1, 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court in Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, No. 15-17447 (9th Cir.), held that the Clean Water Act (CWA or Act) regulates point source discharges that travel indirectly through groundwater to a jurisdictional surface water—that is, a navigable “water of the United States.” Maui is the first federal appellate court decision in a recent wave of citizen suits by environmental groups relying on the so-called “groundwater conduit” theory of CWA liability. The Fourth Circuit and Sixth Circuit are poised to weigh in next and, in the wake of the Maui decision, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened a 90-day public comment period on whether it should clarify or revise its own past statements on the theory and whether it is consistent with the text, structure, and purposes of the CWA. 83 Fed. Reg. 7126 (Feb. 20, 2018).

Ninth Circuit requires National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for underground injection of wastewater

In Maui, environmental groups sued the county alleging that it violated the CWA when treated sanitary effluent it injected into four permitted underground injection wells traveled some distance through groundwater to the Pacific Ocean. The results of a tracer dye test performed by EPA, as well as other federal and state agencies, showed that 84 days after the dye was injected into two of the county’s four wells, the dye emerged from submarine seeps along the ocean floor a half-mile away. The county’s treated sanitary wastewater reportedly represented one out of every seven gallons of groundwater that entered the ocean near the wastewater treatment plant. …

The Voice 

(by Alana E. Fortna)

Contaminated water supplies are causing quite the stir and creating headlines in local newspapers across the country. The increased attention and scrutiny is due to the detection of unregulated substances that may pose a risk to human health or the environment, referred to as “emerging contaminants.” An “emerging contaminant” is a chemical or material characterized by a perceived, potential, or real threat to human health or the environment, or by a lack of a published health standard.

Emerging contaminants do not have a federal maximum contaminant level for drinking water, surface water, or groundwater under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Maximum contaminant levels are one of the factors considered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when evaluating the appropriate remedial action at a contaminated groundwater site. Unless a state has promulgated a standard to address the particular emerging contaminant, water purveyors, companies performing remediation work, and environmental consultants can find themselves in a state of uncertainty regarding compliance for remediation projects.

So how does the EPA address emerging contaminants? Currently, the EPA issues non-binding health advisories that are sometimes used as default cleanup levels when there are no binding standards (i.e., maximum contaminant levels). There are problems with this approach, such as a lack of collaboration with states and municipalities when prioritizing contaminants for health advisories, a lack of communication with water purveyors, and a lack of clarification regarding the difference between a health advisory and a maximum contaminant level. In addition to health advisories, emerging contaminants are often placed on the contaminant candidate list, which is a list of unregulated contaminants that mayrequire regulation under the SDWA. However, the presence of these contaminants in the environment may already be widespread, and the promulgation process can be lengthy, as the regulators try to determine the safe level of exposure for these contaminants. …

The Legal Intelligencer

(by Krista-Ann M. Staley and Amie L. Courtney)

Whether you are a property owner interested in offering a room as a short-term rental, a resident opposed to short-term rentals in your neighborhood, or a municipal official hearing from concerned residents of either opinion, you should be aware that unclear zoning regulations can cause significant roadblocks for all sides of the debate.

Whether you are a property owner interested in offering a room as a short-term rental, a resident opposed to short-term rentals in your neighborhood, or a municipal official hearing from concerned residents of either opinion, you should be aware that unclear zoning regulations can cause significant roadblocks for all sides of the debate. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has addressed these roadblocks in several cases, recently adding Reihner v. City of Scranton Zoning Hearing Board, No. 256 C.D. 2017 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2017) to its growing line of cases involving the application of ambiguous zoning regulations to short-term residential rentals. The uptick in these cases reflects the increased popularity of the trend, expanded by online sites such as Air BnB, VRBO, and HomeAway that connect travelers with local residents or homeowners that want to rent rooms or residences for short-term stays.

Reihner, along with its predecessors, originated with a notice of violation issued in response to neighbor complaints about the use of a single-family home, or portion thereof, as a short-term rental property. Critically, in each of these cases, the municipality had not amended its zoning ordinance to address short-term rentals. Rather, each municipality relied on existing regulations and terms as the basis for enforcement. In each case, the Commonwealth Court determined that the treatment of the newly popular rental activity was ambiguous under the existing applicable zoning regulations, and that Section 603 of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code requires interpretation of ambiguous terms in a zoning ordinance to be in favor of the property owner, i.e. …

The PIOGA Press

(by Lisa M. Bruderly and Gary E. Steinbauer)

On February 6, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers published a final rule delaying implementation of the Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Water Rule (CWR)— a landmark rule revising the definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) that arguably expanded the scope of the federal government’s authority under several regulatory programs, including those associated with wastewater discharges and dredge/fill activities under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The February 6 final rule delays implementation of the CWR until February 6, 2020. 83 Fed. Reg. 5200. The final rule delaying implementation of the CWR is a significant step in the Trump administration’s efforts to reconsider the Obama administration’s revised definition of WOTUS. Meanwhile, the pre-2015 WOTUS regulatory regime, which has been criticized by many as inefficient and inconsistent, remains in place.

Supreme Court decision forced agencies to quickly delay applicability of CWR

The agencies’ rule delaying implementation of the CWR was finalized less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense, et al., No. 16-299 (Jan. 22, 2018) (NAM), which started a countdown for the expiration of a nationwide judicial stay of the CWR. In NAM, the Supreme Court held that federal district courts, as opposed to federal appellate courts, were the appropriate forums for the legal challenges to the CWR. Once the Supreme Court’s decision takes effect, the nationwide stay of the CWR, imposed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in October 2015, will be lifted and more than a dozen federal district lawsuits challenging the CWR will be revived. …

The Legal Intelligencer 

(by Stephen L. Korbel)

For Pennsylvania employers, Gov. Tom Wolf’s recent announcement regarding sweeping changes to Pennsylvania’s overtime pay regulations is déjà vu all over again. Most employers will recall the concern, confusion and litigation that followed the Obama administration’s attempt in 2016 to nearly double the federal minimum salary levels exemption from overtime pay from $23,360 to $47,476. On Jan. 17, 2018, Wolf announced that the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry will issue proposed regulations in March that will increase the minimum salary level to determine overtime eligibility and will “clarify” the duties test for executive, administrative and professional employees. If the proposed regulatory changes become final, it will be the first time in more than 40 years that Pennsylvania has updated its overtime regulations.

Wolf directed the department to phase in regulatory changes to the minimum salary levels over four years. If enacted, the first stage will raise the salary level to determine overtime eligibility for most workers from the federal minimum of $455 per week, $23,660 annually, to $610 per week, $31,720 annually. The first stage will take effect on Jan. 1, 2020. The minimum salary level will increase to $39,832 on Jan. 1, 2021, followed by an increase to $47,892 in 2022. The Wolf administration estimates that the salary level changes will extend overtime eligibility to 370,000 workers in 2020 and up to 460,000 workers in 2022. Also, following the implementation of the final phase of the new salary level to $47,892 in 2022, the Wolf administration proposed that the minimum salary level automatically update every three years. The first automatic increase would not likely occur until Jan. 1, 2025. At this point, the Wolf administration has not provided any indication as to the manner in which the automatic salary level increase will be calculated or otherwise determined. …