CounterSpill

After seven years, Massey Energy Co. is offering a $35 million settlement to hundreds of West Virginians who claim coal slurry has poisoned drinking wells near their homes. 

On July 26, environmental activist Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

The verdict comes nearly two and a half years after he disrupted a government auction of oil and gas leases. As bidder number 70, DeChristopher made bogus bids on over 22,000 acres of national parks in an effort to save them from degradation. 

The Gulf of Mexico seems to be entering a renaissance period of fossil fuel reinvestment. Over the past month, Noble Energy, Exxon Mobil, and Shell have all announced significant finds in a region once considered as nearing peak production. 

On Feb. 14, the controversial lawsuit between the indigenous people of Ecuador and Chevron-Texaco seemingly came to an end when the presiding judge ordered Chevron to pay $18 billion in fines and punitive damages.

However, Chevron promptly appealed, claiming false charges. And the Ecuadorian plaintiffs appealed, claiming the judgement amount to be far below what was needed to restore the region. The slew of additional lawsuits, accusations and jurisdictional issues may keep the 18-year legal battle from ending any time soon. 

A legal battle is brewing between BP and Halliburton, as both companies have introduced lawsuits this week -- each blaming the other for the spill. BP has also announced lawsuits against Cameron International and Transocean, which has resulted in a dizzying mix of cross claims and counterclaims from all parties involved.

BP is accusing Halliburton's faulty cement as being a primary cause of the spill, reports the Houston Chronicle. 

Weeks after a decades-old report on fracking contamination surfaced, the Securities and Exchange Commission is requiring oil and gas companies to provide information on their methods of extraction and how they are lessening environmental impact.

The SEC says it wants more transparency because misrepresented facts could be misleading to investors, especially regarding safety practices. 

On Sept. 21, a Tennessee Valley Authority executive testified there were "missed opportunities" to avoid a spill of 5.4 million cubic tons of coal ash at its Kingston plant in 2008.

The testimony took place during a federal trial on the spill, which began last week. About 230 plaintiffs are suing the coal company over damages relating to the disaster.

On Oct. 7, a district judge threw out additional restrictions on mountaintop removal mining permits by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The National Mining Association sued the EPA after it issued more stringent guidelines for "dredge-and-fill" permits, saying the government agency side-stepped formal rulemaking and public input.

Questionable permit review practices that TransCanada engaged in to prepare for the Keystone XL Pipeline have sparked an internal review by the state department and a 10,000 person protest.

Oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico owned by Taylor Energy Co. have spilled 20 to 100 times the amount reported by the Coast Guard, according to independent oil spill monitoring group Skytruth. 

In its Cumulative Spill Report, the organization claims more than 251,000 gallons of crude oil have leaked from Taylor Energy's wells over the past seven years. The Coast Guard has said only 12,700 gallons have spilled from those wells.