Pennsylvania Newspapers Get Break in Fracking Disclosure Case

Two Pennsylvania newspapers won from a state appeals court last week the go-ahead to seek sealed records in a settled fracking case.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was joined by the Washington (PA) Observer-Reporter in a suit to unseal records of the July 2011 settlement of the case known as Hallowich v. Range Resources. Members of the Hallowich family had sued four natural gas companies over damages they claimed were caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The appeals court said a lower court had erred in throwing out the newspapers' case, but they must now go back to the lower court to argue it.

The lower court had ruled that the papers' case had not been filed in a timely fashion; the appeals court ruled that it had been filed timely.

• "Pa. Appeals Court Rules Newspapers Can Pursue Sealed Records in Fracking Settlement," Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, December 11, 2012, by Lilly Chapa.
• "Newspapers Can Argue to Open Records in Fracking Suit," New York Times, December 11, 2012, by Jon Hurdle.
• "Appeals Court Agrees with Newspapers in Sealed Fracking Case," StateImpact Pennsylvania, December 7, 2012, by Susan Phillips.
• Appeals Court decision of December 7, 2012, in Hallowich v. Range Resources.