Unlike county prosecutors, who enforce only criminal laws, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro has the added responsibility of enforcing civil laws, including those protecting Pennsylvanians from unfair business practices.
Among the most important civil cases on his plate at the moment is a lawsuit alleging Chesapeake Energy Corp. inflated certain production costs to short landowners on royalty payments. The company has threatened to scuttle privately negotiated settlements with landowners if Mr. Shapiro continues to pursue the lawsuit. Mr. Shapiro is standing firm, and well he should.
Fracking is an important industry that contributes to energy independence and economic development, but it requires lots of oversight. While the state Department of Environmental Protection and other agencies reporting to Gov. Tom Wolf are involved, the independently elected Mr. Shapiro also has a multifold role enforcing environmental and consumer protection laws. If regulators fall down on the job, he could be all that stands between a big, wealthy industry and average Pennsylvanians. If frackers think they can bully the state’s top law enforcement officer into submission, imagine what they might try to do to everyone else.
Chesapeake has agreed to $30 million in settlements with property owners who filed federal claims alleging improperly low royalty payments for gas extracted from their land. However, company lawyers told a judge in December that Chesapeake reserves the right to walk away from those settlements if Mr. Shapiro continues pressing his office’s separate lawsuit in state court. They don’t want to be settling claims in one arena and confronting them anew in another.
The state’s lawsuit alleging unfair trade practices was filed in 2015 by Mr. Shapiro’s predecessor, Kathleen Kane, and it also names Anadarko Petroleum as a defendant. Anadarko is trying to negotiate its own settlements in privately filed cases, and those, too, may hinge on whether Mr. Shapiro insists on going forward with his office’s case.
As the Post-Gazette’s Laura Legere reported Wednesday, some landowners may want Mr. Shapiro to get out of the way so they can collect their settlement money, and even some judges might like to see the attorney general capitulate so they can close the books on the privately filed cases. Others, including industry critics, complain that the settlements are meager and welcome any firepower the attorney general brings to the fight.
Mr. Shapiro has acknowledged feeling pressure to bow out, but he said he won’t be silenced by fracking companies that are “ripping off landowners.” As he’s said, the private cases and his office’s lawsuit are separate matters. If Chesapeake officials walk away from settlements they negotiated, they’ll have to own that decision.
Companies don’t get to decide which laws are enforced or when. If Chesapeake wins its game of chicken, any entity pursued by the attorney general — from car dealerships to funeral homes to student loan companies — could use private negotiations with customers to stave off enforcement of trade laws.
Some attorneys general enforce criminal laws aggressively but take a laid-back approach to civil matters. Mr. Shapiro is aggressive on both fronts, and he should keep at it. He took an oath to uphold Pennsylvania’s laws, including those fracking companies find inconvenient. It’s good to hear the watchdog growl.
First Published: January 25, 2018, 5:00 a.m.
