News & Alerts
May 11, 2023 COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS – AFFIRMS DISMISSAL OF ACCDAN CLAIMS AGAINST GWOC/PDC AND COGCC
On Thursday, May 11, 2023, the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the Denver District Court’s decision granting Great Western Operating Company, LLC (now PDC Energy, Inc.) and the COGCC’s Rule 12(b)(1) Motion to Dismiss Adams County Communities for Drilling Accountability Now (ACCDAN) claims that the Colorado pooling statute was an unconstitutional private taking of mineral interests. In an unpublished opinion, the Court held that ACCDAN’s members did not suffer an injury-in-fact because they were all leased mineral interest owners and, therefore, ACCDAN had no standing to assert its claims. The Court’s ruling relied on the validity of underlying oil and gas lease pooling language and determined that the leases’ “right to pool” provision already expressed the lessor’s consent to statutory pooling so the claimed injury could never occur. Jost Energy Law, P.C. is grateful to have been involved in obtaining this positive outcome for the operator.