Trinity East sues Dallas for denying drilling rights

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/eagle-ford-energy/article/Trinity-East-sues-Dallas-for-denying-drilling-5236936.php

Trinity East sues Dallas for denying drilling rights
By Jim Malewitz, Texas Tribune : February 14, 2014 : Updated: February 14, 2014 9:17pm

~snip~

Trinity East was one of three companies that originally leased Dallas land for drilling, but it was the only one that stuck around as the city considered the tighter rules.

In December 2013, Dallas tightened its ordinance, which, among other provisions, now requires a minimum 1,500-foot setback between “protected use” areas such as homes, businesses and churches and new rigs and compressor stations. The setback is five times the previous buffer and matches a requirement in the suburb of Flower Mound that is the strictest in North Texas.

In the lawsuit, Trinity East said it invested more than $30 million planning the project and that its inability to drill on the land likely cost it hundreds of millions of dollars over the wells' lifetime.

The company is asking the court to rule that it has suffered “inverse condemnation or regulatory taking,” and that the city breached its leasing agreements and “committed fraud and/or negligent representation.” The lawsuit asks for damages “in excess of the minimal jurisdictional limits” of the court. In an interview, Fort said that amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars.