Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Pennsylvania Attorney Slaps Cabot With Fine for Gas Pollution

Read MoreHide Full Article

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation has been charged with environmental crimes in Pennsylvania by the state’s Attorney General office. Per Attorney General, Cabot took shortcuts that interrupted the law, damaged the state’s environment, affected its water supplies and endangered Pennsylvanians. The company is alleged to put its bottom-line prospects ahead of the health and safety of its neighbours.

The two-year Grand Jury investigation into contamination of the surroundings by natural gas wells that Cabot fracked in Dimock Township, Susquehanna County, starting in 2006 or 2007, exposed that Cabot’s fracking activities were accountable for methane emissions in the local water supply. Several residents of Dimock are suffering this environmental disaster, which resulted into Norma Fiorentino’s explosion of the drinking water well in January 2009 among other consequences.

However, the company continuously claimed that methane existed in the local aquifer prior to its operations there. This is already proven through its pre-drill testing of innumerable private water wells in the region that extracted generous amounts of the flammable gas.

The state’s grand jury in conjunction with the 43rd Statewide Grand Jury holds Cabot guilty of 15 criminal offences of which, seven are pertaining to discharge of industrial wastes, seven on other pollutions and one unlawful conduct under the Clean Streams Law. The maximum penalty slapped is a fine estimated between $50,000 and $25,000, contingent on the total count of wrongdoings.

About the Company

Founded in 1989, this Houston-based player is an independent gas exploration company with producing properties, mainly in the continental United States. It focuses on high-impact natural gas-focused drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The company sells its products to local distribution companies, industrial clients, power-generation facilities and gas marketers through pipelines and gathering systems.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Cabot currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the energy space are Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) , Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR - Free Report) and Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK - Free Report) , each presently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Just Released: Zacks’ 7 Best Stocks for Today

Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.1% per year.

These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout.

See these time-sensitive tickers now >>

Published in