The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania said oil and natural gas coming from shale wells drilled and hydraulically fractured are protected by the common “rule of capture,” but left open the possibility that neighbors to a fracked well could claim trespassing if fissures opened by fracking extended onto their land. The ruling brought a quiet sigh of relief to Pennsylvania’s shale gas drillers. Under the rule of capture, oil and gas that flow into a well are the property of the well owner, regardless of how those molecules got there. Had the court ruled that fracked wells illegally pull in a neighbor’s gas, the entire land and lease assumptions of the shale gas […]