Antitrust allegations Alleged collusion with Encana to lower land price In mid-2012, the
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began an investigation into whether
Encana, Canada's largest natural gas company, "illegally colluded with Chesapeake Energy Corp to lower the price of Michigan exploration lands during a public land auction in May 2010." The antitrust probe ended in 2014 with a letter to Chesapeake by the
U.S. Department of Justice. Internal investigations by the companies found no evidence of collusion.
Cancellation of leases On June 5, 2014, the state of Michigan filed felony fraud and racketeering charges against the company, alleging that the company canceled hundreds of land leases on false pretenses after it sought to obtain oil and gas rights. Michigan attorney general
Bill Schuette claimed that the company "obtained uncompensated land options from these landowners by false pretenses, and prevented competitors from leasing the land." Chesapeake Energy disputed all charges. In 2015, the company settled the lawsuits by agreeing to pay $25 million to the landowners. In 2013, the company agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit by Pennsylvania landowners. In 2017, the company agreed to pay another $30 million to Pennsylvania landowners.
Alleged collusion in land auctions On March 1, 2016, a DOJ federal grand jury indicted Aubrey McClendon for allegedly rigging the bidding process for land leases between December 2007 and March 2012. The DOJ said this was the first case resulting from a continuing federal antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging, and other anti-competitive conduct in the
petroleum industry. The next day, on March 2, 2016, McClendon died in a single-occupant single-vehicle crash when he drove his vehicle directly into a concrete bridge embankment in Oklahoma City. The charges were dropped by the DOJ as a result of the death.
Alleged price-fixing In January 2024, a
class action lawsuit was filed accusing the company, along with seven other US oil and gas producers, of engaging in an
anti-competitive business practice in the form of an illegal
price fixing scheme to constrain production of
shale oil, allegedly leading to drivers in the US paying more for gasoline than they would have in a competitive market.
Lobbying In 2004, then CEO Aubrey McClendon contributed $450,000 to the campaign of
Tom Corbett for attorney general of
Pennsylvania. These funds were cited as the reason Corbett won the election, with a narrow margin. When Corbett eventually became governor of
Pennsylvania, he was very supportive of the company's fracking activity in Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania was the only state without a severance tax on drillers, despite the fact that the budget for education was being reduced. In 2008, then CEO Aubrey McClendon formed American Clean Skies Foundation, a non-profit foundation focused on selling the virtues of natural gas. The foundation was funded by the company and by McClendon. The foundation was criticized for doing nothing but pushing Congress to pass policies that benefited the company and McClendon's business interests.
Environmental damage Discharges of fill material In 2013, the
Environmental Protection Agency fined a subsidiary of the company $3.2 million, and ordered it to pay an estimated $6.5 million for the restoration of sites that were damaged by the company from unauthorized discharge of material.
2011 well blowout On April 19, 2011, due to a failed seal assembly in a
wellhead, the company lost control of a natural gas well in
Bradford County, Pennsylvania that was being fracture stimulated, causing a large spill of salt water and chemicals, such as
2-butoxyethanol and
methanol, into the surrounding countryside. By April 22, 2011, the leak had been stemmed.
Maryland announced its intention to sue the company for violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Clean Water Act since fracking fluids from the well blowout wound up in the Chesapeake Bay.
2015 landslide In November 2015, the company was fined $1.4 million in Pennsylvania for a landslide caused by the company in 2011 that resulted in clogged waterways.
Earthquakes Oklahoma and Kansas correlated with hydraulic fracturing In 2007, Oklahoma recorded a single earthquake. By 2015, after the rise in
hydraulic fracturing, there were more than 900. After the
2011 Oklahoma earthquake in
Prague, Oklahoma, having suffered home damage and physical injury, a resident sued the company. The
Sierra Club also filed a lawsuit against the company and
Devon Energy over damages suffered in a magnitude 5.8,
2016 Oklahoma earthquake near
Pawnee, which was tied for the largest such shock in the eastern United States in 70 years. A judge dismissed the lawsuit in April 2017. ==Awards and recognition==