Judge's connection to driller at issue in NEPA pollution case

A Cabot Oil and Gas natural gas drill stands at a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in South Montrose, Pennsylvania.
A Cabot Oil and Gas natural gas drill stands at a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in South Montrose, Pennsylvania. Photo credit Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office says it might seek removal of a judge expected to preside over a criminal case in which he has ties to the defendant, the state’s biggest gas driller. State prosecutors charged Cabot Oil & Gas in 2020 with polluting residential water supplies in Dimock, Susquehanna County. That's a rural community where residents famously were able to light their tap water on fire. The case has yet to be assigned to a judge, but the county's only judge serves on the board of a charitable foundation that has received millions of dollars in corporate donations from Cabot. A Cabot executive is also on the board.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images