OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into possible antitrust violations by Chesapeake Energy Corp.

The Journal Record reports (http://bit.ly/2dwWCJ5 ) the agency has subpoenaed documents related to how the driller pays royalty owners and accounts for oil and gas reserves.

Chesapeake disclosed the subpoena Thursday in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. University of Central Oklahoma economics professor Jeremy Oller, an expert witness on antitrust legal matters, says the Justice Department is likely examining other oil and gas companies as part of the investigation.

The filing says the Justice Department and other agencies have asked Chesapeake for documents, testimony and information related to the company’s oil and gas leases and purchases. The company also received subpoenas from the U.S. Postal Service and state agencies. </s> Chesapeake Energy Corporation's 50 acre campus is seen in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 17, 2012. REUTERS/Steve Sisney

(Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N) said it received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking information on the accounting methodology for the acquisition and classification of oil and gas properties.

Shares of the company fell as much as 9.3 percent in morning trading.

The No. 2 U.S. natural gas producer said in May that it had received subpoenas and demands for documents from the DoJ and some state government agencies in connection with investigations into possible violations of antitrust laws relating to the purchase and lease of oil and natural gas rights.

Chesapeake had also received subpoenas from the DoJ, the U.S. Postal Service and states, seeking information on how the company pays royalties to landowners. (bit.ly/2dnnspG)

The company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it had engaged in discussions with the DoJ, the U.S. Postal Service and state agency representatives and continue to respond to such subpoenas and demands. (bit.ly/2dnnsWM)

Chesapeake had come under scrutiny when former Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon, who helped transform the U.S. energy industry with shale gas, was investigated and charged in March with conspiring to rig bids to buy oil and natural gas leases in Oklahoma.

McClendon died a day later, when his car slammed into an overpass.

Reuters reported in 2012 that McClendon had taken out more than $1 billion in loans using his personal stakes in thousands of company wells as collateral.

Chesapeake shares were down 4.2 percent at $6.46 on Thursday. Up to Wednesday’s close, they had risen 50 percent this year. </s> A federal judge in Alaska late Friday declared President Trump’s order revoking a sweeping ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean illegal, putting 128 million acres of federal waters off limits to energy exploration.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason represented the third legal setback to Trump’s energy and environmental policies in a single week. On Friday the judge, who was appointed to the federal bench by Barack Obama in 2012, also blocked a land swap the Interior Department arranged that would pave the way for road through wilderness in a major national wildlife refuge in Alaska.

Earlier this week, a federal judge ruled that Interior’s Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service illegally approved two gas drilling plans in western Colorado, on the grounds that officials did not adequately analyze their wildlife and climate impacts.

Trump’s rollbacks of Obama-era conservation policies have suffered nearly two dozen setbacks in federal court, largely on procedural grounds. While the administration is appealing many of these decisions, and holds an advantage if the cases reach the Supreme Court, the rulings have slowed the president’s drive to expand fossil fuel production in the United States.

Earlier this month, for example, a federal judge halted drilling on more than 300,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Wyoming. And Friday’s decision on offshore drilling could affect a five-year leasing plan the administration plans to issue this summer, as well as block the six offshore lease sales it proposed to schedule in the Arctic Ocean starting as early as this year.

“President Trump’s lawlessness is catching up with him,” Erik Grafe, the lead attorney from Earthjustice who argued to reinstate Obama’s leasing withdrawals in the Arctic and Atlantic, said in a statement Friday. “The judge’s ruling today shows that the president can not just trample on the constitution to do the bidding of his cronies in the fossil fuel industry at the expense of our oceans, wildlife, and climate.”

The Interior Department could not be immediately reached for comment.

In her Friday ruling, Gleason wrote that the law in which Congress gave the president authority over offshore drilling — the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act — expressly allows for leasing withdrawals but does not state that a subsequent president can revoke those withdrawals without congressional approval.

“As a result, the previous three withdrawals issued on January 27, 2015 and December 20, 2016 will remain in full force and effect unless and until revoked by Congress,” she wrote.

In a separate decision earlier in the day, Gleason found that then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke did not provide sufficient justification for reversing the government’s stance on whether to allow a small, remote Alaska town to construct a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

Residents of King Cove have argued for years that they need to bisect the refuge, which has been protected for decades and provides a critical rest stop for migratory waterfowl, to ease medical situations under rough weather. Opponents counter that the federal government has provided millions in funding to provide town residents with alternative forms of transport, and that a road would fragment critical habitat.

“Here, the Secretary’s failure to acknowledge the change in agency policy and his failure to provide a reasoned explanation for that change in policy are serious errors,” Gleason wrote.

The third adverse decision the administration received this week came in a ruling from U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock, a Ronald Reagan appointee. A coalition of environmental groups had challenged adjacent plans to drill a total of 171 wells in Colorado’s North Fork Valley, which provides key habitat for elk and mule deer. </s> WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats began issuing dozens of subpoenas Monday for financial records and other documents from President Donald Trump's private entities as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging that his businesses violate the Constitution's ban on gifts or payments from foreign governments.

The demands for detailed information about the president's closely held finances came on the same day the Trump administration asked an appeals court in Washington to halt the lawsuit and block the subpoenas, saying the case is based on "novel and flawed constitutional premises."

Brought by more than 200 Democrats in Congress, the emoluments lawsuit is one of several legal battles over access to the inner workings of Trump's businesses and, more broadly, the balance of power between lawmakers and the president.

"We are seeking a targeted set of documents to obtain the information that we need to ensure that the President can no longer shirk his constitutional responsibility," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement.

The 37 subpoenas target information from a wide array of Trump's businesses, including Trump Tower, his hotels in New York and Washington, and his Mar-a-Lago Club in south Florida, according to the Constitutional Accountability Center, the legal group representing the Democrats in the case.

The plaintiffs also are seeking information about trademarks granted to Trump's companies by foreign governments since he entered office and any pending applications for foreign trademarks. Additional subpoenas seek information on tax returns from the president's companies and the trust where he keeps his businesses while in office.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment regarding the subpoenas.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in late June rejected Trump's request to stop the lawsuit and ordered the two parties to begin the process of requesting records and other information as part of a three-month discovery period ending Sept. 27.

In its court filing Monday, the Trump administration officially asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to issue an order to dismiss the case or at least to put the lawsuit and subpoenas on hold pending review. Justice Department lawyers said Sullivan had treated the case "as a run-of-the-mill commercial dispute" and "ignored the unique separation-of-powers concerns posed by discovery in a case against the President in his official capacity."

In a separate "emoluments" case brought by the attorneys general of D.C. and Maryland, Justice Department lawyers have succeeded in temporarily blocking subpoenas for financial records and other documents related to Trump's D.C. hotel.

The congressional emoluments case, led by Blumenthal and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., extends beyond the hotel and provides a potential new avenue for investigators to gain access to a broader array of Trump's finances.

Unlike past presidents, Trump has retained ownership of his private businesses and refused to release his tax returns.

The emoluments provision - barring payments or gifts from foreign governments without prior approval from Congress - was designed to prevent undue influence over the nation's leaders. Attorneys for the lawmakers say Trump is violating the ban when his businesses accept payments and other benefits from foreign governments.

Democrats are seeking information related to not only the president's hotels but to office buildings, trademarks and the trust in which Trump is storing his business interests while he is in office.

Three properties - the two hotels and Mar-a-Lago - have hosted foreign governments or large foreign delegations since Trump entered office. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has booked blocks of rooms at both hotels, and the D.C. hotel has hosted the governments of Kuwait, Bahrain and Malaysia, among others.

Trump Organization officials say that to avoid benefiting from any impropriety, they do not market the hotels to foreign governments and that when embassies or delegations book space, the company donates the profits to the U.S. treasury.

For example, after an Iraqi sheikh urging the U.S. to overthrow Iran's government stayed 26 nights at the D.C. hotel, the company says it donated the profits from his stay. In total, the company donated $191,538 at the end of last year and $151,470 for the previous year, though it did not break down those amounts.

There is less known about foreign governments' involvement in the four office properties that are subject of the plaintiffs' subpoenas.

Dating to before Trump's presidency, foreign diplomats have leased space in Trump World Tower, near the United Nations Nations headquarters in New York.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a state-owned Chinese bank, has leased space on the 20th floor of Trump Tower in Manhattan since 2008. The bank's lease is worth close to $2 million annually, according to industry estimates and a bank filing.

Trump owns a minority stake in two other office buildings, in San Francisco and New York, that are not named for him and are managed by a non-Trump company.

The Chinese government has also granted approvals to Trump family trademarks, including preliminary approval for 38 new trademarks for hotels, golf courses and other businesses, according to The Associated Press. The plaintiffs' group issued a statement Monday saying that in addition to those approvals, "there are almost certainly many more that are not yet known about."

In court filings, the nonprofit Constitutional Accountability Center has stressed how difficult it is for Congress or the public to understand the president's business dealings without the court allowing its case to proceed.

"While it is well known that (the president's) business empire is vast and global, the exact nature of his holdings and the benefits he receives from them remain unclear," the nonprofit said in filings. Because the president has not released his tax returns, "the complicated interconnection between the hundreds of discrete business entities and shell companies in which he owns an interest makes it impossible to determine the full scope of the benefits he is currently accepting from foreign states." </s> Barack Obama has permanently banned new oil and gas drilling in most US-owned waters in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, a last-ditch effort to lock in environmental protections before he hands over to Donald Trump.

Obama used a 1953 law that allows presidents to block the sale of new offshore drilling and mining rights and makes it difficult for their successors to reverse the decision.

However, Obama’s ban – affecting federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea and in the Atlantic from New England to Chesapeake Bay – is unprecedented in scale and could be challenged by Trump in court.

The president-elect has vowed to unleash the nation’s untapped energy reserves and exploit fossil fuels. He has previously questioned the science of climate change, threatened to tear up the Paris climate agreement and appointed climate-change deniers in his cabinet.

This has led to a scramble from environmentalists calling on Obama to impose whatever regulations and executive orders he can to protect his climate legacy.

Tuesday’s move came in a joint announcement by Obama and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who also put a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, subject to periodic review.

Obama, currently on holiday in Hawaii and with only a month left in office, said in a statement: “These actions, and Canada’s parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth. They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region’s harsh conditions is limited.

“By contrast, it would take decades to fully develop the production infrastructure necessary for any large-scale oil and gas leasing production in the region – at a time when we need to continue to move decisively away from fossil fuels.”

In 2015, just 0.1% of US federal offshore crude production came from the Arctic. A Department of Interior analysis shows that, at current oil prices, significant production in the Arctic will not occur. “That’s why looking forward, we must continue to focus on economic empowerment for Arctic communities beyond this one sector.”

Campaigners welcomed the announcement. Jacqueline Savitz, a senior vice-president at the advocacy group, Oceana, told the Associated Press: “This decision will help protect existing lucrative coastal tourism and fishing businesses from offshore drilling, which promises smaller, short-lived returns and threatens coastal livelihoods.

“The people of the Atlantic coast refused to allow their way of life to be compromised and we commend their hard work making their voices heard in Washington.”

Few energy companies have expressed a wish to drill any time soon off the coasts thanks to abundant cheap shale oil in North Dakota and Texas. Exploratory drilling in the Arctic is costly and risky.

But with Trump in the White House, the obscure law could face a challenge. Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America told the Associated Press: “Instead of building on our nation’s position as a global energy leader, today’s unilateral mandate could put America back on a path of energy dependence for decades to come.”

And Erik Milito, upstream director at the American Petroleum Institute, told Reuters: “We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy.”

Canada will designate all Arctic Canadian waters as indefinitely off limits to future offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based life-cycle assessment. </s> A federal judge in New York on Wednesday ruled Deutsche Bank and Capital One can comply with subpoena requests made by congressional Democrats to turn over President Trump’s financial and business records, despite objections from the Trump family.

Lawyers representing Trump, his family and his organization were asking for the subpoenas to be nullified and had sued the financial institutions to block them from handing over the documents, but U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos said Congress has the authority to investigate.

"The power of Congress to conduct investigations is inherent in the legislative process," Ramos, who was appointed during President Barack Obama's tenure, said. He added that while the requests are broad," they are also "clearly pertinent."

Lawyers for President Trump said it is a "safe bet" they would appeal.

A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank said the company would "abide by a court order" regarding the investigation.

House Democrats are looking to obtain more information about Trump’s financial affairs, potential dealings with Russia, and to look into possible connections to interference in U.S. elections.

A couple of congressional committees subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, and other financial institutions, last month as they sought to procure Trump’s financial records. Lawyers representing the president and his family claim that the requests violate the Trump’s privacy and serve no legislative purpose – arguments that were struck down on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, the president was dealt a blow in a D.C. court, after a federal district judge ruled that his former accounting firm – Mazars – will be required to turn over his financial records and documents.

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Democrats are also asking for Trump’s financial records from the IRS. The Treasury Department, under Secretary Steven Mnuchin, has so far failed to comply.

In a press conference in the Rose Garden earlier on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that it was not possible to work with Democrats on policy while these investigative issues lingered.

FOX Business reached out to Capital One for comment and will post an update if the company replies. </s> HONOLULU — President Barack Obama on Tuesday designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing.

The move helps put some finishing touches on Obama’s environmental legacy while also testing President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to unleash the nation’s untapped energy reserves.

The White House announced the actions in conjunction with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which also placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, subject to periodic review.

Obama is making use of an arcane provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently. The statute says that “the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf.”

Environmental groups hope the ban, despite relying on executive powers, will be difficult for future presidents to reverse. The White House said it’s confident the president’s directive will withstand legal challenge and said the language of the statute provides no authority for subsequent presidents to “unwithdraw” waters from future lease sales.

The Atlantic waters placed off limits to new oil and gas leasing are 31 canyons stretching off the coast of New England south to Virginia.

The administration cited environmental concerns to justify the moratorium. The president also issued a statement noting the minimal level of fuel production occurring in the Arctic. Obama said just 0.1 percent of offshore crude production came from the Arctic in 2015, and at current oil prices, significant production would not occur in future decades.

“That’s why looking forward, we must continue to focus on economic empowerment for Arctic communities beyond this one sector,” Obama said.

Still, industry officials objected to Obama’s proclamation, calling it “last minute political rhetoric.”

“Instead of building on our nation’s position as a global energy leader, today’s unilateral mandate could put America back on a path of energy dependence for decades to come,” said Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

In issuing a permanent ban, Obama appears to be trying to tie the hands of his successor. Trump has vowed a domestic energy revolution and is filling his Cabinet with nominees deeply opposed to Obama’s environmental and climate change actions.

Environmental groups were calling for a permanent ban even before the presidential election, but Trump’s victory has provided greater urgency for them and for businesses that rely on tourism and fishing. Trump has said he intends to use all available fuel reserves for energy self-sufficiency — and that it’s time to open up offshore drilling.

This decision will help protect existing lucrative coastal tourism and fishing businesses from offshore drilling, which promises smaller, short-lived returns and threatens coastal livelihoods,” said Jacqueline Savitz, a senior vice president at the advocacy group, Oceana. “The people of the Atlantic coast refused to allow their way of life to be compromised and we commend their hard work making their voices heard in Washington.” </s> A federal judge on Friday delivered a blow to the Trump administration’s effort to expand offshore drilling, restoring bans in vast parts of the Arctic Ocean and dozens of canyons in the Atlantic Ocean.

In Alaska, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason threw out President Donald Trump's 2017 executive order overturning Obama-era restrictions.

Federal law allows presidents to remove certain lands from development, Gleason said, but not reverse bans. Only an act of Congress can revoke the withdrawals, she said.

The environmental bans issued by former President Barack Obama in 2015 and 2016 were aimed to protect polar bears, walruses, ice seals and Alaska Native villages that depend on the animals.

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The American Petroleum Institute, a defendant in the case, disagreed with the decision.

“In addition to bringing supplies of affordable energy to consumers for decades to come, developing our abundant offshore resources can provide billions in government revenue, create thousands of jobs and will also strengthen our national security,” it said in a statement.

Erik Grafe, an attorney with Earthjustice, said the judge's ruling will help safeguard oceans and wildlife from fossil fuel interests. The organization represented environmental groups that sued the Trump administration over the executive order.

Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Wood said the groups misinterpreted the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act at issue during a hearing before Gleason last year. He argued the act is meant to be flexible and not bind presidents to another's decisions.

Obama halted exploration in coastal areas of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas and the Hanna Shoal in 2015. The following year, he withdrew most other potential Arctic Ocean lease areas — about 98 percent of the Arctic outer continental shelf.

To protect marine mammals, deep-water corals, valuable fish populations and migratory whales in the Atlantic, Obama banned exploration in 5,937 square miles of underwater canyon complexes.

The Trump administration's current proposal to expand offshore oil and gas drilling faces bipartisan, bicoastal opposition due to pollution concerns along coasts and beaches. </s> U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday permanently banned new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, in one of his last environmental pushes before he leaves office next month.

In protecting the waters, Mr. Obama used a 1950s-era law called the Outer Continental Shelf Act that allows presidents to limit areas from mineral leasing and drilling. Environmental groups said Mr. Obama’s use of the law meant the incoming administration of Republican president-elect Donald Trump could not simply reverse the action but would have to fight it in the courts.

The ban affects federal waters off Alaska in the Chukchi Sea and most of the Beaufort Sea and in the Atlantic from New England to Chesapeake Bay.

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The move came in a joint announcement by Mr. Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to launch “actions ensuring a strong, sustainable and viable Arctic economy and ecosystem.”

Mr. Obama said in a statement on Tuesday the joint actions “reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region’s harsh conditions is limited.”

Canada will designate all Arctic Canadian waters as indefinitely off limits to future offshore Arctic oil and gas licensing, to be reviewed every five years through a climate and marine science-based life-cycle assessment.

The law under which Mr. Obama is acting enables a president to withdraw certain areas from leasing or drilling “for any public purpose,” such as to limit the impacts of climate change, according to a legal briefing by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earth Justice.

Under that law, a president is not authorized to “undo” a previous withdrawal, making it more difficult for Mr. Trump to target without a lawsuit.

“No president has ever tried to undo a permanent withdrawal of an ocean area from leasing eligibility,” said Niel Lawrence, Alaska director and lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The provision has been used by six presidents from both parties over the past 65 years, including to withdraw as much as several hundred million acres at a time, he said.

The American Petroleum Institute oil-industry group disagreed about the permanence of the ban and said Mr. Trump could likely use a presidential memorandum to lift the ban.

“We are hopeful the incoming administration will reverse this decision as the nation continues to need a robust strategy for developing offshore and onshore energy,” said Erik Milito, API’s upstream director.

Even if Mr. Trump attempts to battle the move, few energy companies have expressed a desire to drill anytime soon off the coasts thanks to abundant cheap shale oil in North Dakota and Texas.

Exploratory drilling in the Arctic is expensive and risky. Shell Oil ended its quest to explore in harsh Arctic waters in 2015, after a vessel it was using suffered a gash and environmentalists had uncovered a law that limited its drilling.

In 2015, just 0.1 per cent of U.S. federal offshore crude production came from the Arctic. At current oil prices, significant production in the Arctic will not occur, according to a U.S. Department of Interior analysis.

On the Atlantic coast, local groups have opposed offshore drilling and would fight the Trump administration’s attempts to open it up.

“The people of the Atlantic coast have refused to allow their way of life to be compromised,” said Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice-president of Florida-based ocean conservancy group Oceana.

She said the Obama administration’s move to protect the Atlantic coast was a “smart business decision” since it would protect the lucrative tourism and fishing industries of U.S. East Coast communities.
The Obama administration through the United States Department of Justice sends a subpoena to natural gas giant Chesapeake Energy regarding the accounting methods for its oil and gas properties.