An extremely hot issue at the present time involves “post-production” costs and “deductions” that are being taken by gas companies from landowner’s royalty checks. Most landowners receiving royalty checks over the last few years have been receiving royalty payments under standard gas company “form” or “boilerplate” Leases. These “form” or “boilerplate” Leases do not seek to…

I am so proud to say that I am from Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The city is the home of the Little League World Series, an event where for the next couple of weeks our community comes alive and opens our arms to people from all over the world. The fever has already started this past week as division championships took place to decide which teams would get to play on famous Lamade Field in South Williamsport. It’s certainly an exciting time in our region.



Williamsport is also now…

Recently, we became aware of a list of supposedly tough natural gas questions floating around upstate New York. Assembled by another aging activist seeking relevance in a modern world and, more specifically, the small pond of Oxford, New York, these queries were, we heard, designed to stop pro-gas forces in their tracks. We requested a copy and, despite our reluctance to give any attention to our attention-seeking friend on the other side, decided the questions, if you can call them that,…

Natural gas, really hydraulic fracturing, is producing major wins for America across the board.  The U.S. Census for 2010 includes some fascinating numbers from the American Community Survey. It indicates there are roughly 57 million American households or one-half of all households heat their homes with natural gas.  Add to that the high and ever growing proportion of our electric power and steam heat generated by natural gas and it becomes very clear just how dominant this natural resource…

The University of Pittsburgh has recently released a survey conducted by them and titled The Pittsburgh Regional Quality of Life Survey.  This survey was undertaken in an effort to understand the behaviors and attitudes of greater Pittsburgh’s citizens.  The sampling strategy used in this project allowed the researchers to compare and summarize findings for the City of Pittsburgh and surrounding counties.  Given that a majority of the counties surrounding Pittsburgh are developing Marcellus…