To Lease or Not to Lease: Has Anyone NOT signed a lease? I'd like to hear why you didn't

My wife and I are part of a landowners group that is in the process of having their Range Resources contract reviewed by attorneys.  We only have 3.2 acres and have not decided whether we are actually going to sign a lease.  I am curious to hear from people who started to go through the process and then at some point decided against it.  I'd like to hear your reasons.  FYI - I'm not posting this so I can attack people's decisions.  I am genuinely interested in hearing from people who decided not to sign a lease.  

 

Thanks in advance!

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Permalink Reply by Karen Bagdes-Canning on October 16, 2011 at 9:47am
When I think of our politicians(many) and the corporate CEOs(many) I see them as one and the same.  Is there a reason you did not respond to the Golden Rule question?
Permalink Reply by George Brown on October 16, 2011 at 10:03am
Golden Rule?  My children? We are leaving our children with massive debt that will result in a lower standard of living. How is that for a Golden Rule?
Permalink Reply by Karen Bagdes-Canning on October 16, 2011 at 10:27am

I think I understand why you are dodging this question. 

Let me explain myself in this regard.  I have taught my children the Golden Rule and I will teach my grandchildren the same.  I will also remind them that two wrongs do not make a right.  We cannot control others around us but we do have to make decisions in our lives that may affect others and we should always be careful with that responsibility.  I have always found that the Golden rule often helps me decide the right course of action.

Permalink Reply by Barbara on October 16, 2011 at 10:39am
yet, george, you don't mind the laws and the courts helping you.  hardly a 'nanny' for a legal document to protect you, as much as it can considering the bulldozing of the companies.  who among us has the money/power/influence to protect any of us in the sights of this industry?  yes, we have to get rid of the paid-off politicians.....but we need people of integrity working to provide some sort of structure for all of the develpment going forward.
Permalink Reply by craig on October 15, 2011 at 2:45pm

Thank God our legislators didn't take it that far, or there would be no drilling. I believe most would have all been voted out the next election. 

In my opinion, that legislation is fine if you don't want horizontal drilling to occur. I doubt seriously that there would be any company willing to accept ALL the listed topics at anywhere near current gas prices...even with NGLs in the mix. Then can you imagine what the new rules will be to build the pipelines for marketing the product. A nightmare waiting to happen.  Until natural gas becomes relatively expensive I don't see much interest drilling under such legislation. The drillers have enough property leased in Pa and Ohio to keep them busy for at least 10 years. Good luck if this legislation were to pass!! It will definitely make it very hard for NY to find the extra tax revenue needed to pull them out of the major financial mess they in. 

Permalink Reply by Jake Jackson on October 16, 2011 at 6:20am

I don't think it's fair for any of us to be held hostage by the gas industry by buying their way into states like they did in PA.  It's the only state out of 32 that are being drilled that doesn't have a severance tax.  That being said, The governor of PA was given millions of dollars for his campaign for election.  They are drilling in the national forest and people in PA have lost water.  I have seen the new species if plastic "water buffaloes" that are dotting the landscape of PA.  The idea that all companies are on the up and up isn't reality.  What is fact is that there is more and more drilling and less and less ways to get rid of the millions of gallons of "Toxic frack fluid" that comes back. They can't inject it into PA because of empty coal mines so they are bringing it to Ohio and putting it into "Injection wells"  If this is what we have to look forward to in Ohio, I say go back to the drawing board and find a way of extracting the gas in a safer less toxic way. 

But then the companies wouldn't make as big a profit? And we are going to be paying to clean up the mess they leave.  Just doesn't seem like a fair bargain.  They get all the BIG bucks, some of us get some of the $$ then all of us have to pay to clean it up.  If we can clean up contaminated aquifers like they are experiencing in PA????  When an industry that has the potential of contamination at such an alarming rate complains about "strict regulations" then we have a problem.  If it was as good and safe as they say it is what are they afraid of? They can't be regulated by the clean air and clean water acts because they would fail and not be allowed to do it the way they are doing it.  That's where I have a problem, this isn't just a slip of a gallon of waste, it's millions of gallons of highly toxic waste that they don't have a way of cleaning.  Do it right or don't do it at all. The risks are too high and regulations are either too lax or non existent in PA where they are doing much of the damage.  Ohio won't be different, but we can't afford to wait to see.  Once it's done, there is no turning back.

Permalink Reply by Barbara on October 16, 2011 at 6:47am

amen to all that you have written. jake. they won't even disclose all the chemicals used.......hmmmmmm that alone raises huge red flags to my way of thinking.'proprietary information'???/  why can all but chesapeake disclose???

 

another area we have not mentioned so much here is the esthetic impact of all of this.  not only do i see well pads and containment ponds here now EVERYWHERE ( i live in bradford county pa, approx a pad every half mile) dotting the formerly bucolic farm land and the more pristine wooded areas, but now the pipelines are being constructed around me.  yes, the right of way gets seeded, so isn't quite the grotesque scar it is when newly constructed, but then there are the PERMANENT open areas, at least fifty feet wide, through the woods......so looking at a forested hill is now looking at a broken up forest with long straight bare places......even on the horizon this is visible.  hardly 'pristine' or rustic now.

 

no , none of this loss of 'beauty' is going to kill anyone, but it IS 'killing' a measure of the pleasure of just being here.  and though we can't stop this now, and i can't imagine a way to 'hide' the above sights....maybe with planting of evergreens around pads???.....but this IS a further lessening of one our greatest assets in this area, a quality of life issue.

 i'm going to try to establish wildflowers on part of the pipeline on my land........ i hope this works.  beyond that, not much i CAN do.

Permalink Reply by BA on October 16, 2011 at 12:45pm
Compare that to a strip mine.
Permalink Reply by Barbara on October 16, 2011 at 2:22pm

and now we have learned the huge downsides to strip mining...................AFTER years and years of doing it, and destroying how many acres of mountain????

we certainly need to be learning from past history.......................but when?

2s72s0k9mm8gdPermalink Reply by 2s72s0k9mm8gd on October 16, 2011 at 2:36pm

We have had stripmines , pipelines and powerlines around here for 50 or 60 years!!!

And they make excellent deer & turkey habitat. I know because I have killed a few of each off of them!

Permalink Reply by Barbara on October 16, 2011 at 3:02pm

and now we have gas developments that greatly outpace in number and speed and totality any of those things.  glad you can hunt.......that's part of the point of being careful........i don't think you want your targets to be poisoned or chased away, right?  and they would be hurt probably sooner than people for they age faster and are closer to the ground.  they wouldn't know to go 'buy organic'. 

the 'environment' is NOT a bad word................it encompasses ALL of our living area...and the water, land, air that go along with it.  and ALL living creatures at this time need these things.  that's all.......that's not a bad thing to be careful of. 

Permalink Reply by George Brown on October 16, 2011 at 3:16pm

Absolutely correct Glenn.  The fact is, wealthy citizens are far better stewards of the environment than are poor citizens, simply because we can *afford* to be. You don't need to look any further than western civilization in comparison to poorer, third world countries.  People in poorer places can't afford to worry about polution and hairy chested nut scratchers because they are too busy just trying to survive.

This gas increases the value of our land, thus increasing our wealth, thus making us more able to care for the environment.

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