Corbett's betrayal has already started to hurt landowners.
http://triblive.com/business/headlines/4447866-74/eqt-gas-law#axzz2...
EQT Corp. has sued scores of landowners in Allegheny County for access to their properties under a recently enacted law that gives gas drilling companies the power to combine some neighboring parcels into drilling units without compensating owners.
The 69 individuals and one golf course in Forward named in the lawsuit are accused of blocking the company from conducting surveys on their land to determine where to drill for shale gas. It appears to be the gas industry's first attempt at using the controversial law.
“The fact that it's being used (to sue people) is disgusting,” said Robert J. Burnett, a Downtown attorney working with the National Association of Royalty Owners but not involved in the EQT case. The state “gave the drilling companies a weapon to beat down landowners,” he said.
EQT spokeswoman Linda Robertson said the company had been negotiating in “good faith” in Forward and still does, though it doesn't have to.
“Prior to the bill, we were working with landowners to obtain modifications and, although this bill means we no longer need to do that, EQT will honor those offers,” Robertson said. “It was determined that putting the issues before a court would be the most expeditious way to reach resolution.”
The golf course, Riverview Golf Course Inc., and lawyers for some of the defendants did not return calls.
The law, which the governor signed on July 9, gives drillers power to pool leased properties into one unit for wells that drill sideways, as long as contracts don't prohibit such combinations. Before the law, landowners could have demanded more money or better legal terms from drillers to include their properties in a pool.
The Forward contracts, like most old oil and gas leases, don't mention pooling and so the law makes it clear that Downtown-based EQT can combine them into units it needs without permission from landowners, the company claimed in its lawsuit filed July 22 in Common Pleas Court.
EQT is looking to cash in on land it controlled long before the shale gas boom. Its subsidiaries, including the old Equitable Gas Co., kept gas leases alive for decades by storing gas under the Mon Valley township, with one lease dating to 1899, the complaint said.
EQT lobbied for the law on pooling, according to state Rep. Garth Everett, who sponsored the legislation.
Most of the defendants started an alliance called the Monongahela Group, the lawsuit claimed. Its members refused to allow the company to do seismic testing unless it renegotiates their gas contracts. That “wrongfully” and “substantially impeded” EQT, lawyer Patricia L. Dodd of Meyer, Unkovic & Scott LLP wrote for EQT in the complaint.
Landowners rejected several offers, Robertson said.
EQT hasn't negotiated for months, said several residents and a lawyer working with Forward residents who aren't involved in the case. One of its offers was a one-page lease modification to allow land pooling. It offered no extra money, stating it would be for “mutual advantage,” according to the offer obtained by lawyer Steven A. Walton. Company officials stopped negotiating last fall, Walton and others said.
In November, an EQT vice president told the Tribune-Review at an industry conference that EQT wanted the state to pass the pooling legislation. The Legislature passed the bill the last weekend of June, as lawmakers rushed to meet a budget deadline before their summer recess. Gov. Tom Corbett signed it on July 9.
“Some of the Legislature didn't know better. They just kind of did whatever. If a lobbyist gives them something and tells them what to do, they'll do it,” said William Beinlich, one defendant and an organizer of the Monongahela Group.
He isn't bothered by the law and believes it won't be decisive in the case, he said. Many leases are ambiguous and may not back up EQT's claims, he said, declining to explain.
Read more: http://triblive.com/business/headlines/4447866-74/eqt-gas-law#ixzz2...
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ed on
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OK Inchworm, if what you are saying is true then it becomes obvious that every lease and every situation is different from the rest. And yes some people have grounds to contest a "lease takeover". But I will say this, Drakes Well was drilled in 1859 and if you do the math that is over 150 years ago and in 150 years the common private landowner has progressed very little as far as oil & gas leasing goes. Now that could be laziness or it could be lack of intelligence but surely we the people have learned something, you would think. And yet I see everyday all around me (within a 2 mile radius) landowners who have just closed thier eyes and signed.
Now back to the subject at hand. EQT suing landowners in Forward Township. Surely, surely a few good attorneys could pick this apart and hang EQT for years and cost them a bundle. It's all in the contract, it's all in the wording. It's law school 101. I'll bet I could find plenty of grounds to file preliminary objections just to start. You are talking a lot of leases and I'm sure there is a sentence somewhere to hang this thing high off the ground.
But remember...human stupidity reigns supreme. I see it every day. It must be in our genes.
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Permalink Reply by randall gottus on
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Ed, you mentioned last friday that you do not know why SB 259 is creating so much controversy? But by them passing that bill, doesn't that give the gas co's more control over us land owners, taking away from us any future negotiations that we may have had?
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Permalink Reply by shawn 450 on
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Don't trust anyone's word involved !Do your own research!There out 2 make money any way possible!!!Money isn't everything!!
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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Corbett has kept this state solvent through fiscal responsibility, other states are in really bad shape because their leaders were not so bold and brave.
to say that he is a bum, and that you wouldn't vote for him because of this one issue is childish to say the least.
and I say that with full acceptance of the fact that he will certainly lose in the next election.
throwing out a governor who has kept gas drilling alive in pa for an unknown, or worse, an anti drilling candidate, is just plain foolish.
but that's just how we ended up with Obama, too many fools casting votes for federal handouts.
wj
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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i'm pretty sure that bush was standing on an aircraft carrier when he said that.
remember, Clinton got rid of the battleships after Reagan spent millions modernizing them with cruise missiles and making them the most powerful dreadnaughts the world had ever seen.
slick move there willy.
wj
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Permalink Reply by Rick on
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Matthew, I hope he doesnt run... more competition means more promises of prosperity... and ultimately more broken promises, but at least it will be more exciting! Why reward a guy for his incompetence? I certainly wont.
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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matt, you do realize that he is just the governor right?
all of the issues you mention must be drafted into laws for him to sign by the legislatures.
we live in a democratic republic. the collective representatives carry out the collective wills of the majority by drafting laws. (supposedly)
he just signs or vetoes, and then enforces the ones that pass. or in the case of Obama, the ones that he chooses to enforce.
on the subject of state store privatization, there are many many people who are opposed to that idea. i'm not even sure that it is a popular one. important to you perhaps, but not to most I think.
unfunded pension liabilities? what...you think he has his own private printing press so he can magically make this money pit go away? he didn't create that problem, and he cant do anything about it except raise taxes enough to cover the huge deficit.
and if you think that pa. has an unfunded liabilities issue, look at the federal government. we have 70 trillion dollars in unfunded debt staring at us and all they're doing in Washington is kicking that can down the road.
and matt...you're not a conservative, you're a libertarian. libertarians believe in the things that you expressed, not conservatives.
wj
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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it was actually a lesson in government, not just about the legislature matt.
and you missed the point apparently, it's not just Corbett, no governor would be able to do the things that you want unilaterally.
it's called checks and balances. we dont want no kings or emperors remember.
wj
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Point taken - no skin off either (or anyone else's...) back, Matt.
As one light lights another, nor grows less - so nobleness enkindles nobleness. - if you feels it's all just a-ramble-ramble-ramble, nonsense, jibber-jabber...WHO ARE YOU to say?
OH - I guess WE 'stand on the 'same ground' - the one where the RUG gets pulled out from under us & we are left there to look up at the sky & wonder WHY?...yeah - wise, intelligent point you make - as always...no prob', bob...BIG BOYS we all are - each & every one of us (THAT explains all the belly-aching going on here, eh?)...groan & bear it? - you got it right, kid! I'll follow your bandwagon/Que....
Grin & bear it?...▶ The Crisis of Civilization - Full Length Documentary Movie HD - Y...
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Matt - had a smart civics teacher share "Government CLOSEST TO YOU is the one that works 'BEST' for you personally." Essentially meaning - because they are 'in YOUR 'back yard' too', they'll probably be more concerned with 'THEIR OWN back yard'.... THEY 'live' where YOU 'live...so supposedly what they deem is good for them (they protect themselves first & foremost...) will THEN trickle down to you too - in some ways. Better than the 'state' or the 'BIG GOVERNMENT', they are...to them bigger areas - you tend to be just another number.
NOW, I'm not in any way statin' that the local guy is gonna' do things according to hoyle either...BUT you've got a better shot at 'gettin' things right' on THAT side of the scale than 'higher up the ladder'...God help us all....that's all. No big deal...
As one light lights another, nor groans less - so nobleness enkindles nobleness. Ah - argh....
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Permalink Reply by jason smith on
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Yes WJ this is not the party of J.F.K anymore we must vote for jobs not federal handouts.
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