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 Jim Litwinowicz on
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I would suggest joining the Pa chapter of NARO and work with them.
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Permalink Reply by Inchworm antenna on
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It's noteworthy to mention here: the Landowners with the older leases with insufficient unitization and pooling clause, in general, are not the ones flush with big sign-on bonuses.
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Permalink Reply by 0i7okn54zwbdo on
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Of course. That wasn't meant to be a sweeping statement that covered everyone. It was merely a suggestion for the source of funding potential political campaigns that are pro-landowner and pro-growth.
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Well Jim L ... sadly you are wrong also ... in a way. The idiot snake that introduced the clause into the bill was Garth Everrett, from Bradford county, one of the most rural counties in the state. He was not some jealous city slicker out to screw or punish the landowner for some new found opportunity. Please dont discourage citizen action to hold our local reps feet to the fire, no matter how rural of an area you are from.
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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garth Everett is neither from, nor does he represent any portion of Bradford county.
he is from Montoursville and his congressional district is in Lycoming county.
wj
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Yes wyjim.. sorry... but still a very rural county... and doesnt change my point..
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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i'm guessing that you're not familiar with the city of Williamsport then.
wj
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Yes wyjim I am familiar with williamsport... but someone made the point that city people in philly and pitts are going to ruin it for everyone and their representitives will ruin it for us.... I made a mistake while typing.. i was in a hurry... i knew evertt the snake was from lycoming county, but misspoke because he is now involved in another O$G bill with several other lawmakers one of whom is from bradford county.
My point was that it DOES matter who you elect into office, even in a rural area. I believe you or another person said that it doesnt matter because the city's have more influence... OK?
My guess is you are not familiar with pennsylvania at all as you are now compairing williamsport with philly... just so you know, williamsport and lycoming county is still in a very rural part of the state... their rep should be looking out for the rural values and people from all over rural pennsylvania.. not siding with multi-national companies, whose CEO couldnt give a rats A$$ about pa... they probably have never been here.
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Permalink Reply by Tom R on
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My 2 cents worth.... WJ is very familiar with Pennsylvania and the issues involved here. As a matter of fact, he organized a networking gathering with members of GMS in Bradford County in June of this year.
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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" but someone made the point that city people in philly and pitts are going to ruin it for everyone and their representitives will ruin it for us.."
not exactly.
let me expand to make it clearer. the urban areas in Pennsylvania have the majority of citizens and voters. they control our government in Harrisburg by the sheer weight of their numbers. we here in the Marcellus region of pa. are as mall minority.
people in Philadelphia and other cities in pa are concerned with their own affairs, not ours. most of them wouldn't even be able to locate us on a map.
their affairs currently are centered around shortfalls in revenue...they need money. the mayor of Philadelphia makes frequent trips to Harrisburg begging for additional revenues to keep his city operating.
Philadelphia was allocated a share of the recently enacted impact fee on drilling in pa. what impacts will Philadelphia suffer from drilling over a hundred miles away?
make no mistake, lest you awake one morning in shock...Philadelphia wants more money...and we now have it.
since Philadelphia outweighs us in the legislature, they have the means to get a larger share of the Marcellus pie.
pa. still does not have a severance tax. such a tax would give them more of the pie, and that tax would be assessed against our royalties unlike the impact fee.
also, the democratic party of pa. recently added to their platform a statement denouncing hydraulic fracturing. Philadelphia is almost solidly democratic.
the point you seem to be missing is that with less than a couple of hundred thousand mineral owners in pa., we are not a political force to be reckoned with. we are seen more as a bunch of nouveau-riche hillbillies by these urban dwellers. a cash cow.
one of my pet peeves is that after years of driving on crappy and dangerous penndot roads, the gascos, (primarily chk in my area), had stepped up and begun rebuilding roads, beautiful roads that didn't beat the crap out of my truck until the impact fee was enacted. now there is no roadwork. we wait on penndot and dodge potholes and collapsed shoulders on the roads that chk didn't get to before the additional levy on "impacts".
no one is suggesting that folks shouldn't vote and vote wisely. but everyone should have realistic expectations and look to the larger picture instead of focusing on a single aspect of pa. politics.
the world does not revolve around us, and we should not expect much help in these times from any bureaucrats or politicians.
but you should continue to hope if you need to. hope is good, so long as you can handle disappointment.
wj
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Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on
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Rick
Sorry, dude. You are in error. Mr. Everett is from Lycoming County, as is the "beloved" Gene Yaw. Check it out here if you doubt me:
You think these guys might know one another? :-)
Coupla peas in the pod if you ask me. They got each other's backs.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on
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Rick, my intent was not exonerate anyone that voted for it. I am sure that many in the shale areas voted for it, some because they didn't understand the significance of it ....some because of lobbyist's pressure....some because thats what they wanted.
You need to understand that half of the time half the legislators have no idea what they are voting on or its significance. They all work on various committees that have their own areas of interest. When a bill comes along that originated in a different committee, they rely on that committee's reports and on their party leadership on how to vote. There are just too many issues and too many bills for them to read and understand the full impact of each bill. And that is a big reason controversial amendments get added at the last minute....stops people from getting to the phones or emails to stop them.
Thats why its critical for the people to stay informed on issues and be in full communication with legislators not only in their district but with ones on key committees that affect them.
I would first research who in the shale plays voted for it and then contact their staff to discuss it. Then follow up with a written letter, letters have impact since most people these days are too lazy to write.... a letter looks like your really pissed and mean it.... Just be polite and professional about it.
Then start contacting people on key committees and people outside of the shale play to let them know they need to change this or there will be solid support, both financial and manpower-wise, to their opponents in future elections.
I have yet to join NARO but am considering it. Need to attend one of their functions to get a feel for how they operate and how affective they are. Hopefully, they have a lobbyist working for them in Harrisburg.
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