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.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by randall gottus on
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Adam Smith??? ..why did you change your name from Joe Corrado to Adam Smith, and replace your picture with a picture of a Eagle??? .. after I responded to your EQT statement yesterday.
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Permalink Reply by 0i7okn54zwbdo on
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People can blame the governor all they want but where is the outrage against the elected legislators--who answer to landowners--who passed this in the first place?
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Permalink Reply by randall gottus on
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Marcus...yes, I never thought about that...those elected legislators who are supposed to be watching out for us landowners! I guess that we need to be more pro active and try to regain some control over the political process in our state, if that is possible.
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Permalink Reply by wyalusing jim on
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there's nothing to regain. landowners in the Marcellus, due to our low population density, have always been the red headed step-children in Pennsylvania politics.
the cities in Pennsylvania wield all of the political clout. they always have, and they always will.
and make no mistake. they know what we now have...and they want it.
wj
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Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on
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wj; You are exactly right. As long as we are a part of Pa, as currently configured, we will be at the mercy of the money grabbers. I have long posted that we should form a new state with w Pa, e Oh, w NY and the WV panhandles. The cities of Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Wheeling all have a shared history, the same economic issues, and a very similar population.
And now we all have the Utica and Marcellus shales to protect from the looters. And those shales would make us a very wealthy state. Strange that I have been talking about this for 20 years and now it is nearly identical to the shale plays.
This legislation is a good example of we should form a new state. And don't say it isn't possible. N Colorado is now starting the process to secede as Denver controls that state and the legislators do not head the needs of the rest of the state. Won't easy, will take a lot of time and effort. But just starting the process may shake up a few pols.
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Jim L what a waste of time... could take 30 years to accomplish.... this issue needs address right NOW!
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Not True wyalusingim... your local reps are elected by the local population, not those in philly or pitts... the local reps should see the wrath of our anger... vote them out if the voted for this bill! Republican OR democrat.. vote them out!
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Rick is right. The reason there are so many congressional and senatorial districts is to correct the natural imbalance that comes from having a few major population centers spread out through a rural, agrarian state. Your state rep gets the same voting power as someone who represents west Philly. You guys (I don't live in the Commonwealth) need to apply pressure to your locals and make as much noise as you possibly can.
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Permalink Reply by Jim Litwinowicz on
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Sadly, you are both wrong. 60% of the state reps come from the Philly/Harrisburg area. And that area has no Marcellus or Utica and they are envious of our new wealth. Add in the liberal/progressive money grabbers from Pittsburgh and you will understand how badly the votes are against us. And the state Senate is appropriated by population not county so the Senate also has the same eastern bias. It is amazing that a a severance tax hasn't been attacked.
We could call and yell at our reps. Even vote against them but this much more than just dealing with the reps from w Pa.We need to put pressure on the reps from other areas also. Call them and tell them we will donate money to their opponents. and time to their campaigns. Let them know they will be under pressure also. Unless you get those in the east to feel the pressure, there is little hope.
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Then maybe landowners need to form a PAC. You guys are all flush with big bonus/royalty cash. Maybe invest it in your future, form a PAC and start hitting these guys in the eastern part of the state. Organize, find democrats who are on your side (you're never getting an R elected in Philly/Harrisburg/Pittsburgh) and fund their primary challenge of an incumbent. You people hold the power. So take it back from the scumbags who seek to ruin your potential income.
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Great Ideas from both Jim L and Marcus.. thank you! And Marcus, this is sooo true. Not all democrats are against drilling, and actually some republicans are. So wake up people... vote the issue, not the party. In the past, I have even changed my party affiliation just so I could vote in the primary election for candidates I preferred... easy to do. If more people did that, that would put more pressure on the candidates to shape up and represent us in our best interests as citizens, and less confidence for them to assume they will win on party affiliation alone.
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