Comment

Comment by CJK on May 22, 2010 at 8:43am

John: Thanks I will look at this today. Here is an interesting read as well:
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2010/04/a-miracle-in-the-marcellu...

Comment by John Reed on May 22, 2010 at 12:12am

http://www.sanjuanregional.com/assets//PDFs/2008%20Community%20Heal...

This is a link with real numbers. Ther's a lot to go through but you can see various health related topics with numbers that are compared to national averages. Again, this is in an area that has been subject to NG drilling for over 50 years. This link is at the very bottom of the mayors letter as well.

Comment by John Reed on May 22, 2010 at 12:00am

http://www.oilgasfind.com/pdf_downloads/Farmington%20NM%20Mayor%20B...

Try this and see if it works. Farmington NM Mayor Bill Standley. THis is a piece of what I spoke of below

Comment by John Reed on May 21, 2010 at 11:29pm

CJK, I have heard all the landman stories. Basically, we all need to just laugh them off. (the landmen not the stories) Unfortunately, those who don't know any better fall for their sales pitches. That's exactly what they are. They are hired salesmen who try to obtain the cheapest most benefical (to the gas company) lease as possible. They have a script that they follow which does not differ greatly from company to company. They will absolutely take advantage of anyone and everyone if given the chance. What salesman is not going to try to get you to buy into something that is most advantageous to him/her and the company they are working for ? The better job they do the more they get paid. I know it doesn't make it right but it is reality. I really doubt there is anything we can do other than to use some common sense and become educated. Again, unfortunately many people fall for their tactics. I have said all along and I hate to be redundant, we have so much more power than we realize. We should be the ones selling what we have. If someone wants something bad enough, which they do, they will bend over backwards to get it. Look at the Friendsville and Wyoming County lease agreements. $5750.00/acre with a 20% royalty with pretty darn good protections. Each landowner also had a choice to add further protections. They may have sacraficed a few dollars to get the added protections but they probably didn't need to do that. They were both in landowner groups which really helped in the negotiating. Nobody should try to go this alone. As this play evolves expect to see numbers and protections get much better. See the Barnett and Haynesville play numbers. As the infrastructure grows and the ability to gas to market become more feasible the better the numbers and protections will get. I have made hundreds of phone calls to my neighbors, went door to door, set up one on one meetings with them in an attempt to educate them. I have sent hundred of letters to my neighbors to explain what is and will be going on and what to expect from a landmean. I am no expert, but I have done alot to become educated. A very small percentage of my township has signed a lease agreement. Everyone has the opportunity to sign right now. I think the job our landowner group has done to help educate is going a long way. Our land owner group is made up of over 80,000 acres. Some have strayed and signed with various oil/gas companies, but most have stayed loyal and true and realize the true worth of their gas and their property.

As far as air pollution this is a touchy subject. I recently read an article from a mayor in NM who states NG exploration has been nothing but a positive experience for his area and his state. It was a rebuttal to the article written by the mayor if Dish Tx. He states that the environmental groups and the mayor of Dish greatly over stated the air pollution readings. The air was monitored and sampled for an adequate time period to arrive at the conclusion that NG drilling did not have a negative impact on the air quality. He gave concrete hard numbers to support this. In other words he was saying that the mayor of Dish and the environmental groups that he supports are inflating and sensationalizing their numbers to try and scare people. They have an agenda. I tried to paste the article but I couldn't. I'll try to find it and get it out here somehow. If you can, please supply us with some hard numbers to support your claim of air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution. I need numbers. What you are saying is far to generic for me to grasp.

Comment by CJK on May 21, 2010 at 10:26pm

John and Country Bumkin: I wish I could see all the positives that you see with the gas industry coming to NEPA. I have tried everday to do just that but I have seen and heard way too much negative. The landmen that the companies are letting loose on the landowners are making me sick! I have heard of so many expereinces from a variety of people at different times that it is way too impossible to be staged.

John as far as I am concerned even if DImock was "early on in this play" does not make it right or acceptable for us to allow this. What happened in DImock can happen anywhere and will.

There was a hearing in Ulster on Thursday at which the gas companies are asking for forced pooling and not to be subject to zoning ordinances. They do not want to be subject to zonng ordinances because that would make them more responsible, for example in relation to air emissions. I do not know how many of you have been on any of the wells pads in Bradford County, but the majority of those that I have been on have problems with air pollution, soil pollution and water pollution.

My advice to people is to ask the DEP to require the gas companies to slow down their process. There is no rush to get this all done ASAP for us. For the gas companies it is about locking the leases in, our lives, environmental future, and potential clean up should not be subject to the need to increase their corporate profits. We need to take control and let them do it right, because no matter what anyone says they can and should be conducting business better, better for us not better for their coporate profits. Corners shoud not and cannot be cut to make more money for their shareholders, we the landowners are the biggest "stakeholders" in this operation and we will be the ones that are here after all is said and done.
It isn't just about negogiating a better lease agreement. If your neighbor was not properly advised in entering into a lease, the gas companies can and will take advantage of them and that might be a problem for the community not just a single landowner that entered into a "bad lease arrangement" we are and should be considering communities not just individual plots of land. What you do and the gas companies do will and has effecting communities.
We need to be thinking about all of this way differently. Unfortunately until it hits home in an adverse way people will not react. We are generally reactive and we need to be proactive in this circumstance. I understand that we need to give this play a chance but we need to let the people set the pace not the gas companies. We are the ones that have more long term issues at risk. They are playing with our money that they have gained from our resource.

Comment by John Reed on May 21, 2010 at 10:12pm

Marie, just share with all of us what you have gone through. Tell us in detail. Explain what has happened. Offer advice so that when it comes time for us to decide what is best we can use your information to make an educated decision. That's what's great about these forums. Now please, offer any information you think will help us to learn. Tell us what the gas company could have done differently and what the landowners in your area could have done differntly.

Comment by John Reed on May 21, 2010 at 9:25pm

Marie, again I have never seen a post from other than to completely discredit the gas industry. I'm sure you were given a raw deal. The timing for you and your area was bad alo. You were very early on in this play. I still think the lack of homework that was done by the people of Dimmock coupled with Cabot and their landmen selling you on the boiler plate leases is the main problem. As the play progresses landowners will become better educated and make better decisions.

Comment by John Reed on May 21, 2010 at 6:24pm

Carolyn and Marie. Wouldn't you be better off getting your points accross by letting people know what happend to you and your area and then giving advice to people with regard to the things landowners should do differently ? In other words.... Instead of posting all negatives, tell us what has happened to you and tell us what you would have done differently or what your neighbors could have done differently to make the situation a little better. Hindsight is 20/20. I think what turns people off is that you completely denounce the industry and the process. You do not help your cause by being 100% negative. People on here want to do the right thing and most people are pretty intelligent and have some common sense. I truly do not believe and most do not believe that everyone in Susquenhanna county that has leased their property feels the way you guys do. In fact I beleive most have had a positive experience. Just like everywhere else in all shale plays.

It sounds to me like nobody in Dimmock had pre drilling water tests done. Did you or any of your neighbors ? Do you think that Cabot would have denied all leases if you would have demanded the tests prior to drilling ? This should have been one of the single most important factors for all who leased. It should have been mandated by the community. That's why landowner groups are so important. Since you didn't, it makes the situation 1000 times worse. The gas industry is considerd guilty until proven innocent with regard to water contamination. I heard this right from DEP and from the head of the SRBC. Gas companies actually prefer to do pre drill water testing so they can defend themselves if needed. They want that baseline as much as we do. Cabot was actually pretty dumb not to do any pre drilling testing in Dimmock. It would have been beneficial to the landowners and to the gas company.

The problem is that you guys seem to want to do everything in your power to tarnish the industry and label it as taboo. You fail to recognize or even consider anyone elses points. Do you think we all want to blindly lease our land and have water contamination, spills, environmental disaster etc... ? We don't. We recongize the possibilities so we want to do everything we can to minimize the risks. We're looking at the big picture and trying to figure out what the biggest risks are and then trying to protect ourselves, via the lease or proposed legislation etc... Nobody is buying into you way of thinking. It's not effective in any way. It brings out the worst in all of us actually. Maybe you would like to try to bend a little. You get much more accomplished and you get your points accross much more effectively when you compromise. I'm guilty of it too, but my posts about you guys being left wing radicals is a direct result of you acting that way. Beleive me when I say I'm more middle of the road. I see many benefits from gas drilling and I see potential negatives. I'm just trying to recognize the negatives and the risks and learn what I can so when it comes time I am educated and so are my neighbors. We can then make an informed well educated decision. Please do not try to completely sway people here. We are smarter than that.

I think you have effectively communicated that Cabot should not be on the top of our list when it comes to companies we should lease our land to. They make all the headlines...

Comment by Country Bumkin on May 21, 2010 at 2:50pm

My point has been made...Bye!

Comment by hunter777 on May 21, 2010 at 2:00pm

Hey folks, let's get back to the reason most of us are here - the discussion and promotion of legal gas leasing, drilling and production. As far as I can tell that is the purpose, not to defeat it, or spew insults.
If I need to hear some of that, I can listen to my teenagers! Take your personal battles to private messages!

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