A friend of mine posted this on another forum and it says so much. As a NY landowner in the marcellus region, her family is suffering from long-term lack of work along with questionable property values and higher tax assessment due to the presence of gas. But they still cannot access their gas or even negotiate a reasonable gas lease because of regulatory uncertainty

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until we know if and when we will be able to access our gas

there is no uniform way to establish value

buyers are looking for easy pickings and will move on to the next distressed place rather than negotiate

many have mortgages

to walk away may not be an option

not easy to find rental housing for not just a family but all that goes

with the lives we have built:

family pet dog is just the beginning, who will care for the barn cats?

where do you find a rental that let's you bring your dairy herd?

yes, you can disperse life as you've known it

but at what point do you throw in the towel?

at what point will the idiots in Albany say ok let's get drilling?

the week after you give up?

we have been living with the knowledge that the gas will be developed

and the uncertainty of

which comes first, the lease bonus or the sheriff's sale?

by the time that becomes apparent the distress is a matter of public knowledge

too late to market the place effectively

and no one has been able to establish value anyway due the to 'regulatory climate' in NY

so will our grandchildren grow up in some west coast city

(who would stay here in the Northeast to be subject to the same politics should we re-establish a decent life?)

and someday see a news clip about where our energy comes from and say

"hey, isn't that where grandma & grand dad used to live?"

"yes, son, but they couldn't hang on in the gasicane and lost everything"