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 2z248p19vqnh9 on
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*Nobody takes your power away from you - you give it away.
That's YOU - not 'Corbett'...I'm referring to there, folks. NOW - WHO is he (being 'Corbett' or ANY other 'politician?)?
He's not YOU, is he? He is ONLY 'your servant' - for as long as YOU 'let him (or whomever) be'...or so one would guess...AND one would think that whatever was done BY YOU that 'was not right' - right wrongs NOW - where there is a will there is a way...or so one is still free to believe.
His 'decision' is hurting 'you & yours'...isn't THAT right? WHY is this 'being allowed to PASSIVELY continue'? WHY? - He is just a pawn. YOU are even LESS of one (you are already 'on THEIR 'reservation' - see?). SACRED LAND. Dig in your heels! DON'T let 'time heal all wounds', because it won't....
Fang - 'This one got away from us'?...no, it has NOT. IF it is ALLOWED to 'go on unaddressed' - THEN it will have. WHY does it 'have to be a matter' of 'being voted in or out' - and at a 'set time' for 'an individual' who DOES WRONG by the 'powers that be' (the good ole' American constituents') who 'put THEM (whomever 'them' may be...) 'there' in the first place? --- out of FAITH & due respect of WHAT was being 'touted' BY so-called individuals *at the time*.
WAS anything of these matters addressed at the time of the 'election to power'? The USA was established 'kicking against the pricks' of suppression. We 'freed' ourselves FROM being 'screwed tightly' UNDER the thumb-skrews of 'royalty' across the seas. NOW the 'kings & queens' of today are the 'CORPORATIONS'...that includes the 'incorporation' of the USA - THEY are now the sovereigns - the RULERS THAT BE. (are they?). Who are you? - you are now no better than the American Indian.
Your land is THEIR 'reservation'. When YOU become an 'inconvenience' to the 'powers that be' (Corporate entities of the Incorporation of America - the *NEW 'Kings & Queens' of America*) - THEN do as they so please...so be it. This land WAS your land, this land WAS my land...led to be-LIE-ve that it was OURS...AND WE will become 'tribalized'/trivialized (put on little reservations...just like our 'brothers' whom WE suppressed long, long ago - yesterday, in 'time's eye'...).
WHO are you? On whose 'RESERVE' do you pretend to 'lie'?...it's only 'borrowed time'. He who PAWNS THE WORLD makes the rules...all the world is a stage - and 'WE' are merely players. STAND FIRM. There is no place like home - there is no place like home - THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME. We AREN'T in Kansas anymore, folks...
As one light lights another, nor grows less - so nobleness enkindles nobleness. 'Broken Rainbow'...follow the $$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-$$$-YOU don't matter...it's what you've supposedly 'got'. THINK.
YOU know what's right & wrong - so does Corbett. YOU are now the 'native American Indian' who once 'possessed the land' as YOU do now...hmm.... Interesting position. NOT at a 'checkmate' yet...just a bunch of 'red-tape' - the barbed wire is yet to come.
Answer me this - WHY does one need a passport to go to Canada now? and THAT is just the tip of the G&O iceberg...forget about the water & land damage - it's the 'faux pas' presumption of being a 'landowner' that is the current joke. As long as YOU 'beLIEve', you 'go willingly' to their slaughter. PAIN...at least you've got a place to 'lay your head'.
You know - it's getting stranger all the time...how do you KNOW what's 'being said' is what is going on? HOW?...Pa. G&O Party?...sheep in wolf's clothing? Who's steppin' on YOUR toes? Only when the 'pain' is felt - will it bring forth 'action'. Trouble is - that is usually when the horse is ALREADY out of the barn....
To each their own...dust in the wind.... "The world is his, who can see through the pretension... See it to be a lie, and you have already dealt it its mortal blow." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Permalink Reply by Ed on
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Here,here...well put GG. Funny thing though. The Brother of Ralph Waldo Emerson partnered with a man named Pew in late 1800s to form the Peoples Natural Gas Company right here in Pittsburgh...AND SO THE SAGA BEGINS.
Perhaps Ralph's poetry was insipired in part by his brother who undoubtably (I'm sure) ripped people off as they are getting ripped off today. Some things never change and us lowly humans seem not to learn from history or our mistakes.
Just an aside...I have a 16" gas pipeline running through my property that was leased by the landowner in 1927 to the Peoples Natural Gas Company for the sum of $1.00. Now today as days gone by, there are millions of dollars traveling through that pipe daily and the landowner gets not one red cent for the use of his land.
We lowly surfs never learn, do we? How many of you are leasing pipeline right of ways without receiving a monthly rental fee? Huh, how many? Oh yea...they give $5 a foot to seize your land forever and you think that's "better than nothing" .
So he who has signed on the dotted line and cries to momma later has no one to blame but himself.
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Permalink Reply by Inchworm antenna on
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I don't know ED, what about when it's an interstate transmission line, and the operator tells you "This is a fair offer so sign on the dotted line or we will implement eminent domain procedures"?
Again, once FERC grants approval for an interstate transmission pipeline, the writing is usually on the wall.
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Ed,
Find a copy of the ROW and read it closely. You might find a loophole that was missed by the owner that would invalidate the ROW contract or require payment.
O&G + Pipeline folks will read into a contract whatever they want, and hope that we don't read the documents since most don't read the contract.
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WHAT is 'the driver' here? Dis-satis-FACT-ion...right? THAT needs to be an 'individual group's driver'. The 'BTP' didn't begin with one or two bales of tea going overboard. Republican, Democrap, Libertarian...here's to the NEW breed of American: the Amer-I-CAN!...no one takes your power from you - you 'give it away' (not in 'so many words', but in essence, it is - one 'line' at a time). Hook-Line-Sinker...
What is the 'goal'? THAT is the key. As Amer-I-CAN's, we ARE a sensible, intelligent, rational group of sentient beings...we believe in that - NO ONE ELSE has what we have in this country (no matter how 'bad' it gets...WELL, that can be debated as *WELL...but that is for another day...). No one wants the hassle, we ALL want 'smooth sailing' & CLEAR HORIZON...BUT *OUR waters have 'been muddied' - in more ways than we even fully understand as of yet...THAT is the tantrum.
EVERYONE is for making money...it's just the G&O Co.'s who are 'dangling US like puppets' from THEIR 'purse strings' - even our government officials! WE are their TOYS...with a nick-nack-paddy-WHACK - *give that dog a bone...this old Corporation keeps rolling along! I am all for America being a top-producer in any & all 'fields' of endeavor...I am NOT for having to be a 'prisoner' to the manner in which such matters get executed.
At THIS moment in time - we are in a precarious position of 'balance' concerning OUR LAND - OURS! Maybe Gorbett (Gorba-cha-cha...) IS the quintessential 'pawn' in this chess board - expendable position once it has served it's purpose. It IS a master game, this is - that is being MANIPULATED. In some ways absurdly funny - like a grand master playing a child level & trouncing him over & over & over - ENDLESSLY! THEN having the cahungas to GOAD it over the poor child. --- Like I say - bow down to your new 'Lord & Lady' - the ignoble KING & QUEEN - the industrial, commercial machine of the God Almighty America! HAIL to the...who?...
As long as the 'wool can be pulled over ALL of your eyes - collectively' AND you can 'be conveniently distracted' to dither over this, that, or the other thing...THEY hold ALL of the 'trump' KEY cards. Flush 'Saul Alinsky' thought-provokers down to the 'bottom of the bowl' where all the other ka-ka in swooshing around in...▶ 10 Hours of the Imperial March - YouTube
***PASS THE BUCK - the 'acceptable CODE OF CONDUCT' in this new, disjointed LOST America.
STAND. He who stands Firm. As one light lights another, nor grows less - so nobleness enkindles nobleness.
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Interesting 'cross section/cross hairs'...
Forced pooling - Go Marcellus & Utica Shale: Leasing, Drilling ... ...
We are auctioning 80 acres off on August 12 in Crawford county. - G... ...
read for yourself...and beware - thar's a O&G BEAR...over there!
As one light lights another, nor grows less - so nobleness enkindles nobleness. Put these together so those that may not read 'cross-currents' can get a small perception in the 'goings on' in other concerned areas...
...also Marcellus gas production rising fast in Pa., W.Va. - Yahoo! News ...
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Permalink Reply by randall gottus on
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Thanks for bringing that to my attention..Yahoo News/production rising..
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GG,
This frustration that O&G theft creates helps those who are running the scam to collect more acreage, knowing that some will leave the area and sell off their holdings. This has been going on for a very long time, so landowners have become predictable over the years.
Cheat a man for a while and he will move rather than stand up and try to turn the tide of theft.
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That makes oil and gas in PA and the US a Universal Betrayal of Landowners since very few if any landowners are being paid a fair royalty.
Notice how O&G companies always find a way to excuse themselves from paying a fair royalty. Must be the stolen royalties being invested with those who had the power to stop them before getting their names entered into the Payment Book O&G companies must be keeping.
This couldn't be the result of having ignorant lawmakers, more than likely greed has played a role in these questionable laws being passed.
This brings to mind a lesson in history, the Mississippi Indian Civilization. Those in charge forgot to give their subjects a reason to stay in the city by keeping all the corn and other crops they were growing, leaving the population starving each winter. The King and his friends and relatives were left to fend for themselves while the population moved back into the woods to live on their own.
I believe this is why some say "Democracy Demands Wisdom". Wisdom has slowly been replaced by Greed in the US.
We now need to write laws to curb this greed peacefully, and give US Citizens a reason for participating in OUR Democracy. People, this is doable so get busy and stop saying nothing can be done.
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Permalink Reply by Jerry on
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So if Gov. wolf is against fracking and o&g companies, why doesn't someone point out that reversing the bill would be a step against them? Win for the land owners.
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