David Rovics Performs His Song "No Fracking Way"

From Garden-concert at Alværn, Nesoddden by the Oslofjord August 8. 2011.

More about David Rovics here.

I just came home from a concert by David Rovics in Rochester, NY.   If you haven't experienced a Rovics concert,  you must try to catch up with him.  His songs are riveting, intense, and show a thorough knowledge and understanding of world events, both current and in history.  David Rovics is a class act.

Feeling Tricked By Your Gas Lease?

Joe Heath, attorney for Onondaga Nation, and resident of Cortland, NY, talks about gas lease issues that you may have encountered, especially as pertains to renewing or not renewing a lease. How can you fight the Big Boys and stand up for your rights?  Mr. Heath explains how you can do it.  Look for such things as extension clauses, force majeure clauses, delay rental clauses, and automatic renewal clauses, and many more tricks that can make your life miserable.

From Essential Dissent.

Gas Royalties in Texas: New Deductions Affect Royalty Checks

Chesapeake Energy has decided to deduct post-production costs from royalty checks in the Barnett Shale Play in Texas.  About 20,000 royalty owners will likely see their royalty checks slashed by roughly 25 percent after the company deducts expenses associated with post-production, such as gas gathering, compression, and transportation, according to the Star-Telegram.  The changes took effect with the July royalty checks, based on May production.  Only those leaseholders who have specific clauses precluding assessments for post-production costs will be exempt from this new policy. Would you like to read the letter they sent to landowners who have signed leases with them?  Here it is:  http://www.askchesapeake.com/Barnett-Shale/Royalty-Owners/Pages/Gathering-Deductions.aspx

Chesapeake Energy can do this with leases that do not specifically prohibit the assessment.  That's how it works.  Pennsylvania, watch out.

A related article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Read Sue Heavenrich's blogpost on The Marcellus Effect.

Marcellus Shale: Help! There's a Landman At My Door!

You can sign up online at Landman Report Card to read reports about landmen all over the country.  You can submit your own reports of your experiences, too.

http://www.landmanreportcard.com/

How does this site help me?

By signing up as a user of LRC, you gain access to our database of landmen and oil companies' profiles, as well as reviews written by people who have previously encountered these landmen. You can view these reports and use them as a guide for future encounters. In addition, you will be able to write reports of you own regarding landmen you've interacted with. By contributing to the site, you are helping others who may be in a similar situation. By being a site user, you will also gain the privilege of contacting other users and being contacted for additional questions or to share your experiences.

How would I benefit as a user?

As a user, you are eligible to write reports on landmen you've had encounters with. These reports will greatly aid in expanding the site's database, which in turn can help you, and others like you, in making informed decisions. You will also have the option to contact other users and be contacted for additional questions or to simply share your experiences.


To view a report on a landman who visited a landowner in PA, click here.

For a crash course on what to do when confronted by a landman (or landwoman!), go here.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED!

Natural Gas Drilling in NEPA: Sadly, This Is How Ordinary Landowners Think

Dushore, Pennsylvania

If someone came to your door and offered to make you a rich person, would you be interested?  Of course.  Even if it meant making a pact with the Devil himself I suppose.  Read the story of one Pennsylvania man, Richard Kriel, who finally succumbed to the pressure of a landman and signed away his 60 acres of land to a gas company.  He is now excited about the prospects of getting what he calls "free money."   The negative consequences of his decision will undoubtedly be revealed as time goes on, but he says he is willing to take the bitter with the better. He said he was given an offer "he couldn't refuse." Mr. Kriel also said:

The last thing I want to see is the water messed up and the fish to die. I don't want to see that.

There is little hope that his wish for everything to go on without a hitch- without a high cost to his environment, his land, and his family- will be a possibility, but I hope he can be the one or two few exceptions. Time will tell. Perhaps Mr. Kriel's dream will come true. He said:

I see it as a potential gold mine.

And I say- I see it as a potential disaster.  Here are some serious incidents that have happened in PA in the last few years.  Does the money seem worth it when you put yourself in danger or possible death?  If something happens, it is a 100% disaster for everyone involved.  There is no such thing as getting back good water after a well or spring is contaminated.  Some things can't be fixed.  A million dollars will not help.

Read the article from the Sun Gazette here.

Marcellus Shale: How To Ruin a Perfectly Good Farm (Part One)

This is a must see video filmed March 12, 2010. Featured is landowner Ron Gulla (goo-lah) whose farm in Hickory, PA, was ruined by the gas drilling industry. His riveting story will leave you speechless. How could his story be true? Yet it is all true. Mr. Gulla leased his land in 2002. He got $7.50 per acre and 13.5% royalties. Listen to his story about what happened to him and his family: theft, breaking and entering, court appearances, gas drillers defecating all over his property, garbage strewn everywhere. Would you expect this on your property if you signed a lease? I wouldn't. But this is the norm. Gas drillers say that they value the relationship with the landowners on whose property they are operating. However, Ron Gulla's story proves this is not the case. There is no such thing as respect or cooperation. Leased land is used up and destroyed, never to be the same again.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

A Letter to My Family: Where Do We Go From Here?

My family owns property in French Azilum Township, Bradford County, PA. Since July of 2008, our family corporation, which has about 150 members, has been engaged in debate about gas drilling. The gas industry has arrived in our valley, the Susquehanna River valley. Cousins, aunts, and uncles who used to be glad to see each other now dread the sight of one another. Our summer home we call Camp used to be a place of refreshment, peace, and tranquility. It has become a battleground, a war zone. I hope some people who specialize in social implications of gas drilling will do research and publish their findings. Family dynamics and neighbor-to-neighbor relationships are becoming more and more strained as gas drilling moves in. Here is a letter written by a family member which may cast some light on the complexities that many families face. The names have been changed to protect the innocent!

Dear Family,
Inspite of strong denials that we will ever be offered a gas lease of any kind, and inspite of strong assurances from Steve and Mona that there is no lease to consider (even though there was one offered last fall which has never been seen), and, if there were a lease, the Board of Directors, which now has complete control over any gas-related decisions, would likely not sign it for Camp, I remain concerned. Why? Because since the family meeting I have heard talk of consulting a high-powered attorney from Williamsport should we have a lease to consider. I guess I am supposed to be pleased about that, but I am not. Why? Because consulting a lawyer begs the question, "Should we even be considering doing this in the first place?" A lawyer, especially one who deals with gas leases for a living, is only going to look over a lease to make sure everything is supposedly in there that should be and advise some deletions, etc. But a lawyer is not necessarily going to counsel us on the rightness or wrongness of signing a lease. A lawyer is not going to make ethical or moral decisions for our family. We have to make those decisions first before we would ever go to a lawyer. We have to know what questions to ask. Otherwise we will open ourselves up for legal entanglements which will require many hours on the part of someone in our family to sort things out. Who will that person be?

So while Steve and others still adamantly claim that they are not necessarily in favor of signing a lease, nevertheless, their discussion of finding a lawyer indicates that the idea of a lease is still alive and well. I do not think that going to a lawyer comes close to doing our homework first. Just running a lease by a lawyer before signing may give some people a sense of security, but it is a false sense of security at best. Have any of you read about people who have signed great leases and still had major problems with gas companies? There is a myth going around our family which I have heard quite often that the only way we can cover ourselves against damage from gas drilling is to have a lease. This really has not worked well for a lot of people who thought a lease protects a landowner. It really protects the gas company first and foremost. Chesapeake Appalachia LLC, for example, can declare bankruptcy and skip town if the going gets rough, and its parent company Chesapeake Energy is not liable. The first thing a gas company does is deny responsibility for anything no matter what it is. Then a long process of legal proceedings ensues. The DEP has been known to come out of the gate talking tough, but then backs down. Some litigation I've read about has gone on for a decade or more. So perhaps a lease could eventually cover us down the road, but who in the Sam Hill is going to be around to collect the money? And in the meantime, if it involves water, who is going to fight to get a water supply put in at Camp? Gas companies have supplied water to some people after trying to avoid doing that, but it is not automatic, and it can take months to actually get a tank put in (which has to be maintained and filled up frequently). Talk to the people in Dimock just a few miles from Camp. They will tell you how their lives have turned into nightmares and things continue to get worse there as I write. I encourage anyone who would even consider any lease with any gas company to go to well sites locally in French Azilum (there are quite a few to choose from) or go to Dimock which is probably in the shape we will be in a few years from now, but they are already there. Nothing can compare with actually seeing what gas drilling really is and what it really looks like. Before any lease is signed, go see for yourself.

Frenchtown will be unitized soon (a unit is 640 acres). Your board will most likely be approached when this happens. So decisions will have to be made in the near future. There are agreements for wells, pipelines, rights of way for above ground water pipes, seismic testing, even compressors, meter stations, injection wells, all sorts of things which come with gas drilling. This is only the beginning. I, as probably everyone knows by now unless you have been living under a rock, am not interested in signing a lease or any agreement with a gas company. For one thing, we don't have to do it. And secondly, I want Camp to remain unattached to such an industry. Any money we would get, and there are no guarantees, would probably not make us more solvent in the future, at least long term. All we can do is protect Camp from the industry and make the drillers go around us. It is not good, no matter how you look at it, but at least we can say to our children and grandchildren, "We did everything we could to save and protect Camp from harm and destruction. "

Love to all,
Evelyn

August 14, 2009

IS YOUR FAMILY SUFFERING FROM THE GAS DRILLING INDUSTRY?
DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!

Glenn Williams and Candace Mingins: Stories From the Front Line

At a recent meeting held at Broome Community College (NY), several speakers gave their testimony about the effects of gas drilling on public health and family economic stability. This video is about 18 minutes. There are a few introductory remarks prior to Mr. Williams' and Ms. Mingins' talks.

Glenn Williams, Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coaltion (BRSC)

Mr. Williams is affiliated with the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition (BRSC). His story is an eyeopener. He tells of discovering that the DEC has not ever collected data about problems with gas drilling. Therefore people can say there is no evidence of any problems with gas drilling. He tells of the 300 chemicals in fracking fluid, 65 of which have been identified as carcinogenic or causing endocrine disruption. He reports that Lebanon, NY, which has 55 wells drilled, ran up a bill of $300,000 for road repair due to heavy traffic from gas drillers and were compensated only $12,000 by the gas drillers. He says a landowner will be taxed 42% on profits (federal and state) and possibly face law suits from neighbors for damages done to adjacent properties. He questions how much money can actually be made by landowners. He explains how a company like Chesapeake Appalachia, a limited liability corporation, can just walk away from any harm they have done and declare bankruptcy while the larger corporation, Chesapeake Energy cannot be held responsible. He believes firmly that gas companies must pay for well testing before, during, and after drilling, pay for replacement loss of home values, and replace the water they take from aquifers.

Candace Mingins, farmer, Van Etten, NY

Ms. Mingins lives with her husband and three children on their family farm in Van Etten near Ithaca, NY. They have an orchard which is in its 34th garden year. A well was drilled on their property in 2006 on the Trenton Black River formation. In 2008, she helped organize Shaleshock Citizens Action Coalition. Listen to Candace as she tells what it is like to deal with a multi-national gas corporation. Hear what it is really like to sign a lease and then have to live with the consequences. It will shock you.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
Thanks to Essential Dissent, Binghamton, NY for this video.
http://essentialdissent.blogspot.com