Proposal would allow holdout landowners to be forced to lease below-ground gas rights.

http://www.timesleader.com/news/Polling_for_gas_drilling_not_popular__especially_before_election_10-03-2010.html

Posted: October 4
Updated: Today at 12:20 AM

Polling for gas drilling not popular, especially before election
Proposal would allow holdout landowners to be forced to lease below-ground gas rights.

MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer

HARRISBURG — Pooling isn’t popular.

If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an obscure provision that was at the top of the list of changes to Pennsylvania law being sought this year by companies unearthing natural gas from the rich Marcellus Shale formation that sits below much of the state.

But senator after senator in Harrisburg has voiced opposition to the concept, which, simply put, could be used to force holdout landowners to lease their below-ground gas rights under certain conditions.

Landowners would be paid for the methane sucked from beneath their turf, and no well would be drilled on their land — but they’d be unable to say “No” to a drilling company.

Opponents call it tantamount to government taking property rights to benefit private companies, and say industry representatives could wield it as a weapon to limit a landowner’s ability to negotiate a better lease.

Senate President Joe Scarnati, a key industry ally, said he’ll continue to try to develop a provision that satisfies the concerns of his fellow senators. But he acknowledged that concern regarding taking property rights is a major hurdle.

Citizens “take it seriously and I think that it’s maybe a toss-up — take their property or take their guns,” Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said. “But I’ve got to tell you, you’re treading on some thin ice when you try to take either. So we’re very sensitive to that and we’re going to certainly do the commonwealth right in whatever the final product is.”

Scarnati had hoped to put a pooling provision into a wider bill addressing Marcellus Shale issues, including an extraction tax sought by House Democrats since shortly after the drilling boom began two years ago. However, pooling is likely to be punted into next year.

The Senate’s last scheduled voting day this year is Oct. 14 and no pooling proposal has received a public hearing or even a lengthy floor debate.

The issue is thorny enough, even if legislators were not facing an election in four weeks.

An industry spokesman said Friday that he hadn’t given up on the provision.

“The ongoing negotiations on taxation and modernizations to the statutory framework for our industry will likely ebb and flow over the next two weeks,” said David Spigelmyer, vice chairman of the industry group, Marcellus Shale, and the director of governmental relations for Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corp.