Category: citizenshale.org

Apr. 19, 2012

CitizenShale, a local citizens’ group formed last year to provide education and information about issues related to natural gas drilling in Maryland, expressed appreciation this week for the work of the county’s Annapolis delegation in securing some new legislation pertaining to this industry. The group also noted other efforts evolving to ensure public and environmental safeguards, should hydraulic fracturing for gas come to Maryland.

The organization began working with Delegate Wendell Beitzel and Senator George Edwards last December on drafting three bills to reform key provisions of the gas leasing process, in response to land-owner and lease-holder concerns about misinformation and a lack of transparency in gas leasing. One of those bills did become law.

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Complaints were lodged with the Maryland Attorney General’s Office during the last year about the way energy companies and leasing representatives allegedly misrepresented the dangers associated with “fracking” for natural gas, about the extremely low prices paid for leases, and about misleading clauses in the leases that allowed them to be automatically renewed after the original term.

Lease prices of $5 or $10 per acre were standard in Garrett County, during a period when leases purchased in nearby Pennsylvania often topped $2,000 per acre. Leasing began in Garrett County in 2006, and approximately 120,000 acres – some 600 individual leases – were secured.

“People who were not interested now see issues to be concerned about,” said CitizenShale board president Eric Robison, an Oakland area resident.

He noted that the organization conducted numerous public education programs in the county during the last year.

“What was a local conversation is now part of a national conversation. People are starting to appreciate the cautious approach the state is advocating,” he said.

“Despite differing philosophies about the long-term value of natural gas drilling for our state and county, we were able to work effectively with Del. Beitzel and Sen. Edwards. We greatly appreciated that opportunity,” Robison said.

House Bill 402, introduced by Del. Beitzel to address record-keeping shortcomings that had been cited in an earlier law dealing with dormant mineral interests, was passed into law with an amendment late in the session to require that all gas leases filed after Oct. 1 of this year include a standardized “intake sheet” summary of the lease.

More here.

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

CitizenShale (www.citizenshale.org) is a recently formed, all-volunteer non-profit organization.
Our mission is simple: through research, policy review, and education, we seek to encourage dialog and support comprehensive efforts to protect individual citizens and communities from the wide-ranging potential impacts of shale gas development in our region.
In the spirit of fostering that dialog, we wish to respond to recent comments by Garrett County Commissioner Jim Raley about the public debate over shale gas drilling (“TGCC showcases capital talking points,” Jan. 6 Times-News).
We hope to expand our working relationships with the Garrett and Allegany County commissioners, and believe Commissioner Raley’s comments — referring to our organization’s work — deserve clarification.
During a public meeting about an unrelated topic, Commissioner Raley referred to “educational pieces” — such as the programs CitizenShale puts on — as the work of “opponents.”
CitizenShale and its members do not support banning shale gas development in Maryland; we do, however, oppose unsafe or predatory development that takes advantage of the counties’ residents. And, given that many neighboring states have initiated such industrial gas-drilling, we believe it prudent to learn from their experiences.
CitizenShale was founded on the belief that only through public education — and the industry accountability that such education will demand — will we empower ourselves and our elected officials to make the right policy decisions.
For those who have not heard of CitizenShale, or been able to attend our meetings at Garrett College in McHenry, here is a brief summary of those with “eyewitness” experience whom we brought to speak during the last year, and some of the other educational content presented:
• A former land-owner near Pittsburgh where one of the first horizontally fractured gas wells was drilled in Eastern America. That well contaminated water on his farm — something he has seen since on numerous properties around him — and forced him into a protracted legal dispute with the driller that almost bankrupted his family, and changed their lives forever.
• A university microbiologist who showed aerial photographs depicting the new wells, compressor stations, and processing plants south of Pittsburgh (where two explosions took place last year) that transformed a generally rural area into an industrial zone in five years.
• An executive from the Oil and Gas Accountability Project who presented her experience working with people from New York to West Virginia who sought help defending their interests against the activities of energy corporations and, in many cases, against compliant state and local government authorities.
• A first in-region film screening of the two most acclaimed, and admittedly controversial documentaries about the natural gas industry.
• A program with the Maryland Attorney General and the Garrett County Bar Association devoted to answering legal questions about the hundreds of gas leases that energy corporations purchased from landowners in Garrett and Allegany counties.
• A speaker from a Washington, D.C.-based organization whose year-long study refutes claims by business and local governments about the jobs bonanza predicted with industrial drilling.
The economic, political, and land-use impacts of shale gas development are certainly worth better understanding, but any benefits must be measured by an equally thorough understanding of their costs and the longer-term effects on our region.
Anyone interested in the full range of our activities is invited to visit our website at www.citizenshale.org.
Mike Koch
Paul Roberts
CitizenShale.org
Oakland

Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

Presentation Thursday at Garrett College

For the Cumberland Times-News Cumberland Times-News

MCHENRY — Citizen Shale will present a free educational program Thursday at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Garrett College.
The speakers, Paul Durham, government affairs director for the Garrett County Board of Realtors and Emily Wurth of the Washington-based Food and Water Watch, will discuss economic issues, particulary land values, land use, and jobs claims as they relate to shale gas development.
The program is free and open to the public.
Durham’s talk is an opportunity for leaseholders to understand the impact of gas development on their land values, mortgage potential, and general enjoyment of land, which brings a great value to many of the properties in Western Maryland.
Wurth will discuss Food and Water Watch’s analysis of industry and government job claims and other economic impacts of the gas extraction industry.
“We are very excited to bring this timely information to our community,” said Natalie Atherton, Citizen Shale’s acting director. “Our county’s financial health is greatly dependent on real estate, especially vacation real estate, and local realtors are stepping up to the challenges associated with gas leasing. And Emily Wurth brings tremendous knowledge of another critical aspect of gas-drilling — jobs.”
Durham will outline the local realtors’ plan for a Maryland gas lease registry that the local board submitted to a state commission studying shale gas development. If enacted into law this spring by the General Assembly, the registry would require everyone who has leased their property for future gas development to record details of the lease at a state-run office, such as, locally, the Department of Assessments and Taxation at the Garrett County Courthouse in Oakland.
For more information, visit the website, www.citizenshale.org, or call Paul Roberts at 301-746-4287.

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Buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland? Call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues!

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Citizenshale.org, an organization comprising interested Garrett County property owners, hosted an informational program last Wednesday at Garrett College, where participants included lawyers from the Office of the Attorney General, as well as local attorneys representing the Garrett County Bar Association. The purpose of the program was to help local property owners better understand their rights and preferred objectives when signing a natural gas lease. Pictured seated at the tables, from left, are: attorneys Robert Paye, Miriam Sincell, and Linda Sherbin of the Garrett County Bar Association’s pro bono legal committee; Erin Fitzsimmons and Jeff Darsie, representing the Maryland attorney general’s office; and Paul Roberts, one of the founders of CitizenShale.org. Attorney General Douglas Gansler also announced this week the formation of a campaign to basically extend the educational efforts of CitizenShale.org to other areas of western Maryland that lie atop the natural gas-rich Marcellus shale layer.

More here.

If you or someone you know is considering buying or selling real estate in Garrett County or Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, call Jay Ferguson of Railey Realty for all of your real estate needs! I take great pride in referrals, and I assure you, I will take great care of your friends, family & colleagues! As member of the Garrett County Board of Realtors, I can assist you with ANY listed property, regardless of the listing broker.