Pa. Farmers Hope for Natural Gas Windfall

BusinessPa. Farmers Hope for Natural Gas WindfallPa. Farmers Hope for Natural Gas WindfallThe Associated PressFarmers in Northeast Pennsylvania are leasing their land to natural gas companies and hoping for a multi-million dollar windfall. (July 14)((Susquehanna County, PA)) NATS: cow noises It may look like an ordinary Pennsylvania farm - but what lies beneath appears to be worth millions of dollars. NATS: rooster Before she realized the REAL cash cow on her farm, Elizabeth Downey put the land up for sale, needing money to keep the family afloat. ((Elizabeth Downey, Farm Owner)) "We needed the money to help raise this child." But in what has become an everyday occurrence here, a better offer came her way. NATS: natural gas well being drilled She leased her property to a natural gas company, and stands to make millions of dollars over the next several years in royalties. NATS: rooster crowing. There's a land rush underway here. Just over two years ago "land men," many from Texas; started leasing mineral rights from landowners here for as little as two dollars an acre. Now, the going rate has skyrocketed to 2 thousand, 500 dollars an acre, for a five year lease. ((Tom Murphy, Penn State University)) "You have whole communities that have essentially won the lottery, because of these lease payments." Tom Murphy is an agriculturalist from nearby Penn State University. "This is a huge mineral resource that's coming to market at a time the market is asking for more and more gas. There is really no land for sale any more. In about the last six to eight months any land that came to the marketplace has disappeared." The source of the fuel, and thus the wealth, is a 300-million year old land formation called the Marcellus Shale that stretches from West Virginia to upstate New York. ((Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press)) ((Susquehanna County, PA)) "Geologists have known for more than a century that the thick, hard shale here contains lots of natural gas. "But it wasn't until now that it made economic sense to go deep underground and unlock it in large quantities. "New drilling technologies and rising fuel costs have changed all that. "But here in Northwestern Pennsylvania, the natural gas market is purely speculative. "Not even one cubic foot has been extracted and brought to market. Yet." NATS: tractor Ted Barbour stands to make 15 percent of all the natural gas mined from his family farm - if it produces. "Hope changes a lot of things, and there's a lot of hope here this is going to be a big thing. But that's tempered with the fact they haven't put a pipeline in yet." Gas companies and others have plans to build a pipeline from these farmland wells into the huge markets of New York City, Philadelphia and other densely populated areas in the northeast - by the end of this year. Lester Greevy and Dale Tice are attorneys who broker deals between land owners and oil companies - and business is good. ((Lester Greevy, Lawyer)) "Just the energy crunch created a perfect storm." ((Dale Tice, Lawyer)) "Who knows how high the prices are going to go? A lot of certainty and a lot of excitement right now." Geologists speculate some of these prospect wells may produce up to three million cubic feet a day of natural gas. Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania

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[CleanWaterActionPA]

@forestggirl57 Elizabeth Grieco's article on "Gas Drilling: Is an environmental disaster looming?" was very interesting and informative about what is happening in Pennsylvania today. Are her articles how you've been informed on this topic? Have you attempted to pursue anything to talk to our legislators about this type of gas drilling?

[rabidpensfan]

@Fiddle315

Okay, so we mix naphthalene, toluene, xylene, and Ethylene Glycol together. Geesh, can't remember what flavor salad dressing this makes, but all of these ingredients are also found in fracking fluids. I wouldn't eat them. There are poisons pal. You are the one lying. What you are doing is similar to pointing to the fireball in the sky and saying there are no flames don't worry. So really, you are the type of person too stupid for intelligent people to take seriously.

[Muralartist1]

Murderers..simply stated. Murder for hire.

[MichaelPAUSA]

Guess who the EPA is going to hold responcible for the envoirnmental clean up long after the gas been extracted? The original owner of the property. You can't sell your polluted properties. Yea great folks you made a few million and your land is now a toxic waste site with polluted ground water, your $ responcible for the clean up and you can't sell the land or grow anything on it. The new Repub Gov (2010) has made getting clearances easy. They don't even need your permission to drill any more.

[forestggirl57]

Read the articles written by Elizabeth Grieco at Associated Content on Gas Drilling: Is an environmental disaster looming? You will educate yourself on what this supposed clean energy can do for you and your land!! It maybe a huge mineral resource but it's a toxic nightmare for Pennsylvanians! The cumulative negative effects from injecting carcinogens in our aquifers, rivers and streams will leave a legacy of cancer clusters all over our great nation!

[CleanWaterActionPA]

The chemicals are not disclosed! Sometimes the families from which they come from are, but this does not provide any specific information... Rest assured, if these chemicals are capable of killing cows, then they are definitely harmful to humans.

[isitvalottioryoung1]

@Fiddle315

Actually, I have family members who do chemical analysis for both the PADEP and the various drilling companies. There are some materials in the fracking fluid which are considered proprietary and are not disclosed. (Some companies, however, disclose more than others.)

There are often unidentified substances, listed simply as "aromatic hydrocarbons," for example.

Furthermore, fracking fluid generally varies slightly from one company to the next.

[isitvalottioryoung1]

@Fiddle315

Wow, you are clearly a pleasant individual.

Your frantic and inflammatory comments on this posting are further evidence that the public needs to be educated about the process of drilling for natural gas.

I do, however, find it humorous that you have managed, systematically, to call everyone who has posted a comment here a "moron."

I don't know who you are or where you are from, but I feel fairly confident you are not a Pennsylvanian, and we can all thank God for that!

[Fiddle315]

@queerplanet There are NO Poisons. Name them if you can, moron.

[Fiddle315]

@isitvalottioryoung1 YOU ARE A PATHETIC LIAR. Every chemical is disclosed and written in EVERY MSDS sheet that evgery state receieves fromt eh drilling compnaies. You are a liar, and I just proved it. Moron.