http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20091101/VIEWPOINTS02/91101032...
Gas leasing: What we leave on the table
By Roy Lackner • November 1, 2009, 12:00 am
Besides the fate of future generations - our health, safety, and the inalienable rights to clean air, water, nature's bounty of fish and game, as well as peace and quiet. Consider these numbers compiled by the United States General Accounting Office of what is called the "government take," i.e. a combination of royalties, bonuses, corporate taxes and special fees as collected by other states and other countries from the oil and gas corporations:

Wyoming, 52 percent; Texas, 53 percent; Oklahoma, 53 percent; Louisiana, 57 percent; Alaska, 63 percent; Australia, 61 percent; Vietnam, 68.5 percent; China, 72 percent; Russia, 74 percent; Norway, 74.7 percent; Libya, 78.7 percent; Syria, 84.5 percent; Iran, 93 percent; Venezuela, 95 percent. Our own government's take is among the lowest in the world: U.S.A., 37 to 50 percent.

While Penn State's Terry Englander told international investors the size and extent of the Marcellus shale, the gas corporations sent out their private army of landmen and women to acquire the mineral rights to their new prize (or as they call it, "play"). The bamboozling had begun. First they took advantage of struggling farm families offering pennies on the dollars for their mineral rights. $5, then $10, then $25 per acre was offered with the minimum royalty of 12.5 percent from an 1890s law. Soon hundreds of dollars per acre was offered and 15 percent royalty and the feeding frenzy was in full motion with attorneys even getting in on the act with their own percentages of the real landowner's royalties. Their ground work was well-laid in New York and Pennsylvania with both legislatures. This curtailed any ability for landowners or coalitions to negotiate for what was really at stake through the threats of forced pooling, compulsory integration and the changing of spacing unit sizes.

At the federal level, the complete hands-off for this industry's regulation, compliments of our then-vice president and his 2005 Energy Policy Act, exempted the oil and gas industry from compliance with the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Community Right to Know Act, Property and Liability Act, etc.

Meanwhile in Texas and Louisiana, consider these numbers paid by Chesapeake, XTO and others. At the height of the Barnett Shale activity, bonuses reached $32,000/acre and 25 percent royalty. XTO was still paying $13,250/acre to $22,500/acre bonuses in Tarrant County, Texas. Fort Worth offers to date are $17,000 to $20,000/acre with gas corporations admitting they were willing to pay up to $27,000/acre and 25 percent royalties. The average Louisiana lease is approximately $13,400/acre with a 25 percent royalty. At one point, Chesapeake paid $39,000/acre in a Louisiana parish.

People began to realize they were being targeted by what they call "lease hounds," prospectors looking to buy up mineral leases for a quick flip and big profit when they turn them over to the actual drilling companies. The deceit with which the Marcellus play was perpetrated and portrayed by landmen, lawmakers and the media allowed landowners to be duped is outrageous and should be addressed as soon as possible by all states affected and the Congress of the United States.

There is no need to fear scaring the gas profiteers away. All the money in the world will never replace what we already have and must protect. The nation's headwaters cannot be bought; they must be protected at all cost. A 1 or 2 percent failure rate is unacceptable - a clear and present danger to the life and liberty of all. To quote a hunting guide from Wyoming, "We don't have to destroy all the other resources in order to get to one."

Earlene the barefooted UMO