For Immediate Release
9/22/08

White Urges Action on Coal Bed Methane Well Dispute Act

SB 1330 would establish panel to resolve objections

Senator Don White (R-41) urged the House to expeditiously move his legislation establishing a special review board to arbitrate coal bed methane well disputes.

The House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee will consider Senate Bill 1330 at its meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, September 23 in Room G50 of the Irvis Office Building.

The Senate unanimously approved the bill on June 26. The legislation is also supported by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.

"It is critical that we enact this legislation before the end of the legislative session," Senator White said. "Currently, the only way to resolve disputes between property owners and drillers is in county courts of common pleas, which can be a costly and time consuming process. My proposal will not settle every dispute, but it provides an alternative way for the parties to work out solutions."

SB 1330 calls for the creation of a three-member Coal Bed Methane Review Board to consider objections and attempt to reach an agreement on issues such as the location of coal bed methane wells and/or access roads.

The proposal was recently attacked by PennFuture, a radical environmentalist group. Even though the group recognizes that property owners currently have no rights in the process, it criticized SB 1330 because it provides "no new, substantial protections to landowners beyond a flawed, compressed hearing process."

"This group claims to be looking out for property owners while its primary interest obviously revolves around stopping all drilling of this important domestic energy resource," Senator White said. "That is an interesting contradiction. The whole intent of my bill is to set up a mediation process that gives property owners and drillers a less expensive way to resolve disputes.

"The Supreme Court ruled that coal bed methane is part of the property rights transferred under coal agreements. Now, with energy prices rising and much to the chagrin of some extremists, methane extraction is becoming more and more attractive to developers," Senator White continued. "Senate Bill 1330 does not change the respective rights and obligations of either party, but rather creates a timely, less expensive process and I seriously question the motive of any group that prefers the status quo where families must spend and lawyers get rich resolving these disputes."

Under SB 1330, the proposed Coal Bed Methane Review Board would be made up of a member appointed by the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, a member appointed jointly by the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Association, the Independent Oil and Gas Association and the Pennsylvania Coal Association, and a member appointed jointly by the deans of the College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences of Penn State University.


Contact:

Anne Achenbach
(717) 787-8724

Additional Information:
Environment

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