Today a co-tenancy bill is due for a vote by the full House of Delegates and from there will get sent on to the WV Senate. Co-tenancy is NOT forced pooling. It is legislation that will give a majority of rights owners in a property the authority to sign a lease on behalf of all the rights owners. In WV there are often multiple rights owners listed for a property–sometimes 200 or more rights owners for a single piece of property! It is often difficult, if not impossible, to track them all down and get them all to sign on the dotted line. Co-tenancy corrects that situation. In the current bill, House Bill (HB) 4268, if 75% of the rights owners agree to lease the property for oil and gas drilling, that’s “good enough.” The bill will open up more Marcellus and Utica acreage to be drilled. As we previously reported, almost everyone is in favor it, including landowner groups (see WV Co-Tenancy Bill Picks Up Support from Landowner Group). Last Friday, the House of Delegates’ Judiciary Committee held a public hearing to gather more input from the public, and then voted to approve the bill, sending it to the full House for a vote. The public hearing was not without some drama. An anti-fossil fueler who is running for a House seat this fall, Democrat Lissa Lucas, got up to the mic during the public hearing and instead of addressing the merits (or lack thereof) for HB 4268, she proceeded to read the names of House members and contributions to their campaigns from the oil and gas industry. When asked to refrain from her stunt, she didn’t, so two men gently took her by the arms and escorted her out of the hearing. She now (hilariously) claims she was “dragged” out of the hearing. Here’s the latest on co-tenancy in WV–and the nutjobs who oppose it…
Today a co-tenancy bill is due for a vote by the full House of Delegates and from there will get sent on to the WV Senate. Co-tenancy is NOT forced pooling. It is legislation that will give a majority of rights owners in a property the authority to sign a lease on behalf of all the rights owners. In WV there are often multiple rights owners listed for a property–sometimes 200 or more rights owners for a single piece of property! It is often difficult, if not impossible, to track them all down and get them all to sign on the dotted line. Co-tenancy corrects that situation. In the current bill, House Bill (HB) 4268, if 75% of the rights owners agree to lease the property for oil and gas drilling, that’s “good enough.” The bill will open up more Marcellus and Utica acreage to be drilled. As we previously reported, almost everyone is in favor it, including landowner groups (see 