The Pennsylvania Environmental Council, an anti-drilling organization, has published a Marcellus Shale Lease Guide that identifies potential environmental issues that landowners may want to consider when leasing. Of course, inserting all sorts of restrictions and requirements in a contract may mean the drilling company won’t sign it, so a balance must be achieved. Still, there are some good points in the guide that a landowner can use in discussions with their attorney to ensure the landowner is protected from drilling activities.

Download the Marcellus Shale Lease Guide here:
//www.pagreenlease.org/

UPDATE (6/30/11): A representative from the PEC emailed MDN to state that the organization is “not anti-drilling”. Fair enough. MDN will pass that claim along to readers. However, MDN also points out that the PEC, along with PennFuture and other so-called environmental organizations that loudly proclaim they want responsible drilling seem (to MDN) to be using that language to disguise that they would really rather have no drilling rather than safe drilling. In the meantime, ahead of that end-goal, they push for new laws and regulations that will greatly limit drilling in PA. Are some of their proposals good? You bet. Some are common sense and I would support those proposals. But don’t for a minute think there’s not an ulterior motive behind them—the incremental strategy of “a little more here, a little more there”. And so, I maintain, they are in the anti-drilling camp.