Guest Post: A Possible Solution for the PA Royalty Issue
MDN is pleased to bring you another guest post from our very good friend Chris Acker. Chris is a geological engineer with an MBA. He grew up in the oil fields of Venezuela where his father, a petroleum engineer, was a drilling contractor for all the major players, onshore and off. Chris’ interest in energy economics and policy found him working for Exxon, Petroleum Industry Research Associates and Petroleos de Venezuela. He bought a parcel of land in the PA countryside twenty-five years ago and later semi-retired to work on antique pianos (see www.PianoGrands.com). A few years ago, it was established that Chris’ property in Susquehanna County sits atop one of the Marcellus shale’s most prolific areas. He leased with Cabot Oil & Gas and has a well sitting off his front porch not more than 200 yards away. Chris is now happily engaged once again in energy economics, with an emphasis, naturally, on gas. Chris is MDN editor Jim Willis’ right arm when it comes to scanning for stories, something Jim is profoundly grateful for. Chris sent Jim a note about the royalty issue, just a couple of paragraphs–and Jim found more wisdom in his few sentences than he has seen to date. So Jim asked Chris for permission to post his pearls of wisdom, and Chris decided to expand it. Below is a very thoughtful, intelligent, useful post on the royalty issue currently causing a schism between landowners and drillers in the Keystone State. We encourage everyone with an interest in this issue to read it. It contains a few new ideas we’ve not heard either side float–ideas that may help us find a way out of the current mess…
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Yesterday MDN reported the big story that Rice Energy is paying $2.7 billion to buy the assets of Vantage Energy (see 
Last July Canadian-based TransCanada, famously known for wanting to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast (a plan that Obama obliterated), didn’t want to be left out of the most important midstream story of the century, so they bought Columbia Pipeline Group this year, closing on the sale in July (see 
2 Corinthians 6:15: “What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?” The obvious answer to the Apostle Paul’s hypothetical question in that passage is, “There is no harmony. A believer can’t partner with an unbeliever.” Yet that’s just what is happening among the ranks of anti-fossil fuel fools. We’ll explain. On Monday the usual suspects, namely the misnamed and odious Food & Water Watch and 200 or so of their closest “friends”–including the Sierra Clubbers, Natural Resources Defense Council, et al ad naseum (people who never think for themselves)–sent a letter (full copy below) to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy asking her, begging with her, pleading with her, to pretty-please change the results of the EPA’s own scientific study, performed by dozens (hundreds?) of scientists who analyzed 950 studies on fracking, conducting nine of their own primary studies, and concluding that fracking doesn’t contaminate ground water supplies (see 
At last week’s Shale Insight conference, MDN editor Jim Willis had the opportunity to listen to three top legislators, one each from PA, WV and OH. We reported on their panel discussion, titled “Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia Legislative Leaders: The Future of the Industry” (see 
You may recall that evil corporate raider Carl Ichan fired the CEO of Cheniere Energy, Charif Souki, in December 2015 (see 
The “best of the rest” – stories that caught MDN’s eye that you may be interested in reading. In today’s lineup: Pipeline companies worried about what people think; Eric Schneiderman’s #ExxonKnew coalition crumbling from within; Shale Crescent gains steam; stay skeptical about oil prices bouncing back; Congress quizes White House on strange climate change impacts claims; Mexico may open to U.S. drillers next year; and more!