AEP Retains Drilling Rights for 31K Acres of Park Land Sold to OH
American Electric Power (AEP) recently sealed a deal to sell more than 31,000 acres of land in eastern Ohio to the state of Ohio for $47 million. The state will use it for a state park. However, subsurface rights are not part of the deal. AEP will wisely hold on those rights. At some point AEP may want to drill and frack the land, and that has antis in a tizzy.
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All we can say is, shame on FirstEnergy. They hired people to block petition gatherers trying to get signatures for a referendum for the November ballot. The tactics used can only be described as bullying–sometimes physical. Workers are trying to get enough signatures on a petition to place a referendum on the November ballot. The referendum, if adopted, would overturn House Bill 6 which grants a $1 billion bailout to FirstEnergy’s economically failing nuclear power plants (see 
The fight to overturn Ohio’s House Bill 6, a $1 billion bailout (freebie) given to FirstEnergy to prop up its uneconomical nuclear power plants is getting nasty. Really nasty. We previously told you about FirstEnergy’s lying commercials that claim China controls the state’s natural gas industry–because a Chinese bank loaned some of the gas-fired plants money (see 
Eight of Ohio’s top Utica Shale development counties collected nearly $142 million in real estate property taxes on oil and natural gas production from 2010 through 2017, according to an updated report by Energy In Depth (EID) and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA). The Utica Shale Local Support Series report titled, “2019 Update: Ohio’s Oil and Gas Industry Property Tax Payments” (full copy below) analyzes the economic impacts of oil and natural gas real estate property taxes (called “ad valorem” taxes) paid in eight counties: Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Guernsey, Harrison, Jefferson, Monroe and Noble.
There is an ongoing question of whether or not the Ohio Marketable Titles Act (MTA), which impacts Utica shale rights, can be used to return previously severed mineral rights back to a surface landowner, or whether the MTA is superseded by Ohio Dormant Minerals Act (DMA). In February, Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals said the MTA *does* still apply to mineral rights (see 
A group of Ohio landowners sued Chesapeake Energy in 2015 in a class action, alleging that Chesapeake had shorted them on royalty payments (see 
The hits keep coming from OOGEEP, the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program. In May we brought you OOGEEP’s top notch new resource to help workers discover new careers in the oil and gas industry (see 
The Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) is calling attention to the “great untold story” in Ohio and across the nation, a story intentionally ignored over the past week of faux climate change protests by kids playing hooky from school. What is the untold story? That the United States in general, and Ohio in particular, is “leading the world in environmental stewardship and emission reduction.” How? Because of shale energy–specifically because of shale gas.
In August MDN told you that Diversified Gas & Oil was the high (and only) bidder for Ohio Utica assets owned by EdgeMarc Energy, buying those assets out of bankruptcy court (see 
The voters in Youngstown have finally, after seven years, had enough of the the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) and its useful idiots who have tried, and failed, to get a so-called Community Bill of Rights ballot measure (i.e. frack ban) passed. Last November Youngstown voters rejected the CELDF measure for the eighth time (see 
The Sierra Club, along with some lesser-known but equally radical enviro groups, filed a court challenge to an air quality permit granted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency for the PTT Global Chemical ethane cracker plant project in Belmont County, OH back in January (see 
The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently announced the winners of Utica Shale mineral rights for 14 parcels of land, adding up to ~655 acres, located in Wayne National Forest (WNF). The 14 properties netted the government $1.326 million and all 14 were purchased by two (possibly more) Utica Shale drillers. Average price per acre paid across the entire lot: $2,024. Who did the leasing? You have to be a subscriber to find out. 🙂