Dateline: 14 June 2012
Around 150 people from the Moravia area showed up at the elementary school auditorium to hear Carol French and Carolyn Knapp, two dairy farming women from Pennsylvania, speak about the impact hydrofracking has had on their rural community. As I reported here in a previous essay, Carol and Carolyn were invited by a group of concerned local citizens, some of whom are residents of Sempronius.
My wife and I attended the presentation and it was good to see so many people I’ve known for years there, taking an interest in this issue. As far as I could tell, I was the only Sempronius board member in attendance.
Thus far, I have attended and reported here on five presentations about hydrofracking, two of which were put on by gas industry advocates. I’ve listened to attorneys, scientists, health professionals and public relations people in these meetings. I’ve also spent countless hours reading all kinds of articles and reports from different sources (pro fracking and anti fracking). I’ve invested even more hours watching and listening to a vast spectrum of online videos about the hydrofracking issue.
I do not watch television in my home at all, and haven't watched television for years. So I don’t know much of anything about Hollywood celebrities and pop culture, but I know something about hydrofracking, and I’m learning more all the time.
If I’m wrong in my concerns about the safety of hydrofracking technology, it isn’t for lack of effort and time invested in trying to fully understand the issue. Having said that, I’m continually amazed that there are people who think hydrofracking is harmless. A person has to completely ignore an enormous body of evidence and professional insights to think that hydrofracking is safe.
What I liked about the Moravia presentation by Carol and Carolyn was the firsthand perspective of two property owners who had their land leased to a gas company and who have lived in a community where hydrofracking has been going on for several years.
Both women have lived and farmed in Bradford County, Pennsylvania for a long time. They know what has happened to them, and their neighbors, and their community better than any outside news reporter or gas industry public relations man. If anyone is qualified to testify about what we in Sempronius can expect if hydrofracking comes to our town, it is Carol and Carolyn.
There are people who say they've driven down to Pennsylvania and seen for themselves the impact that hydrofracking has had, and that it's no problem at all. Everything is just great, they say. Well, such people can not and do not know what's going on in a hydrofracked community by simply driving through and looking with their own eyes.
That kind of observation and analysis is akin to driving past a nice house with beautiful landscaping and a just-mown lawn. It looks like all is well, but out of sight, inside the house, the owner is sick in bed, dying of terminal cancer. Anyone driving by wouldn't know it from outside appearances, but the family in the house knows it, and the neighbors know it.
It’s worth noting that when gas drilling first came to their community, Carol and Carolyn supported it 100%. Carolyn was even so pro-gas-drilling that she bought stock in the gas company that leased her land (Chesapeake Energy). But when they saw what the gas companies with their hydrofracking process did to their families, the land, and their community, their opinion changed.
The presentation began with a much-too-long discussion about how to get a good gas lease if you decide to lease your land to a gas company. The gas companies have a reputation for crafting lease agreements that burden landowners with liabilities and production costs (which are deleted from any royalties). They (the gas companies) are notorious for saying one thing and doing another. There are a lot of landowners in Pennsylvania dealing with unfulfilled expectations and sad realities as a result of gas company deceptions.
According to Carol and Carolyn, the only money a leasing landowner can really count on is the “bonus sign-on money.” years ago, it was typical to get five bucks an acre for signing a lease. By 2006 gas companies were paying $85 an acre in Bradford County. Then, in early 2011 they were paying $6,500 an acre.
I work with a man who has a 250-acre farm in Cato. He refused to sign a gas lease while most all the farms around him have leases. He is 100% against hydrofracking. But I told him that some farmers in PA were getting $6,500 an acre for leasing their land. He did the math.....My friend could get $1,625,000 for leasing his farm!
It’s a rare person (especially a hardworking farmer, struggling to make ends meet) who would not agree to lease their land for that kind of money.
I’m sure such people would be naturally inclined to think the very best of hydrofracking— and the very worst of anyone who objects to hydrofracking.
In addition to bonus sign-on money, landowners may also negotiate for what is known as “damage money” for allowing their land to be used for things like compressor stations and pipelines.
Property owners who lease their land may also receive a 12.5% royalty on gas produced on their property. But there are many landowners who actually receive a pittance (or nothing) because “production costs” are deducted. Production costs amount to things like road repairs, and lawsuit expenses (there are lots of lawsuits that come with hydrofracking). Some landowners in PA received a few royalty payments and then they stopped.
The impression I got from Carol and Carolyn is that once the gas companies have a lease on your land, they can pretty much do what they want. Some landowners consult attorneys about getting a good lease but they are often outlawyered by the slick gas company attorneys. It’s their game and they’re very good at crafting contracts that are in their best interests.
An interesting thing about the gas leases is that gas companies divide and sell the 87.5% share of the land they buy rights to. It turns out that the leases are valuable commodities that are purchased as an investment by numerous companies and individuals all over the world. People leasing their land to a gas company are led to believe it is a patriotic act, but it turns out that their land has been, in effect, purchased by investors in China and other countries far away from America.
Beyond that, gas industry players, like Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, have been implicated in hedging the gas market. As I understand it, hedging the market amounts to betting that gas prices will go down. Then the gas companies can flood the market to make sure the price goes down, and they pocket a considerable profit in so doing.
The way it looks to me, landowners who lease their land to gas companies are unwitting pawns in a moneymaking scheme of tremendous proportions. Yes, some landowners stand to make a lot of money, but many more think they will make a lot, only to discover that it doesn’t pan out like they were led to believe.
That’s bad enough, but what makes it worse is the harm that hydrofracking inflicts on other people in a community— people who have nothing to gain from the industrialization of their community. Such people are not unwitting pawns. They are victims.
In part 2 of this report I’ll tell you the rest of what Carol French and Carolyn Knapp had to say about the impact hydrofracking has had on their hometown.