Officials OK rule to force fracking on NC landowners

[marions ghost]

OK North Carolina, now even Fracked Up PA and WV don't do this...but under Koch-fueled RethugliCon rule, this is ON THE TABLE in NC:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/28/3145187/officials-ok-rule-to-force-fracking.html

Aug 28, 2013
RALEIGH — North Carolina landowners would be forced to sell the natural gas under their homes and farms – whether they want to or not – under a fracking recommendation approved Wednesday that’s expected to be enacted by the state legislature this fall.

The proposal by a state study group endorses a rarely used 1945 law that’s never been tried here on the kind of scale that would be required for shale gas exploration, or fracking. Thousands of property owners could potentially be affected in the state’s gas-rich midsection in Lee, Moore and Chatham counties.

The recommendation, dealing with one of the most emotional fracking issues, bypasses the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission, which holds regular public hearings on protecting the public and safeguarding the environment, and goes to the legislature.

“We are talking about a for-profit industry taking away personal freedoms with the blessing of the government,” Therese Vick, a community activist with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, told the Compulsory Pooling Study Group. “Personal freedoms are seldom on the radar when the gas companies come to town.”

The panel does include four members of the Mining and Energy Commission, some of whom were deeply conflicted.

“I find it abhorrent personally that a simple majority of landowners could dictate what I can do with my land,” said James Womack, chairman of the Mining and Energy Commission and a member of the Lee County Board of Commissioners. But Womack voted for the practice, called forced or compulsory pooling, saying there are compelling reasons to justify it. Forced pooling protects local residents from inadvertently having their gas sucked out without compensation and keeps neighbors from profiting from resources under someone else’s land.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/28/3145187/officials-ok-rule-to-force-fracking.html#storylink=cpy

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. I can't see how even the hardcore Teabaggers

would be OK with having the Govt tell them that they have no say in what happens on their land.

I weep for NC! What a beautiful state!

[CanonRay]

4. I would think hardcore teabaggers would be particularly pissed off by this law

it might be an opportunity to work with them for once.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I left North Carolina in 1982. Guess that was a wise move.

[CanonRay]

3. "compelling reasons to justify it"

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$...