RECENT DRILLING / FRACKING PERMIT VIOLATIONS IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA

1. PA Permit Violation Issued to RICE DRILLING B LLC in Amwell Twp, Washington County
Description: Administrative violation issued on 08/04/2020 to RICE DRILLING B LLC in Amwell Twp, Washington county. OGA3211(H) – WELL PERMITS – LABELING – Failure to install, in a permanent manner, the permit number on a completed well.
Incident Date/Time: 2020-08-04 00:00:00

2. PA Permit Violation Issued to CNX GAS CO LLC in Richhill Twp, Greene County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 07/29/2020 to CNX GAS CO LLC in Richhill Twp, Greene county. 78A73(C)___ – GENERAL PROVISION FOR WELL CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION – The operator failed to immediately electronically notify the Department of any change to a well being monitored, of any treatment pressure or volume changes indicative of abnormal fracture propagation at the well being stimulated or if otherwise made aware of a confirmed well communication incident associated with their stimulation activities.
Incident Date/Time: 2020-07-29 00:00:00

3. PA Permit Violation Issued to CNX GAS CO LLC in Richhill Twp, Greene County
Description: Environmental Health & Safety violation issued on 07/29/2020 to CNX GAS CO LLC in Richhill Twp, Greene county. 78A73(C)___ – GENERAL PROVISION FOR WELL CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION – The operator failed to immediately electronically notify the Department of any change to a well being monitored, of any treatment pressure or volume changes indicative of abnormal fracture propagation at the well being stimulated or if otherwise made aware of a confirmed well communication incident associated with their stimulation activities.
Incident Date/Time: 2020-07-29 00:00:00

4. PA Permit Violation Issued to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington County
Description: Administrative violation issued on 07/23/2020 to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington county. 78a12 – COMPLIANCE WITH PERMITS – Person failed to comply with terms and conditions of permit or registration while drilling, altering or operating an oil or gas well.
Incident Date/Time: 2020-07-23 00:00:00

5. PA Permit Violation Issued to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington County
Description: Administrative violation issued on 07/23/2020 to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington county. 78a12 – COMPLIANCE WITH PERMITS – Person failed to comply with terms and conditions of permit or registration while drilling, altering or operating an oil or gas well.
Incident Date/Time: 2020-07-23 00:00:00

6. PA Permit Violation Issued to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington County
Description: Administrative violation issued on 07/23/2020 to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington county. 78a12 – COMPLIANCE WITH PERMITS – Person failed to comply with terms and conditions of permit or registration while drilling, altering or operating an oil or gas well.
Incident Date/Time: 2020-07-23 00:00:00

7. PA Permit Violation Issued to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington County
Description: Administrative violation issued on 07/23/2020 to RANGE RESOURCES APPALACHIA LLC in Jefferson Twp, Washington county. 78a12 – COMPLIANCE WITH PERMITS – Person failed to comply with terms and conditions of permit or registration while drilling, altering or operating an oil or gas well.
Incident Date/Time: 2020-07-23 00:00:00

>>> Tabulation by SkyTruth, P.O. Box 3283, Shepherdstown, WV 25443. CONTACT: info@skytruth.org

Penna. Attorney General holding contaminated drinking water

NEWS RELEASE from Penna. Attorney General — Thursday, June 25, 2020

HARRISBURG — Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced the findings and recommendations of Pennsylvania’s 43rd Statewide Investigating Grand Jury report on the unconventional oil and gas industry. The Grand Jury’s two-year investigation uncovered systematic failure by government agencies in overseeing the fracking industry and fulfilling their responsibility to protect Pennsylvanians from the inherent risks of industry operations.

In addition to exposing failures on the part of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Health, the Grand Jury made eight recommendations to create a more comprehensive legal framework that would better protect Pennsylvanians from the realities of industry operations.

“This report is about preventing the failures of our past from continuing into our future,” said Attorney General Shapiro in a press conference Thursday. “It’s about the big fights we must take on to protect Pennsylvanians — to ensure that their voices are not drowned out by those with bigger wallets and better connections. There remains a profound gap between our Constitutional mandate for clean air and pure water, and the realities facing Pennsylvanians who live in the shadow of fracking giants and their investors.”

This report follows the findings of the Grand Jury’s previous criminal presentments against two fracking companies — Range Resources and Cabot Oil & Gas — for their repeated and systematic violation of Pennsylvania environmental law. Range has since pleaded no contest to environmental crimes committed in Washington County, Pennsylvania. These cases were referred to the Office of Attorney General by local District Attorneys.

The report details the initial failure of the Department of Environmental Protection to adequately respond to the unconventional oil and gas industry and also points out that missteps continue to this day. These failures harmed Pennsylvanians living in close proximity to this industry. The grand jurors found that, while the Wolf administration has forced through some improvements at the agency, there continues to be room for meaningful change to occur.

The Grand Jury also heard from many Pennsylvania residents who suffered severe health consequences and lived near unconventional drilling sites. Residents testified that their well water was “black sludge,” “cloudy,” and using the contaminated water caused “problems with breathing whenever we were in the shower.”

Pennsylvania farmers testified that their livestock, which used the same water source as the families, would sometimes become violently ill, infertile, and die. Other residents spoke of problems with their air, which became so polluted from stray gas or other chemicals used during industry operations that they could not leave windows open or let their children play outside. Parents testified that their children would repeatedly wake up at night with severe nosebleeds caused by increased levels of gas in the air around the fracking sites.

In response to the failures of government oversight and in order to ensure that the regulators have the tools necessary to hold this industry accountable, the Grand Jury’s report details eight recommendations. These recommendations would better protect Pennsylvanians from the risk posed by fracking operations and confront the culture of inadequate oversight in the unconventional gas industry and government agencies that oversee their activities:

1. Expanding no-drill zones in Pennsylvania from the required 500 feet to 2,500 feet;

2. Requiring fracking companies to publicly disclose all chemicals used in drilling and hydraulic fracturing before they are used on-site;

3. Requiring the regulation of gathering lines, used to transport unconventional gas hundreds of miles;

4. Adding up all sources of air pollution in a given area to accurately assess air quality;

5. Requiring safer transport of the contaminated waste created from fracking sites;

6. Conducting a comprehensive health response to the effects of living near unconventional drilling sites;

7. Limiting the ability of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection employees to be employed in the private sector immediately after leaving the Department;

8. Allowing the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General original criminal jurisdiction over unconventional oil and gas companies.

“Our government has a duty to set, and enforce, ground rules that protect public health and safety. We are the referees, we are here to prevent big corporations and the powerful industries from harming our communities or running over the rights of citizens,” said Attorney General Shapiro.”

“When it comes to fracking, Pennsylvania failed. Now it’s time to face the facts, and do what we can to protect the people of this commonwealth by encouraging the Department of Environmental Protection to partner with us and by passing the Grand Jurors’ common-sense reforms.”

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AG Shapiro calls for “cleanup” at the Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania

LIVESTREAM AVAILABLE HERE: https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/stream

A copy of the report can be found here.

Fact sheets and press kit available here.

Penna. Attorney General Josh Shapiro

From an Article by Deb Erdley, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 6/12/20

Range Resources, a major driller in the region’s Marcellus Shale industry, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor counts of negligent oversight of Washington County well sites and will pay $50,000 in fines and $100,000 in contributions to the Washington County watershed funds, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Friday.

The plea was the culmination of a two-year statewide Grand Jury investigation into allegations of environmental crimes across the state by oil and gas companies companies engaged in horizontal drilling and fracking.

The charges alleged that Range’s negligent maintenance of a waste water storage pond at the Yeager well site in Amwell Township contaminated the water at local springs on the Yeager property. The neighborhood’s longstanding battle over allegations of air and water contamination was detailed in “Amity and Prosperity,” the 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner for nonfiction.

Charges involving the Brownlee well site in Buffalo Township alleged that leaks from a containment tank holding fracking waste water contaminated nearly ⅓ acre of a nearby farm and required the removal of approximately 100 trees and 12,000 square feet of soil.

“In Pennsylvania, clean air and pure water is a constitutional right, yet too often frackers from across the country come to our Commonwealth, walk into our communities, and — sometimes without care or consequence — strip us of those basic rights. Backed by big investors and big influence, too many fracking companies act like they’re above the law, and put themselves ahead of the people who work on the job site, as well as the farmer, neighbor, and children impacted by their operations. We’re here to remind these fracking companies that the people of Pennsylvania come first,” Shapiro said.

A spokesman for Range Resources said the company has taken responsibility for the incidents cited in the charges, has completed “full remediation, approved by regulators,” at both sites and has enhanced containment operations.

“Over the past decade, Range has led significant advancements in operational innovations that have enhanced the safety and sustainability of our industry, which include becoming the first company to voluntarily disclose our fracturing fluid, and to achieve 100 percent reuse levels through our water recycling program,” Range spokesman Mark Windle said.

Terms of the pleas agreement call for Range to pay a $6,000 fine to the Solid Waste Abatement Fund, $3,000 to the Clean Water Fund, a $16,000 charitable contribution to the Washington County Watershed Alliance for the Brownlee site, $41,000 to the Solid Waste Abatement Fund, and an $84,000 charitable contribution to the Washington County Watershed Alliance for the Yeager site.

Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas and is increasing dramatically in the atmosphere

From an Article by Rick Shrum, Washington PA Observer Reporter, May 23, 2019

The company that broke ground, literally and figuratively, in the Marcellus Shale is striving for another groundbreaking achievement. Zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Range Resources, the largest natural gas driller in the region, issued its first Corporate Sustainability Report on Tuesday. It is a 32-page summary detailing its successes in reducing emissions over the past decade, along with other corporate initiatives, accomplishments and goals.

The most prominent goal, which jumps off page 5, is this Report Highlight: “Range is actively working to achieve zero emissions across our operations.”

That is an ambitious endeavor, one that will inspire skepticism about the prospects of attaining true zero emissions. And the company did not propose a timeframe for accomplishing that.

But Scott Roy, senior vice president, said the company has been progressing toward that lofty objective. “Ultimately, our goal is zero emissions, meaning if we have any points of emissions, we have additional opportunities to pursue and more work to be done.”

Jeffrey Ventura, chief executive officer and president of Range, echoed those sentiments in a letter to stakeholders: “Range has been at the forefront of the industry in emission reductions by using cutting-edge technologies and customized engineering solutions . . .”

Range, based in Fort Worth, Texas, and with local headquarters at Southpointe, has been operating in Pennsylvania for 26 years. Range drilled the first Marcellus well, the Renz Well, in Mt. Pleasant Township in November 2004.

Among other highlights in the report, Range says it:
>>> has reduced the company’s leak ratio by 70% over the past three years;
>>> is reusing 153% of its own water and other operators’ water in a sharing program;
>>> had made $2 billion-plus in leasing and royalty payments in Pennsylvania since 2006;
>>> has invested $10 million through its corporate giving program into nonprofit and civic organizations;
>>> cut greenhouse gas emissions 8% and increased production 8% from 2017 to 2018.

Range Resources has an estimated 800 employees.

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See Also: The Methane Detectives: On the Trail of a Global Warming Mystery. Article by Jonathan Mingle, May 13, 2019

The amount of methane in the atmosphere has been continuing to increase. And nobody really knows why. What’s more, no one saw it coming. Methane levels have been climbing more steeply than climate experts anticipated, to a degree “so unexpected that it was not considered in pathway models preparatory to the Paris Agreement.”

Amity & Prosperity are communities in Washington County, PA

From an Article by Don Hopey and David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 7, 2019

A Washington County judge has denied a request by Range Resources Appalachia LLC to subpoena and depose two Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters and a former editor who are attempting to unseal a private settlement of a family’s health claim against the drilling company.

Range had sought to depose and collect information from Post-Gazette Managing Editor Sally Stapleton, who left the paper at the end of March, and reporters Don Hopey and David Templeton.

The decision, issued Friday by Washington County Common Pleas Court President Judge Katherine Emery, denied the company’s attempt to uncover the reporters’ sources and obtain their notes and documents related to the case, saying the newspaper’s sources are protected from disclosure by Pennsylvania’s Shield Law.

“The Shield Law must be liberally construed in favor of the news media,” Judge Emery wrote in her order and opinion. “Under this law, the employees of the newspaper cannot be required to disclose any information that could lead to the disclosure of their sources.”

Later she writes that while circumstances may exist in which the law “may have to yield, those circumstances must be narrowly construed. They are not present at this juncture.”

The Post-Gazette also asked Judge Emery to order Range to pay the newspaper’s attorney’s fees, alleging that the company’s attempt to subpoena reporters’ documents, notes and deposition testimony was an attempt to “harass and intimidate” reporters, but she denied that request.

Judge Emery has scheduled a hearing for 1 p.m., May 28, on the newspaper’s petition to intervene and unseal the settlement of a high-profile case brought in 2012 by Stacey Haney and several neighbors. They alleged they were exposed to spills, leaks and air pollutants from Range’s “Yeager” well site in Amwell, Washington County, and experienced serious health problems, including a heightened risk of cancer.

That case was settled and sealed in September 2018. But Ms. Haney has asked the Washington County court for a protective order that would allow her to reference details of that settlement in a separate but related case she has brought in Allegheny County.

In February 2019, the Post-Gazette found out about Ms. Haney’s request and moved to intervene in the Washington County proceedings, arguing that Range had not overcome the constitutional presumption that court proceedings and documents should be accessible to the public.

Range is claiming the newspaper’s intervention request was made after the case was settled and is therefore not timely.

In the Allegheny County court case, Ms. Haney is alleging that the Washington County case settlement was compromised by a medical professional’s unauthorized sharing of her health records with an attorney representing Range.

Range spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment Monday or Tuesday. Frederick Frank, an attorney representing the Post-Gazette in the case, declined to comment.

The Post-Gazette learned of the Haney settlement in late January 2019 while working on a story about a grand jury empaneled by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to investigate the oil and gas industry and potential environmental crimes in Washington County.

As part of that investigation, Mr. Shapiro asked attorneys representing Range and Ms. Haney and her neighbors to preserve documents and records in the Washington County case.

The health problems of Ms. Haney, her family and neighbors were chronicled in the book “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America,” by Eliza Griswold, which won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.

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Eliza Griswold, “Amity and Prosperity” – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNh7Z6Svz7I

Seven Marcellus natural gas myths, or, you’re playing with fire, America

From an Article by Terry Etam, The BOE Report, November 26, 2018

Sometimes a phenomenon comes along that captures the public’s attention in near totality, and we find ourselves losing our minds and joining the parade. The dot com boom was one example, a time when random new websites became worth billions despite the presence of any revenue. The US housing boom was another example. When people with no income, no jobs, and no assets suddenly started buying homes, a few fringe weirdos thought that that wasn’t right, but the mainstream line of thought was so captivated by the booming housing market that it paid no attention. Nothing seemed absurd at the time because almost everyone read the future the same way.

The energy business is not exempted from this phenomenon. In the natural gas world, an onslaught of publicity from shale gas producers, brokerage houses, trading firms, government agencies, and you name it have chimed in with one voice to declare that the US is now at the dawn of a century of cheap natural gas. Some commentators have heralded the rise of “just in time” natural gas, where storage is of decreasing value because of the inventory of thousands of drilled and uncompleted wells that can flood the market at any time that prices rise. The forward curves for natural gas prices reflect this mentality, and the viewpoint is as nearly universal as it can get. This view has been built largely on the massive reserves of the Marcellus and Utica region.

Courageous contrarians have however noticed a few attention-grabbing cracks in that wall of beliefs. Second hand analysis is one thing, but here is a startling admission from the horse’s mouth. On October 24th 2018, Range Resources Ltd held its third quarter conference call. Reading a 15-page conference call transcript may not sound thrilling, but they can be invaluable. Recall that Range is one of the largest Marcellus shale producers with, according to their IR presentations, “thousands of top quality locations.” During the conference call, an analyst asked Jeff Ventura, Range’s CEO, about sweet spot exhaustion in the Marcellus, and whether it would occur in a 1-5 year time frame or a 6-10 year time frame. Here was Ventura’s response:

‘…you can take state-of-the-art technology and pump that in Centre County or you can pick the county of your choice and the wells still aren’t very good. So in fact they aren’t good at all. So it’s important where you are drilling…So the cores are limited, the cores are known, people have drilled a lot of wells in them. And I think within, you said in the, is it in the first 5 or years 6 through 10, I think it’s clearly within the first five you’ll see that core exhaustion and you’ll start seeing it with deteriorating capital efficiency.”

The importance of these comments should not be understated.

Consider them in the context of a few widely-held Marcellus gas beliefs upon which the US has staked its energy future:

1. The US has a hundred years of gas supply – this statement arrived early in the Marcellus’ development, when every new well and area was getting better than the previous. We now know that there are sweet spots, and a lot of not-so-sweet spots. The map below illustrates this perfectly, and it also corroborates Mr. Ventura’s comments:

2. Marcellus growth is limited by lack of pipelines – this was once the case several years ago. These days, there doesn’t appear to be anywhere near enough gas to meet takeaway capacity, as shown in the chart below:

3. Marcellus producers make adequate returns at sub $3 gas – this argument was based on the fact that Marcellus/Utica production kept rising through a low-price environment. What is missed by observers is that producers had to drill and increase production to meet upcoming take-or-pay requirements. In fact, Cabot Oil & Gas, another huge shale producer, in its most recent quarterly financials said that fully one-fifth of natural gas revenue was from selling gas acquired in the open market to meet sales obligations. This is a very clear sign that it may be cheaper to buy the gas than to drill for it.

4. Drilled but Uncompleted inventory (DUCs) is like readily available storage – this belief is possibly the one that has exposed the US to the most danger, if winter is colder than normal. If this statement was true, there would have been a huge drawdown in the number of DUCs as winter approached with storage at extremely low levels. However, the DUC inventory hardly budged, and no new rigs came running back either:

5. Longer lateral wells improve productivity- what they really do is simply chew up the reservoir faster. There are productivity gains in that a single well can extract more gas, but it’s not free, and it simply accelerates development of the field. See the above chart that shows drilling activity in the Marcellus. Consider that new horizontal wells are now up to 3 miles in lateral length. The top 5 producing counties are Susquehanna, Bradford, Lycoming, Washington and Greene. Together these 5 have an area of 4,676 square miles, and have a total of 5,609 producing wells (and a total of 7,110 wells drilled). As a gauge of dominance, in 2016 these 5 counties accounted for 82 percent of the value of Marcellus gas as reported in MarcellusGas.org. As Range said, the sweet spots are within sight of exhaustion, and subsequent locations will be of lower quality.

6. The stock market will support production growth – every single third quarter conference call for a major shale producer showed that this is categorically untrue. Analysts almost unanimously asked about capital efficiency, returns to shareholders, share buy backs, etc. No one wanted to hear about growth.

7. Solution gas will save the day – this view arises from the massive rise in natural gas output from the Permian basin in the US, and to a lesser extent Bakken solution gas. However, these gluts are localized, and will bleed off into regions other than the main US consuming areas. Permian gas is destined to head south or west, and won’t be of any help to the regions with real winters.

Almost everyone has been overwhelmed by highly speculative forecasts – ironically, exactly like the fears of climate change itself. People have been hammered with both messages for so long that doubting either is considered foolish to think otherwise.

We now therefore have entered winter with dangerously low inventories. The US is separated from a physical disaster, one that would make a hurricane look like a thunderstorm, by hopes for a mild winter and a bucket of dangerous misconceptions.

If you think that is hyperbole, consider what is happening in lower mainland of British Columbia. One of several pipelines that carries natural gas to the region is operating at 80 percent of capacity for the winter. Even with this relatively minor disruption, residents have been warned of potential gas shortages and to turn down furnaces, etc.

Now consider that Vancouver’s winter is tee shirt weather for a large swath of North America’s population. What do you suppose a natural gas shortage would look like in Chicago or Toronto at severely sub-zero temperatures? What would your neighbourhood look like if gas supplies were shut off in the dead of winter? Or even cut in half?

If the winter turns out warm, everyone can have a good laugh at the naysayers and doomsday fools. Let us hope that holds true. If winter is colder than average or a polar vortex returns, and storage is depleted, it is hard to describe what would happen, because I can’t really picture it. The Vancouver example, of a very minor shortage in a very temperate climate, gives an indication that the problem could be of unprecedented proportions.

Atmospheric methane dramatically increacing

From an Article by Michael Rubinkam, Washington Post, May 17, 2018

Associated Press — A church with a minuscule stake in Range Resources has won shareholder approval of a resolution to force Pennsylvania’s largest natural gas driller to produce a report on its effort to scale back methane emissions.

The Unitarian Universalist Association, which owns Range stock valued at about $2,000, sought to force the energy giant to produce a report that “reviews the company’s policies, actions and plans related to methane emissions management.”

Range’s board opposed the measure, saying the Fort Worth, Texas-based company already discloses that information to stockholders as well as to federal and state environmental regulators. A board statement that urged shareholders to reject the proposal archly noted that it was “submitted on behalf of a stockholder who holds 130 shares.”

Shareholders at the company’s annual meeting on Wednesday approved the activist church’s resolution by the slimmest of margins, giving it just over 50 percent of the vote. A similar measure offered by the church in 2014 was withdrawn after getting just 8 percent.

Environmentalists hailed shareholders’ change of heart.

“This vote provides further proof that the public is increasingly concerned about the impact of oil and gas pollution,” said Andrew Williams, director of legislative and regulatory affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund.

The Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association wants Range and other drillers to limit emissions from methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. It said Range had not provided “adequate disclosure” of its mitigation strategy. The resolution approved by shareholders demands that Range produce a report by September on its efforts to stop methane leaks.

Range said it’s not a significant emitter of methane and already takes steps to limit pollution.

The company said in a statement on Thursday that it “appreciates the perspective brought forward by the proposal creators, and looks forward to working together with them to further articulate the company’s approach to emissions management.”

Range pioneered drilling and fracking in the Marcellus Shale, an underground rock formation that holds the nation’s largest reservoir of natural gas. It has nearly 1,300 active shale wells in Pennsylvania, the nation’s No. 2 gas-producing state. Range earned $333 million on $2.6 billion in revenue last year.

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Threat of Global Warming/Climate Change | Social Justice Statements, Statement of Conscience 2006 | UUA.org

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Why many people don’t care about climate change | UU World Magazine, December 2017

Chesapeake Energy now controls 156 gas drilling leases in Ohio County previously owned by Range Resources.  Some confusion has been generated regarding rights and ownership in this shuffle; this confusion has led to a lawsuit by Ohio County resident Melvin Kahle, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, against Chesapeake.  Kahle claims that Range abandoned the 2006 lease he had signed with that company operating as Great Lakes Energy Partners.  The terms were $8.75 per acre for 200 acres plus a 14% production royalty on any gas extracted from his land.  Kahle received a letter from Range dated Aug. 20, 2010 that stated, ”The purpose of this letter is to advise you that we are not accepting any new leases in your area at this time and are consequently returning your lease to you. This letter also confirms that there are no contractual or legal obligations between Range … on the one hand, and you on the other hand, and you may pursue other lease offers with other gas producers as you please.”   Thus Kahle was surprised in October when subcontractors hired by Chesapeake showed up to conduct seismic testing on his land.

Range sold a package of leases to Chesapeake in an agreement dated  August 16, 2010 and retroactive to July 1, 2010.  Although the matter has not been legally resolved, the WVDEP Office of Oil and Gas issued a drilling permit to Chesapeake on February 11 to drill on Kahle’s land.  The permit had been requested in December, 2010 and Kahle sent a letter to WVDEP  stating his objection.  The WVDEP website refects  Kahle’s letter of objection as “Surface owner comment received.  “Surface objection resolved” was noted on the WVDEP record with the issuance of the permit.

Today leases in Ohio County are commanding $3,000-$5,000 per acre and 18-20% production royalties.

Feb. 20, 2011 Intelligencer story regarding Kahle lawsuit

Feb. 27,2011 Intelligencer Story re: Lease Flipping