WV Legislature Story Archives - Page 3 of 13 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Industry Backed Bill Could Force Mineral Owners to Sell

As lawmakers return to town this week for their final interim session of 2014, they’ll learn more about a practice in the natural gas industry companies want them to approve through legislation: forced pooling.

Kevin Ellis, president of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, explained to lawmakers during a November meeting, when companies prepare to drill a well they create a giant rectangle of land parcels and then negotiate with each mineral owner within that rectangle for their gas rights.

By pooling these owners together, companies can drill a well and then pay out mineral owners proportionally by land acreage for the gas produced.

But Ellis said there are two common problems companies run into when trying to negotiate well contracts. The first is missing owners. Companies research to find mineral owners, but sometimes they just can’t track them down. The second are owners who refuse to negotiate.

When either of those situations occur, a company’s only recourse currently is to go to court, but forced pooling would give gas companies another option.

The bill Ellis presented to legislators for their consideration states if two thirds of the landowners within that parcel can be found and agree to the drilling, forced pooling would allow companies to take their proposals to a state review board for approval and, if they get it, allow them to drill without all of the mineral owners’ permission.

The companies would still have to pay those mineral owners, but forced pooling allows the gas company a way around a difficult negotiation.

clearly from a time perspective, it’s always preferable to be able to reach contractual voluntary negotiations and agreements with land and mineral owners to do this work,” Ellis said, but it’s not always possible.

David McMahon, a Charleston attorney and co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Rights organization, will appear before the same group of lawmakers Tuesday to share his opinion on the bill.

McMahon said forced pooling isn’t always bad, but certain provisions must be contained within such a piece of legislation in order to make it viable for surface and mineral owners.

Forced polling should be part of a larger comprehensive bill that will address both environmental and health issues related to horizontal drilling. McMahon said lawmakers commissioned studies on both issues years ago, but have yet to address them.
Royalties from missing owners should be turned over to the surface owner of that parcel instead of given to the state as the industry bill proposes.
Surface owners may not be forced to have a well head located on their property if they refuse. McMahon said this provision is already in the industry bill.
The make up of the gubernatorial appointed review board should include a surface or mineral owner to protect their interests.
Companies should be required to pay mineral owners the fair market value price of the gas and be given access to information about how much their neighbors were paid in the negotiating process.

McMahon said such provisions help protect surface and mineral owners in a complicated negotiation process.

W.Va. Coalfields Panel Grants $20k for Trail Project

A state Senate panel seeking to revitalize the struggling southern coalfields has awarded a $20,000 grant to a trail project.

At a Thursday meeting in Princeton, Senate President Jeff Kessler and task force members gave the grant to the Piney Creek Trail Committee.

The money will help build a hiking and biking trail starting from Beckley’s YMCA soccer complex, heading to the Raleigh County Airport, then down Piney Creek to the New River Gorge National River.

The panel’s funding went toward matching a $250,000 federal grant.

The Piney Creek Trail Committee is part of the Raleigh County Transportation Authority.

The state Senate’s Southern Coalfields Organizing and Revitalizing the Economy initiative, or SCORE, aims to diversify southern West Virginia. The panel plans to make recommendations before the January legislative session.

Public Service Commissioner Defends State Oversight of Utilities

West Virginia Public Service Commission Chairman Michael Albert appeared before a Joint Judiciary Committee meeting Tuesday at the Capitol to respond to a report the committee received last month. That report accused the Public Service Commission of having too much regulatory power.

The West Virginia Rural Water Association, and other groups who represent small public service districts, commissioned the report that was released in October that concluded the over regulation of small public service districts is bad for customers.

Albert, however, disagreed. He told lawmakers the rural water associations’ stance and decreasing the amount of oversight his agency has would lead to higher prices for rate payers.

“Public utilities, whether publicly owned or privately owned, are monopolies,” he said. “The commission fills a special role with respect to public utilities. We are a surrogate for competition that is otherwise lacking in their operations.”

The report also said the PSC does not allow small public service districts to keep a contingency fund to draw from in case of emergency. Albert told lawmakers they are permitted to set aside a small amount, but the size is restricted for a reason.

“That’s the rate payers money,” he said. “That’s the equivalent of asking stressed rate payers to pony up cash out of their pocket to be put in a fund to be reserved for the PSDs.”

Albert’s conclusion was that without the PSC’s oversight, the rate customers are paying will be controlled by public utility boards. Those boards are made up of appointed members the public cannot hold accountable.

He says the system in place is one that succeeds in protecting the consumer.

DEP Official: Radiation Levels in Fracking Waste Safe

State lawmakers were updated Monday morning on a study the Department of Environmental Protection began earlier this year. That study focuses on the level of radioactive material in drill cuttings from horizontal fracking sites.

The West Virginia DEP has tested 15 sites for levels of radioactivity in drilling waste. The test sites included Wetzel County’s landfill, an Ohio water treatment plant, and multiple drilling sites in counties in North Central West Virginia.

Mike Dorsey is the director of Emergency Response and Homeland Security for the DEP and presented the report to members of the Joint Judiciary Committee. He said while both the report and suggested rule haven’t been finalized, their test results so far are fairly consistent.

“Are these cuttings radioactive? Yes, they are at very low levels,” he told lawmakers.

Dorsey said all of the samples tested positive for radium and potassium, but at levels so low they present no harm to people or the environment.

“If you took the highest number we found and were exposed to it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” he said, “you’d still only get to a quarter of the permissible exposure.”

According to Dorsey, West Virginia’s results are similar to those Pennsylvania officials are finding as they test for radioactivity in drilling waste. That state is also studying fracking waste to regulate its disposal, but has pushed back the deadline for its final findings.

Right now, six landfills in West Virginia are accepting drilling waste: Brooke County Landfill, Wetzel County Landfill, Meadowfill Landfill in Harrison County, Northwestern Landfill in Wood County and Short Creek Landfill in Ohio County.

S&S Landfill in Harrison County was accepting the waste until August of this year.

Dorsey said the radiation detectors required for those landfills haven’t been installed yet, but the DEP is working to finish the installations along with setting the limits for the level of radiation that will be permitted.

Those limits are expected to be finalized by January.

Hall Says Political Flip to Keep District Relevant

Wyoming County Senator Daniel Hall made the political switch from Democrat to Republican this week giving the GOP an 18 to 16 majority. On Viewpoint Friday, Hall said he made the switch to keep his district relevant.

Hall said members of the state Republican Party approached him to make the switch before the election, but he hadn’t considered it because of the strong majority the Democrats held in the chamber. But after Tuesday evening’s election wins that tied the body 17 to 17, Hall said he reconsidered the offer.

“My job is to represent the people of my district and this decision was solely based on putting my district in the best decision to move forward,” he said.

Hall said there have been discussions about what his position in the new leadership will be, but he hasn’t been promised a committee chairmanship.

As for his credibility with the voters when he runs for re-election in 2016, Hall says this:

“The people of my district don’t care about party politics. They care about their people, they care about their families, they care about their district moving forward and their communities improving. That’s what they care about. They don’t care who is in charge, whether its Democrats or Republicans, as long as their lives are getting better.”

After Tuesday's Election West Virginia's State Senate Was Tied. Now, It's Not.

Updated Wednesday, November 5, 2014 at 7:45 p.m.

State Senator Daniel Hall has switched from Democrat to Republican, switching the balance of power.

For more, see this story.

Original Post from Wednesday, November 5, 2014 at 3: 51 p.m.

After Tuesday’s mid-term elections, Democrats in the West Virginia Senate are living with a new reality. There are 17 of them and 17 Republicans, leaving the upper chamber in a dead even tie.

The results mean control of the Senate, and Senate President Jeff Kessler’s position of power, hang in the balance, but it’s not one that’s likely to be decided any time soon.

“At this point, I think the rules of the Senate are what you look to and, basically, we set our own rules,” Kessler said Wednesday. “There are some Constitutional provisions that we need to look at, but I’m comfortable and confident that working with our colleagues across the aisle, we’ll find a way to make the Senate work.”

Kessler pointed to the work Senators did in 2010 to create an acting Senate President position after Earl Ray Tomblin stepped in as Acting Governor. At that time, however, Democrats held a 26-8 majority.

Still, the parties will have to work together to negotiate how the Senate will be led in the upcoming legislative session. Looking to the history of the issue in the state, however, may not be helpful.

The first time the West Virginia Senate experienced a deadlock was after the 1910 election, and then again in 1912. In both years, there were 15 members from each party.

From the West Virginia Encyclopedia:

At the time, U.S. senators were appointed by the legislature. During the 1911 legislative session when the two parties deadlocked, Republican senators absented themselves from the state. They rode a train to Cincinnati where they stayed in a hotel and prevented the Senate from being able to meet in Charleston because of the lack of a quorum of 16 members. The tie was never broken, but a compromise was worked out whereby Republicans elected the Senate president and Democrats chose the U.S. senators. Much of the credit for the compromise is given to the clerk of the Senate at the time, John T. Harris of Parkersburg.

Such a compromise is no longer relevant in West Virginia. Instead, lawmakers could look to other states that have experienced similar situations more recently.

In Wyoming, the tied state Senate in 1974 decided control of the chamber with a coin toss. South Dakota and Montana have passed legislation to have the chamber leader selected from the party of the governor.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, though, the most common resolution is for both parties to come to a negotiated agreement which can take three forms.

“Co” Agreement- Used most recently in the Oregon House in 2010, dual leaders of both the chamber and committees are appointed who alternate the times at which they preside
Divided Power Contract- Used most recently by the Virginia House in 1997, one party names the leader of the body while the other appoints the chairs of all major committees. Minor committee chairs alternate by party.
Negotiated Resignation- Used most recently by Maine’s Senate in 2000, one party elects a leader for a set period of time who agrees to resign after that period. The other party then elects a leader following the resignation.

Kessler said it was too soon to speculate what members of the West Virginia Senate would decide.