Bedford Natual Gas Dispute-PA
Reported by: Ben Manning
Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008 @06:03pm EST
CLEARVILLE, BEDFORD COUNTY
A Texas-based company wants to put natural gas wells in Clearville,
Paul Stup and other several landowners had a lease agreement with a company PG&E. That company drilled on their property and the people got royalty checks from the natural gas produced. In their contract, they had a clause that it would be just drilling and removing not storage.
In storage a company brings in natural gas from outside the area and puts it into the ground like a storage tank.
A couple years ago the PG&E sold the lease agreements to Spectra, a Texas-based natural gas company, and Spectra wants to store natural gas in
Stup says he didn’t want to fight Spectra over the storage initially. He just wanted to be paid more for the process. He says now Spectra is using eminent domain to get out of paying him the money he deserves. Spectra is backed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They say eminent domain is their last resort only after good faith negotiations can’t be reached.
Stup and the other landowners say there is more natural gas to be drilled on their land, and another company approached them about drilling for it. But when that company found out there was going to be natural gas storage on the property, they lost interest.
Sandra McDaniel, another concerned land owner, says it’s not right that a private company can get federal backing to use their land without paying them fairly for it.
The home owners have a meeting this Friday with Senator John Eichelberger to see if he can help them in this eminent domain battle.
Spectra by the way says that there’s no proof that there is still natural gas to be had on the properties.