County Commission Votes Against Clipping Landowners With Upfront Tax Penalties When Entering Into Natural Gas Leases

In Bradford County, Pennsylvania, WNEP-TV Channel 16 reports:

• Drilling for natural gas is becoming very profitable for landowners in the northern tier but in Bradford County it looked as though farmers and landowners would be penalized just to begin the drilling, whether there was gas or not. [Last week] all that changed.

• Bradford County commissioners voted two-to-one to prevent landowners from having to pay a penalty for natural gas drilling on their property. [...] Now, those landowners won't have to pay up until natural gas is actually pumped from their properties.

• It's a victory for many of the property owners who were at the county courthouse in Towanda [...]. Some would have had to pay a lot of money as a penalty for allowing natural gas drilling on land that got a tax break. "Farmers just don't have the money. It's just that plain and simple. They don't have the money," said Commissioner John Sullivan. Farming is a way of life for Sullivan and so many others in Bradford County. That's why he voted to change how the state's Clean and Green Law is interpreted.

For more, see Commissioners Side with Landowners. MineralRightsAlpha