W.Va. Gov. criticized by state lawmakers after pushing special session for controversial natural gas bill - Entrepreneur Generations

Republican W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice is facing criticism from state legislators after proposing a special session on natural gas issues and dangling a resolution of the current teacher's strike as a carrot. "Justice advocated for killing a co-tenancy drilling bill that has already passed the House, for backing a controversial joint development bill and for raising severance tax," Brad McElhinny reports for West Virginia MetroNews. "That, the governor said, would raise enough revenue to increase teacher salaries and shore up the Public Employees Insurance Agency."

Under the widely-supported co-tenancy bill, a driller has to get permission to drill from 75 percent of landowners on a given tract of land, if there are seven or more landowners living on it. The much more controversial joint development bill would allow drillers with old leases (created before hydraulic fracturing was developed) to drill horizontal wells across some individual property lines without signing a new lease, as long as the driller already owns the leases on all adjoining properties. 

Some of Justice's detractors have pointed fingers at one of Justice's top advisors, Bray Cary, who is a board member for natural gas pipeline company EQT. Cary works on a volunteer basis and says he has stayed away from natural gas issues.

Republican House Speaker Tim Armistead issued a statement criticizing Justice for trying to push joint development through when it doesn't have enough support to pass, as well as his attempts to use the teacher's strike as leverage. House Minority Leader Tim Miley joined Armistead in his rebuke. When Justice tweeted "I believe there is a chance of your PEIA being fixed permanently by a severance tax on oil and gas if we have a special session, Miley tweeted back: "There were bills introduced during the legislative session to do just that. What makes you think it will be accomplished in a special session when the bills didn't even make it on any agenda during the regular session?"

Other Republican Delegates also rebuked Justice. John Kelly, who is vice-chairman of the House Energy Committee, said "Joint development is a program that has no chance of passage in the House of Delegates. It’s failed every year since I’ve been here and I believe it’s going to continue to fail. It’s a taking and right now there’s only one company in the state of West Virginia — that I’m aware of — that even wants a joint development law passed. The other companies, this law actually goes against their current business practices." And Bill Anderson, chairman of the House Energy Committee, said that joint development won't pass the House, but "co-tenancy has the horsepower to pass this year."

Justice has also been called out by organizations representing natural gas, mineral rights and land owners that have worked on the co-tenancy bill, which has passed the House of Delegates and is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2ozgstq W.Va. Gov. criticized by state lawmakers after pushing special session for controversial natural gas bill - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

Tweet