The activist and filmmaker behind Gasland offers a primer on mineral rights, and how the natural gas industry can legally drill on your property against your will:
Back in February, Hallie Seegal explained the “compulsory pooling” that gas companies often use to access gas deposits in cases of split rights:
Compulsory pooling, also known as forced pooling, allows oil and gas companies to use private property without permission if a certain number of adjacent mineral rights owners lease their acreage out for gas production. Part of the new wave of the shale boom that has raised property owners’ fears involves horizontal drilling, which includes subterranean infrastructure that crosses dozens of property lines at a time. If just one property owner objects, the whole project could dismantle. Forced pooling prevents this situation from becoming an issue.
ProPublica has reported on the practice as well. Fox’s previous Ask Anything answers are here. Full AA archive here.
The Dish 