The Titusville Herald - Thompson Unveils Mineral Rights Act

News Article

By Stella Ruggiero

Congressman Glenn Thompson chose Drake Well, site of the nation's first commercial oil well, to hold a press conference Friday for legislation that he says will protect the rights of private mineral-rights holders in national forests.

The Republican lawmaker says the "Cooperative Management of Mineral Rights Act" seeks to put into law what federal courts have already decided in regard to the U.S. Forest Service's relationship with private subsurface mineral-rights owners.

In 2011, a federal appeals court upheld a 2009 ruling by a federal judge in Erie that restricted the Forest Service's efforts to regulate drilling in the Allegheny National Forest (ANF). The appeals court ruled that Erie-based U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin made the proper decision when he ruled that the Forest Service should return to working cooperatively with mineral-rights owners to process oil and gas drilling plans in the forest. A 1980 federal lawsuit involving the Minard Run Oil Co., of Bradford, had established how the Forest Service should handle drilling proposals, and McLaughlin ruled that the agency should resume those practices.

As part of the 2009 ruling, McLaughlin ordered the Forest Service to lift a temporary ban it had placed on drilling in the ANF, and said the agency could not require stringent reviews of drillers' plans under the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act.

An unofficial moratorium on well approvals had been put in place in 2009, when the Forest Service was grappling with environmental groups' concerns about the 12,000 wells operating in Pennsylvania's only national forest.

The approximately 517,000-acre national forest spans parts of Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren counties.
The surface rights of the forest belong to the federal government, but more than 93 percent of the mineral rights beneath the forest are privately owned.

Thompson, who spoke with The Herald over the phone, after a day of appearances in Titusville and Warren on Friday, said the legislation he is nearly finished drafting is based on McLaughlin's 53-page opinion.

"What we're doing is codifying what the federal court upheld in their opinion," he said. "Federal courts have ruled that the U.S. Forest Service lacks regulatory authority over privately held mineral rights. This legislation corrects existing law and is consistent with the findings of the courts, which ruled against new federal regulations and further attempts to shut down activity in the Allegheny National Forest."

Thompson, who represents the Fifth Congressional District, which includes Titusville, said he intends to recruit as many members of Congress as possible, to make this a bipartisan bill.

Thompson, who is chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry and a member of the House Natural Resources Committee, said he will introduce the Cooperative Management of Mineral Rights Act in the House in the coming weeks.

As far as good stewardship of the land is concerned, the act "puts into law what has already been the practice," he said, and includes the requirement that subsurface mineral-rights owners give the secretary of agriculture 60 days notice before beginning activity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees the Forest Service.

"Good environmental stewardship is consistent with good energy production," said Thompson.
The Forest Service began managing the lands and waters that comprise today's ANF in 1923, after the land's natural resources had been depleted.

Thompson was joined at Friday's press conference by Kevin Moody, general counsel for the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association.

Moody said, "This legislation would make sure the use of private mineral rights is a cornerstone of our region's economic future. Workers for close to 100 oil and gas companies depend on drilling in the Allegheny National Forest for their livelihoods. This legislation would give them the security of knowing new regulations could not limit expansion or put them out of work."

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