Rural Pennsylvania is one of many
parts of the United States in which oil and gas mining activity occur. (Image
credit: Rob Jackson)
Stanford University News
BY DEVON RYAN
FEBRUARY 1, 2017
An analysis by experts in Earth
science and environmental law at Stanford and other institutions proposes
creating underground easements to allow private landowners to restrict
hydraulic fracturing and mining.
Private landowners concerned about the risks of
fracking may be able to prevent mining for oil and natural gas on their land –
in perpetuity – without government regulation, according to a new analysis by
Rob Jackson, professor of Earth system science at Stanford University, and his
colleagues.
Jackson and a team of legal scholars have assessed how
an established legal agreement – the conservation easement – could enable
individual landowners to restrict fracking on their property. They’ve dubbed
this new approach a mineral estate conservation easement (MECE).
Fracking (as hydraulic fracturing is commonly known)
has dramatically increased in the United States and now accounts for about half
of all U.S. oil output. Despite this growth, many communities remain concerned
about public health and safety.
As some local governments try to ban fracking, legal
battles have yielded mixed success, largely because state governments are
considered the greater authority on regulating oil and gas development. In
Denton, Texas, voters approved a fracking ban only to have it overturned by the
state legislature months later.
“People concerned about groundwater contamination and
other potential impacts of fracking may welcome a new option for permanent
conservation,” said Jackson. “The MECE is a conservation easement underground
that provides landowners with legal flexibility to restrict hydraulic
fracturing and other subsurface activities on their land in perpetuity.” The
analysis is published this week in Environmental Law Reporter. (Click here for
link to PDF.)
Nonregulatory action
A conservation easement is a contract (usually between
a landowner and a land trust) whereby a landowner voluntarily agrees to sell or
donate the right to use a piece of property in a certain way, commonly agreeing
not to develop it. The restriction on the property often diminishes its value
and the law allows landowners donating a conservation easement to take a tax
write-off of the difference in fair market value of the land before and after
the easement. Donors with larger tax bills could see significant savings
without being required to give up private ownership of their property.
Conservation easements are popular in the America—over
100,000 easements cover 40 million acres of U.S. territory—and can be an attractive
option for landowners.
“Around the country, individuals and communities have
expressed growing concerns over fracking’s impacts on water quality, air
pollution, and truck traffic. To date, though, there has been little meaningful
action they could take,” said James Salzman, professor of law at UCLA and a
co-author of the study.
The MECE could restrict mineral extraction under
property, which could help landowners concerned about horizontal drilling and
other activities. It gives people who own only the mineral rights on a property
a new choice for setting aside those rights. The MECE would also allow
landowners who own both the aboveground and belowground parts of their land to
conserve what’s underneath the property while retaining the right to develop on
the surface with houses or other structures….
To access the complete news,
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario