The North Carolina Department of Energy and Natural Resources has released their draft study on the potential impacts of fracking in North Carolina. Not included in this draft are the sections on landowner rights and protections, for which RAFI provided extensive input. Those sections should be coming out from the Attorney General’s Office early next month.
Those sections will outline some of the risks that drilling contracts present to landowners and farmers. They will also include recommendations on how the legislature can protect landowners from some of that risk. If you are thinking about signing a gas lease, we want to you to be able to know exactly what you are agreeing to and what the impacts will be on your land. We also want to make sure that companies, not you and other landowners they lease from, are responsible for any possible harm caused by their activities. You can find a lot of the source material for our recommendations in our online education packet.
For now, if you are in North Carolina, please take a look at the draft of DENR’s sections of the report, and then let them know what you think! Even though the section on landowner rights has not been released, you can still let decision-makers know how important your rights are to you. There are public comment sessions happening in the next few weeks:
- Tuesday, March 20th, at 6:30pm at the Wicker Center in Sanford
- Tuesday, March 27th, at 6:30pm at East Chapel Hill High School
More information about these meetings can be found on DENR’s website.
Your voice over the next few weeks will be critical as North Carolinians tell DENR and the Attorney General’s office that we support strong landowner protections.
