devious. public education is good and the ultimate long-term goal, but it's not the interim solution to stop the fracking industry in its tracks.
Fracking company reps often prey on homeowners not understanding contracts or mineral rights. Esp in NC most people DO NOT OWN their own mineral rights. This is a dead giveaway between the county gov't, or the MR owner (often a housing developer) and the fracking company. The homeowner is out of it. In NC you don't own your mineral rights unless you have 60+ acres.
Company reps often promise big payouts IN THE UNSPECIFIED FUTURE, for permission to drill on your property. Less all expenses, and so forth. heh. For their permission, most landowners get pennies and contaminated groundwater. Many of these people are on wells. The ground is so torn up from heavy equipment it isn't fit for crops or livestock.
Because this is an immediate concern, I say we turn the tables on the fracking companies. This can be accomplished a couple of ways that I've thought of. Both tactics involve homeowners actively engaging fracking company reps where they are and when they arrive on their home property:
1) Spread the news far and wide just like through OFA, neighborhood by neighborhood, that the fracking industry is a HUGE FINANCIAL BUBBLE. And it is. Here are two big articles on the subject:
Rolling Stone - The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-big-fracking-bubble-the-scam-behind-the-gas-boom-20120301.
Salon - Fracking: The Next Bubble
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/01/fracking_the_next_bubble_partner/
Similar articles in counterpunch, alternet, truthout, etc. Search term "Fracking Financial Bubble"
IOW, make your neighbors understand that even if they support drilling and would like to participate, they are MORE LIKELY TO LOSE THEIR SHIRTS THIER HOMES AND LIVELYHOODS than see any profits. I learned two major things from these articles:
1) Aubry McClenon is a scam artist. Not much else. And he clearly enjoys enriching himself by ruining others.
2) Shale oil wells are short term producers. They aren't long termers. So the companies are FORCED to continually find new wells to keep up. They will be there and gone in very short order. You are left holding the bag. Literally.
Arm your neighbors with this info and let them BADGER company reps about the financial state of their company. Say you want to see financial reports from the last ten years, In fact, say that they want to meat with AM PERSONALLY. Of course, he won't want to do that. But that's the point. May company reps aware that NC IS A SNAKE PIT, not their personal playground.
#2) If people don't want to go toe to toe over the financials and the health of the industry, here's a novel idea: Teach them to ask for $20 million, UP FRONT for their property. Or whatever ridiculous amount strikes your fancy. Make NC prohibitively expensive.
The industry is already in trouble, at least we would teach people to get paid first. And not be victims later.
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