CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Town of Fremont landowners are being cheated out of gas lease money, according to one resident.

Dan Hammond, who attended a landowners’ seminar in Campbell on the topic, said at Tuesday night’s town board meeting that residents should be getting more for their gas rights.

There are seven gas fields in Steuben County, Hammond said, including the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from New York to West Virginia and houses trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. The Town of Fremont sits on two pockets.

The problem, he said, is landowners are being low-balled by gas companies.

According to Hammond, some area landowners are being offered between $30 and $100 an acre on a five-year lease. In Howard and other towns across the county, the same companies are offering $1,000 to $3,000 an acre for a lease.

(Click to read entire article)