Legislation Adopted in West Virginia Raises Rates on Shale Drills
This post was written by Luke Liben and Nicolle Bagnell.
As anticipated, on December 22, West Virginia’s Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed the Natural Gas Horizontal Wells Control Act, calling it “a milestone piece of legislation and a significant achievement in [West Virginia’s] history.” You can find a summary of the Act in an earlier post but note that this legislation increases the fee for wells from $400 per well to $10,000 for an initial well, and another $5,000 for each additional well placed on a single pad. It also requires the disclosure of fracking additives to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
