By KATE MISHKIN
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Nearly two weeks after a natural gas royalties bill was moved from the West Virginia Senate’s Energy, Industry and Mining Committee to its Judiciary Committee, property rights advocates held a news conference Monday morning to try to push the bill forward.
Senate Bill 360 seeks to eliminate post-production expenses, such as transportation or severance taxes from royalty owners’ checks. The proposed legislation would reverse the so-called “Leggett Decision” — the state Supreme Court’s ruling last year that reversed its 2016 decision to allow natural gas drillers to deduct post-production costs from royalties owed to mineral owners. The court reheard the case after Justice Beth Walker replaced Justice Brent Benjamin.
A 1982 law updated terms on “flat rate” leases and called them “wholly inadequate compensation.” Instead of small, flat rates, companies would now have to pay royalties amounting to one-eighth of gains from that site to the mineral owner. Before the case was reheard, the initial Supreme Court ruling decided that companies couldn’t deduct post-production costs from those royalties.
Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, said he introduced the bill after seeing mineral owners try to figure out what was being taken out of their royalty checks.
Read the entire article: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/natural-gas-royalties-bill-backers-push-for-quick-passage/article_888dba8b-c84e-5bf6-8042-23eff992eecb.html
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