Stephen Heins
Energy Consultant
“The Word Merchant”
…
Stephen Heins and Jason Spiess do a weekly radio program called the “Weekly Word” and recently interviewed Betty Sutliff regarding the DRBC and the UDRBC.
Jason Spiess and I were joined by Betty Sutliff from Wayne County, Pennsylvania on this week’s Weekly Word radio program, which NaturallGasNOW readers can listen to here. Betty is a member of Northern Wayne Property Owners Alliance, which is now part of a group called the Upper Delaware River Citizens or UDRBC.
Betty provided some background about herself: lifetime resident of Wayne County, went to a one room grade school without water, graduated from Mansfield University at the age of 20, became a teacher in her old school for next 30 years. Betty lives on a third generation farm of 160 acres, half-farmland and half-tree farm. She has 3 children and 2 grandchildren.
Jason asked her about the political battles being fought out in Northeast Pennsylvania over property rights, mineral rights, and a possible permanent ban of fracking on the Delaware River Basin. Sutliff noted that neighboring Susquehanna Country is in the Susquehanna River Basin and regulated by a different river basin commission than Wayne County, which is part of the Delaware River Basin and that commission, the DRBC, doesn’t allow fracking in the same Marcellus Shale region. Wayne County has been suffering economically because of it. On the other hand, Susquehanna County allows fracking in the Marcellus Shale and has thusly flourished, with a new hospital, tech school, etc.
Jason also mentioned that everywhere he goes, he gets asked about Josh Fox’s “Gasland.” Sutliff went on to say that she was a first-hand witness to much of the Fox inaccuracies in Pennsylvania. For example, Betty actually collated the final lease which was mischaracterized by Fox. Along with previous Weekly Word participant Tom Shepstone, Betty has spent significant time debunking Fox’s claims about fracking. According to her, Fox had none of the legal facts right. I noted that Phelim McAleer’s “Frack Nation” is an excellent corrective to “Gasland.”
As an active landowner from the beginning of the emergence of the Marcellus Shale Basin, Sutliff helped form several groups of landowners and further helped negotiate several important leases for them. She has become a leading local and community advocate for economic development in Wayne County, with the credibility of being quoted in many Pennsylvania news outlets.
Betty and John Sutliff (photo from Phllly.com story by Andrew Maykuth)
Jason was very impressed by Betty Sutliff’s background, which reminded him of his own. He continues to be bothered by “professional protesters” who have become a major impediment to anything related to fossil fuel and sound natural resource development.
In closing, Betty mentioned their web site was udrbc.org and that her group is arguing that the proposed fracking ban is “taking” land and rights away from landowners and farmers (Upper Delaware River Basin Citizens) who are good environmental stewards of their properties. I also talked a little about the three states who do not have any mineral rights attached to their own property: Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. It is anything but surprising these states are falling behind North Dakota and Colorado in terms of economic development.
