Fellow Republicans Slam State Senator Over 'Ignorance' Comment
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Marie Cusick

State Senator Gene Yaw (R- Bradford) has become a target of criticism for the Bradford County Commissioners.
For several months Bradford Countyâs Commissioners have been complaining some gas companies are cheating their constituents out of royalty payments.
Now theyâre complaining their state senator Gene Yaw (R- Bradford) isnât listening.
âIf [Yaw] was fighting as hard for the property owners as he is fighting against us, maybe weâd be getting somewhere,â says Republican Commissioner Doug McLinko.
At a meeting yesterday, all three commissioners (two Republicans and a Democrat) called on the legislature to take action on a resolution they passed last spring, urging Harrisburg to re-examine the stateâs 1979 Guaranteed Minimum Royalty Act.
The law says an oil and gas lease is not valid unless it provides a one-eighth (or 12.5 percent) royalty.
Many local landowners have been complaining some gas companies are withholding large amounts of money from their monthly checks for so-called âpost-production costsâ â the expenses of moving the gas from the well to the market.
âWhat was the legislatureâs intent for that 12.5 percent? Was it 12.5 before or after deductions?â says Republican Commissioner Daryl Miller, âCan they clarify that? If it wasnât for people to receive 12.5 what was their intention?
In a unanimous 2010 State Supreme Court decision, the court held that since there was no definition of the word âroyaltyâ in the law, the industry could use its own definition and withhold post-production costs.
Yaw has said he doesnât believe there is an easy legislative fix to the issue and has urged landowners who feel theyâve been cheated to take legal action.
Yawâs office did not respond to a request for comment.
In an editorial for the Towanda Daily Review this week entitled âFacts Rather Than Ignoranceâ, Yaw wrote:
I am fully aware of the post production deduction issues which have arisen in existing lease agreements over the past several months. A few, out of ignorance, have suggested âJust make a new law defining certain terms.â Yes, that could be done, but because of Constitutional restrictions, such a change would have no effect whatsoever on any lease or contract in existence at the time of passage.
The word âignoranceâ struck a nerve.
Commissioners Doug McLinko and Daryl Miller, both gas industry supporters, say they were insulted by the tone of the editorial.
âI donât know why [Yaw] did what he did,â says Miller, âIâm offended he considers the people up here ignorant.â
âHe isnât a supreme court justice,â says McLinko, â[Constitutionality] is not for him to decide.â
So far this summer, the royalties issue has prompted a hearing of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy committee (which Yaw chairs) and a meeting with Governor Tom Corbett.
Yaw sponsored a new law which was originally aimed at requiring gas companies to clarify the deductions. However the measure has been called a âTrojan horseâ by a landowners group because it contains a controversial clause allowing companies to pool leases.
The law has not officially taken effect yet, but itâs already been used by one gas company to sue a group of landowners in Western Pennsylvania and there is an attempt by another Republican legislator to repeal it.