StateImpact Pennsylvania invites public to forum in Towanda on natural gas royalties

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As director of journalism, I work on things like newsroom strategy, culture, ethics, and training; I work with reporters (mainly climate reporter Rachel McDevitt) on stories; and I'm deeply involved with our community engagement efforts and collaborations with other news organizations.

My roots in journalism go back to growing up outside Washington, D.C., reading Woodward and Bernstein in my hometown paper, and being drawn to the ideals of freedom of the press and holding the powerful to account. I also idolized the Post’s sports columnists, and in fact was a sports reporter/editor before I moved to news.

I followed journalism’s call to the University of Missouri, then to jobs in Virginia and Maryland before landing in Pennsylvania, and I’ve lived near Gettysburg for more than two decades. Living in rural Pa. helps inform my work as a journalist and my belief that listening is one of the most important things we can do.

If I’m not doing journalism stuff, I may be traveling, bird-watching, or both.

Ralph Wilson / AP Photo

In this April 23, 2010 photo, a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site is seen near Burlington, Pa., in Bradford County.

March 22, 2018 | 7:00 AM

Ralph Wilson / AP Photo

File photo. A Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site in Bradford County, Pa.

Join StateImpact Pennsylvania for an educational forum to learn how other states handle natural gas royalty payments and what’s being done about the controversy over post-production costs in Pennsylvania. The forum is titled, Drilling down on deductions: How are gas royalties paid around the U.S.?

Keynote speaker and royalty expert Owen L. Anderson, a professor and distinguished oil and gas scholar at the University of Texas, has lectured at numerous universities and venues on six continents and throughout the United States, and has written over 100 articles.

Anderson’s keynote presentation will be followed by a panel discussion on post-production costs and a question-and-answer session with the audience.

Other panelists are: Jackie Root, head of the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Association of Royalty Owners; and David Fine, an attorney with K&L Gates in Harrisburg who represented Elexco Land Services and Southwestern Energy in the landmark 2010 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, which held that Pennsylvania’s minimum royalty guarantee applies to revenues before expenses are calculated.

The event, at Towanda Area High School, is free and open to the public. RSVP here: