How fracking companies exploit Amish farmers

[The Straight Story]

t’s no secret that fracking companies engage in some shady behavior. But a report in The New Republic reveals just how low they’ll sink in the rush to exploit natural gas: Energy companies in eastern Ohio — home to the world’s largest Amish population and billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves — have been convincing Amish farmers to sign away drilling rights to their land for far less than they’re worth, knowing that because their religious tradition frowns on lawsuits, the landowners will have little recourse for justice once they realize they’ve been duped.

Lloyd Miller, for example, an Amish farmer near Millersburg, Ohio, said an agent from Kenoil offered him $10 an acre to drill for shale gas on his 158 acres, promising it was the best deal around. Strapped for cash at the time, Miller and his wife said yes, figuring, “Hey, that’s $1,500 we didn’t have,” Miller explained. But they soon found out many non-Amish farmers in the area were leasing drilling rights for as much as $1,000 an acre. Miller consulted with a lawyer, who told him the agent had committed fraud by promising that $10 an acre was the best he could get. The Millers had grounds to sue — but that’s something that, in accordance with their Amish beliefs, they’d never do. Of the Kenoil agent, Miller said: “He’s got to live with his conscience.”

The New Republic explains:

Their prohibition on the courts derives from the portion of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus instructs his followers to turn the other cheek, and if they are sued for their coats, to give up their cloaks, too. The Amish interpret this to mean that the court is no place to right wrongs. In 2011, for example, after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a local man, Monroe L. Beachy, with running a Ponzi scheme that wiped out nearly $17 million in Amish retirement savings, a committee representing his some 2,500 Amish creditors asked a judge to dismiss his bankruptcy case so that they could resolve his debts amongst themselves.

http://grist.org/news/how-fracking-companies-exploit-amish-farmers/

[Major Nikon]

1. They do this with everyone

When these companies start drilling in an area, you have all sorts of 3rd parties which go around and try to grab up drilling rights for pennies on the dollar before people realize what they are worth. I live above the Barnett Shale and we had all sorts of clowns going around and knocking on doors offering to pay $500. Fortunately in my town it's illegal to solicit door-to-door without a city license displayed prominently on the person. I kept copies of the statute next to my door and I would hand them a copy as I told them I was calling the cops. It was kinda fun to see them run after they read it.

[rickford66]

2. we were offered $500 / acre when some were getting $5,000

I told the agent to get lost. He told me my neighbors across the road were signing up. I contacted them and they said they weren't even approached about an offer. Years ago they sent cowboys up here to NY with 10 gallon hats and big pickup trucks to get you to sign leases. Now they send real neighborly types to get your trust.