The Swamp Dwellers are in a frenzy about Forced Leasing/”Cotenancy,” and the large out-of-state gas corporations who have been pushing and paying for the right to steal West Virginians’ property are getting impatient.

HB 4268 is up for a vote on the House Floor on Thursday, February 15.

It’s time to call your legislators, call the targets below, and then start calling House Republicans (remember that House Democrats have come out against forced pooling as a caucus for this session).

In case you missed it: During the second reading of the bill, the House passed three amendments. The first is to fund PEIA with 50% of the unclaimed funds resulting from forcing unlocatable tenants into a lease.

The second is to make the bill applicable when more than seven people are affected.

The third is to protect unlocatable and non-consenting co-owners forced into a lease; in the event of either a new project on the property, or a project developing a different shale formation, they will be able to negotiate new deals. Of course, this is the kind of protective provision that the big gas and oil donors told their bought Swamp Dwellers not to include in the bill.

Delegates Fleischauer and Pethtel proposed an amendment that would have changed the bill so that 90% of rights owners would have to agree to develop before a gas corporation would be able to force a lease on the remaining 10%. Swamp Dwellers Zatezalo and Shott fought this particular protection tooth and claw. Zatezalo made the nonsensical point that pitting 75-consenting-owners to 25%-nonconsenting-owners is a fair balance. Shott opposed the amendment with the claim that passing the bill as-is would help do things like fund PEIA; minutes later rose in opposition to the amendment to fund PEIA. Unfortunately, the Swamp Dwellers killed this amendment.

Call these legislators and remind them that HB 4268 is a bill which will allow large, out of state gas corporations to STEAL property from West Virginians.

Try to get through to these three and drag them back out of the Swamp.

Delegate Erikka Storch– (304) 340-3378
Delegate Patrick Martin– (304) 340-3123
Delegate Zack Maynard– (304) 340-3152

Call House Republicans— here is the entire Delegate Roster.

For your convenience, here is a list of all House Delegates’ email addresses for copying and pasting into an email.

chanda.adkins@wvhouse.gov
george.ambler@wvhouse.gov
bill.anderson@wvhouse.gov
armstead@wvhouse.gov
martin.atkinson@wvhouse.gov
jasonbarrett@wvhouse.gov
mick.bates@wvhouse.gov
saira.blair@wvhouse.gov
brent.boggs@wvhouse.gov
scott.brewer@wvhouse.gov
jim.butler@wvhouse.gov
andrew.byrd@wvhouse.gov
jeff.campbell@wvhouse.gov
joe.canestraro@wvhouse.gov
moore.capito@wvhouse.gov
mike.caputo@wvhouse.gov
roy.cooper@wvhouse.gov
daryl.cowles@wvhouse.gov
vernon.criss@wvhouse.gov
mark.dean@wvhouse.gov
frank.deem@wvhouse.gov
phillip.diserio@wvhouse.gov
jeff.eldridge@wvhouse.gov
joe.ellington@wvhouse.gov
paul.espinosa@wvhouse.gov
ed.evans@wvhouse.gov
allen.evans@wvhouse.gov
tom.fast@wvhouse.gov
mike.ferro@wvhouse.gov
barbaraf@wvhouse.gov
shawn.fluharty@wvhouse.gov
michael.folk@wvhouse.gov
geoff.foster@wvhouse.gov
cindy.frich@wvhouse.gov
marty.gearheart@wvhouse.gov
dianna.graves@wvhouse.gov
bill.hamilton@wvhouse.gov
danny.hamrick@wvhouse.gov
roger.hanshaw@wvhouse.gov
jason.harshbarger@wvhouse.gov
billhartman@suddenlink.net
ken.hicks@wvhouse.gov
joshua.higginbotham@wvhouse.gov
jordan.hill@wvhouse.gov
ray.hollen@wvhouse.gov
sean.hornbuckle@wvhouse.gov
eric.householder@wvhouse.gov
gary.howell@wvhouse.gov
richard.iaquinta@wvhouse.gov
phil.isner@wvhouse.gov
buck.jennings@wvhouse.gov
john.kelly@wvhouse.gov
kayla.kessinger@wvhouse.gov
charlotte.lane@wvhouse.gov
linda.longstreth@wvhouse.gov
shirley.love@wvhouse.gov
chad.lovejoy@wvhouse.gov
dana.lynch@wvhouse.gov
justin.marcum@wvhouse.gov
patrick.martin@wvhouse.gov
zack.maynard@wvhouse.gov
pat.mcgeehan@wvhouse.gov
tim.miley@wvhouse.gov
rodney.miller@wvhouse.gov
carol.miller@wvhouse.gov
riley.moore@wvhouse.gov
rmoyewvhouse@yahoo.com
nelson@wvhouse.gov
john@overington.com
jeffrey.pack@wvhouse.gov
tony.paynter@wvhouse.gov
dave.pethtel@wvhouse.gov
rupert.phillips@wvhouse.gov
mike.pushkin@wvhouse.gov
rodney.pyles@wvhouse.gov
ben.queen@wvhouse.gov
andrew.robinson@wvhouse.gov
ralph.rodighiero@wvhouse.gov
matthew.rohrbach@wvhouse.gov
chuck.romine@wvhouse.gov
roger.romine@wvhouse.gov
ruth.rowan@wvhouse.gov
larry.rowe@wvhouse.gov
john.shott@wvhouse.gov
kelli.sobonya@wvhouse.gov
isaac.sponaugle@wvhouse.gov
joe.statler@wvhouse.gov
erikka.storch@wvhouse.gov
amy.summers@wvhouse.gov
terri.sypolt@wvhouse.gov
robert.thompson@wvhouse.gov
jill.upson@wvhouse.gov
danny.wagner@wvhouse.gov
ron.walters@wvhouse.gov
guy.ward@wvhouse.gov
steve.westfall@wvhouse.gov
brad.white@wvhouse.gov
john.williams@wvhouse.gov
marshall.wilson@wvhouse.gov
mark.zatezalo@wvhouse.gov