Amendment Fixes "Unfair" Law | News

A big sigh of relief for Pennsylvania landowners who faced paying back tens of thousands of dollars in taxes for signing land leases with natural gas companies.

This week the governor signed an amendment to the Clean and Green Law.

Until the amendment, many of those landowners faced paying back taxes on their entire properties, even though the natural gas companies were drilling on just a small portion of their farmland.

In a secluded part of Lycoming County sits the farmhouse owned by the Espenshade family. At one time, the Espenshades hoped signing a lease with a natural gas company would pay off big.

Then, because the farm land fell under Clean and Green, a tax exemption, it appeared the Espenshades would have to pay rollback taxes for merely signing that lease.

"Some of the local citizens would have had to pay all that tax back, so that would have been a huge chunk of their royalties," said Becky Espenshade.

Espenshade and property owners like her sought help from lawmakers. Senator Gene Yaw, a Republican representing northern tier counties and Lycoming County sponsored the amendment that in his mind levels the playing field.

"We thought it was unfair across the board, can't think of a better word than being unfair," said Senator Yaw.

Up until the latest legislation passed, the Espenshades and their neighbors worried they would have to pay all those rollback taxes on their entire properties just for signing up with natural gas companies.

The amendment to Clean and Green means landowners will have to pay rollback taxes merely on the portion of land used to drill for gas, not the entire property.

"Now it's only the rollback taxes on the well pad itself," said Espenshade.

The amendment goes into effect in a little less than 60 days.

It also allows farmers to develop land for alternative energy and remain under Clean and Green as long as more than half the energy generated is used for agriculture.