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$150 million gone with the wind
Credit: The Daily News | thedailynewsonline.com 17 July 2012 ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
T. Boone Pickens, who made his fortune in the oil business, finds wind “pickings slim” after admitting in an interview with Fox News Sunday, June 24, that he lost $150 million on wind power, and is shifting his efforts on natural gas. He expressed frustration that politicians tend only to talk about energy independence when the price of gasoline is high.
Pickens has now canceled the bulk of a $1.5 billion wind turbine order that he placed with General Electric last year and says wind power will not be profitable until the cost of natural gas rises.
However due to the ability of companies like Chesapeake Energy, an Oklahoma City-based energy giant, to swap their leases or flip them to another LLC, Ohio landowners who thought they signed up with Range Resources are not the only ones in danger of shifty corporate swaps as this can easily open the door for foreign countries to control our oil and uranium property rights.
According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Erich Schwartzel and Elisabeth Ponsot), “Analysts on Wall Street and dairy farmers in this area now see the same thing: One powerful firm suddenly overtook the leases, and the rules of the game immediately changed.”
It’s not just the landowners who lose in contracts with these Big Money LLCs, be they wind or oil LLCs, national security and property as well as mineral rights can be acquired by any foreign country if the price is right. Chesapeake, like other companies, turned to foreign firms and multinational conglomerates to fund up-front costs of acquiring leases. Are we enslaving America to foreign interests for the love of money?
When China buys oil and gas contracts from Chesapeake Energy, will they automatically own the Uranium and the rights to harvest it? What legal recourse do landowners have to change the terms of their signed leases to include wording which will prevent the transfer or sale of the lease to China, Pakistan, Iran, North Africa, terrorists, etc. These were just a few of the serious questions that surfaced on GoMarcellusShale.com on June 24.
And finally one of my friends from Sheldon has long since thought that wind contracts were just an excuse for giant land grabs for gas and oil. Wind contracts included but were not limited to the right of the lessor to go “over, under, through and across the leased land.”
One more question, If an LLC’s (wind, oil, etc.) contract included the transfer of rights to all minerals and components occurring under the surface of the earth to the center of the earth, such as in the case of Chesapeake’s contract, keep in mind, the words, “including but not limited to” mean everything.
Cathi Orr
Orangeville
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