NC AG Pushes For Fracking-Related Consumer Protections Amidst Growing Natural Gas Speculators Door-To-Door Campaign Pressing Landowners To Sign Leases

From the Office of the North Carolina Attorney General:

• Legislation that would give North Carolina homeowners some of the strongest legal protections in the country related to fracking could be voted on by the North Carolina House [].
  
  
• “Homeowners need these legal protections if North Carolina is going to move forward with fracking,” Cooper said. “Speculators are already knocking on doors, pressing people to sign leases, so we need to put these protections in place now.”
  
  
• Cooper’s Consumer Protection Division studied legal and consumer protection issues relevant to fracking, including impacts on landowners, ownership of oil and gas rights, and existing legal protections. A report issued by the Attorney General in May recommended many legislative changes, most of which are included in Senate Bill 820.
  
  
• The legislation, which would authorize shale gas extraction, also known as fracking, in North Carolina, was approved last week by the North Carolina Senate. The latest version of Senate Bill 820 put forward by the House Committee on the Environment adds to the bill three more key consumer protections that Cooper’s office found to be absolutely critical: [...]

For more of the North Carolina AG press release, see Homeowners Need Fracking Protections Now, AG Cooper Urges (Key consumer protections pushed by Cooper among strongest in the nation).

Forth the NC AG report, see North Carolina Department of Justice Consumer Protection Division: North Carolina Oil and Gas Study under Session Law 2011‐276: Impacts on Landowners and Consumer Protection Issues, May 1, 2012.

For other natural gas drilling-related stories reporting how landowners can get screwed over, see:

1. Oil & Gas Exploration Outfits Scrambling For Landowners' Mineral Rights A Modern Day 'Gold Rush' As 100s Flood Land Recorders' Offices,
   
   
2. Upstate NY Trial Judge: OK For Municipality To Ban 'Fracking' For Natural Gas; Stripped Of Mineral Rights, Landowners Plan Appeal,
   
   
3. Texas Couple Sues To Stop Exploration Firm From Running Roughshod Over Home, Drilling On Nearly-Expired Mineral Leasehold Giving Only 12-Hour Notice,
   
   
4. Lawsuits: National Natural Gas Company Behind Effort That Bilked 92-Year Old Widow & Many Other Northern Michigan Landowners On Drilling Leases,
   
   
5. NY AG Warns Consumers On Entering Natural Gas Exploration Leases (for links to other complaints regarding oil & gas drilling outfits operating in other parts of the country.