Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, who has been quietly working to assuage landowners, environmental interests and the state’s lucrative coalbed methane (CBM) developers, said he wants to now encourage the state legislature to give agencies more flexibility to apply site-specific permitting. The state, already months behind in processing requests for the industry’s potential 51,000-well sprawl in the northeast Wyoming, has been further stymied by recent budget and staff cuts.

Freudenthal said one problem can be eliminated just by providing information to everyone involved. Among other things, the governor said he would work with the state’s mineral owners to provide better access to production and tax information to assure royalty payments are correctly calculated. Freudenthal, who acknowledged that his powers were limited and that he’s unsure of exactly how to solve the mounting dilemma, said, “I have a theory that sunlight cures an incredible amount of problems.”

The governor also noted he wanted to move CBM development forward without sacrificing the state’s environment or individual property rights. However, as governor, he acknowledged that his role will be mostly as an advocate for cooperation among the federal and state agencies, developers and landowners.

One of the top landowner issues will be to resolve the state’s split-estate rules, said Freudenthal. In Wyoming, the owner of a mineral estate has the right to enter a privately owned surface to for development even if the mineral estate owner and the actual landowner fail to agree on surface use. Freudenthal believes that like any property owner, split-estate surface owners should be fairly compensated for damages incurred from the development. However, fair compensation calculations will take careful consideration, he said.

“Somebody has to compensate the individual,” said Freudenthal. “The individual should not be a casualty to some greater cause.”

However, the governor cautioned that while solutions have to be found to ensure that the landowners and the environment are not “run over,” the state also must tread carefully so that burdensome regulations don’t discourage companies from developing the vast CBM potential that exists.

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