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Landowners Express Concern Over Fracking

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  • Description

    Opposition to energy company plans

  • Duration 2:15
  • Date

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This transcript is automatically generated

It's so quiet at night you can almost hear the stars in the Milky Way.

Maria McRae has been living on the small farm in upstate New York since 1985.

That's yeah.

Now she's worried way of life may be ruling by energy companies drilling for natural gas with fears of heavy truck -- And -- mining equipment and tainted ground water charges the companies denied.

I signed -- -- I was an idiot yes but.

Day we're counting.

On why not knowing.

And they were right.

Several years ago Marie -- many of her neighbors agreed to allow energy companies to dig deep below the ground to extract natural gas in a process known as racking.

I'm an environmental scientist -- have a master's degree I highly educated.

And I signed and I didn't know what I was signing and I took a to a lawyer.

And He didn't know I was -- we were all duped we -- can't.

They want to come in here and raped this land.

And they told us whatever story they needed to tell us.

To get our permission to do that no.

Fraud in the inducement here there's no duping.

There's no false pretense is.

Attorney Thomas west represents one of the energy companies negotiating deals with landowners at rates averaging a couple hundred dollars an -- and twelve and a half percent of royalties some land owners say they should have gotten thousands per -- and didn't understand the potential impact on their property.

West says the company's paid fair market value and everyone wins in the end.

It's good for the operator of course it's good for the landowners.

Who stand to make a lot of money on the -- -- -- paid out over stand accurate time.

And it's good for our country because it's -- domestic energy source that offsets the need for imported oil.

Opposition to cracking his -- so -- that one town actually banned the process and others are considering changing their charters to outlaw the deep wells.

But the mining companies say it's perfectly legal and protected by state law and they're going to court to prove it open to Begin drilling here in less than a year.

In driving New York Rick Leventhal Fox News.

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