Pennsylvania Lawmaker Advancing Pro-Fracking Legislation Profits from Leasing his Land to Drillers

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A Pennsylvania state senator, who is responsible for a slew of legislation favoring the oil and gas industry, leases his own land to fracking companies, recent disclosure documents show. Last year, veteran lawmaker Gene Yaw of Lycoming County profited from royalties he received from several different drillers.ย ย 

Yaw, who chairs the key senate environmental resources and energy committee, has been serving in the state legislature since 2008. In recent years heโ€™s positioned himself as a champion of the oil and gas industry by advancing various pro-industry measures. The counties in the district he represents, located squarely on top of the Marcellus Shale, have thousands of active oil and gas wells.

In late 2016, Yaw co-sponsored a bill to bolster the rights of property owners leasing their land to oil and gas developers. Soon after, he introduced the โ€œPennsylvania Natural Gas Expansion and Development Initiative,โ€ a bill that aims at dramatically expanding the production and transportation of natural gas in theย state.

โ€œWe have an abundant natural resource beneath us,โ€ Yaw wrote in support of the bill, โ€œwhich can be used to help consumers lower their energy heating costs.โ€ Earlier, Yaw half-jokingly told an audience at a midstream oil and gas conference that heโ€™s contemplating a bill to ban transporting gas into New York, given the stateโ€™s own ban against hydraulic fracturingย (fracking).

At the same time, Yaw benefits personally from Pennsylvaniaโ€™s fracking boom. According to his most recent financial disclosure, last year he received income from five different drilling companies: Anadarko, Statoil, Alta Marcellus Development, Mitsui E&P, andย Chesapeake.

Gene Yaw 2017 financial disclosure shows Statoil, Anadarko, Alta Marcellus, Mitsui E&P, and Chesapeake lease his land to drill
From Pennsylvania state Senator Gene Yawโ€™s financial disclosure for 2017, showing income from drillingย leases.

In 2013, a local reporter asked Yaw about land he leases in Lycoming County to Anadarko. The senator denied the lease poses a conflict of interest, noting that he leased the land before his election to the legislature. Yet as the most recent disclosure indicates, the number of oil and gas companies Yaw profits from has increased since he became aย lawmaker.

According to Nick Troutman, a spokesperson for Yaw, the senator signed one lease about 12 to 15 years ago, before he entered the senate. The lessee, Anadarko, sold partial interests to other drillers, โ€œtransactions which are solely within the discretion of the lessee.โ€ย Asked how much money Yaw made last year from the royalties, Troutman replied: โ€œThe amount of royalties, if any, is private and not subject toย disclosure.โ€

Nevertheless, Yaw benefits from the industry in another way. Outside of his political role, he is also an attorney at the Williamsport, Pennsylvania-based law firm McCormick, which, according to its website, engages in โ€œgas companyย representation.โ€

Yawโ€™s spokesperson Troutman said questions about potential conflicts of interest are misplaced.ย โ€œIt takes 129 people to decide any legislative issues in Pennsylvania,โ€ he said, โ€œSo even if Sen. Yaw sponsors a bill, 128 others need to agree. Moreover, he is a citizen of the state. Every vote he makes potentially affects him, some on a daily basis, such as the increase in speedย limits.โ€

According to Troutman, โ€œyouโ€™d have to bring lawmakers in from Maryland or New York if you want to get rid of potential conflicts because legislation affects everyone in the state and/or large groups of Pennsylvanians, some of whom may beย lawmakers.

But for Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, an argument that every politician is essentially conflicted soundsย unconvincing.

โ€œItโ€™s an actual scandal when a legislator has a seemingly substantial, yet not fully disclosed, personal interest in fracking,โ€ Hauser said. โ€œWe not only need better disclosure rules, but we should compel office holders to recuse themselves from policy-making when they have a substantial conflict ofย interest.โ€

As Hauser put it, โ€œAmerican representative democracy only works if policy outcomes are the result of the hashing outย ofย competing notions of the public interestย rather than individuals fighting to advance their bottomย line.โ€

Main image: Pennsylvania state Senator Gene Yaw. Credit:ย Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus,ย CC BYย 3.0

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Itai Vardi is a sociologist and freelance journalist. He lives and works in Boston,ย Massachusetts.

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