In a story that aired on 90.3 WCPN on August 6, 2019, Professor Heidi Gorovitz Robertson described some Ohio rules that allow oil and gas developers to include a landowner’s land in an oil and gas drilling unit against the landowner’s wishes.  Robertson explained that this practice, called mandatory pooling or forced unitization, seems to fly in the face of rights we normally ascribe to property owners — the right to decide how to use the land, the right to decide who may enter it.  The practice does, however, prevent a single landowner from from vetoing the collective desire of surrounding landowners to develop underground natural resources.

The story, Ohio Law Allows Energy Companies To Force Landowners Into Leases was featured during the evening radio show All Things Considered.  Robertson is C|M|LAW’s Steven W. Percy Distinguished Professor of Law, and a Professor of Environmental Studies at CSU’s Levin College of Urban Affairs.

You may listen to the story here: https://wcpn.ideastream.org/news/ohio-law-allows-energy-companies-to-force-landowners-into-leases