HB 2688, the West Virginia forced pooling bill, known in some circles as eminent domain for oil and gas producers, was defeated over the weekend.  MetroNews of West Virginia had an article on the proceedings.

If you’d like a quick summary, here’s what happened.  The House passed the bill and sent it to the Senate.  The Senate modified the bill and sent it back to the House.  The House vote ended in a tie on the last day of the session, late in the evening.  There wasn’t time to fix things, so the bill died.

I’m both happy and sad.  I don’t like forced pooling because it takes control out of the hands of the owner.  I liked a couple of the provisions in this bill, particularly the part that put the mineral interest back in the hands of the surface owner after five years.  Anything that can tie mineral and surface ownership back together is a step in the right direction to me.  But I’d prefer to see something like that created in a stand-alone bill.  It will be interesting to see what legislators come up with next year.