We may be a day early to report the death of this year’s forced pooling bill, but the rumors coming out of Charleston and the news articles we’ve read sound promising.  Good for McGeehan and everyone else who has worked to defeat this bill.  Maybe next year they’ll come up with something that makes it easier for oil and gas companies to put together drilling units, but without taking away private property rights.  Eminent domain is one of a few things the Founding Fathers got wrong.

The other good thing we’ve seen is that the bill which would have allowed pipeline companies to enter private property without permission if they were surveying for a proposed pipeline easement has been killed.  The Senate voted it down by a margin of 2-1.  Those are good numbers against a bad bill.