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Ask the Expert: Scott Jones

Eric OKeefe — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:49:05 +0000

The second session of the 111th Congress is already under way, and landowners have a lot at stake. With that in mind, The Land Report turns to Scott Jones to get the inside scoop on Washington’s next steps. Since 2003, Jones has been the CEO of the Forest Landowners Association (FLA), whose members own and operate some 40 million acres of forestland in 48 states. Founded in 1941, FLA offers education, information, and national grassroots advocacy with the goal of sustaining forestlands from one generation to the next.

With so many bold initiatives taken on by the Obama administration, what are the chances of a climate bill passing this year? Would it benefit forest landowners?

American voters believe that a climate/cap-and-trade bill may cost jobs; as a result, I would not be surprised to see the climate portion of the energy bill removed. If crafted properly, an energy bill could benefit private forest landowners by creating new markets for wood. However, the definition of “woody biomass” still needs to be fixed for landowners to truly benefit from the stripped down version of the bill.

The federal estate tax dropped to zero this year. Do you expect it to return to 55 percent with a $1 million exemption as scheduled in 2011?

There do not appear to be enough votes to bring the death tax back to life in 2010. Sen. Scott Brown’s (R-MA) recent election created a political barrier to retroactive death tax reinstatement. Unless legislative action is taken, the tax is scheduled to permanently return at a rate as high as 55 percent in 2011. But this is an election year, so anything is possible. Polls indicate 65 to 70 percent of Americans want the tax repealed.

Name one other issue landowners should follow closely.

The Clean Water Restoration Act is definitely legislation every landowner should keep an eye on. It seeks to expand the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act by redefining “navigable waters” as “waters of the United States.” The consequences of this bill are enormous, and it has already created a firestorm in the Senate. Strong opposition convinced Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) to delay introducing the bill on the House side. Oberstar now intends to move the bill through the House by the end of 2010.

America’s Largest Landowner Announces Renewable Energy Venture

Eric OKeefe — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:09:44 +0000

Ted Turner has announced a strategic alliance with Atlanta-based Southern Company to pursue development of renewable energy projects in the Southwestern United States, including his New Mexico land holdings. Turner is the state’s largest landowner.

“I’ve always been passionate about developing renewable energy, and I’m excited to join forces with Southern Company to explore our renewable energy potential,” said Turner, who will pursue the venture through Turner Renewable Energy.

“Southern Company’s experience in power project development, construction and operations, and customer relations help make this a strong alliance, and I look forward to working together,” he added.

Turner Renewable Energy and Southern Company will focus on developing and investing in large scale solar photovoltaic projects in the Desert Southwest with the goal of further commercializing the technology and making it more cost competitive.

“This alliance unites our common goal to explore and develop new renewable energy projects,” said Southern Company CEO David Ratcliffe. “We have said for some time that renewable energy should play an increasing role in this country’s energy mix and that Southern Company would seek opportunities to expand our renewable portfolio where it makes sense. This is evidence of that commitment.”

Land Report 100: No. 62 Clayton Williams Jr.

Land Report Editors — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:54:48 +0000

OF THE COUNTRY’S 100 LARGEST LANDOWNERS, FEW ARE AS COLORFUL AS CLAYTIE.

A passionate approach to land stewardship is but one of Clayton Williams’s claims to fame. The diehard Texas Aggie is a born entrepreneur whose many pursuits have ranged from insurance salesman to banker, farmer, rancher, real estate developer, big-game hunter, philanthropist, conservationist, and, at one pivotal point in his career, front-running gubernatorial candidate. And like any self-made man, he can ride out tough times with the best of them—even down to his last bullet.

Williams’s trailblazing traits date to his colorful forebears, who mixed it up with the likes of Kit Carson, Billy the Kid, and Geronimo. The native Texan was born in Alpine in 1931 and raised in Fort Stockton. After attending Texas A&M and fulfilling his military obligations, he cut his teeth selling life insurance in Mineral Wells. But fate called him back to West Texas, where in a Fort Stockton coffee shop he learned about a farm for sale. He struck a deal with its owner to form an oil and gas partnership, and the cornerstone of his career was set. From that small start, his financial empire eventually grew to include a host of companies, from cow-calf operations to a safari company to several entities bearing the ClayDesta moniker, a nod to himself and wife Modesta.

It was in Modesta that the wildcatter found a soul mate who shared his love of the land and sense of adventure. In his book Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter, Mike Cochran describes Williams’s run as “an exciting mix of hard work and great fun, building pipelines and drilling wells one day and branding calves and working cows the next—all embellished with a spectacular marriage. Claytie and Modesta really are bigger than life.”

After an unsuccessful run for governor of Texas in 1990, Claytie turned his considerable energies on going public with Clayton Williams Energy Inc. (CWEI). With an estimated net worth of $100 million, his name was added to the Forbes Four Hundred. Today, he is a fixture on the Land Report 100 and ranked No. 62 in 2009 with 146,655 acres. During the past decade, CWEI has drilled 167 horizontal wells, mostly in the Austin Chalk formation as well as the Cotton Valley Reef in Texas, in Louisiana, in Mississippi, and in New Mexico.

“Claytie is, by all measures, one of a kind,” says Cochran. “He’s an absolutely wonderful character. With his ranch he’s been really innovative and was recognized nationally for some of the innovations to trap water and to get the best use of the land.”

Nebraska Governor to Address Wind Conference

Eric OKeefe — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 16:20:30 +0000

Gov. Dave Heineman is slated as one of the keynote speakers next month at the Nebraska Wind Power 2009 Conference. Scheduled for Nov. 9-10 in Kearney, the conference will feature nationally known experts on wind and wind power and focus on numerous issues of vital interest to landowners seeking to capitalize on this opportunity to generate revenues from renewable energy.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, wind energy is one of the fastest-growing forms of electricity generation in the world. The United States can currently generate more than 25,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from the wind, which is enough to power about 7 million average American homes. Industry experts predict that, with proper development, wind energy could provide 20 percent of U.S. energy needs.

For more information on the Nebraska Wind Power 2009 Conference, read HERE.

Northeastern Landowners Get $165M For Natural Gas Rights

Eric OKeefe — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:57:44 +0000

A coalition of landowners in one of the country’s emerging natural gas hot spots has reached an agreement to lease 30,000 acres to Fortuna Energy for natural gas drilling rights. The $165-million, five-year deal for Marcellus Shale drilling rights comes out to $5,500 per acre, plus royalties.

The Friendsville Group is made up of 600 property owners in Susquehanna and Bradford counties in Pennsylvania, and in Broome County, New York. Individual owners will have the option to extend the lease for another three years, making it a “one-size-fits-all” deal, according to Pat Flaherty, who helped negotiate the deal.

Other perks to landowners were included in the deal, including approval of developmental plans and retaining rights to other minerals on the property.

“It’s by far the best offer we’ve seen,” said Larry Barrack, a Pennsylvania property owner who spoke with Gannett reporter George Basler.

Fortuna , a subsidiary of Calgary-based Talisman Energy, is one of North America’s largest independent producers with more than 22,000 oil and gas leases.

Landowners in Pennsylvania can expect payment within 90 days of signing the agreement, Fortuna officials said. Given the current moratorium on oil-and-gas drilling in New York, the Broome County leases – primarily in Binghamton and Vestal – will be structured differently, giving landowners $500 per acre when the lease is signed and the remaining $5,000 per acre once the moratorium is lifted. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) plans to release results from an environmental impact report this fall.

Interior Department Investigates Renewable Energy Speculators

Grant Gannon — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 07:00:56 +0000

Remember the Interior Department’s ongoing investigation into possible abuses of the Royalty-in-Kind program? Now the department’s Inspector General has started to look into possible abuses by companies seeking to develop renewable energies on BLM land.

Three years ago, BLM received six applications for solar energy projects. In the last year? 130, including one for 300,000 acres from Cogentrix Solar Investments.

The focus of the investigation is renewable energy companies as well as speculators that have applications pending for BLM leases and are seeking to be acquired based on the value of those applications.

According to the LA Times:

Officials said last week that the inspector general’s office of the Department of the Interior was investigating Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar Inc.’s recent acquisition of Hayward, Calif.-based OptiSolar, and its unfinished renewable energy projects, for $400 million.The deal gave First Solar control of what the company described as OptiSolar’s “strategic land rights” to 136,000 acres of public land in San Bernardino, Riverside and Kern counties.

In acquiring OptiSolar, First Solar acquired the lease applications, not the land itself. Those applications are no guarantee according to Greg Miller of the BLM.

“There is no value associated with a mere application, which could be rejected by us for a variety of reasons,” Miller told the Times.

As a result, application approvals for solar energy projects have been suspended while officials sort out what’s going on.

Read more at:
“Renewable Energy Sparks a Probe of a Modern-Day Land Rush,” Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2009.

Sold! 1,789 Acres of Kansas Farmland for $765 Per Acre

Eric OKeefe — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:00:34 +0000

Nebraska’s York College sold off a 1,789-acre bequest in Ellis County, Kansas. The college got $1.369 million ($765 per acre) at the January auction and retained the mineral rights.

Of note is the fact that 1,760 acres are subject to a wind lease with Hays Wind, which is controlled by Iberdrola Renewable Energies. Iberdrola has been granted a conditional-use permit to construct a 200-megawatt wind farm south and west of Hays, Kansas.

The acreage had been willed to the college by Donald Kraus, an Ellis County resident, but college officials reported that York wasn’t interested in going into the farming business. The auction was conducted by Farm & Ranch Realty.

Behind the Woodshed: TVA

Eric OKeefe — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:00:49 +0000

OK, let’s face facts. When it comes to bad neighbors, there are horror stories and then there’s TVA. What these guys have done make a crooked fenceline or stray livestock look like the county fair. Can anyone imagine what it must be like to have 1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge running loose on their property? I can’t, but there are plenty of people in Roane County downriver from TVA’s Kingston Steam Plant who can. And they filed a $165 million suit to prove it. Here’s the AP story:

A group of land owners sued the Tennessee Valley Authority for $165 million on Tuesday over a dike burst that spilled more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge.

The six-page lawsuit was filed in state court by Jot and Brenda Raymond, owners and developers of North Lake Estates in eastern Tennessee’s Roane County.

It claims a creek running through the development has been damaged and is backed up as a result of the Dec. 22 spill from a power plant.

The Raymonds said in the suit that they can’t show prospective buyers their property, which they describe as suffering “significant and immediate damage” to its value.

Also named as plaintiffs are Lea Ann Raymond and Chris Raymond, who own property in the subdivision. The lawsuit doesn’t say if the four plaintiffs are related.

TVA spokesman John Moulton declined to comment saying the federal utility hadn’t yet reviewed the lawsuit.

“Normally we respond through the courts,” he said.

The ash sludge from the storage pond at TVA’s Kingston Steam Plant spilled over roughly 300 acres and into the Emory River.

The North Lake Estates subdivision is near but not inside the area that has been closed off because of the ash sludge.

A sign at the development says lot prices start at $20,000. No sludge was apparent from the subdivision road on Tuesday, but the creek at the back of the development wasn’t visible.

“TVA possessed or reasonably should have possessed knowledge and data which indicated the retention pond was subject to collapse or breach,” the lawsuit says.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment on the lawsuit.

TVA, its board of directors, President and CEO Tom Kilgore and other TVA executives are named as defendants. The suit asks for $15 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages.

The nonprofit Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said it also notified TVA on Tuesday that it intends to sue under the federal Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

TVA has said it is investigating what caused the dike to fail and has speculated that cold weather and heavy rainfall were factors.

The deluge destroyed three houses, displaced a dozen families and damaged 42 parcels of land, but there were no serious injuries.

TVA has begun cleaning up the sludge and taking air, soil and water samples because of potentially hazardous materials in the fly ash, the waste from burning coal to produce electricity.

Federal officials have cautioned residents who use private wells or springs to stop drinking the water pending more tests because of high levels of arsenic.

Samples taken near the spill slightly exceed drinking water standards for toxic substances, and arsenic in one sample was higher than the maximum level allowed for drinking water, authorities said.

Officials also are concerned about air quality as the sludge containing the fly ash, a fine powdery material, dries out. The dust can contain metals, including arsenic, that can irritate the skin and aggravate pre-existing conditions like asthma.

A large pile of ash still at the power plant may be covered with mulch or a calcium carbonate spray that would dry like a thin cap of concrete and prevent it from blowing away, Neil Carriker, an environmental official with TVA, said Tuesday.

Knoxville-based TVA supplies electricity to Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Obama to Nominate Salazar for Interior

Grant Gannon — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:00:34 +0000

Landowners in the West will have one of their own heading up the Interior Department in the new Obama Administration. According to published reports, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) will be named the 50th Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior later this week by President-elect Barack Obama.

Salazar is no stranger to readers of The Land Report. As you may recall, the Colorado native has been one of the staunchest opponents of the Pinon Canyon expansion in the southeast portion of the Centennial State. The proposed expansion of the Fort Carson training ground includes doubling the size of a military exercise area by acquiring land owned primarily by locally owned cattle operations.

Salazar and his brother John, a U.S. congressman, are fifth-generation Coloradans who grew up working on a family-owned ranch in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado. After studying political science at Colorado College and earning a law degree from Michigan, he rose to political prominence as Colorado’s attorney general. He won his Senate seat in 2004.

Brazil to Issue Deeds to Thousands of Landowners in the Amazon Basin

Eric OKeefe — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:00:50 +0000

Brazilians have long feared that foreigners were exploiting great expanses of the Amazon River Basin, a story we covered earlier this year when the Brazilian government began to investigate unlawful land sales to overseas interests. Now the country has established a program to ascertain ownership of farms of all sizes and streamline the process by which landowners can get deeds to their property. The root cause of this initiative? Less than 4 percent of privately owned land in the Amazon is actually deeded.

“No one knows who owns what, and that is the source of economic disintegration and violent confrontation at the grassroots,” Brazil’s strategic affairs minister, Roberto Mangabeira Unger, told The Associated Press. “We must settle this problem if we are going to move forward on other issues.”

Tops on the government’s list is protecting the interests of thousands of farm owners. Under the government’s plan, farms less than 100 hectares (250 acres) will be deeded at no cost. Farms larger than 100 hectares will be required to pay to receive title with the price commensurate with the size of the farm. Those farms larger than 2,500 hectares will require congressional approval to receive title.

“For the first time in our history we will have a form of social and economic organization that is powerfully slanted to the small and medium-sized owners and farmers, not to the big guys, who will be the losers,” he added.