American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2016 - 110

ConventionSection: Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia
that must be completed.
Monitoring Issues
Fortunately, Hildreth says, IOGAWV
has considerable support for several industry-related legislative items. For instance, state lawmakers have stayed many
proposals to increase taxes on oil and
gas producers, including a severance tax
on natural gas liquids that the West
Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
recommended in September 2015.
According to Hildreth, besides the
low price indexes, there are other production- and government-related issues
IOGAWV will focus on during 2016:
* The unintended consequences for
the oil and gas industry from West Virginia's Aboveground Storage Tank (AST)
Act continues to trouble IOGAWV members. So, Hildreth says, the association's
Governmental Affairs and Environmental
& Safety committees will work through
the upcoming session to try to balance
the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's AST rules with

the bill's original intention.
* IOGAWV is monitoring local rules
and ordinances closely to determine
whether they are constitutional, since disrupting operations adds cost to an industry
that Hildreth says "can't afford additional
layer upon layer of piecemeal, sometimes
conflicting regulations."
Hildreth also mentions the association
has built a new website, which is more
interactive and incorporates more of IOGAWV's outreach and educational materials.
And, despite industry setbacks-legislatively, regulatory, or otherwise-Hildreth
says IOGAWV members, staff, and leaders
remain as active and as determined as
ever.
"IOGAWV's mission is to be out front
on regulatory issues and to protect the
membership," he emphasizes. "That includes the whole membership, which is
mostly wet gas producers, but there are
some oil operators. Ultimately, our job is
to protect the wellhead, no matter what
kind of well it is."

Legislative Limbo
IOGAWV Executive Director Charlie
Burd says West Virginia's ongoing discussion on pooling legislation may reach
its conclusion during the 2016 session.
After HB 2688 failed to pass at the end
of the 2015 session, he says House Energy
Chairman Lynwood "Woody" Ireland,
R-Ritchie, continued to improve the bill
so that it could be reintroduced in the
2016 regular legislative session, scheduled
to begin this month.
"Since March 2015, Ireland has continued putting together meetings for the
original stakeholder group," Burd describes. "He also has traveled throughout
the state to host town hall meetings with
the public, including mineral and surface
owners, to discuss the bill and give his
opinion on why it is fair for all involved
parties."
Burd says Ireland shared and discussed
the revamped pooling legislation in a
joint legislative interim committee in November. However the actual bill couldn't
be introduced until the legislature convened

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2016

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