Nothing but greed drives them

IT IS now June of 2015, and EQT is still at it. What I mean by that is until they satisfy their lust for revenge against us for interfering with their corporate scheme of increasing their bottom line by deception and lies, they will continue to ignore laws and regulations, and manhandle the courts until they get what they want.

David Porges, the CEO of EQT, has overwhelmed the court system in Greene County, Pennsylvania, and the Superior Court of Pennsylvania with nothing but bullshit, lies and such weak arguments that it leaves me knowing without a doubt that justice in America is nonexistent. Bear with me as I try to express what I find to be hard-to-believe behavior by the courts and David Porges himself.

At present, my wife and I are under an injunction order to stay 1,000 feet from the shallow gas well on our property. I asked the judge to arrest me in court since I violate this injunction all the time--with our house being only 120 feet from our well. He chose not to.

The injunction was requested by David Porges' attorney and granted by the courts because of my testimony about how emotional people under corporate occupation can be when their homes, water, air, grandchildren and way of life become meaningless obstacles to a corporate CEOs desire to show all of us how powerful they are.

EQT wants to plug our currently operating gas well and has been granted permission to do so by the courts and the Pennsylvania DEP (which stands for Don't Expect Protection, though some people know it as the Department of Environmental Protection), even though their legal obligation to plug our well was six months after commercial production ended, which was years ago.

The courts have supported the idea that EQT's lease was automatically continued, with the claim that because they continued to pay us our $200 dollars royalty a year, a "tenancy at will" was established. Three superior court judges in Pennsylvania determined that a "tenancy at will" existed, even though the legal definition of a "tenancy at will" requires both lessor and lessee to agree to the lease continuing, should production cease (as it did for years) and the royalty continues to be paid.

Also, our royalty was reduced from $300 a year to $200 a year, based on the fact that production went down. On that basis, one would think that if production ended altogether, so would the royalty.

This is court-supported theft. Why would three superior court judges rule that a "tenancy at will" did exist? Your guess is most likely correct. It's called kleptocracy, and there are hundreds of families in our situation, which is another rock-solid justification for ruling against us. Because a judge may have ruled erroneously in the past doesn't excuse the current judges reviewing this case to rule appropriately. Corporations were granted "personhood" because of a clerical mistake made by a court reporter, and that was never rectified either.

We currently have the Pennsylvania superior court examining our case again to lift the injunction and review the issues. While nothing has been decided yet, David Porges had our well surveyed and plans to plug it shortly, before the court makes a decision.

THIS IS the biggest indicator of all that retaliation is their goal: They have absolutely no reason and gain no benefits from plugging this well. Meanwhile, the well is supplying our house with plenty of gas for our renter, who has been deemed a "hero" by Carnegie Institute for going into a methane-filled coal mine entrance under construction after an explosion and bringing two men to the surface, while a fire company rescue team watched. He now has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had to quit his job. He gets no unemployment and has no health care. He is truly benefiting from the free gas.

My main concern here is not to secure free gas for us, since we have been run out of our home and are currently renting it. Our main concern is for our grandchild, who loves this house and may want to live there at some point.

David Porges will destroy the water well, which is only 100 feet from the gas well he wants to cap; the stream, which only 25 feet from the gas well; and most likely neighbors; wells, which are within 1,000 feet from the gas well. We know personally that this will happen, since our spring, which I developed, was ruined, due to plugging of a gas well 300 feet away from it. So much for David Porges; professed commitment to the environment and community.

All he has to do is sign a one-page paper with the DEP, granting us responsibility for the well's operation and alleviating EQT's liability for the well and their responsibility to plug it, if and when it is depleted.

Taking Porges to court on a pro-se basis for years has cost us very little monetarily, while I am sure they are paying high fees for fancy attorneys. And, again, although their ownership of the registration on the well grants them as much as half a million dollars when the coal is taken underneath, we own the coal and will not sell any more of it than the few acres we sold to get the hell out of there, and to share it with many charitable organizations. We own all the gas rights as well and will not lease them for nothing.

David Porges cares nothing for the environment, the community and the future of this planet, for his own grandchildren let alone anyone else. EQT is a rogue outfit, and unless "We the People" stand up and stop these kleptocrats, the future of this country and the world will not be fit for life as we know it--or should I say, "knew" it. Only those who drop to their knees before them will have the privilege of wearing the finest respirator and using the best water filter money can buy in order to survive.

I fly our flag upside down as I believe we are in extreme distress. As Wendell Berry states: "There is no sense and no sanity in objecting to the desecration of the flag while tolerating, and justifying, and encouraging, as a daily business, the desecration of the country for which it stands."