THE BATTLE BETWEEN COAL RIGHTS AND GAS RIGHTS CONTINUES: HAZARD COAL CORP. V. KENTUCKY WEST VIRGINIA GAS CO.

摘要

The Commonwealth of Kentucky owes much of the size of its economy, both past and present, to the coal industry. For years that industry provided countless jobs to the people of the Commonwealth, especially in eastern Kentucky. The Kentucky General Assembly recognized the importance of the industry by explicitly stating in the Kentucky Revised Statutes that "[t]he General Assembly finds that the Commonwealth is the leading producer of coal and that the production of coal in Kentucky contributes significantly to the nation's energy needs." In the past Kentucky has been very protective of the coal industry, sometimes even at the expense of crucial environmental concerns. However, recent years have seen a steady decline of the coal industry. A recent Louisville Courier-Journal article stated that coal production declined by about fifty million tons from 1990 to 2002 and that the number of people employed by the industry declined by more than fifty percent over the same period. Recent years have also seen a rise of the natural gas industry; the number of people employed in that industry increased drastically in the last decade. John Gabbard, Executive Director of the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, noted that "[e]astem Kentucky is going bonkers on natural gas right now." The decline in coal production and the increase in natural gas production can be attributed, at least in part, to the rising demand for natural gas to generate electricity and to heat homes.