The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1951-03-15
STATE SEEKS
REGULATORY LAW
ON GAS FIELD
Hearing Held Yesterday At An
napOliS On Both Measures
In Legislature

Whether or not Garrett county
would reap some benefit from its re-
Gently discovered natural gas field, or
whether the state would step into the
picture, hung in the balance today,
following hearing before the House
Ways and Means committee at An
napolis yesterday.
Joseph Singewald, head of the De-
partment of Geology, wants to put
some restrictions on the development,
and Garrett county wants to reap
some benefits by taxing the gas and
applying the tax for the completion
of its school buildings.
Two bills to accomplish both pur-
poses were considered by the House
committee. The Senate already has
passed a bill to let the county put a
seven percent tax on producers. Rep
resentatives of the Cumberland and
Allegheny Gas company and Column
bian Carbon company have protested
the tax as restraint on development.
Lewis Jones, local attorney for CO.
lumbar, conceded his company is re-
signed to some taxation but sit should
be proportional between the producer
and purchaser" Cumberland and Ale
gheny representatives felt the tax was
properly on the producer but objected
to collecting it as provided in the bill
introduced by Senator Fraley.
Singewald declared, It's like gold
rush" to develop the natural gas field
in the county and said "a gambling
spirit" hangs over the area with pro-
ducers crowding in to tap the gas
which started coming in about year
ago.
Singewald reported his department
has issued 81 permits for drilling in
the 40-mile stretch of Garrett county
in which natural gas is likely and that
more applications are coming in. He
advocated state regulation in the in
terest of conservation and economy.
He declared the Garrett county legis-
lators were among chose who prefer
to be non-restricted opportunists and
to gamble on obtaining more than
fair share of this natural resource,
who would not favor enactment Of
the regulatory bill"
The County Commissioners are
definitely opposed to the state regula-
tory bill and sent their attorney, Rich
ard Pagenhardt, to the hearing yester-
day. The time limit on the hearing
ran out, however, before those who
objected had an opportunity to voice
their sentiments. Pagenhardt said this
morning that several other drillers
were present at the hearing who OPP
posed such regulation by the state.
He said the Commissioners objected
because the field isn't yet proved,
that the county needs the revenue, and
any such regulation by the state would
tend to cut down the county's rightful
share from the product under its land.
Frank Boyd, geologist for the C.
and A. Gas company, argued the pro-
ducers are going to be interested in
economy and efficiency without state
regulation because it is their money.
Singewald maintained his state bill
was concerned solely with orderly de-
velopment and proper spacing of wells
and pointed out that uncontrolled drill
ing of unnecessary wells could readily
result in the waste of large sum of
money. He declared unnecessarily
closely spaced wells results also in
uneven exhaustion and in uneven low
cring of the gas pressure in the pool
which can result in reduction in the
ultimate gas recovered from the pool.
He maintained the small operator
and owners of land without wells in
the drilling areas would be protected
by state control of spacing. Otherwise
the owner of a small lot could put in
well and draw the gas off adjoining
land. Around Mt. Lake Park he said
the average spacing per well already
is reduced to l6 acres