A look back at fracking, from a leading reporter on the beat; environmental questions remain as industry shifts

Mike Soraghan started out with Energy and Environment News, which was bought by Politico, so now he writes for both. His latest opus is a look back at the history of horizontal hydraulic fracturing of deep shale, better known as "fracking," which has had a big impact on parts of rural America. Soragahn has covered it for more than a decade.

Mike Soraghan (Politico photo)

"Shale promised riches, and in some instances, it delivered, saving farms," he writes for Politico Magazine. "Fracking birthed tales of instant 'shale-ionnaires' and oilfield strippers tucking four-figure handfuls of cash in their garter belts for a night’s work. And it also fundamentally changed the United States’ position in the global energy economy, in ways that have been on prominent display over the first half of 2026.

"But a lot of the people you’d expect to profit from fracking . . . were instead crushed by it. And drilling wells could wreak environmental havoc, triggering earthquakes, ruining farmland, polluting airways and contaminating household water to the point it could catch fire. In short: Fracking rewrote the book on American energy, globally and domestically. . . . Today, even if you walk everywhere or drive an electric vehicle, fracking is responsible for keeping your grocery and electric bills down."

But now, "That tumultuous chapter is coming to an end, just as a war-driven energy crisis offers — or threatens — to rewrite the script once again. The irony is that the U.S. is outdoing the petro-kingdoms of the Middle East — just as the world is accelerating its turn toward renewable energy. The easy oil is getting harder to find. Even as production continues to climb, the rate of growth is slowing. Automation is replacing oil workers the way it did coal miners. Environmental protests have moved on to data centers. America’s wildcatters are again starting to scan the horizon for new discoveries abroad. Even Michael Steele, the former Republican Party chair who coined the term, 'Drill, Baby, Drill,' thinks the phrase has outlived its usefulness."

Environmental questions remain, especially "the long-term impact of pumping chemicals from the nearly 2 million fracked wells — questions that may not be answered for years or decades," Soraghan writes. Environmentalists are mostly against fracking shale, but Christopher Knittel, the associate dean for Climate and Stability at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Soraghan that greenhouse-gas emissions have been cut mainly by power plants’ switch from coal to natural gas. More broadly, Knittel worries that the U.S. backoff from electric vehicles means the American industry could be “islanded off” from the rest of the world. "Perhaps the model for the United States’ energy future isn’t Saudi Arabia, but an actual island," Soragahn concludes.

Landowners fight law enforcers' authority to enter rural properties without warrant; in Tenn. they need one now

Hunter Hollingsworth stands on his property in Benton
County, Tennessee. (Photo from Institute for Justice)

Should game wardens and other law-enforcement agents be allowed to enter private property and even install cameras without a warrant? The longstanding open fields doctrine says "Yes." Some property owners are saying, "No way." And they are suing, reports Carey L. Biron of Context, a publication of the Reuters news service.

Biron provides an example from a state where game wardens now have to get warrants: "Hunter Hollingsworth, a railroad technician, lives about 10 minutes from the family-owned 93-acre property in Benton County . . . . He was driving through his rural Tennessee property one morning when he saw something sparkle." Hollingsworth told Biron, "I thought it was a raccoon or a possum, shining in a tree. Then I realized it was a camera with an antenna."

Benton County, Tennessee (Wikipedia)

Biron explains, "It turned out state and federal wildlife agencies had hung the camera on his property, Hollingsworth said, seeking evidence that he was breaking conservation laws. . . . Though he acknowledged breaking one such rule, Hollingsworth said the camera was an invasion of privacy. Experts say the legalities involved go beyond wildlife conservation, touching on policing, online privacy and more." Hollingsworth told Biron, "They were surveilling every time I came and left, so they could come and check me every time I hunted."

Biron outlines the history: "The U.S. Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches of 'persons, houses, papers, and effects.' but the Supreme Court has interpreted that to mean that while officers require a warrant or just cause to search a home, legal protection does not extend beyond the house's immediate vicinity. This is called the open-fields doctrine. Barry Friedman, a law professor at the New York University School of Law, told Biron, "The doctrine is in serious need of attention as it gives license to law enforcement that is inconsistent with constitutional guarantees."

Hollingsworth sued to protect his privacy, and a state judge last ruled that "game wardens could not enter private land without a warrant. . . . Now the lawyer who spearheaded the case is trying to push other states with similar provisions and has begun another lawsuit in Pennsylvania." Joshua Windham, the attorney behind the cases for the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit, libertarian law firm, told Biron, "This is police state-style tactics, treating people's private spaces as presumptively open to prying eyes and surveillance."

Citing Carrie Leonetti, a professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Biron notes that the open-fields doctrine "arose at a time when most Americans lived in rural areas." Leonetti told Biron, "It's when the average person stopped living on farms and moved into suburban areas that this got really baffling. . . . The framework just doesn't fit with the vast majority of the ways that people live now." Biron adds, "Courts have had to wrestle with how these powers apply to suburban yards, apartment buildings and even homeless encampments." Hollingsworth sees it this way: "If I'm on a road on my property, I wouldn't expect privacy. But if I'm in the woods or in a field that you'd have to be on my property to see, I would expect that to be private."

Texans block Chinese billionaire's wind farm, citing security; 18 states mulling limits on foreign farmland ownership

Sun Guangxin (Photo by Zhang shi, Imaginechina)

Before curious rural Montanans reported a glowing orb high in the sky and the Chinese spy balloon was shot down, "Texas ranchers were worried about billionaire Sun Guangxin’s close connections with the Chinese state," reports Blake Schmidt of Bloomberg. "The former People’s Liberation Army captain . . . made a fortune by turning failing factories into lux real estate developments. . . . Critics have alleged that state connections are the backbone of Sun’s wealth, estimated at $2.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And that’s precisely why ranchers in southern Texas are worried."

Their worries stem from the sheer size of Sun's landholdings and its location: "They are trying to stop Sun’s foray into the Lone Star State on national-security grounds after his firm amassed 140,000 acres of farmland worth about $100 million along the Mexican border," Schmidt writes. "When he tried to develop part of it as a wind farm, Texas lawmakers sounded alarms because of its proximity to the state’s electric grid and a U.S. Air Force base. ... Spurred by neighboring landowners who oppose the wind farm, state officials passed a law protecting state infrastructure from foreign entities, and are now considering an even more contentious proposal to ban Chinese companies and individuals from owning rural land entirely."

The Texas resistance was local, but it "snowballed into a national movement. The issue of restricting ownership of farmland by entities linked to China and other foreign powers has popped up in at least 18 states, according to the National Agricultural Law Center," Schmidt reports. "It’s another way in which geopolitical tensions are simmering between the world’s two largest economies."

Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that "foreign entities or individuals control less than 3% of the nation’s farmland, and, within that subset, those with ties to China control less than 1% or about 384,000 acres," Schmidt points out. Despite those details, "In Montana, the suspected spy balloon has breathed new life into a bill to restrict foreign ownership. A city council in North Dakota this month voted down plans for a Chinese company to build a corn mill near an Air Force base. . . . . Virginia’s Democrat-led state Senate approved a ban on land ownership by foreign governments after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin rejected an effort by Ford Motor Co. to build a plant partnered with a Chinese battery maker."

Texas landowners first opposed the wind farm due to its scenic impact, but over time, they became more focused on national security. “We don’t care if you’re Elon Musk, Tom Hanks or a Chinese oligarch,” Randy Nunns, a board member of the landowner group Devils River Conservancy told Schmidt. “We don’t want the wind farm here.” Schmidt reports, "Nunns said that he didn’t expect his group’s not-in-my-backyard battle to go global, and that while the state’s proposal to ban Chinese ownership is 'too broad,' Sun’s investment activity was particularly concerning."

Athletes invest in Iowa farmland, which rose 17% in value in 2022, partly due to investors, who made 27% of purchases

Joe Burrow (Photo illustration by Front Office Sports)

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who advanced his team's defense of its Super Bowl title on Sunday, is investing some of his money in Iowa farmland, along with other professional athletes.

Burrow was part of "a group of about 25 athletes [who] pooled $5 million for an agricultural investment fund to purchase farmland," Abeer Allam reports for Successful Farming. "The first purchase was a 104-acre corn and soybean farm in northern Iowa, Front Office Sports reported this month."

The athletes "will lease the land to farmers and seek a single-digit-percentage annual return on the total investment, FOS reports. "The group — which will purchase four additional farms within the next few years, seeking a diverse set of agricultural assets — have looked into watermelon farms in Oregon, which tend to be smaller and offer higher per-acre rent." Allam reports the move was prompted by "investment in farmland by high-profile billionaire buyers like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett . . . to diversify their investment portfolio and hedge against inflation, experts say."

“Beyond the traditional reasons of buying recreational land, many investors see farmland as a stable asset that could generate robust returns,” Wendong Zhan, leading researcher of the Iowa Land Value Survey at Iowa State University and assistant professor at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., told Allam. “The declines during downtimes tend to be less drastic.”

The Land Value Survey found that the average value of Iowa farmland "increased 17% to $11,411 an acre in November 2022 from November 2021, the highest nominal value ever since the 1940s," Allam notes. "The value growth has been driven by several factors including high commodity prices, bumper crop yield, low-interest rates, limited land supply, and strong demand from investors. . . . Investors represented 27% of land sales in Iowa, split between local and non-local investors, while new farmers accounted for 4% of sales in 2022, according to the survey."

Higher land value is good news for owners, but "Farmers who still have farmland mortgages and/or rent many acres from others, face a much higher cost of financing and cash rents," Allam notes.

Texas and other conservative states embrace wind power, other renewables without acknowledging climate change

Illustration for The Economist by Brett Ryder

Red states are embracing wind power without acknowledging climate change. The Energy Information Administration predicts Texas will generate more electricity this year from renewables than from natural gas, but Texas conservatives are, well, conservative about terminology. “When someone says we are embracing green energy, it’s like shoving an ice pick through our ears,” says Matt Welch, head of Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation, told The Economist. “We just say clean energy.”

Welch spoke to The Economist's anonymous "Schumpeter" columnist, who writes, "You might think that California, which talks a good game about climate change and green energy, is on the forefront of renewables development. But Texas is far ahead." A study for Welch’s group found that in the second quarter of 2022, Texas "had three times more wind, solar and battery storage under construction than California."

That doesn't sit well with some in the energy trade for which Texas is known, oil and natural gas. "It is from their own Republican ranks that wind-energy ranchers face the most antagonism—especially from fossil-fuel producers who fear being undercut by renewables," Schumpeter reports. "Organizations like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which lobbies on behalf of oil and gas, and the Texas Landowners Coalition, backed by right-wing beneficiaries of the fracking boom, are fighting tooth and nail to curb wind development. The TPPF’s battle extends to proposed offshore wind farms as far away as New England."

With money from the bill Democrats dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, Texas "expects to attract big hydrogen and carbon-sequestration projects. Other Republican states like Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee are welcoming billions of dollars of clean-energy investments spurred by the IRA," Schumpeter writes. "Even conservative businesses that lobby strongly for fossil fuels hope to benefit from the energy transition. For example, Koch Industries . . . supported a big investment by Freyr, a Norwegian firm, in a battery factory in Georgia that will benefit from the law. The upshot is that there are ways to promote clean energy that do not rely on convincing climate skeptics that they are bonkers. A better sales pitch may be to play up the cost advantages of renewables rather than the climate benefits, emphasise their contribution to cutting air pollution rather than carbon emissions, and acknowledge that, owing to intermittency factors, natural gas may have a role to play in power generation for years to come."

University of Texas energy professor Michael Webber told Schumpeter, “It’s not unusual for Texas to do the right thing for all the wrong reasons.” John Davis, a rancher near Austin, noted that many others in Texas have benefited from oil and gas for generations. Finally, he said, “We struck wind.”

Couple fights for nature-friendly lawn and wins, prompting first such state law to rein in homeowners' associations

The yard (Photo by Jason Andrew, The New York Times)

A wise man once said, "The only thing more challenging than your lawn is your neighbor's lawn." Disputes over property maintenance are one reason some people prefer to live in rural areas; the disputes can range from quibbles to outright battle zones, but it's a rare lawn dispute that leads to a groundbreaking state law.

Janet and Jeff Crouch of Columbia, Md., had "lived on their quiet cul-de-sac harmoniously with their neighbors for years, and chose native plants to help insects, birds and wildlife thrive," reports Cara Buckley of The New York Times. Then they got a letter from their homeowners' association saying, "Your yard is not the place for such a habitat." The letter gave the Crouches "10 days to convert their front yard into a lawn that looked like everyone else’s."

The Crouches were not willing to tear up their nature haven without a fight that cost them $60,000. "They hired a lawyer and contacted every wildlife and environmental group they could think of, along with local legislators," Buckley reports. They filed a lawsuit, and two months later, "a Maryland state representative asked if they would allow their case to form the basis of a new environmental law. . . . A bill was drafted that forbade homeowner associations from banning pollinator plants or rain gardens, or from requiring property owners to plant turf grass. The measure gained bipartisan support, passed with near unanimity, and became law in October 2021."

Mary Catherine Cochran, former legislative director for Delegate Terri L. Hill, told Buckley that "Maryland law was the first in the country to limit homeowner-association control over eco-friendly yards."

"Lawns make up one-third of the country’s 135 million acres of residential landscaping," ecologist Douglas W. Tallamy told Buckley. Tallamy, whose book, Nature’s Best Hope, urges homeowners to change their yards into conservation corridors told Buckley, “This idea that humans and nature cannot coexist is destroying the entire planet, which in turn is destroying humans. The only way forward is to coexist. . . . Now people know if they fight back, they can win.”

Big bill's rural-health items touch Medicaid money, telehealth rules, mental-health hotline, drug treatment, Native care

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks with reporters as he
walks to a vote at the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Francis Chung, Politico)

The whopping 4,155-page omnibus spending bill is whipping its way through Congress. The $1.7 trillion measure is crammed with public-policy changes and funding provisions.

Here are some items with rural resonance that made it in, starting with several health-related provisions:

• An earlier end to Covid-era state Medicaid funding and rules. Additional funding will end on April 1, 2023, instead of June 30. The change will end rules that effectively barred any state from dropping people from the rolls if the state wanted to get the 6.2% bonus.
  
• An extension of rules that supported telehealth options through 2024, which "falls far short of a push from some lawmakers who wanted to make that flexibility permanent," Politico notes. The pandemic ushered in telehealth as accepted medical care.
• Almost $502 million, a nearly $400 million increase, for the new 988 national hotline for mental-health services. "The ultimate goal is to be able to dispatch mobile crisis teams immediately to anyone in need, no matter where they live," The Washington Post reports.
• Easier access for health-care providers to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction. They would no longer have to get a separate waiver from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
• More stable funding for the Indian Health Service, a result of perhaps the largest effort by Native American groups "to provide more funding certainty to the federal health agency that helps serve roughly 2.6 million American Indians and Alaska Natives," the Post reports.
• A limit for tax breaks on land-conservation purchases: "The provision would automatically disallow any deduction that is 2.5 times more than what investors put into a partnership that is making the deals — an indication that easement organizers artificially inflated the value of conserved land to get more tax savings," reports Benjamin Guggenheim of PoliticoPro.
• "Maine lawmakers successfully included a pause on new regulations they warned would cripple their state’s lobster industry," Politico reports. "The provision delays new rules by six years, which critics argue will allow fisheries to put off actions that would prevent fishing gear from harming and even killing endangered whales."
  
• UPDATE: The bill funds a program that gives poor families $40 per month per child for summer groceries, and "allows schools and nonprofits in rural areas to deliver meals or offer pick-up options to families during those months," The New York Times reports.

The bill would also amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to make clear that the vice president, as presiding officer of the Senate, plays only a ministerial or ceremonial role in the counting of electoral votes from the states. The law's vagueness contributed to the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The bill would also raise the threshold for challenging electoral votes to one-fifth of both the House and Senate, from the current one member of each chamber.

Showdown in Wyoming may define the rights of public access to checkerboarded public lands in the Western U.S.

Elk Mountain is a hunter's paradise. The 11,000-foot peak in southern Wyoming is home to hundreds of elk, deer and antelope. But there's a catch: "You can't get there from here," writes Michael Allen of The Wall Street Journal. "The sprawling mountain is surrounded by private ranchland. While the prime hunting ground is checkerboarded with federal and state property, a pattern created when railroads and settlers came, access is limited by an age-old Western doctrine. Ranchers consider it unneighborly for outsiders to hopscotch through their land by crossing over public sections that meet only at a corner."

Allen writes about four hunters from Missouri who got inventive. "Using a special stepladder, they climbed between two parcels owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management, taking care not to set foot on the private property on either side," reports Allen. But then things got sticky. "The local sheriff got involved, and before long the four hunters found themselves facing criminal-trespassing charges in state court. The prosecutor argued that it wasn’t enough that the defendants didn’t physically touch the private property," because they were in its airspace, Allen explains. The case is still in litigation.

"The courtroom clash is drawing attention to an anomaly of Western land ownership dating back to the 19th century," Allen said. "The digital navigation company onX says it has identified more than 8 million acres of state and federal land in Western states that are blocked from public access due to the legal gray area around corner-crossing. . . .That doesn’t stop some eager hunters, who are resorting to ever-more-exotic lengths to get past the legal barriers."

Va. officials give green light for state's 1st onshore wind farm

Company simulation shows how North Mountain near Eagle Rock, Va., would look. (Apex Clean Energy)

After a seven-year battle and a court-ordered review, Virginia officials have reaffirmed their approval of what would be the state's first land-based wind farm. Apex Clean Energy of Charlottesville "says it intends to start construction once a final site plan and other permits are approved" by Botetourt County officials, reports Laurence Hammack of The Roanoke Times, The Rocky Forge Wind project would have 13 turbines, each 634 feet tall, along a ridgeline of North Mountain near Eagle Rock (other ridges named North Mountain are much farther northeast).

"Apex has not found a buyer for the 75 megawatts of electricity the turbines will produce at peak capacity," Hammack reports. "But unlike in 2017 — when the wind farm had all of its required permits but delayed construction for two years while it searched for a utility or other entity to purchase its power — the company is planning to move ahead this time without a signed contract." Company spokesman Patrick Chilton told Hammack, “Apex is in active discussions with potential commercial partners. We feel very strongly in the market for this project and know that the more ‘real’ Rocky Forge becomes, those conversations will pick up significantly.”

The project was also delayed by a lawsuit from landowners in Botetourt County and adjoining Rockbridge County who "say their property will be devalued by turbines that will mar the scenic landscape, kill birds and bats that fly into their spinning blades, cause other environmental damage and produce low-frequency noise and shadow flicker," Hammack notes. "Apex agreed to turn the turbines off at dusk and restart them at dawn in the warmer months, when bats are most active."

More recently, the American Bird Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have voiced concerns that the farm would threaten golden eagles, but a 2015 Apex study indicated otherwise, and state officials said they could not "force Apex to restudy the risk to eagles under the narrow confines of the amended-permit process," Hammack reports. The judge in the case did order another public-comment period, saying state officials made procedural errors.

UPDATE, 8/4/23: Apex says construction will not start until summer or fall of 2024.

Appalachia may be left out of soon-to-rise exports of natural gas; industry sources blame difficult pipeline permitting

Despite projections for growth in U.S. natural-gas exports, investments in gas production may shift away from Appalachia, Joseph Markham reports for Yahoo!Finance. A tough regulatory environment in northeastern states has made it hard for gas companies to build pipelines to transport gas from the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations — one of the nation's largest gas reserves, which lies beneath much of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and southern New York.

Investment capital is headed "down to the Gulf Coast," Kevin Little, senior vice president for natural gas at Macquarie Energy at a natural gas conference held by Hart Energy. As demand for gas is rising in Europe, due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there are expectations for growth in the U.S. gas industry, especially in Texas, Louisiana and the Midcontinent region, Little said.

After a couple years of pipeline construction in the northeast, many states, like New York and New Jersey began to push back and deny certification for pipelines, Markham reports. Lawsuits over proposed pipeline projects traveled to the Supreme Court, and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has struggled to pass legislation allowing for the completion of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would pass through his state and Virginia.

"If you have to get an act of Congress to get your permits to build a pipeline, if you’ve got to go to the Supreme Court and you still can’t build a pipeline, this is not a great environment to build midstream infrastructure," Little said. "And so, you’ve not seeing a whole lot of new pipelines proposed."

Kansas City Fed: Midwest farmland values up more than 20% in 2021; non-farmer investors increasingly buying in

Change in Tenth District farmland values (Charts by Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City )

"Fueled by strong farm income and low interest rates, farmland values soared more than 20% in the Central Plains during 2021, according to a quarterly survey of ag bankers by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank," Chuck Abbott reports for the Food & Environment Reporting Network. "A majority of the lenders said they expected values to increase this year, but an equally large number 'also indicated that farmland values were currently overvalued, suggesting there may still be future risks of declines,' said the regional Fed." The Kansas City Fed's Tenth District is Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, northern New Mexico and western Missouri.

Nonirrigated farmland value was up an average of 24%, irrigated farmland and ranchland were up 22% last year, mostly because of "strong demand, historically low interest rates, and vastly improved conditions in the farm economy," according to the report. The higher prices and greater interest in farmland often make it difficult for new and minority farmers to buy in.

The report also noted that non-farmer investors account for an increasing share of farmland sales. "Despite a higher volume of sales, farmers accounted for a smaller share of the total farmland purchased in the District," says the report. "Farmers still accounted for more than 70% of farmland purchases in 2021, but unlike the prior period of strengthening farm income immediately after 2010, the share of land purchased by farmers declined slightly. The modest pullback in purchasing activity from farmers alongside broad strength in the agricultural economy suggests strong interest in farmland from non-farmers and outside investors."

Atlantic Coast Pipeline was canceled, but landowners still unsure what will happen to easements on their property

Atlantic Coast Pipeline proposed route (Associated Press map)

Atlantic Coast Pipeline developers used eminent domain to force thousands of landowners to sell them narrow strips of land to bury the pipeline. But in July 2020, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy canceled the project. Over a year later, those landowners still don't know what will happen to the easements crossing their property.

"Some landowners have miles of the pipeline already installed on their properties. Contractors for Duke and Dominion also cleared trees along more than 110 miles across West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, leaving about half of the felled trees on the property," Emily Allen reports for Mountain State Spotlight. From West Virginia to North Carolina, "The proposed pipeline would’ve crossed more than 2,600 easements, covering nearly 4,300 acres of land — all of which Duke and Dominion now own the rights to," according to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Dominion spokesperson Christine Mitchell told Allen in an email that the company will hang onto the easements for the next few years to "develop the most responsible approach" for restoration. "We plan to keep the easements until all restoration and monitoring are complete," she wrote. "However, we will evaluate individual landowner requests on a case-by-case basis."

Landowners fear the easements could be sold to another pipeline developer after the land is restored in one to two years, said Isak Howell, a Roanoke-based lawyer with Appalachian Mountain Advocates, which represents dozens of landowners in ACP cases. FERC hasn’t addressed the relinquishment of easements, Allen reports.

Quick hits: Billionaires buy up farmland; USDA wants feedback on rural renewable-energy pilot program...

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The new jobs-and-stimulus package dedicates $20 million for efforts to preserve tribal languages. Read more here.

A pilot project in rural Maine aims to use paramedics to improve health-care access. Read more here.

The Agriculture Department wants feedback on the creation of a rural renewable-energy pilot program. Read more here.

An Illinois billionaire has quietly bought about 24,000 acres of farmland in the state since 2015, saying it's a good investment. Farmland purchases by hedge funds and the wealthy have surged in recent years, and economists say it's a good investment because of its stability. But wealthy investors paying top dollar for farmland contributes to the shortage of land available for farmers to purchase. Read more here.

The Hospital (St, Martin's, $28.99), a new book by journalist Brian Alexander, examines the state of rural health care by focusing on a small hospital in northwest Ohio. Read more here.

University of Tennessee agricultural economists Harwood D. Schaffer and Daryll E. Ray have dedicated their "Policy Pennings" columns over the past month to a look back at crop export trends over the past 60 years, and what they can teach us now. Read more here.

A legal scholar who was raised in rural America discusses academia's blind spot towards rural areas. Read more here.

if you're looking for a story that delves deeply into coal ash and how it impacts people nearby, this is one of the best we've ever seen. Read it here.

An op-ed says the USDA shouldn't be funding rural jails. Read more here.

A study examines the impact of solar farms on rural property values, and notes that such projects increasingly compete with rural residential developers and concentrated animal feeding operation farmers for rural land. Read more here. 

Health-care providers and housing experts explore the intersection of rural housing quality and health. Read more here.

Nov. 18 workshop to explore issues with heirs' property, a leading cause of land loss among many rural Blacks

A Nov. 18 virtual workshop will explore heirs' property and the critical role it plays in wealth inequality. Heir's property is land informally passed down to heirs from those without a will, and it is a leading cause of land loss among many rural Blacks, especially in South Carolina. 

The Aspen Institute's Community Strategies Group and the Center for Heirs' Property Preservation will present the workshop. The schedule is as follows:

Plenary session from 1-3 p.m. ET, in which participants can learn the context of heir's property and the Center's work.

Breakout discussions from 3:30-5:30 p.m. ET; you may choose two from the following topics: 

• Legal and Policy Approaches to Resolving Heirs’ Property
• The Opportunity for the Conservation Sector: Engaging People of Color and Their Land
• Building a Movement of Landowner Advocates
• Heirs’ Property Across Race and Place
• Forestry and Wealth Creation in the American Black Belt

A screening of America's Forests with Chuck Leavell of the Rolling Stones from 6-7 p.m. ET.

 Click here for more information or to register.

Nebraska bill aims to reduce property taxes for farmers, make up the difference with excess state revenue

As farmland continues to rise in value, more and more farm owners say they're struggling under the weight of increased property taxes, especially after 2019's poor harvest. 

In Nebraska, property taxes are especially high. "On average, Nebraska farmers pay $16,200 in property taxes per year, among the highest figures of any state. And the state relies heavily on that money: More than a quarter of its total property-tax revenue, much of which pays for public education, comes from farmland," April Simpson reports for Stateline. "In fact, Nebraska brings in more cash taxing farmland than any state but California and Texas."

Critics say land value doesn't necessarily indicate what farmers are making off that land, and say "Nebraska’s antiquated system reflects a time when property ownership was an indication of wealth and income," reports Simpson, who notes that property taxes are also high in the northeastern U.S.

A new bill in Nebraska would decrease property-tax assessments, more so on farmland, and funnel excess state revenue to fund schools so districts are less reliant on property taxes, Simpson reports.

Atlantic Coast Pipeline hits biggest roadblock yet as federal appeals panel throws out critical environmental permit

Proposed route of Atlantic Coast Pipeline
(Associated Press map; click to enlarge it)

The Atlantic Coast Pipeline has been dealt one of its biggest setbacks by a federal appeals court, which threw out an important permit last week, saying lead developer Dominion Energy didn't adequately protect endangered or threatened species in the pipeline's proposed path and the federal agency that is supposed to protect them didn't do its job as it fast-tracked permitting.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals "vacated a permit that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued last year just 19 days after the same court blocked the agency’s previous finding that the massive natural gas pipeline would not jeopardize the viability of four endangered or threatened species," Michael Martz reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Chief Judge Roger Gregory wrote in the opinion that Fish and Wildlife "appears to have lost sight of its mandate" under the Endangered Species Act by approving the permit so quickly, and that the agency failed to show how the pipeline wouldn't threaten endangered bumblebees in Bath County, Virginia, on the West Virginia border, or freshwater mussels in three West Virginia waterways. "The ruling also concluded that the reissued permit failed to establish 'enforceable take limits' for an endangered bat species in Virginia and West Virginia and threatened crustaceans that live in underground limestone karst formations in the Shenandoah Valley," Martz reports.

Dominion spokesperson Aaron Ruby said he expects the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Fish and Wildlife Service will be able to quickly resolve the issues raised by the court, and says he believes the project remains on track to be completed by late 2021, Martz reports.

This isn't the first time the pipeline has faced legal roadblocks. "A series of adverse rulings by the 4th Circuit on federal permits for the project prompted the pipeline company, led by Dominion, to change its construction plans earlier this year," Martz reports. "The company suspended work in December after the 4th Circuit issued a stay on the biological opinion for the entire length of the pipeline, not just the 100 miles or so that Dominion contends would affect endangered or threatened species addressed in the permit."

New documentary chronicles legal battle between W.Va. landowners and owner of mineral rights on their land

A new documentary explores the impact of hydraulic fracturing on landowners. "Powerless: The High Cost of Cheap Gas" follows Beth Crowder and David Wentz of West Virginia, who battled in courts for years with natural-gas company EQT Corp. over fracking on their land, Mayeta Clark reports for ProPublica, in conjunction with the Charleston Gazette-Mail. The film is a product of ProPublica and CBS.

In June, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that oil and gas companies are trespassing if they enter private lands to use it for something the landowners didn't agree to. EQT used the well site on their land to drill fracking wells to reach adjacent tracts where it also owned the mineral rights.

When Crowder and Wentz bought their land in 1975, they knew EQT owned the mineral rights, but they could not have imagined fracking, which involves much above-ground equipment and facilities, and how disruptive the drilling technique would prove, they alleged. Eventually, they prevailed.

Appeals court cancels permits for Mountain Valley Pipeline

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously rescinded permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline last week, saying the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management had not fully vetted the project for its environmental impact and had simply accepted assurances from the builders. The natural-gas pipeline is now under construction and would pass through West Virginia and Virginia, including a 3.6-mile stretch of the Jefferson National Forest.

Gregory Schneider reports for The Washington Post, "Pittsburgh-based EQT Midstream Partners, which is leading the coalition of companies building the pipeline, said it was 'evaluating the court’s decision.' Spokeswoman Natalie Cox noted that the ruling left the door open for the federal agencies to redo their permits. The judges ordered the agencies to reconsider the permits using proper procedure."

The pipeline has been challenged with multiple lawsuits and other protests from environmentalists and some landowners. "Opponents said Friday they hope the federal court decision will cause a more robust state review of water quality issues raised by pipeline construction," Schneider reports.

Many rural cemeteries are abandoned; who will tend them?

Photo collage by The Daily Yonder

"As families pull up roots to look for opportunities elsewhere, as young people move away from their hometowns, and as elders who had time for such tasks die out, rural communities are faced with a difficult question: Who will tend the graves? Additional factors like weather, climate change, economic challenges, and the mysteries of human behavior make the story even more complicated," Donna Kallner writes for The Daily Yonder, offering "the grave news from a few rural communities."

Her first example is from Nebraska, where "The Kearney Hub reported that the tax-exempt request for Dove Hill cemetery lists as its caretaker one Miriam Brandt. Brandt died in 2012. The county doesn’t know if someone else has assumed responsibility, although someone has left plastic flowers there. The unmarked, unfenced burial ground is overgrown by tall grasses. The lettering on its one standing gravestone is illegible, likely because of cattle rubbing against it."

State laws on cemeteries vary, but Kallner, who lives in Wisconsin, writes generally: "Unless neighbors come forward to tell the county board a cemetery is neglected or abandoned, local government’s options are limited. Many people don’t know that, or don’t want to seem disrespectful to the dead by complaining. They may take on the job informally and then move on — or die themselves, taking the secret of that good deed to the grave and leaving no one behind to carry on."

Pipeline protesters see parallels with civil-rights activists

Stephanie Davis hugs an ally after her charge was
dropped. (Roanoke Times photo by Nathan Klima)

More than 20 people from all walks of life have been charged with non-violent misdemeanors for protesting the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Appalachia, like the mother and daughter who blocked construction for nearly a month by sitting in treehouses in the path of construction, or the group who chained themselves to construction equipment. Some have compared these protesters to those of the civil-rights movement. "Just as those advocating equal rights for blacks saw fit to break unjust laws of the Jim Crow era, the argument goes, pipeline opponents are being arrested for resisting laws allowing a project that they say will ruin individual lives and the environment at large," Laurence Hammack reports for The Roanoke Times in Virginia.

Stephanie Stallings Davis, who was arrested April 11 for trespassing on Mountain Valley property with the intent to damage or impede construction, said as she left Roanoke County District Court on Wednesday morning: "It was important to me that I take a stand . .. to protect our water, our land and our rights as citizens. . . . We will not stand down."

The prosecutor dropped the charge against Davis on Wednesday after the judge refused to allow a continuance, but it's unclear whether the charge will be reinstated. About 20 people showed up to support Davis in court, as encouraged by Katie Zawacki, chair of the nonprofit Points of Diversity. During a rally the day before in Roanoke, held next to a statue of Martin Luther King Jr., Zawacki asked the 50 or so attendees to back pipeline protesters charged with crimes and attend their trials. "There are no terrorists here," Zawacki said. "In many ways, this entire scene seems surreal to us."