N.Y. Farmers Learn Fracking May Mean Drilling If Neighbors Agree
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Kris VanSlyke doesn’t want fracking on the 170 acres in New York’s Southern Tier that have been in her husband’s family for 150 years. She may have no choice.
VanSlyke got a letter last year from XTO Energy, a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp., informing her that portions of her property are within range of a horizontal hydraulic-fracturing well the company wants to build if New York approves drilling. Under a 2005 law, the company doesn’t need VanSlyke’s permission to buy the natural gas under her farm once 60 percent of the land around the well is leased or owned.