<a href="http://planphilly.com/pennsylvania-independent-penndot-lands-could-be-worth-millions" target="_blank">When traveling along Interstate 80 in the western half of Pennsylvania, drivers could be riding directly above some of the state's most lucrative land.
Leasing that land, which would allow drilling companies to extract natural gas from beneath state-owned highways, could mean millions of dollars for the state over the next twenty years.
"In the Marcellus area, a large portion of the private property has been leased on both sides of the road, but the gas companies cannot drill under the land owned by the state. Legally, the highway is an underground fence, and that property can be enormously profitable to the drillers if they are able to drill from the east side or the west side of the highway," said Dr. Dennis Wydra, a retired professor who has spent the last three years researching the Marcellus Shale projects for the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania.
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Leasing that land, which would allow drilling companies to extract natural gas from beneath state-owned highways, could mean millions of dollars for the state over the next twenty years.
"In the Marcellus area, a large portion of the private property has been leased on both sides of the road, but the gas companies cannot drill under the land owned by the state. Legally, the highway is an underground fence, and that property can be enormously profitable to the drillers if they are able to drill from the east side or the west side of the highway," said Dr. Dennis Wydra, a retired professor who has spent the last three years researching the Marcellus Shale projects for the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania.
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