There’s a new controversy brewing - one that could mean trouble for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. It involves a lawsuit on behalf of landowners in Southwestern Virginia. They claim two energy companies failed to pay them royalties on methane gas wells. One of those firms has given $100,000 to Cuccinelli’s campaign - and now a judge in the case says she’s shocked by e-mails from the attorney general’s office to those energy companies. Sandy Hausman reports on the history of the case. Methane gas was long considered a nuisance and a possible danger - something that could cause explosions and kill coal miners, so companies tried to vent the stuff off wherever possible, but in the early 80’s, mining firms realized the gas could be captured and sold. “So all of a sudden, what was a waste product and a danger became more valuable than the coal itself, and the question was who owned. The coal companies said we own it, but courts have ruled that the landowner owns it.” That’s Don Barrett,
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