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BusinessPa. Farmers Hope for Natural Gas WindfallPa. Farmers Hope for Natural Gas WindfallThe Associated PressFarmers in Northeast Pennsylvania are leasing their land to natural gas companies and hoping for a multi-million dollar windfall. (July 14)((Susquehanna County, PA)) NATS: cow noises It may look like an ordinary Pennsylvania farm - but what lies beneath appears to be worth millions of dollars. NATS: rooster Before she realized the REAL cash cow on her farm, Elizabeth Downey put the land up for sale, needing money to keep the family afloat. ((Elizabeth Downey, Farm Owner)) "We needed the money to help raise this child." But in what has become an everyday occurrence here, a better offer came her way. NATS: natural gas well being drilled She leased her property to a natural gas company, and stands to make millions of dollars over the next several years in royalties. NATS: rooster crowing. There's a land rush underway here. Just over two years ago "land men," many from Texas; started leasing mineral rights from landowners here for as little as two dollars an acre. Now, the going rate has skyrocketed to 2 thousand, 500 dollars an acre, for a five year lease. ((Tom Murphy, Penn State University)) "You have whole communities that have essentially won the lottery, because of these lease payments." Tom Murphy is an agriculturalist from nearby Penn State University. "This is a huge mineral resource that's coming to market at a time the market is asking for more and more gas. There is really no land for sale any more. In about the last six to eight months any land that came to the marketplace has disappeared." The source of the fuel, and thus the wealth, is a 300-million year old land formation called the Marcellus Shale that stretches from West Virginia to upstate New York. ((Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press)) ((Susquehanna County, PA)) "Geologists have known for more than a century that the thick, hard shale here contains lots of natural gas. "But it wasn't until now that it made economic sense to go deep underground and unlock it in large quantities. "New drilling technologies and rising fuel costs have changed all that. "But here in Northwestern Pennsylvania, the natural gas market is purely speculative. "Not even one cubic foot has been extracted and brought to market. Yet." NATS: tractor Ted Barbour stands to make 15 percent of all the natural gas mined from his family farm - if it produces. "Hope changes a lot of things, and there's a lot of hope here this is going to be a big thing. But that's tempered with the fact they haven't put a pipeline in yet." Gas companies and others have plans to build a pipeline from these farmland wells into the huge markets of New York City, Philadelphia and other densely populated areas in the northeast - by the end of this year. Lester Greevy and Dale Tice are attorneys who broker deals between land owners and oil companies - and business is good. ((Lester Greevy, Lawyer)) "Just the energy crunch created a perfect storm." ((Dale Tice, Lawyer)) "Who knows how high the prices are going to go? A lot of certainty and a lot of excitement right now." Geologists speculate some of these prospect wells may produce up to three million cubic feet a day of natural gas. Ted Shaffrey, The Associated Press, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania