When reading the newspapers, my e-mail and attending meetings, it's clear a number of Mat-Su residents have doubts about shallow natural gas extraction. There has been an abundance of misinformation on this issue. As people read about how their property could be "bulldozed, drilled and covered with gravel pads, pumps and compressors" or their wells polluted, they are legitimately asking about what could happen to their property and water.

Underlying the whole problem is a more basic challenge. Alaska's Constitution and the Statehood Act grants most subsurface rights to the State in a giant sweep, fomenting all the almost unsolvable problems we face. If the "people of Alaska" own the subsurface, then individual property owners cannot.

With government ownership, this problem will always remain. Changing the Constitution and Statehood Act should be examined because private property owners ought to benefit from what's found under their land in my opinion, but that's a fight for another day. We have to deal with present laws. That's why we're working on legislation to clarify and strengthen in statute private property owners' rights as much as the Constitution and Statehood Act permit.

A key issue is whether a borough can make and enforce regulations governing shallow natural gas. The answer is yes, despite misperceptions to the contrary. The State does ultimately have the authority to override local ordinances (though unlikely), regardless of past legislation, because of the constitutional role of local governments as "subdivisions of the state."

Since some aren't convinced of this, we are working to show property owners they do indeed have laws and regulations protecting them, and exploring ways current protections can be improved.

The main purpose of the legislation before us is to strike a balance between private property rights and the State which presumes to own all the subsurface. It's to encourage a new, private, economic engine, which will provide real jobs, creating wealth for all, as opposed to the false specter of a distressed, pollution-bent industry that runs over people in the drive to make money.

Such a balance can be achieved. It is possible to have a responsible oil and gas industry which respects private property rights, which gives us an improved economy and which does not spoil Alaska's natural beauty. My goal has always been to ensure the maximum rights and protections of private property owners, and I will continue to work to achieve that.

This is Representative Vic Kohring, serving Wasilla and the Mat-Su Valley.

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