Transfer of Federal Lands to the States
I am wondering how many RVers are aware of the movement to transfer federal lands to the states? Many western states are pushing this initiative. In Wyoming (my home state) nearly 25 million acres w...
Forum Discussion
LenSatic wrote:highplainsdrifter wrote:
State control can be a double edge sword. For example, fracking is rampant in Wyoming.
Where my situation related only to us, what you describe seems to affect a larger population. Have they gone to their state representatives to address the regulations by tweaking the laws to be more realistic?
I've been oil-drilling adjacent much of my life. As to dust, I assume it's from the drill site and roads put in for the various support vehicles. In my day, the '60s, they oiled the roads and bare dirt. Do they do that now? My experience was with standard rigs and I have no experience with fracking so I'm not sure of the noise level. I believe that most of the problem is with those who surrendered their mineral right in the first place. Are these leases? We still own the mineral rights under our, now sold, OK surface land. The gas well leases are active but the oil sits idle. Send them my way. I can use the money, too. :D
LS
As you may know, fracking is a relatively new technology. When the people bought/built the homes I am referring to, they probably knew they did not own the mineral rights. But they likely thought it was no big deal because oil could not be profitably captured with the conventional drilling methods at the time. Along comes new technology and the situation changed. Now they have to put up with noise, dust and lots of truck traffic.
As for going to their legislators, that is a possibility but generally the legislature is sympathetic to the minerals industry because the state is so dependent on minerals revenue. They would likely not act on behalf of the homeowners for the same reason state officials refuse to act on behalf of the homeowners.
My point here is this: local decision making often responds to money. If you are on the money side of the decision, you are going to like the decision. If you are not, you will not.
Local control is not the be all and end all some would like us to believe. When it comes to managing millions of acres of federal land, it would be a disaster for outdoor recreation...which generally can't compete with more profitable activities such as mineral production, real estate development, etc.
