“They should cap them and burn the methane for power”
You mean like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hu79ghchX3E
Forty years ago the Cherokee were building three bedroom model brick homes for indians in rural areas that required new water wells, they often hit gas wells that were required to be cemented off. No gas for them.
They got even later because those Indian Houses were declared Indian property and many enterprising Indians opened Smoke Shacks selling untaxed cigarettes.