you say crude needs to be at $80 to make drilling viable. and that is true. but it would be viable at much lower price if the government got out of the way of oil producers. most of that high price in the USA is due to taxes and government regulations. many oil drillers also “lease” land or pay royalties to government .that is socialism. how can the government own land and charge leases to drill? that’s socialism .greedy communists. blame the government at all levels for your loss of jobs Americans.
DM, I agree with you but...once we started “dividing the vertical column” and wrangling about:
1. who has surface rights
2. who has above-surface rights (air-space*)
3. who has subsurface rights from 0-100 feet (shallow aquifer)
4. who has mid-deep surface rights (aquifers and possible minerals to 1000 feet)
5. who has extraction rights past 1000 feet
We (property owner) gave up sovereignty to our “elected-over-lords by involving them and asking them to help decide.
Outside of another revolutionary Independence effort, we won’t get any of that back...ever.
* Did you know that the air-space above your property is controlled at all times by the current political regime? You have no voice if the “party-of-now” decides to allow ChiCom bombers to fly over your homestead. If they make a mistake during those times, oh, well. This is NOT what the Patriot Founders envisioned for Etats-Unis.
I am now returning to “Stealth Curmudgeon” mode...