"Western cattlemen are poised to lose almost all opportunity to comment on oil and gas development underneath their property."
"Joe and Karen Rankin’s ranch, just north of Douglas, has been in the family for 80 years. As Joe Rankin manages the ranch, he keeps track of any oil drilling underneath their land. But, due to a controversial federal proposal, his ability to influence or even comment on such operations may soon evaporate. His property and others nearby are already impacted by drilling.
“Some spots in my area right now look like a spaghetti bowl from all the pipelines that are going through,” Rankin said.
Tracking drilling, for Rankin, also means managing environmental consequences and personal headaches. Leaks from abandoned or “orphaned” wells affect his cattle and cause bovine health issues, he said. At one point during a blizzard, his herd ended up stranded in a ditch where developers were trying to build a pipeline. Another time, he found Bureau of Land Management officials driving across his pasture and had to convince them that they should not be there.
Rankin’s property is a “split estate,” meaning that he and many of his neighbors do not own the rights to the minerals underneath their ranches. The mineral rights — which are owned, in this case, by the BLM and leased to interested oil and gas companies — are separate from surface rights to the ranch’s grass, soil and buildings. And mineral rights are dominant over surface property rights, meaning that the companies that acquire them often have the ability to access surface property and house equipment there, even if the landowner objects."
