Climate Action

Amid America's fracking boom, a silent legal war is taking on beneath the surface. Current landowners' wishes are at odds with decades-old mineral rights agreements that were previously disregarded or forgotten. These old contracts are being terminated as oil corporations exploit profitable shale deposits, frequently resulting in disagreements and property rights issues.

Severed Mineral Rights' Legacy

Landowners have traditionally sold or leased mineral rights independently of surface rights. Because of this process, called "severing," one party may own the land's surface while another party retains ownership of the minerals underneath. This has caused modern homeowners in states like Texas to be ignorant to the fact that the mineral rights to their property were sold off years ago.

These severed rights are now resurfacing as fracking technology allows companies to access previously unreachable resources. The result? Landowners are discovering that they have little control over drilling activities on their property, even if they oppose them.

Forced Pooling: When Consent Isn't Required

One contentious practice exacerbating the issue is "forced pooling." After obtaining agreements from a specific proportion of landowners, energy firms can use this legal method to extract resources from a collection of properties. In some states, this threshold can be as low as 25%.

Landowners who have not yet signed leases may be forced to permit drilling on or beneath their property, frequently without direct discussion or fair remuneration. Forced pooling raises concerns over the legitimacy of property rights and is often seen as favoring companies over people.

Legal Battles and Landowner Challenges

Numerous legal problems have resulted from the resurgence of these outdated mineral rights agreements. Landowners in Pennsylvania have sued natural gas firms, claiming they were underpaid royalties due to an increase in transportation fees. The case was dismissed, showing the realities landowners face when challenging these agreements.

Moreover, some landowners are caught up in agreements they never signed. Residents in Ohio felt powerless after learning that their homes had been included in drilling units without their express agreement.

Environmental and Health Concerns

Apart from legal issues, the restoration of these contracts is harmful to the environment and human health. Fracking operations have a risk of polluting water sources, contaminating air, and inducing additional seismic activity. Some landowners have observed variations in water quality and other adverse effects shortly after drilling commenced.

The proximity of drilling activities to dwellings and schools fuels such concerns. For some areas, wells are permitted just a few hundred feet from residential structures, causing residents to worry about long-term health effects.

Climate Impact of Fracking

Fracking also contributes significantly to global climate change. The process releases methane, a greenhouse gas with a greater warming potential than carbon dioxide. Oil and gas leaks are the biggest source of human-caused methane pollution in America.

These leaks make fracked gas more detrimental to the climate than industry executives claim. Leaks make fracking’s climate impact worse than coal’s. Fracked gas is no “bridge fuel” to renewables. In fact, over the years, fossil fuel production has grown alongside renewables. Ultimately, fracking has not been shown to provide any long-term impacts in reducing global emissions and will likely make climate change even more destructive in the coming decades.

The Path Forward

The struggle between prior mineral rights agreements and the wants of today's landowner has prompted discussions over potential policy reforms. Some states have already begun tackling dormant mineral laws, which allow surface owners to reclaim mineral rights in the event they are not used for numerous years.

Additionally, there is a growing need for more transparency and public notice when drilling permits are sought. Passing regulations requiring large-scale groundwater testing before, during, and after the drilling process can protect the environment and communities.

Pennsylvania announced a monumental partnership with CNX Resources Corp., a major natural gas producer, to increase environmental monitoring at future well sites to collect data on air and water quality throughout the drilling and fracking process. The project, a component of Gov. Josh Shapiro's initiative to strengthen environmental protections, aims to address public concerns over the potential health impacts of fracking.

The Big Picture

The reemergence of decades-old mineral rights agreements highlights a growing legal and environmental challenge with modern fracking. As energy companies are working to expand drilling operations, current landowners are learning they may not control the rights to the minerals beneath their properties. Companies can, and will, extract those resources by any means–whether it’s forced pooling or the enforcement of forgotten contracts. 

As more states confront the realities of aging mineral laws alongside the expansion of hydraulic fracturing, policymakers bear the responsibility of weighing the economic benefits of energy development against its legal, environmental, and social consequences.

Amid political instability and armed conflicts between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, the world’s smallest population of gorillas is being decimated in the crossfire. A subspecies of the Eastern gorilla, only 700 mountain gorillas are left, with over 150 of them located in the Virunga National Park. As dangerous geopolitics continue to endanger the security of the Virunga mountains, what could save the treasured gorillas now?

The Legacy of War

Virunga hasn’t been the safest for decades, and this is also not the first problem the mountain gorillas have faced. The conflicts in Rwanda have been sustained since the 1990s, and became particularly threatening during and after the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. Combining that with civil unrest in the DRC led to thousands of armed militiamen roaming the Virunga mountains. Over the past 20 years, 160 Virunga rangers have lost their lives to rebel groups when trying to protect the Virunga National Park. Additionally, the discovery of oil in nearby Queen Elizabeth and Lake Edward National Parks has increased oil exploration in Virunga, threatening the habitat of around a third of the endangered gorillas. 

The gorillas have also had to deal with anthropogenic habitat loss and disease transmission. In 2004, illegal settlers cleared 3,700 acres of gorilla forest in Virunga National Park. This inhibits the endangered species’ ability to spread out and reproduce. The mountain gorillas are also susceptible to human diseases, and have died from as little as the common cold.

The Virunga Mountains & Other Habitats

The Virunga Mountains are a chain of volcanoes located across the borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC. The Virunga National Park is located in the eastern part of the DRC. Besides the mountain gorillas, many other endangered and vulnerable species live within the park’s borders, like the elephant, numerous threatened ungulate species, and important hippo populations. The tourism industry, supported by the national park, provides essential funding for the socio-economic development of Central Africa. 

A fire breaks out at an oil exploration site at Virunga National Park.

In addition to the Congo, Rwanda has also put effort into wildlife conservation, focusing on gorillas. Rwanda has around 50% of the mountain gorilla population in its territory, and holds responsibility alongside the Congo for their well-being. They established the Volcanoes National Park in 1925, one of Africa’s earliest national parks. They also put together anti-poaching measures and closely monitored the gorilla population. 

International Conservation

Though the gorillas were on track to be extinct by the early twentieth century, decades of collaboration between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) have been able to sustain and increase the population. The IGCP is a coalition of three international conservation organizations, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Conservation International (CI), and Fauna & Flora International (FFI). This cooperation helps provide financial support, specialist guidance, and publicity that boost the effectiveness of existing conservation projects. 

The Present Day

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of the Virunga National Park. It has endured the Belgian colonization, the Rwandan Genocide, both the First and the Second Congo Wars, and numerous rebel conflicts. Throughout every security threat, it has continued to provide resources to local communities and contribute to the overall well-being of Central Africa. As tensions keep building, we can only pray that Rwanda and the DRC will be able to put aside their differences for the conservation of endangered species like the mountain gorilla.

The environmental justice movement has become widespread and popular over the past few decades, with humans rushing to reduce anthropogenic climate change and habitat destruction. Beyond just looking at motor vehicles and energy production, it’s time to turn our attention to detention centers and their effects on people and nature. 

Pristine Prison or Dangerous Detention Center

Many prison facilities, particularly those built in environmentally vulnerable areas, pose health risks to incarcerated individuals due to poor infrastructure and limited safeguards while also contributing to environmental degradation through high resource consumption and pollution. Approximately 1,700 prisons and 3,000 jails hold 1.8 million people in the United States. The US alone holds 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. A 2020 study by the Southern Sociological Society found that people in state prisons were associated with increased industrial carbon dioxide emissions, the most significant contributor to climate change.

Prisons are often located on contaminated sites like landfills and former mines. In fact, a recent investigation by Earth Island Journal revealed that at least 589 prisons sit within three miles of a Superfund site, which is a location where hazardous waste contamination poses a significant threat to human health and the environment. If these Superfund sites have been deemed too dangerous to go to school, work, or live near, how can it be justified to incarcerate people near these locations for decades at a time? 

The issues aren’t just present in surrounding areas. Even within prisons, environmental hazards run rampant, with systemic neglect often contributing to unsafe conditions for inmates. For example, SCI Fayette, a prison in Pennsylvania, is located on top of a coal waste deposit which has done permanent damage to inmates, causing skin rashes, sores, cysts, gastrointestinal problems, and cancer. Even after significant protests, SCI Fayette remains open, and coal ash dumping continues.

In addition to ongoing environmental issues, prisons have also shown their inability to stand in the face of natural disasters. Evacuation plans are often underdeveloped and infrequently practiced, which can put lives at serious risk during emergencies. For example, when Hurricane Harvey destroyed Houston in 2017, many incarcerated individuals were forced to wait out the storm in their facilities, equipped with scarce resources and without plumbing. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Louisiana inmates were left behind and cut off from communication while citizens were evacuated.

One of the most concerning developments is that environmentally and humanely unethical prisons are still being built against the people’s cries. Near Utah’s Great Salt Lake, construction is underway on a massive new prison, despite widespread concern over its poor site selection and environmental risks. The project involves a lot of infrastructure, including six miles of roads and 11 miles of sewer lines, all built on soil known to liquefy during earthquakes. Additionally, the prison is near an unregulated landfill, raising fears that health problems in Utah’s prison population could be worsened by exposure to toxic fumes from the site.

Solutions

Rigorous financial investment and infrastructure development are not necessary to drive environmental improvement. Solar energy, water recycling, agriculture, and composting can all be used successfully for little cost. The price for solar panels has dropped 90% since 2010, and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last year boosted the federal tax credit system to help offset the cost. Treating wastewater on prison grounds creates waste products that can be utilized for other purposes within the center. For example, prisons can use the resulting methane gas to heat their buildings, and convert the sludge the process creates into a biosolid similar to fertilizer. They can then sell this biosolid to farmers for additional profits. Finally, growing and composting food onsite leads to reduced food waste that would end up in landfills as well as an anxiety-reducing activity for inmates to do during their free time. 

Prisons may currently be polluting the environment and worsening inmates’ lives, but it is up to all who know about the issues to advocate for justice and sustainable change. By implementing some of these changes, the US may just be able to aid its decarceration efforts while meeting the SDG’s and supporting a healthier planet.