About 47 percent of our gas-resource base is under federal lands. We re not talking about national parks or wilderness areas, Whitsett says. We are talking about public lands that are supposed to be available for multiple use. And I would point out that the environmental record of the natural-gas industry on federal lands is superb, and new technology allows us to find and produce the gas we need with less and less temporary impact on the land. Opening up public lands doesn t mean giving away any gas found thereon.
Companies pay to lease land when they drill, and they pay a royalty when the wells produce.
The mention of offshore reserves brings up another controversy. One of the hot spots in that debate is the western coast of Florida, where Chevron wants to drill 21 wells out in the Gulf of Mexico. Proponents say the wells would provide billions of cubic feet of gas. Opponents offer a number of arguments, among them that the wells could be a threat to Florida s star attraction, its lovely beaches. A closer look at that notion leaves one scratching one s head since, unlike oil, gas doesn t float in and muck up beaches when it gets loose.