My grandmother recently signed over some property with mineral rights to her 3 children and to me (24F--my father is deceased). I now receive a modest monthly royalty check, some property tax bills, and weekly offers from different companies who want to buy this land. Per her wishes, I promised my grandmother that I wouldn't sell this land that my late grandfather worked so hard to obtain. However, I am morally conflicted about owning land that oil is being extracted from, as I feel I am playing a role in exploiting the earth--something I am ideologically opposed to. I feel like a hypocrite.
My question is, what do I do? I don't know how the property is divided between me and my (ultra conservative) uncles and aunt. I don't want to cause any kind of family rift, and I don't want to offend my grandmother in any way or seem ungrateful for my inheritance. I just want to ensure that the land I own is not being drilled on.
Can anyone enlighten me on A) what exactly it means to own mineral rights and B) how to ensure that I do not profit from "raping the earth?"
If there is a better subreddit to post this on, please let me know.
Submitted February 21, 2018 at 10:13AM by smalltowngirl64 http://ift.tt/2GxcNUe
