This post is part two of a two-part article from LandGate on the value of solar, wind, oil and gas, and other resources on and under land. It originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of Terra Firma magazine.

This post is part one of a two-part article from LandGate on the value of solar, wind, oil and gas, and other resources on and under land. It originally appeared in the Winter 2021 issue of Terra Firma magazine.

When you buy land, you might assume that your property rights give you ownership of everything below your feet. That's not always the case, though. While you have surface rights, someone else may have mineral rights to its metals, oil, natural gas, and other commodities.

Until very recently, pore space was hardly considered a property right at all. However, the surge of interest in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), as well as the need to store salt water produced by the oil and gas industry has made pore space ownership an increasingly popular, yet extremely underdeveloped area of the law.