text: Legally, it does not matter "who came first".  Nor does it matter that home owners and other residents may be unhappy with drilling and production operations.  What does matter is that surface rights and mineral rights for many land parcels were severed in the past.  And state law grants priority access to the mineral rights (i.e. the surface owner cannot prevent access to the subsurface).
  
  If home owners, and their representatives, are surprised by this, they can only blame themselves.
  
  Trying to change the laws now is of course possible, but will likely be both unsuccessful and expensive.