Abstract:
Although new houses in the Brightleaf subdivision in Southeast Durham are pristine and new, the ownership of natural gas, oil, geothermal heat, hydrocarbons, and even water belongs to DRH Energy, a subsidiary of D.R. Horton, one of the nation's largest homebuilders. For the past two years, D.R. Horton has sold the mineral rights, and the right to drill, mine, stored and explore them to its Colorado-based energy company on at least 425 of its lots in Raleigh, Cary, Durham, and Chapel Hill. Coincidentally, the transactions began around the time the push began to legalize fracking in North Carolina.