Sign up for monthly updates on America’s public lands. It was not the way most people would have expected an interview with RuPaul, host of RuPaul’s Drag Race show, to pan out. During a conversation on NPR earlier this year, RuPaul sparked concerns that oil companies may be fracking on his 60,000-acre ranch in eastern Wyoming. A “modern ranch, 21st-century ranch is really land management”, he said, and one aspect of that is to “lease the mineral rights to oil companies and you sell water to oil companies”. The Wilderness Society called the prospect “disappointing”; Greenpeace warns, generally, of “hundreds of tons of toxic fracking chemicals, many of which are kept secret by the industry”, polluting aquifers and drinking water. Yet in Wyoming itself, months later, people say they are hardly surprised. In fact, they say, it would be strange for major landowners like RuPaul and his husband not to have fracking rigs on their ranches. Ranching and fracking go hand in hand here in one of the country’s top oil-producing states. Oil wells are as much a part of the landscape as sweeping mountains, sagebrush and cattle, often whether landowners like it or not. RuPaul doesn’t live full-time at the ranch, which is owned by his husband, Georges LeBar, but rather uses it as a vacation spot. “There isn’t a lot to do” there, RuPaul told Jimmy Kimmel in 2018. “I go up there and read books and watch movies. We just chill.” RuPaul hasn’t been seen in town by locals very often, and he called the people of Wyoming “frosty” and “chilly”. Members of the local LGBTQ community are excited RuPaul is in the area. “I wish I knew the right person who knew RuPaul so that he would come to one of my events,” said Gage Williams, chair of Out in Wyoming, an LGBTQ non-profit. He added: “That ranch is right in Douglas, which is known for oil. It’s not a surprise that one of the biggest ranches is fracking.” Fracking is a controversial method of extracting oil and gas trapped in rock formations. Wyoming is arid, and the process uses an immense of amount of water. The resulting fossil fuels contribute to the climate crisis. The non-profit FracTracker estimates that there are 60 producing oil wells and 144 wells waiting for approval on the LeBar Ranch property. A majority of the companies that own producing oil wells on the property are privately owned. As Wyomingites are aware, RuPaul and his husband probably have no say over whether fracking occurs on their property. The rights to minerals under a given piece of land, including fossil fuels, are owned separately from the surface rights. “Unless you own 100% of the fossil fuel rights under your land – and the vast majority of ranches don’t – you can’t prohibit oil and gas development. You don’t have a choice,” said RuPaul’s neighbor, Jay Butler, a fourth-generation rancher and owner of the 18,000-acre Robinson Ranch. Roads and pipelines dotted with oil wells line Butler’s own ranch. “If you drive north out of Douglas, all the ranches are involved with the oil industry.” While it might be difficult for many landowners to refuse oil and gas development on their properties outright, “negotiating with companies as opposed to just saying no often means being able to get wells and infrastructure located away from sensitive wildlife areas or other areas the landowner cares about”, said Shannon Anderson, staff attorney for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, which advocates for responsible energy development through community organizing. LeBar, RuPaul’s husband, was born and raised in Australia and inherited the LeBar Ranch from his grandfather, who ran a successful sheep and cattle operation along with his wife for decades on the ranch. Georges LeBar doesn’t own or run cattle himself, instead leasing the grazing rights on his land to other ranchers. LeBar and RuPaul did not respond to requests for comment. “RuPaul and LeBar could not say no to oil and gas development,” Butler said. “I cannot say no on any of the ranch that I’m owner of. There’s a healthy tension between ranchers and the oil industry, and you just have to negotiate in good faith.” He added that although RuPaul considers the locals cold, he would beg to differ. “I’m not frosty, I’d go for a drink with him,” Butler said.