Landmen, they found, spent many months making repeated attempts to contact reluctant landowners. In one instance, an Ohio man faced repeated visits from a drilling company representative while in the hospital for cancer treatment.

Another property owner who was opposed to signing a lease to allow fracking on her land received repeated calls and letters after she refused to do so — and then had company agents seek to persuade her through in-person pitches to her neighbors and family.

And when persuasion fails, the researchers wrote, “we also find that many negotiations end in compulsion rather than in consent.”

In many states, when the hard sell doesn’t work, oil and gas drilling companies can seek to get the state to force landowners to accept wells they don’t want.

This practice is called “compulsory unitization” or “pooling,” and it provides landmen with a powerful trump card against wavering landowners.

In many oil and gas states, if a majority of landowners atop an oil and gas reservoir consent to drilling, then the state can force the rest to accept drilling as well.

None dare call it fascism.