[LargeWu]

That's assuming you actually own the mineral rights, which are not necessarily the same as the land ownership itself. These are quite often separated and held by different entities. In practice, the extraction of oil under a parcel of land has almost no relation to what the land is being used for.

[scyclow]

Sure, so I guess if the owner of the land doesn't own the mineral rights then they have no incentive to look for oil with or without a LVT.

[LargeWu]

The author's assertion was that LVT disincentivizes one from using the land productively, and used oil specifically as an example. This example is basically completely divorced from the realities of oil extraction. Nevermind that nobody is building wells in the middle of cities, where LVT matters.

So, that argument seems to rely on a contrived, unrealistic example. I can't see how LVT disincentivizes productive use of lands.