Well, it's not a spectacularly bad idea under those conditions. But it's not like companies don't already pay for drilling, mining, and grazing rights on feder

Well, it's not a spectacularly bad idea under those conditions. But it's not like companies don't already pay for drilling, mining, and grazing rights on federal land. Right now the money doesn't go into a special fund, though, and in any case it's not much divided over 340 million people. Norway's sovereign wealth fund is significant because there just aren't that many Norwegians.