… is that the majority rules. But what’s the alternative? Letting a minority rule has a name, and that name is called tyranny.
Recently an oil landman approached me about running an oil pipeline across my land. This is a story being repeated all across the United States right now, where landmen are approaching people and requesting drilling rights, or fracking rights, or oil pipeline right-of-ways. It did not make me happy about where he was proposing to run the pipeline — right through a seasonal spring, which they got past environmental review because it’s dry in the summer — but a bit of investigation showed that it would be virtually impossible for me to stop him. Under state law, if I refused to sign over rights, I would be sued in a state court and the land simply expropriated under various federal and state laws. I would get a per-acre amount of money that represented sales of comparable properties in the area, which I ascertained was $5,000 per acre by looking at recent sales and listings.
And again this is a story being repeated across the United States. People are refusing to sell their property rights, then acting all shocked when the oil company simply expropriates the land for market value. Except that wasn’t me. Armed with knowledge about how much it would cost the landman and the oil company behind him to sue me in state court, I instead negotiated a price that was four times what the land was worth, with conditions on the right-of-way that basically allow me to continue to use the land for farming and ranching as long as I don’t build something over the pipeline or otherwise interfere with its operation.
So here’s the question: Should I, a lone person, be allowed to veto an oil pipeline that the majority of local landowners and indeed the vast majority of Americans want just because I don’t like the fact that it will cross through a seasonal spring? Remember, most Americans are drill, baby, drill. They want cheap oil, and they view my seasonal spring as just collateral damage. The average American would say that I got paid for the damage, remember, I got paid four times the price of the land, what’s my complaint?
Which is why I’m sort of baffled by all the lefty blogs and news sites that are shocked, shocked I say, that a single lone American can’t block a pipeline or can’t block drilling or fracking that the vast majority of Americans want to have happen. But in the end, we have a name for what happens when one person can tell the majority what’s going to happen. And that name isn’t “democracy”.
– Badtux the Contrarian Penguin
I hear you – but a big part of the problem is low information. Slogans, sound bites, etc are what people listen to – they don’t want facts and details, which would require actual attention spans. Side effects and consequences of ‘drill baby drill’ and fracking are too complicated for most folks. I explained to a couple of folks how long and what it takes to get one nuclear plant built – they thought if you got the regulators out of the way, they could be built and be up and running within a year. Sigh. If you want to do or stop something, a majority has to want it in a democracy, but it helps if they are an informed majority…
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You make me wish I were tougher and smarter. My bank account definitely wishes I were smarter. Good for you making the best of the situation.
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There are many mostly old and unused oil pipes running over at times difficult terrain in Eastern Utah and far west Colorado. Max 2″ in diameter. I do not believe I ever saw evidence of a break or leak. Must have happened.
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Marc, the only information most people want or need is that they need gas to get to work. Fracking has nothing to do with that, of course — fracking is about natural gas, not oil — but so it goes. Regarding how long it takes to build a nuclear power plant, the U.S. Navy chugs one out once every five years like clockwork at Newport News, though it takes another couple of years of shakedown before it’s really ready. And that’s a nuclear power plant (two of them, actually) surrounded by a floating airport. So yes, you can built nuclear power plants rather rapidly if you don’t have to worry about regulations. But 1 year? Uhm, no.
Someofparts, what is interesting is the approach the landmen take to get people to sign. I got approached by an awe shucks just a good ole’ boy type (doesn’t fool me, I can do the awe shucks just a good ole’ boy act too, and indeed did it for this one). My mother, whose signature was needed for an adjoining plot of land, was approached by a professional-presenting woman. I also had the advantage that my brother is in the business and his company has a landman on contract, he talked to that landman for a while about strategies to use. In the end we got a contract that was pretty generous. By and large the landmen aren’t in the business of going in and ripping people off because if they do that, then they have to spend a lot of time and money in court to legally expropriate the property, and in general the sums of money involved are pocket change for oil companies. You can take advantage of that, if you’re smart. Do note that we’re talking about new computer + down payment on new car type money, not retire early type money, remember that an oil pipeline only needs a 140 foot right-of-way and my land is, alas, a long narrow strip, not a big fat wide one.
One Fly, red clay is actually harsher terrain for pipelines than what you’re talking about, because it expands and contracts with the seasons. Makes building house foundations interesting, the older homes are all up on piers and built somewhat flexible so that they can deal with the fact that the land moves around under them with the seasons, a traditional perimeter foundation would turn into rubble within a season, and even with that, it’s a regular thing that houses have to be jacked up and their piers re-set because the house has gotten so off-square that doors don’t close and drywall has developed cracks and so forth. The pipeline will be buried a minimum of four feet underground per the contract, but my guess is that it will start leaking within a few years regardless of what is done. The ramifications of that depends on what’s being carried in the pipeline. We weren’t told, because they want to keep the name of the company behind them out of it. If natural gas, not too big a problem, well until the pipeline explodes in a fireball but it’s in the middle of a cow pasture so even that is not *too* big a problem. If crude oil… bigger problem. Not much I can do about that, though. In a democracy, my concerns have no more vote than anybody else’s concerns, and the majority would rather have the oil than a pristine water table. SIIIiiiiigh!
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Badtux, part of my point (I may not the clearest writer @5am) is that the folks I was talking to thought that it could be done in a year if the regulators (read government) got out of the way. Also, about the fracking and ‘drill baby drill’ is that they hear the word “gas”. To them, oil and gas are interchangeable words, not different substances, since gas comes from oil…
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And my own point is that it couldn’t be done in a year, heck it takes three years to build a natural gas powered electrical generation station and those are decidedly simpler than a nuclear power plant, but if you can build two nuclear reactors plus a floating airport in five years due to lack of regulation (the military is not subject to the regulations governing civilian nuclear power permitting), you could build just the nuclear reactors in less time than that — certainly far less time than the 10-15 years it seems to take to build a civilian nuclear power plant in the United States (not that we’ve built one in decades, but talking about the last ones built here).. And in fact nations like South Korea and China are proving that, they take four to five years to build a nuclear power plant.
Agree on the ignorance of the American public. Though I must point out that to a certain extent natural gas and oil are substitutable when it comes to home heating and electrical power generation. We used to have a lot of power plants powered by bunker oil here in the US, those have all gone offline or been upgraded to natural gas generation, and oil heating is becoming rarer and rarer as natural gas lines are built into new areas and people switch to that cheaper form of energy.
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A democracy is a way for the rich and greedy to work with loopholes.
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