An example of regime change

            This is a practical example of what a change in government in the USA means to me.

            All judgment calls are my own, hence this is an info report.

            In my case, the mission is to be warm in the winter, like above freezing. I've got plenty of long john clothes to help the effort; and right now I have plenty of renewable wood to burn in my wood stoves so I should be warm and my pipes under the houses (two) don't freeze and burst. By the way, my water comes from springs which do not freeze over since the water comes out of the ground at 54 F. Oh yes, I live in rural east Tennessee on about a square mile of land, and I own it all, free and clear, including the mineral rights.

            But I also have a site about a quarter mile from where I live (as the crow flies) that has twice and independently  been found to be a very good site for drilling for gas and oil. The estimates were 99% will probably get gas, and 75% will get oil. Many similar wells are also around here.

            Now around here, oil and gas comes in seams, vice vast underground lakes. Hence a miss is as good as a mile as the driller penetrates down to the layers, like the Sunnybrook, Fort Payne, or even Monteagle layers.

            Now at age 64, I choose not to have to maintain all this, if the drilling is even successful.  Fortunately , there is an alternative where outsiders do it all ( to include things like injecting acid to liquefy the stuff if needed), and I just get a small royalty check every so often. That alternative should let my descendents have some breathing room. In the meantime I would hook up a gas line, with a transducer to soften the pressure at my houses, and convert over to gas from all electricity which is what I have right now.  Of course there is a Plan B, also; like use the royalty money just to pay the electric bill as long as public electricity exists.

            So on to the point of this information report.

            With the present political regime in place, I would expect the permitting process to take maybe ten years, and then finally get rejected.  If a new regime is in place, I suspect the permitting process might take two years, and probably be approved. So I choose to wait. Overall, that seems to be to my advantage, to include heating with the wood I cut in the interim.

            Of course the normal caveats, like environmental sensitivity, would be in effect, since that is in my interests, also. I would also add this is not like money in the bank, since others may drain the seam before I get to it.

            Yep, environment sensitivity is old hat around here, i.e., it is not something new. And most old wells around here eventually do go dry. So I guess-estimate I might get 100 years of heat out of this well before it to goes dry. Sounds like a good problem to have, to me.