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> The high bidder, Tempest Exploration Co. LLC, paid $2,500 for the 1,120 acre lease by credit card and began paying annual rental fees. What soon did prove rem

> The high bidder, Tempest Exploration Co. LLC, paid $2,500 for the 1,120 acre lease by credit card and began paying annual rental fees. What soon did prove remarkable, though, was the revelation that the company had been created by the environmentalist, Terry Tempest Williams. She intended to keep the oil in the ground. BLM promptly canceled the lease. I wonder if the right way to hack this is not publicly state that you want to keep the oil in the ground but be very, very bad at extracting it... taking years to "start", digging with a shovel once in a while. Basically doing nothing while claiming to do something.

prox 5y ago
Sounds like your average bureaucracy then.
- bpodgursky 5y ago
  Here, it's working correctly. The point of paying for these permits is not to extract maximum money from the citizens who own the land; it is to make sure the land is being used.
Fiahil 5y ago
This approach also works extremely well if you want to stall or cancel a project in a big corporation for political reasons. Just embed one of your engineer in their team to gain knowledge, but fail to deliver on almost all items except a few. You will end-up pitting "your" exec against "their", and it will take them forever to solve the problem. If conflict resolution looms, just send everyone in summer or winter vacation for several weeks.
mherdeg 5y ago
Reminds me of Steve Black's story about using scaffolding for adverts: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-there-so-much-scaffolding-up-in-London/answer/Steve-Black-3?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-is-there-so-much-scaffolding-up-in...
- dugmartin 5y ago
  I've seen something similar where I live. Most towns have sign ordinances only allowing up to 4'x8' signs. The hack is to buy a broken down panel truck and wrap the cargo box with your sign and then park it in front of your business.
jandrewrogers 5y ago
This used to be an exploited loophole. Wealthy people would use inexpensive "mineral exploration" leases to get long-term control of areas of Federal land that they wanted to use for other purposes. The only real cost was maintaining the bare minimum fiction that they were doing mineral exploration -- dig the occasional hole in some corner of the property, move a bit of dirt around. Meanwhile, they were doing all kinds of other personal things with the land and building structures enabled by having the lease. The US DoI started clamping down on the use of fake mineral leases a few decades ago and put policies in place to strongly discourage this kind of abuse.

prox 5y ago

Sounds like your average bureaucracy then.

bpodgursky 5y ago
Here, it's working correctly. The point of paying for these permits is not to extract maximum money from the citizens who own the land; it is to make sure the land is being used.

Fiahil 5y ago

This approach also works extremely well if you want to stall or cancel a project in a big corporation for political reasons. Just embed one of your engineer in their team to gain knowledge, but fail to deliver on almost all items except a few. You will end-up pitting "your" exec against "their", and it will take them forever to solve the problem. If conflict resolution looms, just send everyone in summer or winter vacation for several weeks.

mherdeg 5y ago

Reminds me of Steve Black's story about using scaffolding for adverts: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-there-so-much-scaffolding-up-in-London/answer/Steve-Black-3?share=1 https://www.quora.com/Why-is-there-so-much-scaffolding-up-in...

dugmartin 5y ago
I've seen something similar where I live. Most towns have sign ordinances only allowing up to 4'x8' signs. The hack is to buy a broken down panel truck and wrap the cargo box with your sign and then park it in front of your business.

jandrewrogers 5y ago

This used to be an exploited loophole. Wealthy people would use inexpensive "mineral exploration" leases to get long-term control of areas of Federal land that they wanted to use for other purposes. The only real cost was maintaining the bare minimum fiction that they were doing mineral exploration -- dig the occasional hole in some corner of the property, move a bit of dirt around. Meanwhile, they were doing all kinds of other personal things with the land and building structures enabled by having the lease. The US DoI started clamping down on the use of fake mineral leases a few decades ago and put policies in place to strongly discourage this kind of abuse.