Biden EO's Drilling on Federal Lands and Border Wall

 

And with the stroke of his pen, all drilling on federal lands is suspended. How many jobs is this going to cost during a pandemic and beyond? How many rigs will Haliburton and Patterson have to park? How many high paying union and non-union jobs are going to lost? Joe, this is not a transition as you said. This is an abrupt stoppage of work or do you and the elite not understand how this works?  The horseless carriage didn’t replace the horse overnight. It took decades and people were able to adjust and find other jobs as their industry began disappearing. Hell, even the military didn’t eliminate their cavalry divisions overnight. They were slowly phased out as men were trained how to operate and maintain the new technologies. You know where these drillers and workers are going to go, if they qualify? Overseas. Many will take their families with them reducing the collection of US tax dollars. You say buy American but when it comes to energy, your policies are doing the opposite. Well done, Joe. Well done. What will you do tomorrow?

 

Today, by EO, the border wall is being shut down. Well, that’s not exactly true. Let me say this first, I was not a proponent of the wall. Why? Walls are a fixed fortification and that can be breached over time. Example, Great Wall of China, Berlin Wall. While they are formidable obstacles, unless properly manned and surveilled, they will be defeated over time. I was pleased with all the jobs it provided, but still, it’s a fixed fortification.

 

While hard construction is being stopped, the project itself is still alive. According to a Fox59 story, from Indianapolis, “The redirected funds would most likely involve reappropriating the money for virtual security technology along the Southwest border with Mexico, such as for mobile surveillance tower systems, the installation of infrared cameras and flood lighting and to continue building all-weather roads along the border for Border Patrol agents to better patrol the Rio Grande, analysts have told Border Report.” This is encouraging and the direction I wanted Trump to take. I believe both methods can be employed to keep out Southern Border safe.

 

Now, let’s look at the fallout and it is massive. Any one who’s signed a contract knows there are consequences for breaching a contract whether it be the owner or the contractor and they are severe. In this case, the Government is defaulting on the contract. I was involved in one of these cases twelve years ago. The contractors just went to a cost plus method. Why? They will now be performing work that is not a line item for payment. Any and all materials that have been prefabricated and ordered will have to be paid for. The time spent refilling and compacting open trenches is an additional expense. They will also have to restore the property to its original condition or better when they leave. This is an extra cost as it was estimated as an incidental in the original bid. Demobilizing yards and equipment is another extra expense. And finally, lost profits because the owner is defaulting. In determining damages I will use my experience with TXDOT back in 2009-9.

There multiple conflicts on the US 75 project from 635 to Allen. Approximately 15 miles. I made a film of the jobsite with a seven page synopsis of all conflicts as outline in the contracts and specifications. Copies were distributed to all parties involved. They took no action in resolving them. Because of the conflicts, the project was shut down for eight months until it was redesigned. This led to all crews being reassigned. The General Contractor demobilized. When the project finally restarted in May of 2009, we had accumulated over 300K in overhead expenses of which the State was billed for. The total contract amount was 15 million. Our damages were 2% of the contract. Apply that percentage to the $1.375 billion appropriated for the construction and you come up with and you arrive at $27.5 million dollars just in overhead. Add in all the cost plus charges and the number will get close to $100 million. These numbers don’t take into account if the projects restart, the additional remobilization and scheduling costs that will be added.

 

Instead of shutting down the project with the stroke of a pen wouldn’t it have been wiser to sit down with the Army Corps of Engineers and see where today’s technology could replace some of the proposed hard wall construction versus a virtual wall? Yeah, that would have been the prudent path.  

 

Bottom line, we’re still going to be paying for the wall with one caveat, as it stands, the American people won’t be able to see what all that money went to. What will you do tomorrow, Joe?