The Closest I’ve Ever Been to Changing the World (3) — No Public Hearings?

Continuing from the last post, I asked him:

“So what about approvals? Won’t you run into community hearings? Aren’t you being a bit too optimistic? ”

He said:

“Haha, our technology has no vibration, no noise, no pollution, no physical contact — and we’re operating under public roads, not private property. So the community isn’t involved at all — there’s no need for any public hearing! We’ve already been approved as a regulated telecommunication utility in 46 U.S. states, and obtained the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, which means we already hold a monopoly position.”

“Oh really!” I said. “You have to tell me more — examples would be even better!”

Troy said they are currently developing projects in Texas, California, Nevada, and Georgia.

He said, normally, a single-point project like this would take ten to fifteen years just to get permits. But after discussions with the government and various departments (because their process has no vibration, no contact, no noise, no pollution, no blasting, and happens underground), they can get approval in 12 to 18 months, instead of 15 years.

Meanwhile, they’ve already been approved as a regulated telecommunication utility in 46 states and have obtained the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity.

This means that local counties are required to grant them a right-of-way permit —as long as they follow the regulations and the engineering design meets the standards, the county must issue the permit.

If the project is in Maryland or California, they can get the permit within a few weeks. Under state roads, it usually takes about 12 to 18 months. Under county roads, about 4 to 6 months — and then construction can start.

He said: “I’ve been in clean energy development for over 30 years. I’ve done countless overhead transmission lines and built many power plants. Traditional projects take an average of 15 years just to get approved. But with our new underground technology and approved status, I’ve shortened that 15 years to just a few weeks, a few months, or a year.”

I followed up: “But aren’t there a lot of local objections for this kind of project? Usually, just community consultation takes years — it’s time-consuming and exhausting. Aren’t you worried about that?”

He said: “Not at all. Because we’re underground, not on the surface. In our industry, there are two famous terms: NIMBYS (Not In My Backyard) and BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone). These are the main reasons why traditional projects take 15 years to get approved. But we dig underground, under public roadways owned by the government — not private land, so there are no public hearings. That means NIMBYS and BANANAS don’t appear at all — they have no right to interfere. At the same time, since we’re underground, there’s no noise, no pollution, no vibration, no contact, no blasting and each tunnel only needs two robots. That’s why our timeline from permitting to construction to completion takes only about 10% of the time required for traditional projects! Others spend 15 years and astronomical amounts of money – we save 90% of both.”

I asked again: “Then what’s your main business model — SaaS/ARR, owned assets, or providing services?”

To be continued next time!