tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53545705059740165852024-03-14T02:11:22.903-07:00Denton Drilling: A Blog by Adam BriggleAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.comBlogger251125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-43833516402842814822014-09-28T07:48:00.000-07:002014-10-07T15:40:23.655-07:002 Cents: Fracking's Great Bounty<h4>
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Here is some quick math on the latest hyperbole from the
industry about the costs of Denton’s fracking ban. This all comes from their
own numbers on the recent smiling school kids mailer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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They claim oil and
gas contributed $1.26 billion to the <a href="http://www.tea.state.tx.us/psf/"><span style="color: blue;">Permanent
School Fund</span></a> last fiscal year. There are 304,000 active oil and gas wells in
Texas. Clearly, oil wells will produce more revenue for this fund than natural
gas wells – Denton doesn’t have oil wells. But let’s assume all wells produce
the same returns. That would be $4,144 per well to this fund. That would mean
Denton’s 281 gas wells contribute $1.16 million to the fund. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now even after the ban, Denton’s gas wells will continue in
production. New wells won’t be fracked and old wells won’t be re-fracked.
Drilling can still occur. It’s hard to say how that will all work out in the
future. But let’s take an extreme scenario and assume that lost revenue from
fracking after the ban will be equivalent to shutting down all of our wells.
Again, that’s extreme and it won’t happen…but let’s give them the benefit of
the doubt to help inflate their numbers. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, assume we lose that $1.16 million contribution to the
state fund annually. That fund<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pays out
on its interest, which is about 10%. So, that’s $116,000. Now, that loss would
be spread across the state’s 5 million school children. That amounts to an
annual hit of 2 cents per student. The entire cost to DISD would be $540. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, the industry likes to talk in terms of ten year
periods. So, that would be $5,400. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On their latest mailer, they claim the ban will cost DISD
$28.6 million over ten years. That’s 5,296x higher than what even a generous
reckoning seems to show. The mailer directs you to their website, but there is
no mention there of this $28.6 million figure.*actually see below* <o:p></o:p></div>
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Gosh, maybe they really don’t care about our children and
are just using their smiling faces as a smokescreen to hide their total BS? <o:p></o:p></div>
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If oil and gas is such a windfall for our schools, why does
Texas <a href="http://educationblog.dallasnews.com/2013/02/texas-now-49th-in-spending-on-public-schools.html/"><span style="color: blue;">rank</span></a>
49<sup>th</sup> in the country on per-student spending? If this boom is such a
big deal, why has state funding DECREASED over the past two years by $1,000
per-student? And did you know that the two leaders of the opposition to the ban
make more from mineral wealth than our entire school district? You can look
that up <a href="https://www.dentoncad.com/"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Could it be that this isn’t really about our schools or our
children at all? Might it be that this is about highly concentrated profits for
the very few and the very powerful? <o:p></o:p></div>
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After the confusion about their giant figure wore off, anger
took its place. How dare they do this?! They are trying to scare us into voting
against the health and safety of our children. They are saying that somehow
toxic emissions and blowout hazards right next to our homes and schools is good
for our kids. On balance, this is a positive thing!? All the pollution and
risks are worth it?!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Denton parents and grandparents are the LAST people who
deserve to get lectured about suffering for the greater good. Every child in
Texas benefits from this school fund, whether or not they have oil and gas
wells in their town – or in their back yards. We’ve got 281 of them. Many
cities don’t have any. If you crammed all of Texas’ gas wells into the 7% of
our land area that is metropolitan, Denton would still have 3x the number of
wells as the average city. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We are doing far more than our fair share for this fund. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But here’s the beauty of it. Once we ban fracking and we
start building home sites rather than frack sites, we’ll generate way <a href="http://frackfreedenton.com/2014/09/grow-strong-and-healthy/"><span style="color: blue;">more revenue</span></a>
for our schools. The fact that Texas is ranked 49<sup>th</sup> despite
contributing oil and gas revenues to schools is a good indication that this is
not a healthy model for school funding. It is far better to have a robust local
economy with a strong tax base, which is precisely what the ban will help us
achieve. <br />
<br />
*I finally found the infamous $28.6 million figure buried in Appendix D of page 23 of the bogus <a href="http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2014/09/2-cents-frackings-great-bounty.html" target="_blank">Perryman Report</a>, which is linked to their site. This appears to be a sleight of hand. This is their estimated increase in tax receipts for DISD from increased drilling activity. But it is NOT the figure they give for lost tax revenue for DISD from the ban. That figure - which is in bold and underlined in red up front on the executive summary is just $4.6 million. If they really thought the $28.6 figure was the cost of the ban, you can be sure they would have put that up front in bold and red.<br />
<br />
Most of their assumed losses from the ban are from property taxes. But their own figures show that every acre of fracked land generates less than 25% of the tax revenues of an acre of residential development. Plus homes appreciate in value over time. Frack sites depreciate. <br />
<br />
If you want long-term, solid tax revenues for schools, fracking would be low on your list of choices. <br />
<br />
Build home sites, not frack sites. Less pollution, more tax revenues for schools.<br />
<br />
A better calculation of all this, done later than this original post is here: <a href="http://frackfreedenton.com/2014/09/vote-for-the-children/">http://frackfreedenton.com/2014/09/vote-for-the-children/</a> </div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-29993877567248099322014-09-21T09:39:00.001-07:002014-09-21T09:39:55.955-07:00Shame on the Chamber Board <h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The completely predictable has happened. The
industry is trading on the Chamber of Commerce’s influence and credibility.
They just sent out a huge flyer to Denton voters featuring the Chamber of
Commerce Board’s decision to oppose the ban. Many people think the Chamber
actually sent out that flyer. That’s the way the industry wants it – they want
to dress the predatory wolf of their vicious practices in the sheep’s clothing
that is the Chamber. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Chamber Board has done an enormous disservice to
local democracy. They let the industry wear the mantle of the Chamber’s
reputation. They did it without consulting the actual members of the Chamber,
let alone providing a mechanism for dissenting voices within their organization.
They did it without conducting their own independent analysis of the issue.
They did it without hosting a forum to air all sides of the issue. They just
echoed the same one-sided analysis used by the industry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">They swallowed the industry’s report without any
critical thought. Like the industry, they talked only about the costs of the
ban. They didn't even think to consider the benefits. If they would have, they’d
find that the industry’s own report proves that an acre of fracking generates ¼ as much tax
revenue as an acre of residential development and only ½ as much economic activity as the
average acre of land in Denton. There was no mention of air pollution or waste of water. They only talked about mineral rights, but not
the rights of those suffering nearby fracking operations. They didn’t mention
the fact that the ban does not prohibit operators from drilling to access minerals
or that the ban is less restrictive than other valid ordinances in Texas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">They only parroted the newspeak of the industry
about responsible drilling and “reasonable regulations.” They didn’t mention
how Denton tried for years to craft reasonable regulations only to discover
that it was all too late – the industry is grandfathered under old laws that
allow them to frack as close as 200 feet from homes on 30% of our land area
forever. Under those conditions, there is no other reasonable regulation than
the ban. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We can debate whether a body that receives nearly a
quarter million in taxpayer dollars should be weighing in on ballot initiatives
at all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But if they are going to take a political stance,
there can be no question that they are obligated to do so in a way consistent
with the basic values of democracy: participation, transparency, and critical
thinking. We should expect the leaders of our business community to conduct a thorough assessment. We should expect a quasi-public body to be inclusive in processes that lead up to their political positions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If you can’t tell, I’m angry at the Chamber’s Board.
They have no right to go behind closed doors and with blinkered vision throw
the weight of their organization behind the industry. It’s a betrayal of
democracy and the good faith of the people who trust and respect the Chamber. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If I was a member of the Chamber – even if I opposed
the ban – I’d be furious that the Board thinks they can speak for me without
consulting me. If I was a taxpayer in Denton (wait, I am), I’d be furious that
the Board stamped a special interest with the imprimatur of the Chamber without
even so much as a public forum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">You can’t get much more sneaky and misleading. The
Board owes us an apology. In fact, they need to mail an apology letter to
everyone who got that flyer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-77077149550016749242014-09-17T20:11:00.000-07:002014-09-27T07:07:29.349-07:00Fracking Ban Will Benefit Denton's Economy<h4>
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<o:p></o:p> </div>
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Here is this blog in meme form:</div>
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<o:p> </o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtqQjAfbQsWjRQgroS82smYG5BRF-O5_P2tZ-LYf4qGK3geGutjBivN0rq6GVRfqu9PGymvVLb7q8qQB15ml1SptLeEhbNWFpn0wGGF51bHv0sYKWVX33OmpvzIxAnkbs8gt_T8KV4WY/s1600/sub+comp+cost.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtqQjAfbQsWjRQgroS82smYG5BRF-O5_P2tZ-LYf4qGK3geGutjBivN0rq6GVRfqu9PGymvVLb7q8qQB15ml1SptLeEhbNWFpn0wGGF51bHv0sYKWVX33OmpvzIxAnkbs8gt_T8KV4WY/s1600/sub+comp+cost.PNG" height="363" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmDCsmV7azhwMTqHodFuTxOSmy2NT1f1BzDk1pSKrc4LZ7gVSv1Bfrw90kCD6gYE_yx9PyMz_OtADZPMqohJorwXcIGpXz2Q7l_bViJggJGXEndDuA7LnSCZq_7Gsmo57OVoMevqupWbw/s1600/comparative+value+meme.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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In June, the industry released a <a href="http://energyindepth.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Perryman-Denton-Fracking-Ban-Impact.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">report</span></a>
(by the Perryman Group) about the costs of the fracking ban in Denton. I guess
they figured that no one would actually read the report. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But I did. And I found out that the industry’s own numbers prove that the fracking ban will be a net positive for Denton’s economy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, at first I just <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25429-fracked-on-their-own-petard-the-self-implosion-of-an-industry-on-the-ropes"><span style="color: blue;">pointed
out</span></a> the fact that the report confirms fracking is a miniscule part of our
economy, comprising a puny 0.2% of Denton’s gross product and 0.5% of tax
revenues. And that's taking their own numbers at face value even though they are doubtlessly exaggerated in their black-boxed methodology. </div>
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But now we can add to that assessment by putting their
report in the context of Denton’s overall land use and economy as detailed in
the new <a href="http://www.dentonplan2030.com/wp-content/themes/dentonsustain/library/pdf/Denton2030_PUBLIC_DRAFT_082914_SCREEN.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Denton
Plan 2030</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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You see, the industry report only looked at the costs of the
fracking ban. Of course, all decisions have costs. You’ve got to look at the
benefits too and see if they outweigh the costs. </div>
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Kevin Roden has already made a
strong qualitative case that the fracking ban will bring a <a href="http://rodenfordenton.com/2014/07/an-unlikely-economic-analysis-of-a-denton-fracking-ban/"><span style="color: blue;">boom</span></a>
for our economy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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But now I can add a quantitative case. The ban will bring
significant, measurable benefits for our economy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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All I had to do was look at the industry’s own numbers and
ask how much gross product and tax revenue fracking generates on a per acre
basis. Then I looked at the Denton Plan 2030 to see how that compares to
other forms of development. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>It turns out that fracking is an embarrassingly UNPRODUCTIVE
use of land.</u> Every time we allocate an acre of land to fracking rather than
other land uses, we forego significant economic benefits. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Fracking generates about $55,000 in gross product per acre.
Not bad. That is, until you compare it to the $114,000 generated by the average
acre of land in Denton (over 10% of which is undeveloped). <o:p></o:p></div>
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Fracking generates about $1,100 in tax revenues per acre. By
comparison, residential development generates about $4,300 in tax revenues per
acre, and that’s assuming today’s median-priced homes. (The figure for commercial is $9,600 per acre.) Plus, homes appreciate
in value over time, meaning more and more tax revenue, whereas frack sites
depreciate over time (eventually leaving a devalued, blighted brown zone). Oh,
and fracking <a href="http://www.texasobserver.org/studies-links-fracking-smog-pollution-stronger-state-claims/" target="_blank">fouls</a> our air, <a href="http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20140830-alarming-find.ece" target="_blank">contaminates</a> our water, and <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwsxa7SpCLLDMDFjNzA0ZjgtOTM5ZS00YTVkLTgzNDgtNmE5NzY3M2IxYTgw/edit?hl=en" target="_blank">devalues </a>neighborhing properties. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It turns out that fracking is one of Denton's least productive land uses. I can’t thank the Perryman Group enough for
showing us how much stronger our economy will be once we ban this economic
under-performer! <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-6994294839794415032014-09-16T11:44:00.000-07:002014-09-17T19:58:42.960-07:00Chamber of Commerce or Industry Echo Chamber? <h4>
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Tonight, City Council is going to consider giving the Denton
Chamber of Commerce <a href="http://legistar2.granicus.com/denton-tx/meetings/2014/9/924_A_City_Council_14-09-16_Meeting_Agenda.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">$227,467</span></a>.
This will provide continuing funds for the Chamber’s Office of Economic
Development. Most of this money will go to pay salaries and benefits. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, I don’t doubt that there is much good to be had from
this Office. But as a quasi-public entity, it creates some ethical grey areas.
I won’t be at the Council meeting tonight (I’ll say why in a moment), but I
think it would be good if Council aired some questions about this partnership –
not in an accusatorial way, but rather in the spirit of public education. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A little while ago, the Chamber’s Board (with no notice
given to their full membership) announced their opposition to the proposed
ordinance banning hydraulic fracturing in the city limits. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s my question: Is it right for an organization
supported in significant measure by taxpayer dollars to advocate for or against
ballot initiatives? <o:p></o:p></div>
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We have <a href="https://www.tml.org/legal_pdf/Ethics-ppt.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">state laws</span></a> that
prohibit public employees from spending public funds to support or oppose ballot
initiatives. City Council members can’t even use their public e-mail accounts
to weigh in on ballot initiatives. But here is the Chamber with over a quarter
million public dollars weighing in with a political position. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, the people paid for by the contract with the city are
considered employees of the Chamber, which is listed as a private non-profit
corporation. Nonetheless, they are paid for by the taxpayers. Grey area. <br />
<br />
Or maybe not so grey...aren't non-profits supposed to stay out of politics? Shouldn't they form a PAC? </div>
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The Chamber may not be using city funds to directly take
their political position against the ban (though maybe the Council can ask for
some assurances of that fact). But they certainly are using their significant
clout and cache in our community to leverage their position. And they would not
have as much clout and cache if they didn’t receive large financial
contributions from the city. Grey area. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And it doesn’t clear matters up to say that other entities
might do similar things. As I tell my kids, just cuz she did it doesn’t make it
right for you to do it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, the reason I won’t be at the Council meeting
tonight, is because I will be at Café Loco (6 p.m. free and open to the
public!) setting the record straight about how the fracking ban will benefit
our economy in significant and measurable ways. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I am not sure if the Chamber should be picking sides on
ballot initiatives. But I do know in this case they picked the wrong side. If
they would have done their own independent critical thinking about the issue,
they’d find what I have found: a ban on fracking will be a major net gain for
Denton’s prosperity and welfare. It also respects everyone’s property rights.
It protects Denton residents from toxic trespass and home devaluation, while
allowing for development of mineral property using less offensive techniques. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Sadly, the Chamber has put its (publically-funded) weight on
the wrong side of this issue. A full page and extremely dishonest ad yesterday
quoted the Chamber, which in turn was quoting an industry report. Now our
Chamber of Commerce has become part of an industry-spun echo chamber. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s something the Council should consider tonight. <br />
<br />
How about this? If the Chamber is going to take political positions, why not host a public forum first where all sides of the issue can be aired? Why do it behind closed doors with only the Board? </div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-29636747593502529302014-09-11T15:22:00.001-07:002014-09-11T15:24:39.155-07:00The Costs of Fracking<h4>
The industry keeps trying to pretend that fracking is a big economic benefit to Denton. I used their own numbers to show how that <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25429-fracked-on-their-own-petard-the-self-implosion-of-an-industry-on-the-ropes" target="_blank">just isn't so</a>. In fact, the benefits are so puny that they are easily outweighed by all the costs associated with fracking. I spoke to some of those costs in an <a href="http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2014/07/depantsing-perryman-report-about.html" target="_blank">earlier post</a>. </h4>
<br />
<h4>
We can now get a peek at some more costs as outlined by the City of Denton in the draft of its new <a href="http://www.dentonplan2030.com/wp-content/themes/dentonsustain/library/pdf/Denton2030_PUBLIC_DRAFT_082914_SCREEN.pdf" target="_blank">comprehensive plan</a>. Not all of the costs identified in the comprehensive plan relate directly to hydraulic fracturing, but then again the industry's report about benefits rolled in so many economic multipliers that it strayed way far afield from direct economic impacts of hydraulic fracturing. </h4>
<br />
<h4>
<u>What we see in the comprehensive plan is just how much frack sites are going to be a drag on our future - they are going to increase the costs of Denton's development significantly. And they are going to significantly reduce the revenues that could otherwise be provided from more productive and sustainable land uses.</u> </h4>
<br />
<h4>
If you want tot do a real cost-benefit assessment (and not a cartoon, biased industry sham with a foregone conclusion), then here are just a few of the things you'd need to think about (from the comprehensive plan draft, pp. 46-48): </h4>
<br />
<h4>
"<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">• Future development costs for
structures, new roadways, and utility extensions near gas wells, oil wells, and
pipelines may incur <u>unforeseen expenses</u> due to the potential need to develop around
Drilling and Production Sites or pipelines, relocate or bore utilities around
existing pipelines, perform environmental testing if the property is identified
as a prior Drilling and Production Site, or clean up and mitigate contaminated,
inactive sites.</span></h4>
<br />
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">• There are a significant number
of gas wells in Denton and its ETJ, mainly west of I-35. <u>Structures cannot be
built</u> over a plugged well and building siting must follow Fire Code
requirements to locate in the vicinity of an active well</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">• Since vertical
construction cannot occur in a pipeline easement, <u>future development potential
is severely limited</u> near pipelines...</span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">• The operations performed at
Drilling and Production Sites require heavy vehicle traffic to support the
various activities. The increase in vehicle traffic can adversely impact
associated roadways and traffic patterns around the Drilling and Production
Sites. Dirt, dust, and debris associated with drilling and production activities
<u>can produce localized adverse effects which could make new development near
them undesirable and unlikely.</u></span></h4>
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<h4>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">While…setbacks serve to reduce
risks to public safety, they also impact development and <u>compromise land use efficiency</u>.
[This is exacerbated by] the wide scattering of isolated well sites throughout
much of the western portion of Denton… </span></h4>
<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">While regulations were enacted in
2010 to limit gas well development plats to a maximum </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">of five (5) acres, a number of
pre-existing platted production sites exceed one hundred (100) acres and even
include residential and other protected uses within drilling and production
site boundaries. Thus, <u>development of adjacent properties for residential and
other protected uses is restricted</u> by the application of setbacks to these
non-drilling sites, regardless of proximity to well locations." </span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </h4>
<h4>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-57188569426661737542014-09-04T14:00:00.000-07:002014-09-04T14:18:16.613-07:00Denton Chamber Should Support the Ban<h4>
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<br />
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The Denton Chamber of Commerce's <a href="http://business.denton-chamber.org/news/details/reasonable-regulation-urged-at-gas-well-drilling-sites"><span style="color: blue;">decision</span></a>
to oppose the proposed ban on hydraulic fracturing contradicts its vision of
promoting “the general welfare and prosperity” of Denton. I respect the Chamber and admire all the good they do for Denton. But they have made a mistake here and I urge them to reconsider their position. <br />
<br />
Had they taken an
objective look at fracking, they would find that it is a drag on our economy
and an obstacle to future development. Fracking poses severe safety and health
risks to the Denton community in order to extract mineral wealth that is
primarily exported to non-local businesses and absentee mineral owners. Only 2%
of the appraised mineral value is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JigsQ6tQWIY"><span style="color: blue;">owned</span></a> by Denton
residents. Gas wells rapidly deplete in value – 90% in five
years. Denton will be stuck for the long haul stewarding hundreds of blighted
industrial sites of diminished value. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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Shockingly, the Chamber based its decision solely on an
industry-funded report by a group with a known <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/25429-fracked-on-their-own-petard-the-self-implosion-of-an-industry-on-the-ropes"><span style="color: blue;">record</span></a>
of extreme hyperbole when it comes to estimating the economic impacts of the
oil and gas industry. Yet even if we accept the industry’s numbers, they <a href="http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2014/07/depantsing-perryman-report-about.html"><span style="color: blue;">actually
confirm</span></a> the economic case against fracking. They show that it is a
miniscule part of our economy: it accounts for 0.2% of our gross revenue, 0.25%
of our labor force, and 0.5% of our tax revenues. Fracking accounts for 0.17%
of DISD’s budget, while dozens of gas wells right next to our schools emit
thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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How is any of this good for our welfare and prosperity?<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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City Council member Kevin Roden rightly <a href="http://rodenfordenton.com/blog/page/2/"><span style="color: blue;">notes</span></a> that a ban on fracking
will have “no perceivable impact on our local economy.” Indeed, the ban will
bring about an economic boom. It will add value to properties that would
otherwise be <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bwsxa7SpCLLDMDFjNzA0ZjgtOTM5ZS00YTVkLTgzNDgtNmE5NzY3M2IxYTgw/edit?hl=en&pli=1"><span style="color: blue;">devalued</span></a>
by nearby fracking operations. It will bring the economic benefits of cleaner
air and water and safer neighborhoods. Most importantly, the ban will make
Denton more attractive to the skilled workforce we need to support
higher-paying jobs and drive our economy forward. A city that allows a
poisonous industry less than 200 feet from homes is not an attractive place to
move. Without the ban, the workforce we need will find jobs, and spend their
money, elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s disappointing that the Chamber failed to consider the
full picture. Like the industry they only thought about the costs of a ban and
didn’t see how that flea is dwarfed by the elephant of economic benefits that a
ban will bring. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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The Chamber advocates “reasonable regulations,” but this too
is just a restatement of an industry talking-point. The fact is that the City
of Denton worked for three years attempting to craft regulations that would
both permit fracking and protect the health, safety, and welfare of her
citizens. Yet at every turn, the industry failed to compromise. They insist on
fracking as many wells as they want closer than 200 feet from homes and schools
on the 30% of our city’s land area already permitted for fracking. We actually
have a reasonable ordinance on the books. The problem is that it doesn’t apply
to anything, because fracking is vested under older laws. We were just closing
the barn doors after the cows got out. Further calls for working on regulations
can only shut the door tighter but not corral the herd.<br />
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Finally, the Chamber incorrectly claims that state law “guarantees”
that property owners can access their minerals. Like most rights, mineral
ownership is qualified, not absolute. Besides, the proposed ban is actually
less restrictive than other valid ordinances in Texas, because it is only a ban
on hydraulic fracturing, not drilling. An independent law firm has <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/235784126/Comments-Regarding-the-City-of-Denton-s-Proposed-Hydraulic-Fracturing-Ordinance"><span style="color: blue;">concluded</span></a>
that the proposed ban is legal. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The ban is the only reasonable option available to us.
Without it, we will see the wholesale industrialization of Denton’s
neighborhoods by an activity that pumps all the benefits out of town and dumps
all the costs on us. On November 4<sup>th</sup>, we need to pass the ban on
fracking in the name of promoting Denton’s welfare and prosperity. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-70377707849612646182014-08-17T21:00:00.000-07:002014-08-17T21:00:05.591-07:00They are still trying to fool us<h4>
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At the City Council public hearing on July 15<sup>th</sup>,
the industry representatives chose the following rhetorical strategy: “We
recognize that fracking is a problem in Denton. But we don’t need to ban it. We
promise to work with you to draft better regulations.” They are <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/chris-faulkner-the-misdeeds-of-a-few-companies-dont-warrant-fracking-bans-1408141235"><span style="color: blue;">now
saying</span></a> the same thing in their national op-eds about the Denton fracking
ban. <o:p></o:p></div>
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City Council members reminded them that we have worked for
years on local policy to no avail – there is still fracking less than 200 feet
from homes. Then City Council asked the industry representatives what ideas
they had for improving our bad situation. They were silent. They just promised
to help us come up with…something. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now it is over a month later, and I’ve just heard from
several city leaders that no one from the industry has lifted a finger to
follow through on their promise. I know…it came as a shock to me too. You mean
they were only blowing smoke?! They don’t care about us?! But they said…wow. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Actually, they are not just passively neglecting their
promise; they are actively undermining it. The city has a moratorium in effect
on new drilling permits while they revise the gas well ordinance. But that puts
a crimp in the plans of Vantage Energy to get frackin’ now. So, rather than
work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">with </i>us (as they promised to
do), they are going to work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">around </i>us:
on August 25<sup>th</sup>, Vantage is going to the Zoning Board of Adjustment
to get an exemption from the moratorium. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, they say they recognize the problem; they respect us and
want to help us to revise our regulations. But when the rubber hits the road
(and actual money is at stake), they have no patience for our processes and no
respect for our rules. <o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s the story of fracking in Denton. It’s an old story. I
don’t know who they think they are fooling anymore. <o:p></o:p></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-69411373586736051362014-07-19T21:22:00.000-07:002014-08-17T19:46:13.419-07:00Fracked on their own Petard: Depantsing the Perryman Report about Denton’s Fracking Ban <h4>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On November 4<sup>th</sup>, Denton could ban
fracking, forever ridding its neighborhoods of a poisonous specter. Ever since
we got the signatures to put the ban on the ballot, support has been growing
like a tidal wave. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY2FMQLRTa8U1QIQU1Su_Xc1JLJqdHOcJFucigqyH_cusJJAqXdTsDPu_VKu5IaJB1KnEg_UkwCPyHo5TIPoyy61N0IpjDoA6jNNFAmACr7ECkB57q__KJRcDmJru51o2JyEbjaphcUTY/s1600/passban+sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY2FMQLRTa8U1QIQU1Su_Xc1JLJqdHOcJFucigqyH_cusJJAqXdTsDPu_VKu5IaJB1KnEg_UkwCPyHo5TIPoyy61N0IpjDoA6jNNFAmACr7ECkB57q__KJRcDmJru51o2JyEbjaphcUTY/s1600/passban+sun.jpg" height="331" width="640" /></a></div>
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</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This has the oil and gas industry scared. They are
getting desperate. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">They’ve taken out full page color ads in the local
paper accusing us of being unpatriotic. The head of the Texas Railroad
Commission, a man whose campaigns are 80% funded by the very industry he
supposedly oversees, insinuated that <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2014/07/16/whos-behind-dentons-fracking-ban-head-texas-regulator-thinks-it-could-be-russia/"><span style="color: blue;">Russia
is behind the ban</span></a> (I’m still waiting for my check from the Kremlin, but
when it arrives, the first round of vodka is on me). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The industry even spent an estimated $50,000 on a
counter-petition campaign in support of fracking. For two weeks, out-of-state
petitioners, being paid $4/signature (plus hotel and travel expenses), flooded
the city. It was a shamelessly dishonest stunt. I was stopped by one petitioner
(from St. Louis) in the Kroger parking lot who actually told me that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">his </i>petition was for a fracking ban. Texas
Sharon Wilson caught another petitioner <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/2014/07/13/caught-on-video-petition-circulators-deceive-denton-residents/"><span style="color: blue;">lying
on</span></a> video and several others attested to their annoying and mendacious
tactics. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The industry also did what they do best: fund <a href="http://energyindepth.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Perryman-Denton-Fracking-Ban-Impact.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">a
report</span></a> about how great they are. They hired the Perryman Group to write a
report about how much the proposed fracking ban would cost Denton. Of course,
what they ‘found’ were some big scary numbers. A ban would cripple the city!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">They timed the release of the report to coincide
with last week’s epic City Council meeting about the ban that brought in 600
people (sitting in three overflow rooms) and stretched on until 3 a.m. To
parrot the findings of the report at that meeting, several industry
representatives drove in to Denton, including the former Chief Justice of the
Texas Supreme Court (surprisingly, he now works for the oil and gas industry). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
<br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Their strategy worked. Media coverage <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2014/07/14/stakes-are-high-as-denton-frack-ban-goes-to.html?page=all"><span style="color: blue;">cited</span></a>
the report’s figures, making it sound like the people of Denton would be
committing economic suicide if they adopted the fracking ban. And the <a href="http://energyindepth.org/texas/study-denton-fracking-ban-would-cost-city-millions/"><span style="color: blue;">industry
trolls</span></a> keep shouting the report’s conclusions into their <a href="http://www.northtexansfornaturalgas.com/denton" target="_blank">echo chambers</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, usually, I find it best to ignore this kind of
overt bias. But the stakes are too high. Someone has to call bulls**t. So, here
goes:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1. The
report is completely one-sided. It
is not a cost-benefit analysis of the fracking ban. It is only a cost analysis.
The benefits of taking the oh-so-radical move to ban a toxic industry from
neighborhoods are not even considered. Yet City Councilmember Kevin Roden is right that a fracking ban will <a href="http://rodenfordenton.com/2014/07/an-unlikely-economic-analysis-of-a-denton-fracking-ban/" target="_blank">create a local economic boom</a>. More on this later. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">2. It
is a black box that does not include
the data or the model used. Their model relies heavily on economic multipliers,
which are <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/node/43417"><span style="color: blue;">easy to abuse</span></a> to
get the findings you want. </span></span><br />
<br />
3. T<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">he
Perryman Group is notorious for
exaggerating figures to fit their clients’ preferred reality. When
TransCanada hired them, the Perryman Group said that the Keystone XL Pipeline
would create as many as 550,000 jobs. Even analysts who support the pipeline <a href="http://grist.org/oil/2011-11-06-fact-check-keystone-xl-tar-sands-pipeline-will-not-create-jobs/"><span style="color: blue;">called
their figures</span></a> “dead wrong” and ‘meaningless.’ An <a href="http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/gli_keystonexl_reportpdf.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">independent
analysis</span></a> by Cornell University found that the pipeline would create only
500 to 1,400 jobs (gosh, Perryman was only off by three orders of magnitude). <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">4. Don’t
forget the rule of the one percent (or less). <a href="http://rodenfordenton.com/2014/07/fracking-and-dentons-economy-a-quick-response-to-the-perryman-study/"><span style="color: blue;">We
know</span></a> that fracking is a miniscule part of Denton’s economy. Mineral values are
just 1.1% of total property values in the city. Minerals contribute just 1% of
total property tax revenues, meaning fracking accounts for 0.5% of the city’s
General Fund. The mining sector accounts for just 0.27% of the local workforce.
The only exception to this rule is that Denton families actually rake in a whole 2% of the total mineral wealth generated in Denton (companies and absentee mineral owners claim roughly 90%). </span><br />
<br />
5. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">OK,
set aside the report’s one-sidedness and hidden assumptions. Set aside the
Perryman Group’s track record of hyperbolic industry cheerleading. Let’s take
the giant leap to assume the report is not a gross exaggeration. Even then, the
report actually confirms the rule of the
one percent (or less). To start, it concludes that the ban will cost the city about
$501,000 in tax revenues annually. The total <a href="http://www.cityofdenton.com/Home/ShowDocument?id=17214" target="_blank">annual resources</a> of the City are $826 million, so that's 0.06%. If we compare their figure just to the City's General Fund (representing the bulk of tax revenues) it's still just 0.5%. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>But this is letting them off the hook, because the Perryman Report's numbers ar projections over the next ten years. Everything about Denton's economy is projected to grow over the next ten years, which means annual tax revenues will grow. Indeed, in just the two years from 2011-2013, Denton's General Fund <a href="http://www.cityofdenton.com/Home/ShowDocument?id=17214" target="_blank">increased</a> by 12% from $87 million to $99 million. </o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>So let's conservatively estimate a 5% annual growth rate in the General Fund, which in ten years would mean it will be at $155 million. Now let's take the halfway point at five years as a conservative average total General Fund level over the projected time frame. That's about $121 million, so we'd need to adjust their estimated cost in terms of tax revenues down to 0.4%. </o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">6. The
report confirms the rule of the one
percent (or less) again. It claims that the ban will cost 2,077 person
years of employment over ten years. Yet ‘person-years’ is a flow that accumulates
over the ten year period, so the figure actually amounts to 207 jobs. The <a href="http://www.dentonedp.com/business_location/demographics_data_workforce.asp"><span style="color: blue;">total
workforce</span></a> for Denton is 67,316, so the impact of the ban is 0.3%. Surprise! That’s about the same
number <a href="http://www.dentonedp.com/business_location/demographics_data_workforce.asp"><span style="color: blue;">posted
by the city</span></a>, which we have been using, of 0.27%. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>But again this is letting them off the hook, because they are projecting over ten years and Denton's work force is projected to grow significantly in that time frame. Indeed, Denton County's employment <a href="http://www.dentonedp.com/business_location/demographics_data_workforce.asp" target="_blank">grew</a> by over 5% in just one fear from 2012-2013. If we project that into the future and do the same conservative estimates as above (for tax revenues but this time for the work force), then we'd need to revise their figure down to just 0.25%. </o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>7. </o:p></span>And again…
The report estimates a loss of roughly $25 million per year in the city’s gross
product. Now, as far as I know, no one bothers to count the total gross product
for cities – only nations and states. So, we will have to use a proxy to
estimate Denton’s gross product. One way to do this is to divide Texas’ <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=TXNGSP"><span style="color: blue;">$1.5 trillion</span></a>
gross product by 215 (as Denton’s population is 1/215<sup>th</sup> of the
state’s population). That yields a gross product for Denton of $6.98 billion,
which means Perryman’s estimated cost of the ban is a whopping 0.36% of Denton’s gross product.<br />
<br />
Again, though, Denton's gross product will grow over the next decade. If we peg this to population growth, we can get a decent estimate in how Denton's economy will balloon. The <a href="http://www.dentonedp.com/business_location/demographics_data_population.asp" target="_blank">expected population</a> of Denton in 2020 is 147,825, an incredible 24% increase from the present population. The same growth in our gross product would mean we revise Perryman's figure down to 0.2%.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>In case the pattern isn't obvious yet, we can say the exact same things about their own figures for impacts of a ban on the Denton Independent School District. Even using today's <a href="http://www.dentonisd.org/cms/lib/TX21000245/Centricity/Domain/57/Budget%20Book%2013-14.pdf" target="_blank">annual operating revenues</a> for DISD, their figure is just 0.2%. But DISD's budget is growing at a rate of 6%. If we project that and do the same conservative calculations as above with taxes and employment, then their figure drops to 0.17%.</o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p>8. </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">To
conclude, let’s return to the benefits
of a fracking ban (the costs of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>banning
fracking). Many of these benefits are hard to measure, but very real. Indeed,
they may not be easy to count but in the end they are what really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">counts</i>: health, quality of life, and your
right to feel safe in your home and peacefully enjoy your property:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will reduce health care costs (and lost worker productivity) by cutting
fracking’s outsized contribution to <a href="http://www.texasobserver.org/studies-links-fracking-smog-pollution-stronger-state-claims/"><span style="color: blue;">smog-forming
ozone</span></a> in an area with <a href="https://www.centerforchildrenshealth.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/CCHAPSReports/CCHAPS_asthma_position_paper_April_14_2011.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">alarmingly
high rates</span></a> of childhood asthma. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will eliminate the waste of hundreds of millions of gallons of city water,
in a drought-prone area, and the risks posed to our groundwater resources. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will reduce the costs of development. A fracking ban means dozens or
hundreds fewer gas well pad sites, thus fewer impediments to development and
lower taxes to finance it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will open up more land for more profitable land uses. Gas well sites (often
more than an acre in size) chew into residential and commercial development,
which produce larger and more sustained revenues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will protect home values. Fracking <a href="http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-12047-the-fracking_real-estate-conundrum.html"><span style="color: blue;">reduces</span></a>
nearby residential property values, thus depleting tax revenues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will protect quality of life. Fracking brings with it: overwhelming truck
traffic (it takes more than <a href="http://lib.law.virginia.edu/lawjournals/sites/lawjournals/files/2.%20Rawlins%20-%20Barnett%20Shale.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">1,000
diesel trucks</span></a> to bring a single well into production), noise and light
pollution, and fumes and odors. It takes away your right and ability to enjoy
your home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will attract the workforce of the future. Fracking is a deterrent for the
people Denton needs to recruit to fill the high-tech, high-paying jobs that can
propel its economy forward. The <a href="http://www.citylab.com/housing/2014/05/what-millennials-wantand-why-cities-are-right-pay-them-so-much-attention/9032/"><span style="color: blue;">millenials</span></a>
who are hitting the workforce now want cities with a high quality of life.
Poisonous fracking 200 feet from homes doesn’t quite fit that bill. They’ll
find jobs, and take their dollars, elsewhere. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
ban will provide peace of mind. Parents won’t have to worry – like <a href="http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/denton/Denton-Council-hears-arguments-for-unprecedented-fracking-ban-267274071.html"><span style="color: blue;">Denton
resident Maile Bush worries</span></a> – about the health of their children. How much
of a benefit is it to not have a <a href="http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/05/01/data-shows-high-chemical-levels-in-denton-air/"><span style="color: blue;">carcinogen-emitting</span></a>
industrial site outside your child’s or your grandchild’s bedroom window? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The industry wants to frame the vote on the ban in
terms of a cost-benefit calculation. But they just shot themselves in the foot
with this report. When we really look at the numbers (which they doubtlessly
exaggerated in their black box) in the context of the local economy, we find
that they are miniscule. They are far outweighed by the benefits of
safeguarding property rights, water, air, home values, and the health,
livability, and safety of our community. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-44104625838973531202014-06-26T06:24:00.002-07:002014-06-26T06:24:20.446-07:00Yes, We Can Say No<h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The industry-sponsored </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“</span><a href="http://www.northtexansfornaturalgas.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue;">North Texans for Natural Gas</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">thinks that because we use natural gas we should
not be concerned about the negative impacts of fracking in Denton.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here’s their logic: if you use plastics and
electricity or grill steaks, then you must accept the cancer-causing air
emissions, waste of clean water, and noise of fracking in your neighborhood.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/frackfreedenton"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">Frack
Free Denton</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> is not a movement against natural gas.
Rather, it is against the permitting of toxic industrial activities near homes,
schools, and parks. It is a movement <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for </i>safe
and healthy communities and people’s rights to peacefully enjoy their property.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">With the ban on fracking, the citizens of Denton are
taking a stand for safe and healthy neighborhoods. And the frackers’ response
is to tell us that we have to accept their poisonous activities because natural
gas is used to make <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=752301218147159&set=a.737686872941927.1073741828.718695571507724&type=1&theater"><span style="color: blue;">lacrosse
sticks</span></a>!?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">That’s how out of touch they are. They just want us
to be meek and compliant consumers, not active citizens protecting our
children, our property, and the future of our town. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">According to their absurd logic, as long as we use natural
gas we cannot reject any part of its development (even one process in one town)
no matter how dangerous it is. If that was the way we did things, we’d still be
insulating our schools with asbestos. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Frack Free Denton is all about local
self-determination: the people bearing the negative impacts of hydraulic
fracturing should be the ones to decide. We get to choose what Denton will be. And
we’ve chosen to cultivate the nation’s </span><a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20140404-largest-community-garden-in-u.s.-feeds-needy-in-denton.ece"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">largest
community garden</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> and to get a nation-leading </span><a href="http://www.icleiusa.org/blog/denton-tx2019s-municipally-owned-utility-jumps-to-40-renewable-energy"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">40%
of our energy portfolio</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> from renewable, wind-generated
electricity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Denton has long been shaped by thoughtful citizens. Thanks to their leadership, we are already walking down a path toward
independence from the industry’s unsustainable and harmful products. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-27809847691375068942014-06-03T20:04:00.001-07:002014-06-15T17:19:15.364-07:00Mineral OwnershipFolks should know that only 2% of profits from fracking belongs to Denton families, while they get 100% of the pollution. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKct9T1vEA8VGXkDs0eFXmW2aKrw4D8PhjSgzd8I1Hj-cR5Ap9PHcCaBEyzQddJMJmNk2vxgXwgj-WXvzGjdwhWQ1j_ubElThN61Zrn6Z6fC5rSyNwQ9dVo2Y6b2HLWsdYvp0HBkebCaw/s1600/who+owns++minerals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-69999675381738875462014-05-02T18:30:00.001-07:002014-05-02T18:33:14.472-07:00Why do Denton residents have to spend thousands to detect benzene in their backyards?<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">There are two things I want to address in this blog.</span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">First,
I have asked Dalton Gregory to remove my endorsement statement <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">for his election</span> from his blog and he
will do so <span data-term="goog_1549145992" tabindex="0"><span class="aqj">on
Sunday</span></span> when he returns from a trip. </span>It was inappropriate for
me to issue political endorsements like that when I am working as a member of a
non-profit educational group. <o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">Second,
</span><a href="http://frackfreedenton.com/2014/05/01/videos-air-sampling-reveal-denton-citys-broken-promises-to-monitor-fracking-pollution/" target="_blank">air quality tests that Denton DAG recently released</a><span style="color: black;"> show benzene at dangerous levels in a Denton neighborhood
near gas wells. </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">Air
monitoring is so important because in the backwards Texas <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">regulatory </span>system, fracking is treated
as innocent until proven guilty. Even though we know the industry is using
carcinogenic and toxic chemicals, the burden of proof falls on <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">the residents</span> to establish that those
chemicals are trespassing into <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">their
</span>neighborhoods and <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">their </span>bloodstreams.
</span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">Who
can <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">monitor our air to keep it safe and
healthy? </span>State agencies don’t have the funding, personnel, or
equipment to even come close to an adequate monitoring program. There are
18,000 gas wells on the Barnett Shale and TCEQ has six air monitors! And when
TCEQ responds to complaints, they are going to be taking measurements long
after the emissions event and after the industry knows they are coming. </span></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">That
means it is up to local communities to monitor the industry. Southlake, Grand
Prairie, and Hurst all have monitoring programs as part of their drilling
ordinances. </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">For
two years, DAG </span><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4DaWHJom04lRm5zUVVNUDRxU0E/edit?usp=drive_web&urp=http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2012/10/dag-rep&pli=1" target="_blank">repeatedly recommended</a><span style="color: black;"> a program
be built into Denton’s ordinance. </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">When
it came time for the final vote in January, 2013, Denton City Council, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">including Councilman Gregory,</span> did
not include a monitoring program in the ordinance. BUT they promised
to make an air monitoring program as a stand-alone requirement. This, they
said, would be even better, because it would avoid the vested rights issue so
that monitoring would apply to all gas well sites – old and new. </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">I
expected City Council would get to work on this right away. But they didn’t. In
fact, in the fifteen months since they made that promise, they have had one
meeting about air monitoring. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Our
elected officials have done nothing to monitor the air and not enough to
protect the health and safety of the people who elected them.</span> </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">I
know lots of people pushed the issue, but I’ll just speak for myself. I wrote
e-mails and made phone calls. I met with city officials to see how we could
start a program. I wrote blogs trying to spur action. DAG brought Jay Olaguer,
one of Texas’ leading air quality scientists, to Denton to give a presentation
on monitoring. Jay and I tried to work with Denton and other cities to build a
regional consortium for monitoring. </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">There
was little cooperation and no action. </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">The
city could <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">have required in the
ordinance </span>that operators <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">pay</span>
the expense of monitoring. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Instead,</span>
citizens have to pass the hat to collect the thousands of dollars it takes to
get Summa canister samples. They have to wait for months on end to get a few
hours with one of the only FLIR cameras in the region (these cameras can cost
$40,000 or more). </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">And
when citizen test results <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">confirm the
presence of toxic chemicals,</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">industry
spouts</span> lies about how the cameras are only seeing heat waves when in
fact <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">those cameras are</span> designed
to detect and make visible <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">only</span>
toxic chemicals, <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">not</span> heat waves.
This is the same old stuff out of the tobacco industry’s playbook. </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The city’s failure to implement its own monitoring
system has given industry the ability to say there is no danger, placing the
time and expense and responsibility of proving that there is danger on the
backs of the citizens instead of the city.</span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">This
is exactly why the citizens have taken the job of writing an adequate fracking
ordinance into their own hands. </span></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">All
of this once again goes to show why we need to ban fracking <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">in Denton.</span> We really, really tried to
make it compatible with our city. We tried to internalize costs. We tried to
provide safety and monitoring assurances. But at every turn, we met with
obstacles. </span></h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black;">We
need to flip this backwards system. Ban fracking until we have proof that it
can be done safely – that it can be done without sending benzene into the homes
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">where our kids are sleeping,</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">into the schools that they attend and
playgrounds and parks</span> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">where they
play.</span> </span><o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-30565491447314663372014-04-07T21:10:00.001-07:002014-04-08T04:19:03.256-07:00A Fracking Ban Will Not Sink the City<h4>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So far, the main
argument against a fracking ban – one that I have heard from nearly everyone in
city leadership – is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>that it is
the wrong thing to do. Many of our elected officials agree that fracking is an
overall <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JigsQ6tQWIY"><span style="color: blue;">economic loser</span></a>
for our city and is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLksrL_YV4I&feature=youtu.be"><span style="color: blue;">inherently
incompatible</span></a> with our community. Some have even said they really would <a href="http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20140218-groups-drive-raises-concern.ece"><span style="color: blue;">like
to ban fracking</span></a>…if only we could! You see, that’s their argument: not that
we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shouldn’t</i> ban fracking, <a href="http://www.daltongregory.com/issues/"><span style="color: blue;">but that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">can’t</i></span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here’s the argument: The
city does not have the authority to ban fracking. If we pass a ban, the
industry and the state will sue the city. The lawsuit will cost millions of
dollars, because Denton will almost certainly lose. This could entail financial
ruin and higher taxes. As Dr. Jean Schaake said at a recent Mayoral debate, “a
ban will sink the city. This is something to take to Austin and the Railroad
Commission,” she continued, “not to City Hall.” In sum: sadly (they will say),
the issue of <u>legal</u> jurisdiction trumps the well-grounded <u>ethical</u>
objection to fracking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This argument is similar
to the way the moderate white clergy reacted to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They
said his goal was noble, but his means were untimely and misdirected. Dr.
King’s <a href="http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html"><span style="color: blue;">Letter
from a Birmingham Jail</span></a> was a reply to those </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">who say “I agree with you in the
goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For a long time, I was
the moderate voice against a fracking ban, and I respect those in positions of
leadership who are making the moderate argument today – indeed I <a href="http://chriswattsformayor.com/support-committee/"><span style="color: blue;">support some of their
campaigns</span></a> for election. Temperance, after all, is a virtue, and their
position is a serious one that deserves deep and careful reflection. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The problem is that
citizens may hear this argument from so many leaders and, rather than reflect
on it, automatically assume it is the truth. They may confuse authority for
wisdom. People are especially likely to make this snap judgment, because the
argument concludes in a costly legal battle, which naturally evokes fear.
People hear this and dismiss the ban as some ill-begotten idealism that will
bankrupt the city. In this way, even though no one intends this, the moderate
argument becomes entangled with a logical fallacy, namely, appeal to fear. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want to brush away the
cobwebs of fear that lie atop the moderate argument and cloud our efforts to
see it clearly. To do this, I’ll make two kinds of remarks. First, I set some
things in perspective. Second, I show why the ban is actually quite reasonable
and enforceable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some Perspective <o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What, really, are we afraid
of? I will grant that should the ban pass it will likely face legal challenge.
But the mere fact of a lawsuit should not cause us to shudder. When an issue is
of vital importance, it is nearly impossible for it to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>to end up in court. The courts are forges where we test the
mettle of competing claims to justice. Some cases like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brown v. Board of Education</i> come to form part of our collective
moral backbone. We can and often do take a different attitude toward lawsuits:
not fear, but conviction and even celebration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The City of Denton
regularly finds itself in lawsuits. One case in point: the city <a href="http://www.tml.org/payday-updates"><span style="color: blue;">has been in litigation</span></a> ever since
it passed an ordinance restricting certain aspects of the payday lending
business (<a href="http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20130320-council-adopts-rules-for-short-term-lenders.ece"><span style="color: blue;">a
year ago</span></a>). There are strong parallels here: natural gas extraction and short-term
lending both threaten citizen well-being, both ordinances prohibit certain
aspects of the business that are most harmful (hydraulic fracturing in one case
and predatory lending practices in the other), and both ordinances are
justified by the jurisdictional authority of municipalities to protect citizen
health, safety, and welfare. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Recall also that if
this, or any other lawsuit, becomes too unwieldy, the city can withdraw or
negotiate. There is never an uncontrollable slide into unmanageable legal costs
– that’s just a scare tactic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In short, the mere fact
of litigation cannot be the problem – this is the daily bread of city politics.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<u><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Some Legal Defenses of the Ban<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No, it must be that we
are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">almost certain to lose </i>the
lawsuit. That’s the real problem. But is that true? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is the most
frustrating thing about the moderate argument – the supposed fact of a near
certain loss is bandied about as an article of faith. I have never seen this
premise actually accompanied with a reasoned argument grounded in statutory or
case law and addressed specifically at the legal merits of the proposed
ordinance to ban fracking (the petition). Those who espouse it usually just
wave one hand at the colossal bogey man of the oil and gas business and the
other hand at the supposed frailty of municipal authority. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I’ve even watched this
drift into outright lies as was the case at one Planning and Zoning Commission
meeting where a Commissioner asked a city lawyer if there had <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ever </i>been a case where a city actually
defeated the oil and gas industry in a lawsuit. The lawyer’s response, after
much dithering, was basically ‘no.’ But that is just patently not true – <u>cities
have defeated the industry in Texas and around the country dozens if not
hundreds of times </u>(see below). The moderate argument holds that there is no
legal precedent in this case, which makes it too risky. But there is a long
track record of municipalities defeating the oil and gas industry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Consider the legal
status of home rule municipalities like Denton. One part of the moderate
argument is that home rule just doesn’t give cities as much power as we would
like. But listen to this from the <a href="http://www.tml.org/pdftexts/HRHChapter1.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Texas Municipal League</span></a>: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“…home rule cities have the inherent authority to do just about
anything that qualifies as a ‘public purpose’ and is not contrary to the constitution
or laws of the state.” </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That is pretty sweeping
legal authority. You can find other strong claims about home rule powers in the
Texas Local Government Code, which, for example, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">grants home-rule municipalities
the power to regulate the location of industrial activities and to “define and
prohibit any nuisance within the limits of the municipality and within 5,000
feet outside the limits” and the power to “enforce all ordinances necessary to
prevent and summarily abate and remove a nuisance” (Sec. <a href="http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/LG/htm/LG.211.htm"><span style="color: blue;">211.003</span></a>
and Sec. <a href="http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/LG/htm/LG.217.htm"><span style="color: blue;">217.042</span></a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Now consider the legal
status of the oil and gas business and how it challenges home rule authority.
There are two main issues here. First, the predominance of the mineral estate
that supposedly necessitates permitting this incompatible industrial land use
in residential areas. If a city refuses to allow access to minerals, then (the
argument goes) they will lose a regulatory takings lawsuit. Second, the fact
that state agencies like the Railroad Commission have jurisdiction over oil and
gas supposedly trumps local rules. If a city bans fracking, then (the argument
goes) they will lose a preemption lawsuit. Put these two together and you get
the conclusion of the moderate argument that this industry enjoys certain
special rights and is managed according to the state’s concern with developing
minerals rather than the city’s concern with protecting community integrity and
citizen well-being. But how serious are these legal challenges? Let’s consider
each in turn briefly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<u>
</u><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><u>Regulatory Takings</u> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One good resource for this is a law article by Terry Welch, “<a href="http://www.bhlaw.net/articles/Prof%20UT%20Land%20Use%20Paper%20on%20Gas%20Drilling%20Paper%202-25-12.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Municipal
Regulation of Natural Gas Drilling in Texas</span></a>.” Though he notes there is an
ongoing tension in the law between the industry’s interests to develop minerals
and cities’ interest in protecting public health and safety, he chronicles several
cases where cities have defeated the industry, including cases of outright
prohibition. Courts have a long record of deferring to the judgment of local
government and the citizens they represent. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Another great resource is a law article by Timothy Riley, “<a href="http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/files/2012/02/riley.pdf"><span style="color: blue;">Wrangling with
Urban Wildcatters.”</span></a> I’ll just give you the punch line in two parts. First,
“</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">municipalities
have many sticks in their regulatory bundle to successfully defend a prudently
enacted oil and gas ordinance against both partial and categorical takings
claims.” Second, and here’s the kicker, “Texas common law generally favors
municipal authority to regulate oil and gas activities…. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>every direct challenge to a city’s police powers has been soundly
defeated</u></i><u>” </u>(p. 372). </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In the 1980s, the Fort Worth Court
of Appeals ruled that “any deprivation resulting from a lawful ordinance
enforced pursuant to the legitimate policing authority of a municipality does
not constitute a loss of property without due process under the law” (p. 371). A
year later, the same court found the “City’s ordinance was not preempted by
state statute, nor was it in conflict with state law, and thus posed no due
process or equal protection violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Moreover,
the court stated that the reasonableness of a municipal ordinance is presumed
and considered controlling by courts ‘unless the unreasonableness of the
ordinance is fairly free from doubt’” (p. 371). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now, look at some of the fracking
that is going on just 250 feet away from homes in Denton, remember the dozens
of health complaints from nearby residents, and recall that that situation will
happen again and again as the city grows <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">despite
</i>years of attempts to regulate it at the local level. I don’t see how one
could say a ban in such a situation is clearly unreasonable. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To be reasonable,
local oil and gas ordinances must not arbitrarily discriminate against the
industry. The proposed ban does not do that – it treats the industry like any
other business and, just like payday lending, it prohibits certain business
operations for reasons of health and safety. I guess one could argue that
banning hydraulic fracturing is analogous to 'allowing' payday lenders to
operate...just without computers, electricity, and internet. But using
computers in a workplace is not a public health threat on anywhere near the level
that using carcinogenic chemicals is. In the payday lending case, protecting
citizens does not require turning off their lights and computers. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That </i>would be arbitrary and
discriminatory. But in the case of fracking, protecting citizens does require
prohibiting the use of the chemicals and the associated process. The measure
taken is reasonable and proportionate to the threat at hand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of course, underneath
all of this is the fundamental legal right to private property. But even
foundational rights like this, or the right to free speech, are qualified. </span><span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is a point that </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://webmail.unt.edu/OWA/redir.aspx?C=U2Z28Iy7fEyfV2DcOP9feMxAmBnhItEIIl_nLUjF5ipM6Xn8vL7d_W4VCu9YKaEB5dghcQEUuAE.&URL=http%3a%2f%2feagleridgeenergy.com%2feagle-ridge-energy-responds-to-dag-blog-post%2f" target="_blank"><span style="color: purple;">Eagleridge even makes on their
website</span></a></span><span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (my emphasis added):
“The basic principle of this country and the Constitution is freedom and the
unalienable right to enjoy the use of personal and real property. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Certainly
not at the expense or detriment to others</span>,</u></i> but the right still
remains.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Say that someone owns
a pond and they have the right to catch the fish in it, because it’s their
property. But they use dynamite to get the fish. This creates loud noises that
disturb the neighbors and it also creates chemical runoff that pollutes
neighbors’ property. The legal (and ethical) response is to say that person can
get the fish, but they can’t use dynamite. His enjoyment of his private
property can’t prevent you from enjoying your property. If there is no other reasonable
alternative to dynamite, then that property remains inaccessible for the time
being. The appropriate response is to push for safer technologies, not to lower
the bar on public health and safety regulations in order to accommodate
existing technologies. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hydraulic fracturing
is like fishing with dynamite. The ban is a recognition that we don’t yet have
a reasonable and technologically available way to access the minerals – really
what it is saying is that we <i>have never had </i>such an alternative – we
have just been trying to pretend that hydraulic fracturing fits that bill. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: #020202; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><u>Preemption<o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The moderates contend
that only the state has the authority to regulate oil and gas drilling. But
they cannot really mean that, because it is so obviously false. On the Barnett
Shale alone, there are dozens of municipal ordinances that constitute
regulation of the industry by local governments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So what they must mean
is that there are certain limits to the city’s jurisdiction over the oil and
gas industry. That’s true enough, but by itself it’s a trivial statement. The
question is whether this ban as formulated on the petition exceeds those
limits. On that question, I have yet to hear anyone in city leadership offer their
opinion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Denton’s leadership holds
a very conservative view about the limits of municipal authority over the oil
and gas business. They did not adopt several of the provisions found in Flower
Mound’s ordinance out of fear of a preemption lawsuit. Yet in recent years
Flower Mound has faced five lawsuits from the industry, and they have won four
with the fifth still pending. Grand Prairie also won in a recent court
challenge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">More broadly on the
issue of preemption, there is a long history of courts upholding municipal
regulations on industries that are largely regulated at the state level. The
basic rationale is that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">purpose </i>of
municipal regulations is different from state regulations. It was on this basis
that the <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/03/norse_energy_corp_v_town_of_dryden_court_upholds_new_york_town_s_fracking.html"><span style="color: blue;">New
York appellate Court upheld</span></a> the Town of Dryden’s ban on fracking. That
ordinance </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">doesn’t really regulate the
industry; rather it just establishes permissible and prohibited land uses,
which is something that has long been held to be a proper function of local
government. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">In Texas, there is no doctrine of implied preemption
under state law (meaning that just because the state enacts legislation does
not imply that a city is powerless to address the issue). Furthermore, for any
municipal regulation to be preempted by state law, the State Legislature must
do so “with unmistakable clarity.” There is nothing in the state rules about
fracking that specifically preempts the city from adopting the ordinance as
proposed.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Just because the<span style="color: black;"> state of Texas seeks to foster and promote mineral
development does not mean that Texas cities have to capitulate to their
interests. The city also has legitimate and legally recognized interests in
protecting community integrity and citizen health, safety, and welfare. The
proposed ban on hydraulic fracturing is a reasonable exercise of the powers of
local government. </span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><img class="mainImage" src="http://frackfreedenton.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/new-frack-free-denton-sticker.jpg?w=1200&h=1200" style="background-color: white; height: 407px; width: 407px;" /></a></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-79439952985975849172014-03-11T18:48:00.002-07:002014-03-11T18:51:10.011-07:00Video: The Myth of the Local Fracking Boom
More than two dozen homeowners are <a href="http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/denton/Denton-homeowners-sue-energy-company-over-fracking-sites-249375401.html"><span style="color: blue;">suing
EagleRidge</span></a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for damages up to $25
million. The lawsuit, filed by residents at the Meadows at Hickory Creek, <a href="http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20140309-lawsuit-filed-against-company.ece"><span style="color: blue;">claims
that</span></a> two EagleRidge frack sites have diminished property values, trespassed
onto their properties by contaminating air, and reduced enjoyment of their
property. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<strong>The missing piece of this story is mineral rights.</strong> No one in
this neighborhood is making a dime from the fracking, because they do not own
the minerals. So, as the lawsuit makes clear, they are suffering the costs
while not getting any of the benefits. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
This raises a larger question: How is the mineral wealth
produced by gas wells in Denton distributed? How much money actually stays
local in the pockets of Denton families? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
I created a short video to answer those questions. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JigsQ6tQWIY&feature=youtu.be"><span style="color: blue;"><strong>The Myth
of the Local Fracking Boom</strong></span></a> shows how most of the wealth generated in Denton
drains out of town. All too often, the people living near fracking sites pay
the costs but do not see any of the benefits. <br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JigsQ6tQWIY" width="420"></iframe>)Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-32005619994500764822014-03-03T14:09:00.000-08:002014-03-03T14:10:11.928-08:00Video: A Failed Strategy -- Fracking Regulations in Denton<h4>
Here is a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLksrL_YV4I&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">6 minute video</a> that explains Denton's regulatory approach to fracking - the compatibility strategy - and why it has been a failure. It shows how it is time for a change...time for a <a href="http://frackfreedenton.com/" target="_blank">Frack Free Denton</a>. </h4>
<br />Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-27313383466142824672014-02-23T20:10:00.001-08:002014-02-23T20:10:33.601-08:00What We Are Fighting For
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
Some think the initiative to ban fracking
is all about what we are AGAINST. But this is really
about what we stand FOR. It is a positive campaign – we stand for the health,
safety, and integrity of Denton. </h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
But that’s too abstract. Here’s what really keeps me
motivated to keep up the fight: it’s the thought that a year from now a child –
someone just like my daughters – will go outside in her neighborhood in our
town to ride her bike and she won’t have frack trucks nearby pumping out
diesel, silica, and other chemicals. She’ll come inside for dinner breathing
clean air with no coughing. She’ll drink clean water not threatened by toxins
(neither known nor non-disclosed). She’ll sleep soundly in the night with no
interruptions. She’ll grow up healthy and do her own part to make Denton and
the world better. </h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
About 30,000 new families are going to move to Denton in the near future. Many
of them will end up in situations like we’ve seen at Vintage and S. Bonnie, where
the children couldn’t even go outside to trick or treat at Halloween. We’re
fighting for a Denton where kids are safe in their own neighborhoods. </h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-12552515962420161052014-02-19T20:50:00.000-08:002014-02-19T20:50:03.122-08:00Time for a Frack Free Denton<h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Denton Drilling Awareness Group is launching a
campaign – <a href="http://frackfreedenton.com/" target="_blank">Frack Free Denton</a> – to ban hydraulic fracturing in the city limits. This
campaign is a ray of hope for our community. It promises not only to protect us
from a uniquely invasive and toxic industry, but also to provide us with an occasion
for a civic conversation about who we are and who we aspire to be. In the
spirit of that conversation, let me briefly explain why I will be signing the
petition. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9c_Aq7HLRXx-gF1Z8olEvSnV0opTWFymKwXxMonx46g5dzU1YosZhQeuINWcaEp1A6GU7D_Apxz-Hszl135XJYjR5crO7Ux9AZD9M4gKpwGrZkAGYhQc7HPe0jKaXyLcZnbFynOFGjg/s1600/new-frack-free-denton-sticker%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje9c_Aq7HLRXx-gF1Z8olEvSnV0opTWFymKwXxMonx46g5dzU1YosZhQeuINWcaEp1A6GU7D_Apxz-Hszl135XJYjR5crO7Ux9AZD9M4gKpwGrZkAGYhQc7HPe0jKaXyLcZnbFynOFGjg/s1600/new-frack-free-denton-sticker%5B1%5D.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When it comes to fracking, all of the most powerful
players are focused on a narrow set of intended outcomes: profits,
economic growth, and energy security. The oil and gas industry seeks to exploit
minerals. The Texas Railroad Commission fosters and promotes this development.
State and federal lawmakers are increasingly captured by corporate interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is at the local level where most of the broader
unintended harms from fracking occur, namely, air and water pollution, property
devaluation and damage, and noises and other nuisances. Working within this
context, the City of Denton has pursued what we might call the compatibility
strategy: it has sought to make the production of
minerals compatible with health, safety, welfare, community integrity, and surface property rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After years of effort, I have come to realize that
the compatibility strategy is a failure. We can either have fracking or a safe,
healthy, and vibrant city. We cannot have both. In calling for a ban on hydraulic
fracturing, we are choosing our safety over their profits. We are choosing our
community over their reckless pursuit of commodities. We are choosing the
health of our children over a shortsighted, poisonous, and unsustainable fossil
fuel addiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This is a choice I have made with a great deal of
deliberation. Indeed, for five years the committed citizens of Denton tried
to make the compatibility strategy a success. We tried despite a Task Force stacked
with oil and gas industry representatives. We tried despite closed-door
meetings and behind-the-scenes legalese. We tried even as our ideas for bolstering
safety and health – ideas that had been implemented by other cities on the
Barnett Shale – were repeatedly denied. And we tried even as we learned that the
new rules that did actually pass – including the 1,200 foot setback distance –
would not apply to the hundreds of gas well pad sites within City limits grandfathered
under older regulations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But we could no longer stomach the failures of this
strategy when three gas wells were drilled, fracked, and flared in one of our
neighborhoods – and we saw that this would be the ugly future of Denton under
status quo policies. We could no longer simply work through the bureaucratic
system – with all its hoops, loopholes, and systematic biases – when people
were getting sick and parents had to keep their kids indoors in desperate
attempts to protect them from the fumes. We could no longer ignore the fact
that most of the people exposed to the harms were not informed and were not receiving
any of the financial benefits. And we cannot watch our City grow over the
coming years into the heart of the gas patch and let thousands of new Denton
families suffer in this way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As natural gas prices rise in the future, things
will only get worse. Unless we act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Enough is enough. It is time for a frack free Denton. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-24997249477580830432014-01-27T20:01:00.000-08:002014-01-27T20:01:05.660-08:00How Denton Got FrackedI learned how to use some software over the winter break that let me put together this 34 minute video, titled: "<a href="http://youtu.be/tPcjIto7c_o" target="_blank">How Denton Got Fracked: The Story of a City on the Shale</a>." Please share it widely - I hope it is helpful for citizens of Denton trying to get caught up on this issue and for citizens of other towns and cities who might learn from our experiences. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tPcjIto7c_o" width="420"></iframe><br />Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-54058745586041352152014-01-15T18:48:00.001-08:002014-01-15T18:48:46.823-08:00Meeting for South Lakes Park Neighborhoods
Thanks to the leadership of Rhonda Love, DAG has organized a meeting to discuss the fracking near South Lakes Park. Here is the info: <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 1.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING <o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></o:p></span></u></b><br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Come and learn about the gas drilling which is being
conducted by EagleRidge Energy in our area.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Thursday, January 23, 2014<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>7-8:30PM<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Denia Park Recreation Center, Room B<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">1001 Parvin Street<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Fracking, the process of removing natural gas
from shale, has begun on Acme Brick property near South Lakes Park, residences,
schools, public areas, and businesses. This gas extraction process is
accompanied by noise and pollution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">If you have any concerns, document the dates
and times about noise, lights, chemicals, odor, dust, traffic, and any other
problems, and call these numbers:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"> <span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Darren Groth, Denton Gas Well Administrator<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>940-349-8363<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><a href="mailto:Darren.Groth@cityofdenton.com"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Darren.Groth@cityofdenton.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Joey
Hawkins, City Council Representative for District 4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>940-395-8249<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Joey.Hawkins@cityofdenton.com<span style="color: #11356c;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Some people experience health problems such
as headaches, sore throat, nose bleeding, rashes, dizziness, fatigue,
respiratory distress, burning eyes, etc.<span style="color: #c52028;"> <u style="text-underline: #C52028;">If you do experience health problems</u>, </span>then<span style="color: #c52028;"> </span>keep a health log detailing symptoms, date and
time of day when experienced, intensity and duration of symptoms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">Please call Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality (TCEQ) at 1-888-777-3186 and file a complaint. They MUST respond to
your call and can do air and water testing. Make a note of the date and time of
your call and when they respond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u style="text-underline: #C52028;"><span style="color: #c52028;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">The
EagleRidge contact is Mark Grawe, VP and Chief of Operations. 1-214-295-6704<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">__________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">You can contact other concerned citizens through this email:
dentondag@gmail.com<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;">And, for more information on citizens' concerns about gas drilling
in Denton, please visit: </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times-Roman","serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Roman;"> <a href="http://www.dentondag.org/"><span style="color: #0a4dcc;">http://www.dentondag.org/</span></a>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-42366336018963852802014-01-11T22:12:00.001-08:002014-01-11T22:24:32.925-08:00Shale Survival in Denton<h4>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
There’s been quite a bit of concern about the fracking near
Southlakes Park. This is in addition to the fracking at Vintage/S. Bonnie –
both by EagleRidge. For those wanting to know where to turn with questions and
complaints, let me point you to TX Sharon’s very helpful <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/shale-survival/">Shale Survival Tools</a>,
which include information on <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/shale-survival/tools/">Who to Call When Things
Go Wrong</a>. You can also find helpful information at <a href="http://www.cityofdenton.com/departments-services/departments-g-p/gas-well-inspections">Denton’s
Gas Well Inspection Division</a>. </h4>
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If you are interested in the policy background of the
Southlakes wells, you can check out <a href="http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-southlake-wells-look-at-just-how.html">my
earlier post</a> about that. You can also learn about how these wells (and the
Vintage/S. Bonnie ones) were <a href="http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2013/11/bad-deal-denton-loses-in-its-agreement.html">permitted
by the City in a standstill agreement</a>…even though at least three wells
permitted seem to violate our ordinance. </h4>
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I went out to look at these two fracking sites today and here
are some pics and videos. </h4>
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Here you can see them pulling water out of a city fire
hydrant. Judging by all the hoses out there, it seemed like they might be using
a couple of hydrants. Most likely they take this water to fill a frack pond. EagleRidge regularly uses upwards of six million gallons of water to frack each well. This good, clean water will be <a href="http://dentondrilling.blogspot.com/2013/10/where-denton-dumps-its-fracking-waste.html" target="_blank">forever tainted and dumped</a> 10,000 feet below the surface where it will stay (hopefully) in the Ellenburger formation. </h4>
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<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCg80Psv0CQONvvRrQ9cPqfGINMWO8D5RsRe-RQgby5-gabG-AfzX-hyGVeJ_tfIPZorQj9JJQjnN3tgzgUGKq_P-_rtuGbrQ6XUWCZPOjIwm4yE6UtCUWdxlv_TUTJMJ6FRfpxDLcmbw/s1600/waterforfrack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCg80Psv0CQONvvRrQ9cPqfGINMWO8D5RsRe-RQgby5-gabG-AfzX-hyGVeJ_tfIPZorQj9JJQjnN3tgzgUGKq_P-_rtuGbrQ6XUWCZPOjIwm4yE6UtCUWdxlv_TUTJMJ6FRfpxDLcmbw/s1600/waterforfrack.jpg" height="478" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here are a couple of videos at Southlakes Park. The smell
was nauseating and the noise has got neighbors wondering if a train engine is
parked nearby. <o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bGlwQbQ6rxQ" width="560"></iframe>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kG9lNIzDM8w" width="560"></iframe>
</h4>
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</h4>
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Here is a pic and video from Vintage. I spoke with the nice
security guard at the Vintage pad site about why they had suddenly stopped
fracking and put up this workover rig. He said they were not done fracking –
something had gone wrong that required them to deviate from plans for a while.
He was not at liberty to say anything more about that subject. But he did give
me his take on energy policy, saying that you can’t complain about oil and
gas development unless you first relinquish your heater, your electricity, and your
car. </h4>
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-79524545046291189432014-01-09T21:09:00.001-08:002014-01-09T21:09:30.137-08:00Guinea Pigs of the Shale<h4>
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There was a lot that went wrong leading up to the fracking of
the Vintage/S. Bonnie wells. Homes were built too close to the pad sites,
something the municipal ordinance still permits. No one in the neighborhood
knew drilling was going to happen. The status of the city permits is in disarray.
The standstill agreement handed EagleRidge the right to drill even though two
of the wells may be illegal. The whole thing is steeped in deep legal ambiguity
about vested rights. And now that it is happening, there is no monitoring…neighbors
have had to pass the hat to buy a few summa canisters, as City Council has
still (a year later!) not lifted a finger on their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">promise </i>to implement an air and water quality monitoring program. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBat_NQ1CcuXZusSyk5QlCQPticqX8Jb4JWR0GRn8tcvJeWwGqL_BWicqURJIqahYROiJLF6ernk9hOL6sH7lpczI-EfJfQTbaC_uW5TTx8rRw3jMgKQv8PpDjSx9ZI7gqmD60Lq9stqM/s1600/Vintage_Fracking_20140107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBat_NQ1CcuXZusSyk5QlCQPticqX8Jb4JWR0GRn8tcvJeWwGqL_BWicqURJIqahYROiJLF6ernk9hOL6sH7lpczI-EfJfQTbaC_uW5TTx8rRw3jMgKQv8PpDjSx9ZI7gqmD60Lq9stqM/s1600/Vintage_Fracking_20140107.jpg" height="438" width="640" /></a></div>
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</div>
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Clearly, we can do better. But how should decisions about
fracking be made? The more I think about this, the more I believe these
decisions should be guided by the basic principle of informed consent: <u>Those
most vulnerable to the potential harms should have the greatest say in
decisions about where, whether, and how to frack.</u> Let me explain my idea here. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: black;">With any proposed gas drilling and
fracking project, there is sure to be some harm involved. But will it just be a
temporary nuisance, a minor health problem, a major health problem, or even an
explosion? Things are uncertain. How </span>much risk is there and how much is acceptable?
<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are more or less reasonable answers to these questions.
But there is no right answer to them in the way there are right answers to math
questions. There is no expert with the ‘one best solution.’ The right answer depends
on what you value, your tolerance for risks, and how you are situated in
relation to the costs and benefits. What counts as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">right </i>decision depends on your point of view. Thus, the question
that matters most is not “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what</i> is the
right decision?” but “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who</i> should make
the decision?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFNuHUBWMMhGlaqKhh-h3f9ea-KKGp9dmheLu2LMyczNpHgSFdLKMh65C9SbLOd9QS69y34MB4qnqKq68KUMh_eOfXYDpFtNRMArot9ylxvlfQyqkqdV0sZ55jxtvbgK1g1zIjMxFxTU/s1600/dumper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCFNuHUBWMMhGlaqKhh-h3f9ea-KKGp9dmheLu2LMyczNpHgSFdLKMh65C9SbLOd9QS69y34MB4qnqKq68KUMh_eOfXYDpFtNRMArot9ylxvlfQyqkqdV0sZ55jxtvbgK1g1zIjMxFxTU/s1600/dumper.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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Decisions about fracking are analogous to experiments on
pharmaceuticals or other research trials involving human subjects. In both
cases, the expected gains can only come about by subjecting people to potential
harms. In the former case, it is those near the industrial sites. In the latter
case, it is the research subjects who take the experimental drug. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There is a distinction in medicine between ‘therapy’ and
‘research.’ The term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">therapy </i>typically
applies to practices that are intended to promote the health and well-being of
the patient. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Research</i>, by contrast,
is an activity designed to test a hypothesis and contribute to generalizable
knowledge. When you are a patient of a therapy, the goal is to benefit you.
When you are a participant in a research trial (a 'guinea pig'), the goal is to use you to
benefit others. Medical researchers have concluded that someone can only be
used in this way if they first give their informed consent to the experiment. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Since fracking sites are experimental in an analogous way, then
the same condition of informed consent should hold for anyone exposed to
potential harms from fracking. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To me, this explains the importance of municipal governments
in the politics of fracking.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>State regulatory
agencies like the Texas Railroad Commission are mostly concerned about
fostering and promoting the development of mineral resources. From the state’s
perspective of running a massive and complex technological system, the informed
consent of mere amateurs who happen to live in proximity to it is irrelevant.
It won’t improve the functioning of the system any more than getting the
consent of research subjects will improve the validity of a study’s conclusions.
Indeed, in both cases the requirement of informed consent can throw a major
wrench in the works. Some of the Nazi experiments (for example, those on
hypothermia) were sound science but they involved such pain that they would
never have been run if people had the choice to opt out of them. If we really
respect autonomy, then some technoscientific projects just won’t happen. The
danger of technocracy is that when the experts are in charge they elevate their
values of functionality or validity above all other values. Then they make it
look like they haven’t made a values decision at all—as if they were ‘neutral.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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Municipal government is a
different kind of public sphere. It is oriented not toward system functionality
but toward protection of goods like health, safety, beauty, and community integrity
that might be sacrificed in the name of functionality. Local government is, in
other words, the institutional home of informed consent. It is the voice of
those living on the surface and made vulnerable to the harms caused by
real-world experiments. This is why municipalities have become the most
important flash point in the politics of fracking: they represent a different
moral order, one that is rooted in place and community rather than the
subterranean and network logic of commodity production.</div>
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I think this is why everyone,
including many City Councilmembers, is frustrated at the limits imposed on
municipal authority by the legal system. But what if we thought outside of that
system for just a moment? <o:p></o:p></div>
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Imagine how things could have
worked out so differently. EagleRidge wants to frack these three (or four?!)
wells. The first thing they do is notify everyone within, say, a half mile
radius of the proposed sites. These people form a temporary political entity,
call it a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deme</i>, empowered with the
authority to decide the fate of the proposal. They meet and deliberate about
what (if any) conditions would need to be in place to allow the proposed
fracking activity. They can adjust the location of the pad site, the
distribution of royalty payments, the technical specifications required, etc. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course there are important
details to work out (would it be majority rules?), but my point is to get us
thinking about how fracking could be democratized. <o:p></o:p></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-20123405200636871962014-01-06T21:13:00.000-08:002014-01-06T21:13:09.840-08:00The Frack Man Cometh
<br />
Tonight is fracking eve. The morning of Jan. 7th marks the
beginning of fracking at the three wells on two pad sites near Vintage and S.
Bonnie. Some homes in that neighborhood are within 250 feet, many others are
far closer to the sites than our new setback requirement of 1,200 feet. I’ve
pasted at the bottom of this post the letter that these Denton residents received from EagleRidge
Energy. Here is a shot of them moving in their equipment and supplies. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOD7Lyqnjg4pQsBVlny_ZbLN5_T-FYZtWoHcfXV_OnG5LLiiBO2kckn7KBx1FHEqUej5gSUS-QdS_W30wujVZhVBKOW6TkW5jTiAbYyCk0HIo858PCcICvNCmhddzA6_HYeHUJe4wThM/s1600/fracksetup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOD7Lyqnjg4pQsBVlny_ZbLN5_T-FYZtWoHcfXV_OnG5LLiiBO2kckn7KBx1FHEqUej5gSUS-QdS_W30wujVZhVBKOW6TkW5jTiAbYyCk0HIo858PCcICvNCmhddzA6_HYeHUJe4wThM/s1600/fracksetup.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is clearly a situation that should not have happened.
It should never happen again…but unless something drastic changes it will
happen again and again. Residents there have already experienced nuisances and
illnesses from the drilling. Many of them have kept their
children indoors out of concern about the air quality. Some kids didn’t get to
go trick or treating in their own neighborhood. At least one family has already
moved out of the neighborhood. And others are concerned about the <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/11/13/fracking-american-dream-drilling-decreases-property-value/"><span style="color: blue;">decreases
they are likely to see</span></a> in their property values. </div>
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Now that the fracking is coming, I know of at least two
families with newborn babies that are evacuating their homes for the six weeks
EagleRidge claims their operations will take. </div>
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Sleepless nights. Sick children. Families chased from their
own homes. This is what
Denton looks like on fracking. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
It’s a sad day for that neighborhood. And it’s a sad day for
our local democracy…it is a reminder that somehow we failed in our basic task
of ordering the parts of our community into fitting relationships. </div>
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-8198923703413080502013-12-07T21:02:00.001-08:002013-12-07T21:02:19.224-08:00Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs: A Big Idea for Informing Prospective Homebuyers
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: black;">We know that
vested rights means that the future of fracking in Denton is likely to include
drilling close to homes – despite our best efforts to prevent this situation.
The best that we may be able to accomplish now is to make sure that people are
fully informed about the presence of nearby gas wells when they buy a home (and
perhaps even when they rent an apartment). How do we ensure people really are
giving their informed consent to live close to gas wells? </span></h4>
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<span style="background: white; color: black;">On this question,
I recently received an e-mail with what I think is a brilliant idea. The source
of this idea said it may be best if he/she remains anonymous. So what follows
is a lightly edited version of the e-mail she/he sent me. I would very much
like to hear opinions about this. And I would also hope that City Council will
consider this idea. <o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is, of course, no way realistically for the City to police
notifications for homebuyers. So, regardless of any terms of such an agreement,
it’s highly unlikely that each and every prospective buyer - both initial and
subsequent buyers - will be properly informed. <br />
<br />
However, there may be one way to ensure that any prospective buyer who visits
the site prior to purchase is properly advised: Simply revise the gas well
and/or sign ordinance to require that a large sign, minimum x by x with letters
x feet high, which so states information about gas well proximity be placed at
each entrance to any new development with a gas well onsite or within X feet.<br />
<br />
The signs will have to be clearly visible - not behind a bush, shrub, tree, or
fence - and will have to be maintained in good repair by the developer and,
later, the HOA. It will have to be erected prior to any disturbance of ground
for construction and will have to remain fully visible at all times through the
life of the development. The long-term requirement is necessary, because one
never knows when a well will be re-drilled or converted from a vertical to a
well with lateral lines or what kinds of redriling future technology will make
possible. <br />
<br />
Required signage will be a low-cost item for the developer (and later HOA),
will inform all viewers equally, will be easy for the City to police, will not
tread on any mineral rights holders, and will likely not be fodder for court
challenges. <br />
<br />
Of course, the signs may render some land effectively undevelop-able, at least
for residential...but that's the trade-off: short-term revenues from gas wells
or long-term revenues from (quality?) development. </span></h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-2492148925403001612013-12-05T12:33:00.002-08:002013-12-05T13:31:46.085-08:00Thinking Sideways and the Fracking Double Standard<h4>
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There has been some confusion about ‘my voice’ on this blog and
elsewhere. Perhaps I am poorly spoken (I do mumble, but in this case I think I have been speaking too clearly...). Maybe I am
self-contradictory (but aren’t we all? “I am large. I contain multitudes”). But
maybe I am playing a role that is little understood– a role that is neither
academic nor activist – the role of field philosopher or public intellectual. I
speak as a new species of ‘researcher’ but it is not clear if anyone has ears
for this kind of knowledge –if even the university can hear the voice of its
new offspring. Or perhaps she can hear, but is not sure if she wants to claim
THAT as her child. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The activist says ‘do not think the other side’s thoughts.’
The academic says ‘do not think from a side at all.’ But sideways thinking is
all there is. The trick is to think from this side and that. The public
intellectual seeks strong objectivity. Remember the <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/130/2.html"><span style="color: blue;">words of J.S. Mill</span></a>: <o:p></o:p></div>
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“But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an
opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the
existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those
who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of
exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a
benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by
its collision with error.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here is an opinion that I have heard from some in the
fracking business - to be clear the entire rest of the post is me channeling the voice - the side - of this industry perspective...(the question is what do you make of it?): <o:p></o:p></div>
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“It’s not fair, all this focus on drilling and fracking. Don’t
people realize that Denton is full of polluting activities? Just look at all
the cars and trucks. Don’t they realize that the Peterbilt plant alone emits 270
tons of VOCs every year? <span style="color: black;">C</span>ity Council approves
a tax abatement to enlarge the facility for Tetrapak, one of the larger
producers of emissions in town. And there is no news about that. Indeed, people
congratulate them. But they vilify us. Us! Providers of tax revenues and
royalties – would the airport exist without US?!<o:p></o:p></div>
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"THERE IS A DOUBLE STANDARD HERE. Fracking is not benign,
sure. But it is just the peas in a chemical soup – a risk soup – that we swim
in all the time. Do Dentonites realize there is arsenic in their playgrounds? And
what is in their food – what chemicals in their children’s clothes? They think
it is safe to travel sixty-five miles per hour down the road just a few feet
from other cars going the same speed, but more than 30,000 people die in
traffic accidents in the U.S. every year. How many people have died of
fracking?! No one, or at least nothing even remotely comparable to the carnage
on our roads – a carnage they calmly accept and that can’t even get them to
bat an eyelash any longer. Yet they froth at the mouth about fracking… <o:p></o:p></div>
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"Do you know what is happening here? This is all a temporary and
irrational fear of the new. When the automobile first arrived on the scene,
some cities passed ordinances requiring all cars to be preceded by men waving
flags and blowing horns to warn people. That’s hysteria. And in the case of
fracking it may even be worse, because this is fear of what only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appears </i>to be new, because fracking has
been around a long time. All these opponents of fracking might think they are liberals,
but they embrace what Michael Oakeshott called the “conservative disposition,”
which is “to prefer the familiar to the unknown.” The only thing wrong with
fracking is its perceived newness. People worry about it when they daily accept
far greater risks without a single thought, simply because those risks are
familiar. People are not yet accustomed to fracking. But just give them time. How
does the saying go…? “Men can get used to anything…”" <o:p></o:p></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-41289925322858303912013-11-30T21:29:00.000-08:002013-11-30T21:44:04.433-08:00Conflict of Interest: Take Two<h4>
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It's true that I could have done more research prior to venturing into this topic. But I was hoping to generate a conversation and collaborative fact-finding mission (and I am glad to see the Facebook thread is starting to generate just the kind of information we need to pursue this issue). </div>
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I am not going to apologize for asking questions, and I don't think there was anything frantic or persecuting about them. But I
would like to elaborate on my questions in a way that makes my concerns
clearer. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I am one among many
who are frustrated by how hard it has been to get regulations in place that adequately
protect core values like public health, safety, and community integrity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When I try to figure out why that is, I chalk it up to a mix
of two reasons: 1. Our elected officials agree with my conception of the common
good and did the best they could within the Texas and federal legal system, but
the system just doesn’t allow for what we think is best. 2. Our elected officials disagree with
me, but they are working from some other reasonable conception of the common
good. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I <u>never</u> chalk
it up to: 3. Our elected officials are not working from any reasonable
conception of the common good, but are in fact seeking their own private gain.
That is, I never assume a conflict of interest, which I take to be
in this case: Using public office to reap private rewards. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I believe that everyone on City Council
approaches fracking (and all other policy issues) with nothing but a genuine
commitment to seek the common good (public interest) as they see it. That is my
default mentality, and it would take a lot to convince me otherwise. <o:p></o:p></div>
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OK, but what about this business with Mr. King? If I don’t
believe something is wrong here, why raise the questions?<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s because on its surface this sure <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appears </i>like a conflict of interest even though it may
not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actually </i>be a conflict of
interest. What I mean by “actual” here is not the facts about the
interests involved (e.g., what percentage of income counts as a conflict).
Rather, I mean a situation where a person’s moral judgment is biased by the
prospects of private gain. I could imagine someone in Mr. King’s situation
being able to set aside considerations of private gain when it comes time to
make a decision. If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I
let even the slightest consideration of private gain creep into such an
important public policy. I have no reason to believe Mr. King doesn’t share
that same basic impulse of conscience. I did not and am not impugning his
character. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But I can also imagine myself in his situation and deciding
that it would be best to recuse myself on policies impacting EagleRidge. I
might think that, because people cannot have direct access to my moral
judgment, they may suspect that I am biased even though I would know I am not.
And this suspicion might undermine our public policy efforts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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That’s why my questioning was about the problematic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">appearance</i> of a conflict here. That’s
why I wrote this at the end: “<span style="color: #222222;">even apparent
conflicts of interest can be a problem, because they can undermine trust in
government and the legitimacy of its authority.” </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">The standstill negotiations are
a longshot, but at least they continue dialogue and the possibility of
improvements. But they are so fragile that this apparent conflict of interest
could derail them. They might produce something worthwhile, but the public
might dismiss the outcome because it resulted from a biased process – even if there
was no actual conflict (as I define it or as defined by legal facts). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">I am trying to point to this potential problem and open a space to demonstrate
how there is no actual conflict of interest, which would make the appearance go
away. Sunshine is the best remedy for apparent conflicts of interest. Being
silent on this (even if one thinks it is baseless) is not going to help. And
even though it was disclosed earlier, it should be made public again given how
much renewed importance it has taken on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222;">Unfortunately, my earlier post
only fanned the flames I was hoping we could squelch with an open and honest
conversation. But perhaps it is not too late. And hopefully this post helps to
reset the tenor and focus of that conversation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</h4>
Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5354570505974016585.post-89416447405660273172013-11-29T20:29:00.002-08:002013-11-29T20:29:39.733-08:00Conflict of Interest? We Need Answers
The City of Denton is currently in a period of negotiation
with EagleRidge Energy. One of the architects of this deal is City Councilmember
<a href="http://www.cityofdenton.com/government/city-council/city-council-members/james-king-at-large-place-6" target="_blank">James King</a>. <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/2013/11/27/meet-the-denton-fracking-negotiator/"><span style="color: blue;">Claims
have recently been made</span></a> that Mr. King owns minerals on wells operated by
EagleRidge. These photographs would seem to corroborate those claims. <o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivM8SrS5kfRED1H9sleKX9nlvKCbdpX8FOBtkFV4SruqGW5iYBsyUZmKkUGpewKMrSYP3TbN4GVa7FcJ5KBY37g2ex8m29y4qLH7dms7gwlkPt2tKMwomuSsPk5KEEdESu-IDMsgHinUQ/s1600/king2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivM8SrS5kfRED1H9sleKX9nlvKCbdpX8FOBtkFV4SruqGW5iYBsyUZmKkUGpewKMrSYP3TbN4GVa7FcJ5KBY37g2ex8m29y4qLH7dms7gwlkPt2tKMwomuSsPk5KEEdESu-IDMsgHinUQ/s200/king2.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMPgfTDnJiJ5fHaQKqzUl8exicCffOZodVG77e2xrBZ13w250-P20Q64uuy7Fv5-DtqB9I1q992K5jwx8Oe1UuaYFHUUXnhBdbd3Z4jtoHWGtvtfiIndagrfGR1I_Gi0qrsVWrFX5ROE/s1600/king+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMPgfTDnJiJ5fHaQKqzUl8exicCffOZodVG77e2xrBZ13w250-P20Q64uuy7Fv5-DtqB9I1q992K5jwx8Oe1UuaYFHUUXnhBdbd3Z4jtoHWGtvtfiIndagrfGR1I_Gi0qrsVWrFX5ROE/s200/king+1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhemQzbG463Qwizb0tTHwooyyQY1nPRXmI43TN02qXMpAmk_J4-mK8zXi5PNW1UNAiEii4SjVN1GCPpWCoPXLuGME6G38GfAcTIFyejkDnuR-MBCvt413FGxbYN9VXW_vM7fN5m2I5rW94/s1600/king3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhemQzbG463Qwizb0tTHwooyyQY1nPRXmI43TN02qXMpAmk_J4-mK8zXi5PNW1UNAiEii4SjVN1GCPpWCoPXLuGME6G38GfAcTIFyejkDnuR-MBCvt413FGxbYN9VXW_vM7fN5m2I5rW94/s320/king3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong>We need Mr. King to publically address this issue</strong>. Does he
own mineral rights on wells operated by Eagleridge Energy? If so, how much does
he make and how much could he stand to make in the future if EagleRidge fares
well? Why has he not recused himself from policy decisions pertaining to
EagleRidge? </div>
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We deserve answers to these questions. It is important for
him to recognize that even apparent conflicts of interest can be a problem,
because they can undermine trust in government and the legitimacy of its
authority. </div>
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Mr. King: Please clue us in. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Adamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05658985227327961661noreply@blogger.com4