I would like to thank Joel Burns for showing up and staying. I know it’s a simple thing to thank him for but he seems to take an active role in many things. Maybe we should consider him for a higher leadership role.

Mayor Nagin of New Orleans told CNN the other day ” City Hall and what it represents has been a certain ‘Big Easy’ mentality. Citizens are now saying ‘Look, we don’t accept this.’ They push me, they push the City Council, and I think it’s all part of the process to make us a better environment.”

Now I don’t want to compare Mayor Moncrief to Mayor Nagin - but both these guys need to know they need to LEAD, not wait to be PUSHED or have to REACT after some tragedy happens on their watch.

“If you want to see what can happen, Google ‘New London, Texas school gas explosion.’”

Puhlease!

If fear-mongering statements like that are representative of the “input” offered last night then city councilmember’s time was better spent sitting at home watching the bachelorette than at city hall.

Oh AND, Energy Independence is a MYTH in regards to hydrocarbon energy. We consume way too much. Oil companies are just using that delusion as leverage against us.

And the gas explosions will not happen because…?

Because drilling and piping of gas is managed with the same level of scientific knowledge and technical care as passenger flight and nuclear power production? - Nope

Because there are clear and unambiguous standards of quality and performance mandated by law - Nope

Because there are economic incentives driving the industry toward perfection of safety practices when operating in an urban setting - Nope

Because only highly qualified and trained individuals are engaged in the industry - Nope

I’ve worked in technologies for which safety is imperative and recognize the processes (and lack thereof) that are predictive of success. This “rush and piece it together” and blow off any criticism is the most certain route to failure. Whether the failure results in an inconvenience or a disaster only time will tell. But based on the behaviors of the gas operators and their supporters in government I would sooner live next door to a nuclear power plant than in the midst of a developing gas field.

DFDAN - I can only hope that your intention is to fan the flames, because if that is your honest beliefs, then you are far too inferior intellectually to discuss such heady issues.

Asking a company to operate safely and in a socially responsible manner near homes is asking the very least. Would you have them operate with no concern for safety? No one wants to go back to life before the industrial revolution, but nobody wants to act like it’s 1846 either. We have learned so much about the impact these types of actions have on our lives. Would you like to go to the Doctor and treat you the way they did in 1901?

You breath air, so ostensibly, you should care a little about the environment. If you don’t, then move to Lagos Nigeria where the oil companies operate with little to no regard to the environment.

Also, you can rest assured that we will not sit by and let your backward, idiotic attitude prevail in Cowtown. it is 2008 afterall.

The only parallel between what happened in New London and drilling in the Barnett Shale is that they both involve (gasp) natural gas. To cite that 70-year old tragedy as a reason not to explore for natural gas today is like citing the Titanic as a reason to ban boating on Eagle Mountain Lake. After all they both involve (gasp) water.

Yes, natural gas can explode, and electricity can shock you and I even heard once of a fella’ that was choked to death by a chicken bone. The question is not can it happen; the question is how likely is it to happen? The facts are that death and serious injuries from accidents involving natural gas production and transmission in Texas are very rare. No one has to take my word for it. This data is readily available on the web for anyone that bothers to look it up. Mr. Fisher’s statement that gas pipeline systems are “extremely unsafe” has absolutely no basis in fact. Therefore his pandering to human emotion by evoking events seven decades old is fear mongering.

Make that 200 toxic chemicals in fracking fluid.

Many, many times I have tried to explain to JPS the differences between the gas coming to your home in pipelines from the energy companies and the gas piped through pipelines from the well site. Since he is obviously not stupid, I think he must have a vested interest in not understanding.

Sinclair’s Law: “If a man’s livelihood depends on their not understanding something, you can pretty much bank on their not understanding it.”

Or maybe he has argued the other side for so long that he can’t admit he is wrong.

But, what would I know? I’m just a communist or that’s what they used to call me before they started calling me a socialist. LOL!

Well I for one would like to see a complete ban on all boats at Eagle Mountain lake!

Obvious Joke

Re DFDAN
Please cite that part of the constitution or case law that grants our constitutional property rights.

Ben,

I agree with you, but you are assuming that “no one is calling for increased regulation.” I have covered all the pipeline issues on my blog and I expose the real culprits: Texas Railroad Commissioners who are nothing by paid protectors of the energy industry.

You also assume that we aren’t using other methods to heat and cool our homes. I know that Don Young uses an energy efficient wood burning stove for heat. I just completed my 3rd winter without central heat and this is my 3rd summer without central air.

Some of us are working diligently in every area we can. I am just one person, a low-income, single mother, who is working as hard as she can to make changes. I made the decision to focus most of my efforts to expose the oil and gas polluters BECAUSE I am only one person. I know, without a doubt, that I have made a huge difference in educating the public but there is still an overwhelming amount of work to be done.

We need real government regulation and major reform of the Texas Railroad Commission. We need to remove the exemptions from the oil and gas industry so they have to follow the same rules as citizens. These two things would make a good start in cleaning up our environment.

If you want to join me in this effort, you can contact me through my blog.

“No person shall… be deprived of life, liberty, or PROPERTY without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” 5th Amendment to U.S. Constitution

“A Government is instituted to protect property of every sort, this being the end of government, that alone is just government, which impartially secures to every man, whatever his own.” James Madision

“As a matter of original understanding, the American Founders viewed the natural right to acquire and possess property as embedded in common law, which they regarded as natural law to specific facts.” Heritage.org

“The Founders did not intend that these protections extend only to land land or discernible assets, but to ALL rights inherent in property - real or personal, tangible or intangible. They believed that property was the guardian of every other right, for without the right to own and use and enjoy’s one property free from arbitrary governmental interference, there could be no liberty of any sort.”

Don, you are a glass maker correct???? So you use strictly wood burning stoves to make your glass?????????????????????? I doubt it.

Sharon, you are off the grid correct???????????????

“Wood burning has been identified as the third largest source of air pollution of fine particles in Canada. It is also an important source of total suspended particles in air and volatile organic chemicals (VOCS). Some chemicals released during wood combustion cause cancer.” Health Canada

“Fine particles in smoke emitted from fireplaces and wood stoves can make up more than half the fine particle pollutants in the atmosphere in certain locations, and can aggravate asthma. About 1/3 to 1/2 of residential wood combustion in the U.S. occurs in wood stoves.”

“Natural gas vehicles are an immediate solution to the nation’s energy security needs.”

“Natural gas is a domestically available INHERENTLY CLEAN BURNING fuel. Using compressed CNG & LNG in vehicles fuels increased energy security, paves the way for fuel cell vehicles, and improves public health and the environment. Using renewable natural gas (biogas) provides even more benefits.”

“Fuel cell vehicles powered by hydorgen might be the future of transportation. Natural gas vehicles and infrastructure development (pipelines) can facilitate the transition to this technology. Because natural gas and hydrogen are both gaseous fuels, lessons learned from developing natural gas technologies aid the transition away from conventional ligued fuels to gaseous hydrogen fuel. Vehicles fueled with hydrogen-natural gas blends (HCNG) are a first step toward a hydrogen-based transportation system network. Fueling vehicles with HCNG can help demand for a hydorgen infrastructure while providing enhanced emission reductions.”

Source (U.S. Department of Energy)

Seems companies like Chesapeake are more pro-environment than TX Sharon, Donny, and Gary Hogan. Ridge, you need to stop reading those Marxist/Green Party books and read a little American History. Oh, I forgot, you are more of a fan of the old Soviet Union than the USA.

Have a nice day.

Re dfdan

I think the fifth amendment speaks to taking private property only with due process under the law and has to do with limiting the state and fed governments’ rights to take property. That part of the fifth amendment is procedural as opposed to granting any private citizen property rights in anything. It also provides provides for taking property for public use if fairly compensated for. The concept of rights in property, such as fee, use and possession, were common law and I don’t think they are embodied in the US constitution. And it most certainly doesn’t say that we can harm other people’s property to maximize the value of our own property. I do wish the irrational right would quit citing the US constitution incorrectly. They should leave it alone since it’s their enemy. I also wish the irrational right and everybody else would quit making reference to the bible as authority for anything. While the US constitution and the federal courts’ interpretation of it are the supreme law in the US, the bible is authority for nothing except at church or in one’s on personal life. It’s bad enough to ask a question if you should know the answer to it. It’s just as bad to make statements of fact that aren’t fact, and even worse to make invalid cites to authority, and irrational to cite for authority something that is not authority.

Dear Dan-

You seem to know me and my “glass making” and my energy efficient wood burning stove so well. “Seem” being the operative word. Actually, I make my glass by using WW2 surplus Sterno to melt marbles recycled from the depleted brains of Chesapeake employees who failed to measure up to Herr Julie’s high standards and are now reduced to trolling the blogs and repeating mindless drivel until they properly atone. When not melting marbles, I used to ponder the many and sundry ways of making the minions of Chesapeake, XTO, Devon and the rest look like jackasses.

Unfortunately, there is little challenge left in that occupation.

Ben,
Thanks for the clarification, that is that oil trumps surface rights in Texas. My prior statement that while the US constitution does not say that we can harm other people’s property to maximize the value of our own property, case law does. So I was wrong in my conclusion about constitutional law as it pertains to oil and gas. If that is the case, then informing the homeowner that accepting their lease bonus check may be costly to them is a daunting task at best. Chesapeake has embarked on a media campaign to accept money for seemingly no cost to the homeowner. My hat’s off to those who have been actively fighting it at city hall.

Eric Hoffer defined mass movements as disenfranchised people out to change the world and promising a glorious future. There adherents are willing to sacrifice themselves and others for future goals. To do so mass movements must devalue the past and present. Mass movements appeal to people who want to escape a flawed self by creating an imaginary self and joining a collective whole. Categories of people who are attracted to mass movements include misfits and people who feel thwarted in their personal endeavors. Diametrically opposed mass movements compete for adherents from the same pool of unhappy, malcontented people who are predisposed to support mass movements. The mass movement adherent rejects the present, hates independence and individualism. The focus is on one mindedness and uniformity. People who give up their freedom to join a group cause gain pride for their inherent total lack of self-confidence in their own abilities. Being part of the mass movement brings them certainity but they give up any sort of understanding of reality. They must create a devil or an enemy so that their lives can have some sort of meaning, and upon which they can vent their frustrations to fill the void in their empty souls.

When I hear and read the idiotic statements by Don Young, TxSharon, Ridge and Hogan I see where Eric Hoffer was coming from.