Are Pipelines the Next Trinity Trees?
by Steve SmithFor those in Westcliff preparing to attend the Chesapeake/Midstream Tour de Pipeline tonight, let me help calibrate your expectations based on my experiences Monday night at the Sycamore Recreation Center in East Fort Worth.
It’s just kind of … weird.
For some reason, I expected … I dunno, dialogue? An exchange of ideas? A presentation? But it was pretty much your basic heavily managed public relations event – glossy posters, cookies, bottles of water and lots of one-way communication. Ask anything too challenging and you get a thoughtful sounding, “That’s a good question.” In other words, I’m not going to answer that.
The whole thing had this tense, antiseptic quality. Everyone seemed nervous and concerned about staying on message. Why? Why was everyone gripping it so tight?
Well, it seems that the gas drilling companies in general and Chesapeake in particular are getting worried about the entire pipeline issue, especially in the wake of last month’s public meeting at City Hall. Although the Task Force basically dismissed the public’s comments outright at the subsequent meeting on June 17, an interesting thing happened after the Task Force started talking pipelines — suddenly and inexplicably, City Attorney Sarah Fullenwider tabled discussion of the issue. Coincidentally, that’s when this whole Tour de Pipeline idea started rolling.
OK, so what?
Here’s where it gets really odd. Suddenly, there is a City Council/Task Force workshop scheduled on August 7 to discuss pipelines. What’s on the agenda? No one knows. Who is scheduled to speak? No one knows.
What’s going on?
It appears that Mayor Moncrief is once again riding to the rescue of his friends in gas industry. Once the Task Force started talking about wet gas vs. dry gas, dehydrators and odorizing the gas, it was becoming clear that there really wasn’t a technology dodge in this argument. The technology is there, it’s all about cost. Dry gas pipelines and odorizing the gas would cost them more money than they want to spend.
So, combined with the eminent domain issue, there is an image problem beginning to come up. And Mayor Mikey, if anything, is image conscious.
So, as with the Trinity Trees issue, Mayor Mikey is going to make everything alright. Except this is a little harder issue to spin. When people are seeing property in their neighborhoods condemned to make was for a pipeline, it’s a little different deal.
Are pipelines the new Trinity Trees? Maybe not. Pipelines may be bigger.
Tags: Barnett Shale, Chesapeake Energy, Mayor Moncrief, pipelines
4 Comments, Comments or Pings
No Fool Here
Don’t you get it? Mayor Mikey, City Council & Chesapeake are just doing this dog & pony show to get a head count of who really gives two hoots about pipelines in their front yard and whether they are full of wet or dry gas. If it’s just a dozen or so, as opposed to a packed house, then Mayor Mikey, his ponies (City Council) & the Energy Companies have nothing whatsoever to worry about and will proceed with loading up their bank accounts turning a blind eye to safety and quality of life here in Cowtown.
Jul 16th, 2008
Greg
Gee, with all the money spent to inform the public, whoops! Did we forget to mention pipelines? Did we fail to describe the corrosive characteristics of wet gas on those pipes and how the first evidence of a leak is usually an explosion?
Our presentation signs are so nice and show great care with nice pictures. Our staff looks so professional in their company polo shirts. Surely we can convince these yokels that everything is just fine.
Jul 16th, 2008
John Peter Smith
I believe there is one critical difference between permitting gas well locations and pipelines. The pipeline companies are regulated and licensed under state and federal laws. I’m not sure the courts have definitively ruled on exactly what cities can and can’t allow/prohibit under state and federal law. It may just be that Fort Worth doesn’t want to be the test case and find out
Consider this scenario. Rather than work out a compromise, Fort Worth enacts very strict laws governing gas pipelines. The pipeline companies appeal to the courts which rule that the only governing authority is federal law and the city has absolutely no say in the matter (a real possibility). In that case Cowtown would be worse off, not better for having passed the strict law.
Sometimes you’re better off working out the best deal you can rather than rolling the dice on what some judge in D.C. will think. Remember these pipeline companies are legally considered common-carriers. If cities had the absolute right to legislate where common carriers could build there are a ton of ugly high-voltage electric lines that would have never been built.
Jul 17th, 2008
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