WHO? WHEN?

Jerry Lobdill and Don Young. 2007.

Too bad our city leaders wouldn't listen then. Prime example of nothing was done, it just got worse.

Make sure they hear YOU tomorrow.
The time is NOW.

I've been looking back at my email traffic since August 2007 when I first got into this urban gas drilling fight. Here's an email I wrote way back on September 13, 2007 talking about what I learned about the gas drillers' plans in one single evening at the Trinity Trees forum. I got the bit about rubber-stamping high impact wells wrong, but now even that part is correct.

And our City Council and Mayor want us to believe that they innocently never considered anything but the economic benefits when they were considering opening the city gates for this industry. They didn't just fail to do due diligence. They deliberately didn't think about it.

Why?

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:08:26 -0500

To: Jerry Lobdill
From: Jerry Lobdill
Subject: About Trinity Trees
Bcc: Don Young

Hot off the press news:
http://thecaravanofdreams.blogspot.com/

DY

I posted to the blog the following comment:

We are facing a blitzkreig in the next year. Let's get real. The mayor has told all council members "I'm a very vindictive guy, and if you don't go along with me I'll get you." All but Silcox are scared of him. Moncrief's a gas industry shill and profiteer. His Barnett Shale profits this year will hit $1M. Know your enemy.

Now let me explain what the industry wants. They say they want about 3000 wells inside of Loop 820. At the Trinity Trees forum it was said (and not disputed) that they wanted a drilling pad every 7000 ft inside the city limits. These numbers are astonishingly consistent if one thinks of about 6 wells per drilling pad. This density would place 15 drilling pads on every MAPSCO page of the Fort Worth MAPSCO book. Look at any page and tell me how many pad sites you can place there that will not require a high impact variance. It sure as hell isn't 15.

So what this means is that they will be coming to council daily with applications for high impact variances. So far these have been rubber-stamped. Doing this makes a complete mockery of the ordinance. That is what is going to happen unless we can mount a strong grass roots attack to stop it. They're going to need about 400 or so to produce the city.

The ordinance is based on a desire by industry to create a moral hazard so that they cannot be held liable for the almost certain disaster that will come in the form of an explosive blowout followed by fire. There is no body of data that supports any given set back (300ft, 600 ft, whatever). The function of the law is to indemnify the producers and drillers. So let's not kid ourselves into thinking it's a safety measure. With the rubber-stamp "high impact" variance they can have their cake and eat it too. What do you think will happen to our taxes, our insurance, our property resale value?

We have to get organized on a city-wide basis, or we're going to have a city that is not fit to live in.

Just my $0.02

Jerry Lobdill