It has been reported that over 60,000 gallons of oil and gas related fluids were spilled due to the flooding in Colorado.
Pipelines, transportation and storage of oil, gas, frack water and drilling waste is dangerous. How many permits and variances have been granted too close or in flood plains in Texas?
Some of you in Flower Mound may remember that the town almost let in a huge Centralized Collection Facility (CCF) that would allow the transportation of drilling waste via pipelines throughout the town. The waste would have been stored in multiple storage tanks called tank batteries. Just like the tanks we saw overturned or floating in the flood waters in Colorado. Thankfully the residents woke up and rallied to stop the CCF.
Here are a few past posts about the CCF:
Click here and here
We have heard that drilling seems to be starting up in neighboring towns again. In fact, it appears most of our concerned residents have quietly slipped back into a peaceful sleep when it comes to gas and oil production issues. Last time everyone was sleeping over 80 wells were permitted and close to 60 wells were drilled......
Friday, October 4, 2013
Friday, April 26, 2013
It Is Election Season and We Haven’t Forgotten!
We had planned to stay quiet this election season until
we saw Mike Walker accuse his opponent Joy Bowen of being pro drilling.
Seriously, are you kidding?
No matter how you feel about gas drilling, the Flower Mound Oil and Gas ordinance must be followed. That is why we fought so hard to make it stronger. If a pad site meets the criteria in the ordinance, it will be approved. Of course Mr. Walker and his supporters twisted Joy Bowen's statements in an attempt to take attention away from his own gas drilling history.
We asked Joy Bowen for her stance on drilling. Here is what she told us. Joy Bowen supports our extremely protective and nationally recognized drilling ordinance. Joy Bowen has stated to us that she would never vote to weaken the ordinance and would always be open to making it even stronger as new technology presents itself. Joy Bowen has never signed a gas lease. Joy Bowen has never supported putting wells near homes, schools, parks, and hospitals. In 2010 Joy Bowen, along with 6000 other residents, signed the Flower Mound Cares Petition to stop the Centralized Collection Facility. We can’t say the same about her opponent.
UPDATE: We found this map of the proposed wells on Bridlewood Golf Course.
Click here to read previous posts on this blog about Mrs. Levenick.
Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Rep. Edward Markey said “Sending more of our natural gas resources abroad, instead of keeping more of it here for consumers and manufacturers and providing a diverse energy supply, is not a policy to make us more energy secure…[it] makes us less independent, not more.”
Berman added, “These companies have stupidly, imprudently overproduced their own product to the point they can’t make money at the price they’ve created themselves. So now they’re looking for a solution to that problem, and they’ve managed to convince a number of idiots in Congress that this is a good idea.”
Tad Patzek, chairman of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas said “We are at that stage right now and it’s only going to get worse,” he said. “We will be encroaching more and more on where people live.”
Mark Wise place3@flower-mound.com
Flower Mound don’t take a gamble on protecting the Oil and Gas ordinance and the health, safety and quality of life of all in our wonderful community.
Early Voting - April 29, 2013 through May 4, 2013, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. May 6-7, 2013, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Election Day - May 11, 2013, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
We will only post comments from real people. If we can't verify that a name is real, we have the right to refuse posting the comment. We will not post any inflammatory or crude comments. We have the right to refuse posting any or all comments. We are not responsible for the comments and opinions of others.
No matter how you feel about gas drilling, the Flower Mound Oil and Gas ordinance must be followed. That is why we fought so hard to make it stronger. If a pad site meets the criteria in the ordinance, it will be approved. Of course Mr. Walker and his supporters twisted Joy Bowen's statements in an attempt to take attention away from his own gas drilling history.
We asked Joy Bowen for her stance on drilling. Here is what she told us. Joy Bowen supports our extremely protective and nationally recognized drilling ordinance. Joy Bowen has stated to us that she would never vote to weaken the ordinance and would always be open to making it even stronger as new technology presents itself. Joy Bowen has never signed a gas lease. Joy Bowen has never supported putting wells near homes, schools, parks, and hospitals. In 2010 Joy Bowen, along with 6000 other residents, signed the Flower Mound Cares Petition to stop the Centralized Collection Facility. We can’t say the same about her opponent.
Mike Walker was appointed to the Oil and Gas Board of
Appeals in 2006. During his service, he voted to grant many variances. The most
disturbing vote was in mid-2008 when he was the only member to vote for all
variance requests at the Riverwalk property. This is the property where our new
hospital sits. One of the variances on which he voted YES would have allowed a pad site 695 feet from a day care center and 312 feet from a public park. Click here and go to page 151 to read the variances and how Mr. Walker voted.
In 2008, as a board member on the Bridlewood HOA, he
participated in meetings with Williams Production. The purpose of these meetings was to explore putting gas
wells on Bridlewood Golf Course in the middle of homes and schools. The meetings were
conducted secretly without input or notification of residents and despite Bridlewood's HOA
documents defining Bridlewood as a non-drilling community. Outraged Bridlewood residents voted to recall Mr. Walker in 2008.
Even with 62% of the voting members in favor of recalling him, he refused to
step down based on a technicality. For documentation, click here, here, here, here and here. Mr. Walker continued to serve on the Oil and Gas Board of Appeals. His service on the board was to vote for granting or
denying variance requests, exactly what Williams would need to drill in
Bridlewood. Yet, he met with the gas drilling company anyway? His tenure on his HOA Board and the Oil and Gas Board of
Appeals is marred by his record of poor judgment, lack of transparency and
appearance of conflict of interest. All the above links to documents came from the blog, Bridlewood Quality of Life Coalition.UPDATE: We found this map of the proposed wells on Bridlewood Golf Course.
We can’t forget Jean Levenick’s gas drilling record. Mrs. Levenick
and her husband signed a gas lease
with Williams back in February 2009. In January 2010, she refused to recuse
herself from discussions and voted to amend the ordinance to allow for the
zoning of a Centralized Collection Facility. Why recuse herself? The only company
advocating for a CCF at the time was Williams! The same company she signed a
gas lease with. Here are her comments from the meeting minutes.
“Mayor Pro Tem Levenick stated that the process tonight would lay
the groundwork to process a future application. She stated there had been so many
emails and so much information. She read a portion of an email about leukemia clusters,
and asked people to stop sending out false information.”
In spring of 2010, after 6000 residents signed the Flower
Mound Cares Moratorium and CCF petition, it was presented to the
Town Council. Mrs. Levenick voted NOT to accept the petition. The no vote would
forced the town to hold a special election. The no vote would delay the
moratorium from going into effect and could have allowed a company, most likely
Williams, to put in an application for a CCF. Click here for
meeting minutes. Read pages 17 through 20.
As fate would have it, there was some controversy and Jean Levenick decided not to run for office again. A new council majority was elected and they immediately accepted the petition.
This open letter written by one of our local journalist said it all.
As fate would have it, there was some controversy and Jean Levenick decided not to run for office again. A new council majority was elected and they immediately accepted the petition.
This open letter written by one of our local journalist said it all.
We met Tami Ryan and asked her how she feels about
gas drilling and our protective ordinance. Here are her answers. Tami Ryan also signed the Flower Mound Cares Petition in 2010. Tami Ryan is opposed to weakening the
ordinance and is committed to protecting the health, safety, and quality of
life of our residents.
With the industry pushing for LNG exports, we need to
make sure we have the right people in office to assure our community will
always have the best protections in place. Here are a few paragraphs from a recent article that sum up the LNG export issue.Eben Burnham-Snyder, a spokesman for House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Rep. Edward Markey said “Sending more of our natural gas resources abroad, instead of keeping more of it here for consumers and manufacturers and providing a diverse energy supply, is not a policy to make us more energy secure…[it] makes us less independent, not more.”
Berman added, “These companies have stupidly, imprudently overproduced their own product to the point they can’t make money at the price they’ve created themselves. So now they’re looking for a solution to that problem, and they’ve managed to convince a number of idiots in Congress that this is a good idea.”
Tad Patzek, chairman of the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas said “We are at that stage right now and it’s only going to get worse,” he said. “We will be encroaching more and more on where people live.”
People of Flower Mound, we cannot afford to vote for
candidates that have failed us in the past when it comes to gas drilling. Do your research before voting.
Here is the candidate slate for 2013.
Place
1
Joy Bowen http://electjoybowen.com/
Mike Walker http://walkerforfm.com/
Place
3 (Uncontested Race)Mark Wise place3@flower-mound.com
Place
5
Tami Ryan http://www.tamiryanfortc.com/#Flower Mound don’t take a gamble on protecting the Oil and Gas ordinance and the health, safety and quality of life of all in our wonderful community.
Early Voting - April 29, 2013 through May 4, 2013, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. May 6-7, 2013, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Election Day - May 11, 2013, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
We will only post comments from real people. If we can't verify that a name is real, we have the right to refuse posting the comment. We will not post any inflammatory or crude comments. We have the right to refuse posting any or all comments. We are not responsible for the comments and opinions of others.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Great Article About The Shale Boom and Bust
Peter Gorman of The Fort Worth Weekly has written a great article about the Shale Bust. Many of us saw this coming. He brought up some interesting facts and points
We have seen production from local wells drop significantly. They have brought in gas lift compressors to "squeeze the blood out of the turnip".
The wells, especially in “sweet spots” like the Fort Worth section of the Barnett Shale, saw declines in production that no one could have imagined.
But the banks that had lent all that money to the energy companies needed their loans repaid, so energy companies had to keep drilling new wells to maintain production volumes. It looked good on paper and kept stock prices at reasonable levels for a few years, but with a couple of exceptions, nearly all of the gas companies have seen their stocks nosedive in the last year.
Geologist David Hughes had this to say in the article.
“What you have to remember when looking at a shale play is that drillers head for the sweet spots first, the places with the most accessible quantities of gas,” Hughes said. “When the first few wells come in, a leasing boom follows. But the majority of the wells drilled are not going to be in the sweet spots — maybe only 15 percent will be. So when we look at the drop in the Haynesville play, what we’re seeing is that if the sweet spots are drying up, drillers wind up going after less productive areas in the play. But with the cost of each new well in the Haynesville at about $9 million — and that doesn’t include the leasing rights or costs of pipelines and so forth — and the price of gas at $3.30 per thousand cubic feet, who in their right mind is going to keep drilling?”
“You need to drill 1,500 new wells every year, each of which has the same average first-year production of a 2011 well, to simply keep [total] production flat.”
When they start exporting LNG, and they will, the industry will be looking to drill in every nook and cranny to get natural gas. The oil and gas industry will reap the profits.
The drop in price, however, encouraged a lot of industries, including power companies, to retrofit their plants for natural gas rather than coal or oil. And without an abundant supply of gas over the long haul, that may prove very costly for consumers once the surplus of cheap gas is gone. Add to that a new wrinkle that not many people saw coming — the exportation of natural gas to countries willing to pay a premium for it — and the cost of natural gas in the United States could increase tremendously in the next five to 10 years
Americans get ready to be screwed in every way!
To read the Fort Worth Weekly article Click here
We have seen production from local wells drop significantly. They have brought in gas lift compressors to "squeeze the blood out of the turnip".
The wells, especially in “sweet spots” like the Fort Worth section of the Barnett Shale, saw declines in production that no one could have imagined.
But the banks that had lent all that money to the energy companies needed their loans repaid, so energy companies had to keep drilling new wells to maintain production volumes. It looked good on paper and kept stock prices at reasonable levels for a few years, but with a couple of exceptions, nearly all of the gas companies have seen their stocks nosedive in the last year.
Geologist David Hughes had this to say in the article.
“What you have to remember when looking at a shale play is that drillers head for the sweet spots first, the places with the most accessible quantities of gas,” Hughes said. “When the first few wells come in, a leasing boom follows. But the majority of the wells drilled are not going to be in the sweet spots — maybe only 15 percent will be. So when we look at the drop in the Haynesville play, what we’re seeing is that if the sweet spots are drying up, drillers wind up going after less productive areas in the play. But with the cost of each new well in the Haynesville at about $9 million — and that doesn’t include the leasing rights or costs of pipelines and so forth — and the price of gas at $3.30 per thousand cubic feet, who in their right mind is going to keep drilling?”
“You need to drill 1,500 new wells every year, each of which has the same average first-year production of a 2011 well, to simply keep [total] production flat.”
When they start exporting LNG, and they will, the industry will be looking to drill in every nook and cranny to get natural gas. The oil and gas industry will reap the profits.
The drop in price, however, encouraged a lot of industries, including power companies, to retrofit their plants for natural gas rather than coal or oil. And without an abundant supply of gas over the long haul, that may prove very costly for consumers once the surplus of cheap gas is gone. Add to that a new wrinkle that not many people saw coming — the exportation of natural gas to countries willing to pay a premium for it — and the cost of natural gas in the United States could increase tremendously in the next five to 10 years
Americans get ready to be screwed in every way!
To read the Fort Worth Weekly article Click here
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Wake Up People, They're Back!!!!
Flower Mound it is time to wake up. Last year Williams sold their assets to Premier Resources and guess who has been making the social scene attending fundraisers in Flower Mound?
Yep, Premier.
Should you be worried? Two words that should always be in the back of your mind.....
LNG Exports!
Related Articles:
click here to read about refineries popping up to convert natural gas to LNG
More Articles
click here
click here
Yep, Premier.
Should you be worried? Two words that should always be in the back of your mind.....
LNG Exports!
Related Articles:
click here to read about refineries popping up to convert natural gas to LNG
More Articles
click here
click here
Friday, February 22, 2013
HB 1496 Must Be Stopped!
This bill was filed by Representative Van Taylor out the Plano area of Collin County. On the Texas Railroad Commission Site, there is no drilling activity at all in his area! So why would he file a bill like this? A good question to ask him.
HB 1496 is a bill that will weaken the power of municipalities and even counties to regulate and zone any and all oil and gas operations in their jurisdiction. Don't be fooled by the language stating "property rights". We all have property rights (and some have had theirs already taken away for oil and gas) but all property owners and industries wanting to do business within the limits of a town or city must abide by some type of zoning ordinances. Without these zoning ordinances there would be rock quarries, cement plants, pig farms, dumps, adult book stores etc. on every corner. So why should oil and gas get to override these ordinances? And if oil and gas is allowed to be exempt from ordinances, do you think the other industries above won't lobby for the same right?
Folks, this bill will open Pandora's box.
Please write your legislators
Listed below is contact information:
For Flower Mound area:
Representative Tan Parker
Senator Jane Nelson
Filer/Author
Representative Van Taylor
Energy Resource Committee Members:
Rep. Jim Keffer
Rep. Myra Crownover
Rep. Lon Burnam
Rep. Terry Canales
Rep. Tom Craddick
Rep. Tony Dale
Rep. Phil King
Rep. J.M. Lozano
Rep. Chris Paddie
Rep. Ralph Sheffield
Rep. Gene Wu
HB 1496 is a bill that will weaken the power of municipalities and even counties to regulate and zone any and all oil and gas operations in their jurisdiction. Don't be fooled by the language stating "property rights". We all have property rights (and some have had theirs already taken away for oil and gas) but all property owners and industries wanting to do business within the limits of a town or city must abide by some type of zoning ordinances. Without these zoning ordinances there would be rock quarries, cement plants, pig farms, dumps, adult book stores etc. on every corner. So why should oil and gas get to override these ordinances? And if oil and gas is allowed to be exempt from ordinances, do you think the other industries above won't lobby for the same right?
Folks, this bill will open Pandora's box.
Please write your legislators
Listed below is contact information:
For Flower Mound area:
Representative Tan Parker
Senator Jane Nelson
Filer/Author
Representative Van Taylor
Energy Resource Committee Members:
Rep. Jim Keffer
Rep. Myra Crownover
Rep. Lon Burnam
Rep. Terry Canales
Rep. Tom Craddick
Rep. Tony Dale
Rep. Phil King
Rep. J.M. Lozano
Rep. Chris Paddie
Rep. Ralph Sheffield
Rep. Gene Wu
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
HB 1496 Is A Bad Bill!!!!
We knew it was coming. This is a bad bad bill! Once again they want to take away municipalities authority to zone gas and oil. They just got a little more creative with their wording this time around.
Click here for more info
For updated info and contacts for Legislators click here
Click here for more info
For updated info and contacts for Legislators click here
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Keep Watching For Legislative Information
The Texas State Legislative Session has begun. It is important that everyone keeps on eye on Austin.
We will be posting information on legislative bills that involve accountability, eminent domain and property rights, health and quality of life issues, property values, legal issues, zoning issues, air quality issues, water and soil issues etc. that are oil and gas industry related.
We will also post information on who to contact and how to contact our elected officials in Austin.
Stay tuned.......
We will be posting information on legislative bills that involve accountability, eminent domain and property rights, health and quality of life issues, property values, legal issues, zoning issues, air quality issues, water and soil issues etc. that are oil and gas industry related.
We will also post information on who to contact and how to contact our elected officials in Austin.
Stay tuned.......
Frack Attack National Summit, Dallas, TX March 2-4
Stop the Frack Attack National Summit will be held in Dallas, TX from March 2nd-4th, 2013.
Activists, lawyers, scientists, community members, landowners, will come together to work, share, and learn about the impacts of fracking.
For more info go the the links below:
TXSharon has more info. click here
Stopt the Frack Attack website. click here
Activists, lawyers, scientists, community members, landowners, will come together to work, share, and learn about the impacts of fracking.
For more info go the the links below:
TXSharon has more info. click here
Stopt the Frack Attack website. click here
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