Frackers Have Launched an Aggressive Campaign to Kill Denton's Drilling Ban

Categories: Environment

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TXSharon
If you live in Denton, you've probably received one of these anti-ban flyers in the mail.
If you've driven up I-35 to Denton in the last month, you may have seen one of the many billboards popping up around town. The billboards loudly proclaim the economic damage that a city ordinance banning natural gas and oil drilling could cause to the city, and encourage residents to vote against the fracking ban on November 4.

See also: Denton Didn't Ban Fracking Last Night, but Voters Will Get a Chance to in November

The billboards are just the beginning. Recently, Denton residents have been inundated by a deluge of mail campaigns, phone surveys, and local billboard advertisements discouraging the ban, and one resident, Heidi Klein, says pro-drilling advocates are going door to door to lobby against the ban. The phone survey that Klein, and many fellow Denton residents, report receiving last week is particularly disturbing:

"I was equal parts completely flabbergasted and amused at the things they were coming up with," Klein says. "They invoked Putin and Russia, brought up city leaders, the people that were spearheading Frack-Free Denton, anybody that had to do with the ban and tried to link them with some nefarious cause and make it political."

"They talked about the Obama administration being behind this, and linked Al Jazeera and Al-qaeda. And I had to give an opinion on different figures, if I was for or against them. They said something like, if you knew that Putin was in contact with the city to pass the ban, would you still support it? So they were setting up these preposterous links."

And companies are pouring money into the counter-campaign. "XTO Energy, Devon Energy, and EverVest each gave $75,000 [toward local advertising], and practically none of that is local money," says Sharon Wilson, an employee with Earthworks and avid blogger on the Denton anti-fracking movement. "I think Frack Free Denton has taken in about $50,000. And almost $30,000 of that came from Earthworks. But over 90 percent of our contributions came from people with a Denton address."

In a recent press release, the Lewisville-based Institute for Policy Innovation attacked Frack Free Denton for receiving substantial funding from Earthworks. "Today we've learned that the majority of funding for the Frack Free Denton group has come from out-of-town environmental extremist groups such as EarthWorks. This is no surprise, and there's nothing wrong with taking outside funds for your cause. But there IS something wrong with claiming to be entirely a grassroots movement within the City of Denton, when that's clearly not the case," says Tom Giovanetti, president of IPI and an outspoken opponent of the ban.

But Wilson says many Denton residents give money indirectly to Frack Free Denton through EarthWorks, because they are afraid of retaliation from drilling advocates. Wilson says she has personally received death threats in the past, and Frack Free Denton members have received two anonymous death threats in the last month.

"Some of the threats I've received have been from industry workers, people who worked in the industry. Companies incite this, by telling workers that we're trying to take their jobs and their livelihoods. I've taped them saying these things," she says. "I think the industry uses fear tactics against their employees and against the people who oppose them. That's one reason why people would decide to give to Earthworks rather than Frack Free Denton, because their names are not going to show up on campaign finance documents."

The well-funded counter campaign by drilling proponents is intimidating, and not a little discouraging: Next to looming billboards, daily mail campaigns, and substantial tv and radio air time, Frack Free Denton yard signs, t-shirts, and bumper stickers -- which have cropped up all over the city -- are flimsy by comparison. Yet the aggressiveness with which drilling advocates are targeting the anti-fracking movement indicates big-dollar companies are just as intimidated and perturbed by a potential ban.

"They're desperate. They have behaved so horribly in Denton. They have bullied people, mistreated people, and the people in Denton are tired of it," says Wilson. "But when you expose their dirty tactics, they're kind of like cockroaches -- they can't stand the light."

See also: Fracking Emission Carcinogens Found in Denton Playgrounds

And speaking from her home, where she could walk to McKenna Park and closely adjacent Rayzor Ranch gas wells, Klein is also hopeful that Denton voters will be unswayed by the counter-campaign efforts.

"I think the industry underestimates the population of Denton. There are a lot of really bright people here. Denton voters don't always have the greatest turnout at the polls, but those who do come out are generally very well-informed," she says. "I am so proud of my community right now, that we can do something like this. So you know what? Let these guys keep putting stuff in my mailbox. I don't think it's changing anyone's mind."

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24 comments
kfries1
kfries1

This bit of lobbying reminds me of what was done to Arlingtomn to get the stadium approved.

pak152
pak152

once again a wonderful balanced objective article.

TimRuggiero
TimRuggiero

I've said this many times before-If Industry would spend as much money on vapor recovery units, that so-called 'new technology' that prevents leaks and emissions, and taking care of their faulty equipment as they do on PR campaigns, we wouldn't have much to complain about. 

InTheWaves
InTheWaves

You could dig so much deeper into the dirty tricks, misinformation, and tactics that  they're using to try and confuse people about the awful things they've done across the nation and around here, but this article is a good start. Every time I get another piece from these people, I donate more to the Pass the Ban campaign.

bmarvel
bmarvel topcommenter

Want to shut up the anti-frackers? Have all the fracking company executives -- and their lobbyists for good measure -- move into homes adjacent to drilling/fracking sites.They could probably buy these nomes cheap.  Live there for five or six years, the whole family, mom, the kids, grandma, the dog, the cat. Loll around in the back yard, swim in the pool, drink the water, breathe the air. Put up with the  noise and smells. The trucks. The earthquakes. A pilot demonstration. See? We're all okay,

Follow them up for a couple decades. Make sure there are no cancer clusters, no birth defects. What could possibly go wrong?

John1073
John1073

I can't wait to hear the Chris Faulkner's "commercials" from Breitling Energy on KRLD 1080 leading up to this.  Should be entertaining.

schermbeck
schermbeck

From the tone of last week's NYT article about the vote, it sounded as if internal polling showed the frackers losing - thus the influx of big bucks. It'll be very interesting to see the ideological contortions that Texas GOPers will go through in the next Lege arguing against local control by cities for drilling regs while arguing for local control of power plants and other environmental regs by Texas vs the EPA.

WhiteWhale
WhiteWhale

Stop the Fracking ban for the sake of the children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pak152
pak152

@InTheWaves "ou could dig so much deeper into the dirty tricks, misinformation, and tactics that  they're using to try and confuse people" don't talk about the anti-frackers like that

pak152
pak152

@bmarvel good comment. too bad you and the other anti-frackers ignore scientific evidence. and no I'm not a shill for the O&G industry as much as you would like it to be true.

ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul
ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul topcommenter

@TheCredibleHulk @ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul 

Not really.  We could use some sort of thermal engine.  I don't know which one would be appropriate, Stirling, Brayton, possibly Rankine.  Definitely not Otto.  Of course Carnot is theoretically possible.

A heat pump is used to transfer heat energy from a lower temperature to a higher temperature.

pak152
pak152

@TXsharon what is funny is you don't allow replies on your blog that contradict your pov.

TXsharon
TXsharon

@pak152 @TXsharon 

Now that really is funny because my blog is full of comments from fracking apologists. In fact, there are quite a few from you. 

ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul
ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul topcommenter

@TheCredibleHulk @ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul 

Yes, the phrase "heat pump" has been bastardized by popular nomenclature.


Please don't annoy the graduate engineer.  They tend to get grumpy and sullen when folks talk down to them, especially when trying to correct them about thermodynamics.


What you are referring to as a heat pump is nothing more than a vapor compression heat transfer system utilizing a phase change to accomplish the heat transfer.


Strictly speaking, both cycles on the "heat pump" systems are a heat pump as heat energy is being transferred from a low temperature heat source to a high temperature heat sink.


In one mode of operation, the heat energy is being transferred across the control boundary from the low temperature in side the control volume boundary to the high temperature outside of the control volume.  Ordinary people refer to this as "air conditioning".


In the other mode of operation, the heat energy is being transferred across the control volume boundary from the low temperature outside of the control volume to the high temperature inside the control volume.  Ordinary people refer to this  as "heat pump mode".


In both instances heat energy is being transferred from a lower energy state to a higher energy state.  The difference is whether the heat energy is transferred into or out of the control volume.  Both methods use vapor compression and phase change to accomplish the heat transfer.  In addition to the phase change, the use of a constant enthalpy throttling device is essential to maintaining the pressures in both of the heat exchangers.  The throttling of the working fluid may be done through a fixed orifice, a capillary tube which provides choked flow and a  variable orifice which senses the temperature of the heat absorption heat exchanger.  The use of a variable orifice will provide for a higher coefficient of performance for the heat pump.  The ordinary person sees the coefficient of performance expressed as the seasonal energy efficiency ratio, or SEER, which is a bastard ratio relating heat energy units transferred to cost of work input.  It is a bastard efficiency ratio as it is not unitless.


If you wanted to harness heat energy to produce useful work, then you would need a heat engine.  The Carnot Cycle would be best as it has the greatest thermal efficiency, but no one has come up with a practical device.  You could very well be the first to do so.  Since hot air would be the working fluid, I would then recommend either the Stirling cycle or the Brayton cycle, both of which have practical models.  I am not sure how they would be applied in this instance as the working fluid would be variable in quantity, quality and temperature.  Additionally, the temperature difference may not be that great between the source and the sink, assuming the heat source is at normal human body temperature and the heat sink will be the ambient temperature.


Due to the low temperature difference between the heat source and the heat sink, extremely large quantities of the working fluid would be required in order to produce a reasonable amount of useful work.  But I have a feeling that there is probably an unlimited supply.  The question would be that rate at which it would be delivered, as well as, changes in the delivery rate.


Additionally, due to the low temperature differential available in this area, the heat exchangers would be of an very large size, which may affect the economics of the project.


I would recommend holding the discussion in a normally very cold area in order to maximize the amount of useful work produced.  I would recommend the polar regions for siting the project.


In summary, a heat pump requires the addition  of work in  order to transfer heat energy from a low temperature to a high temperature.  A heat engine produces useful work by transferring heat energy from a high temperature to a low temperature.

Good luck with your project.


hth

TheCredibleHulk
TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

@ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul

LOL. Slow day?

Certainly, my intention was not to "talk down" to you, good sir. My understanding of the term "heat-pump" is derived from the various engineers I occasionally work with in the HVAC industry, which informs my understanding of the common parlance for the term "heat pump" (as in, groundwater heat-pump).

However, I think it's safe to say that it is impossible to pump "cold" and regardless of the direction of the thermal energy, the addition of work defines a "pump".

I agree with your analysis that a "heat-engine" would be a far better tool to harness all of that hot air.

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