In the beginning of this video taken at the Largest anti-fracking rally to date, Water Defense’s executive director Claire Sandberg asks an important question that I have often asked.
Will we allow our elected leaders “to persist in their belief
that what happened everywhere else–somehow, miraculously–
will not happen here?”
Well Dallas Task Force members? Well Denton Task Force members? How about it?
Researchers believe when teens engage in risky, dangerous behavior it’s because “while they know there are risks, they think the benefits and the fun are worth it,” or because “they don’t fully understand the complete nature of the risks they’re taking.” Or, they could have an underdeveloped brain.
“It might be that because the frontal lobes are not yet fully developed during adolescence that they’re more likely to make decisions, that they don’t fully think through the consequences of their actions,” says Elizabeth Sowell, Ph.D., neuroscientist.
So which is it? Please pick one.
- Do you think it’s fun to take a risk with our neighborhoods?
- Do you think the benefits [to whom] outweigh the risk to us so you sacrifice us to the greater good?
- Are you incapable of understanding the consequences we will suffer?
- Are do you have underdeveloped frontal lobes?
Dallas’ drilling task force has its final meeting today.
The Denton task force meets through March. I’ve watched video from several of the meetings and attended two. So far, I’ve not see them make any recommendations or advance any action items that are enforceable because they are filled with ambiguous language and loopholes. Darren Groth who is conducting these meetings and who quite quit his job in Arlington to move to Denton (see comments here) is in charge of enforcing Denton’s drilling ordinances. He surely knows the recommendations as worded are not enforceable yet he has said nothing. We must hope that the council and city attorney will recognize and remove that ambiguous language.
UPDATE: I can’t count the number of council meetings I’ve sat through where the council learns their ordinance is not enforceable because of ambiguous language.
I want to know who recommended the Denton Task Force members. It is obviously stacked in industry’s favor.
Gas well panel differs on issue
City task force split on more public notification about drilling activities
By Lowell Brown / Staff Writer
Published: 27 February 2012 11:59 PM
The three other voting members — Siegmund, Don Butler and Ed Ireland — have generally been more skeptical of the need for new regulation beyond what the city, state and federal governments already require.
Butler is a project manager with oil and gas consulting and engineering firm New Tech Global. Ireland is executive director of the industry-funded Barnett Shale Energy Education Council.
“We know the truth: this industry could not operate profitably if they fairly compensated the victims.“
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