We Need Solutions, Not Political Hackery: A Response to the Chamber-inspired Fracking Mailing
If you voted in any election in the last four years, chances are you received one of these in your mailbox on Saturday. On August 21, the Denton Chamber of Commerce Board approved a resolution opposing the upcoming ballot initiative aimed at banning fracking in the city limits of Denton. Relying on an inaccurate and intentionally misleading industry-funded economic impact study, the Chamber choose to submit itself to the desires of out-of-town oil and gas lobbyists. Their apparently unreflected upon position is now being used as a piece of political hackery, resulting in division among their own membership and the citizenry at large.
Even worse, the industry lobbyists who the Chamber has willingly submitted to are already amassing teams of lawyers to unleash lawsuit upon lawsuit should the city of Denton do anything – either in the ballot box or in the council chambers – that they find cutting into their bottom line. They’ve been explicit – they are ready to make an example of Denton, even if that means attempting economic decimation through endless lawsuits. If this were the movie Braveheart, the industry is King Longshanks, the Denton citizens are the Scottish people, and it appears the Chamber is starting to resemble the Scottish nobility.
Despite the Chamber’s sudden interest in “responsible drilling” and the pursuit of “reasonable regulation,” I’ve never seen even one policy recommendation coming from this body during the 5 or so years our community has struggled with this issue. As I said in an open letter to the Chair of the Railroad Commissioner when he penned a letter of similar content to the Denton City Council, where have you been?
We are in need of solutions to very real problems.
Let’s make this very simple: the current legal, regulatory, and statutory situation allows for, and has resulted in, wells being drilled within 200 feet of existing neighborhoods. Is this an example of responsible drilling? If not, what are your specific policy or legal suggestions to fix this problem?
Despite numerous offers of help and claims that this can be fixed through “reasonable regulation” by industry, state, and local leaders, we have yet to see anyone coming to the table with a solution. It should be of no surprise that there is growing frustration among our citizenry. Without solutions, people who might have been advocates of the natural gas revolution two years ago now have good reasons to think their neighborhood could be the next to turn into an industrial drilling field.
Perhaps the biggest tragedy to all of this is the colossal waste of time, energy, and money the Chamber is spending on this effort to defend an industry that has virtually no economic impact on our city. Meanwhile, the people of our city are ushering in an entrepreneurial renaissance, a tech boom, and an explosion in social enterprise. Why aren’t we spending time nurturing these and moving our economy into the 21st century? Furthermore, our city has significant economic issues to address. 45% of our city’s kids need economic assistance to pay for lunch at school. 51% of our city’s single moms are below the poverty line. Our median household income is the lowest in the county and below the state average. Food stamp recipients have doubled in our city since 2007. What if our business leaders spent their time launching initiatives to tackle these problems instead of protecting the economic interests of the elite few among them?
Because of all this, I have written the Chamber asking that they remove me and my company from their membership roll. I continue to be ready and willing to work with anyone on either side of this debate to find meaningful and productive solutions, but I can’t lend financial support to the political hackery of an industry intent on harming my city.
13 Comments
FWIW, I’ve voted in most local elections and all state/national elections for years. This includes the last three city council elections. I did not receive one of the cards. My daughter who recently registered to vote but has not done so yet, received a card.
I’m all for a different approach, but where have business leaders been the last few years on offering a real solution other than “drill, baby, drill”? I’m not totally convinced the referendum is the best solution, but given that no one has really provided another solution, what real choice do we have? The Railroad Commission is a laughing stock, swinging in at the last minute to offer non-advice. As regulators, they appear to be nothing more than an industry cheerleader. As a purple town in a red county, Dentonites are used to pragmatism in local governance. We expect that now, but I think a lot of us feel there has been little guidance or support for finding middle ground that protects us as living human beings and the mineral owners. If we could come up with a way to extract these products from the ground without sacrificing out safety, I think a lot of people would be for it. As it is now, we have to trust our “regulators” that there’s nothing wrong with this process or its byproducts. That simply isn’t good enough. Negative externalities are something we have to live with, and as presently existing, without the counterbalance of strong government or the people’s input, we will bear all of those incalculable costs while the mineral rightsholders and their contractors receive all the benefits, yet the Perryman Group and its pro-industry research attempts to scaremonger us with numbers that simply don’t add up. Denton’s economy has been fine before the Barnett Shale boom, and it will be fine without it.
I just can’t wait until the Russians start their advertising campaign. [/snark]
Thank you, councilman Roden. I appreciate what you and councilman Dalton Gregory are doing to represent the interests in the health and welfare of the citizens of Denton, Texas.
The Chamber of Commerce in Denton has become an embarrassment to the citizens of the city of Denton. It is unimaginable how this was permitted and passed. I only hope it mobilizes voters to get out and vote YES on the ban to show the world that even small towns have logical, concerned voters that speak up when we are bullied by large organizations that put money over health.
DG there is no more of an assault on a community than the food it provides it’s people, short of a disaster that I question we are prepared for. I’m sure you wound agree, to a degree. Just like big oil can come in an run over people, so do these feeding troughs scatter through the city. Sugar is the new tobacco and more addicting than cocaine. Like a policy was missing in fracking, so to is a food policy. I see out of control diabetics and I see more on their way. We wait until we are backed into a corner. That’s a strange human trait. Like I mentioned, I will follow up with the Major. It’s sad that a high school student has to resort to filing a lawsuit again her city for not protecting her and her families health by allowing the air, food, and water to be polluted. I’m just short of doing the same thing in the area of all the fast food restaurants that have no accountability or responsibility for the product they products. The fracking issue and others like it continue to put the future generations health at risk. The hard pill to swallow is we allow it. We are asleep as we stuff our mouths full of junk leaving seemingly no blood for the brain; only for digestion. We allow the city and state to be bought by big interests. We are indifferent, for now, but after getting the feeding trough called Bucc-ee’s tossed out of Corinth, I’m hopeful the many small voices will move this area on the road to a healthier environment.
Drilling, fracking, then venting gas/oil wells, any gas wells, releases huge amounts of methane, benzene, possibly radon and other by-products of the petroleum gathering process into the atmosphere. Many of these chemicals have far reaching results regarding human health…to say nothing of harming the environment. The Denton Chamber by allowing these releases is just as vunerable to disease from these releases as anyone in the general population. Further, to allow a fracked well to be drilled within yards of the new University of North Texas football stadium is, in my opinion, a criminal act.
Thank you so much, Kevin.
Thank you Kevin for your vote on 7/15 and for your reasonable explanation regarding your choice to stop your membership in the local Chamber of Commerce. DAG fully expected to be slandered and threatened by industry but never imagine our fellow citizens and Chamber of Commerce would accuse our members of co-conspiring with Russia to bring down our local, state, and federal government. It is a sad day.
Thank you again.
Thank you,Kevin Roden, for making this move and taking this bold position. I admire your character and leadership. Your explanation will help to inform the public of many of the facts concerning this issue and shed light on the misleading statements and lies.
Kevin,
Thank you for speaking out for the citizens of Denton, and for your character. We can see you truly care.
KR – In what way and to what degree are tax-payer dollars allocated to the Denton Chamber of Commerce?
Thank you Kevin!
About this: “they are ready to make an example of Denton,”
I think Denton is going to make an example of them!
Thank you, Kevin.
And nice reference.
Thank you Kevin R for speaking up for the citizen of Denton