Flower Mound residents have become complacent. They think the threat is gone but it will never be gone as long as hydrocarbons are still under the ground. Industry is only biding their time waiting until the time and the council is right.
April 28, 2013 at 4:12 PM
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.
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 whichhe 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.
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 NOTto 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.
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.
Jean Levenick http://jeanlevenick.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.
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"It Is Election Season and We Haven’t Forgotten!"
1 Comment -
Flower Mound residents have become complacent. They think the threat is gone but it will never be gone as long as hydrocarbons are still under the ground. Industry is only biding their time waiting until the time and the council is right.
April 28, 2013 at 4:12 PM