Posted on 03/15/2007 5:50:33 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
As if our governor wasn’t already having a bad hair day last week, just as the Weekly was putting to bed its latest story on the Trans-Texas Corridor (“Brake Lights,” March 7, 2007), rookie State Sen. Robert Nichols, a former state transportation commissioner, was introducing two bills that should have made that famous coif turn white. The first would prohibit any non-toll road or bridge from being converted to a toll facility and stipulates that if toll lanes are added to a non-toll road, the number of free lanes cannot be reduced. The second would put a two-year moratorium on all toll roads not already under contract, during which time their potential impact would be studied. Can you say “kill the TTC”?
Oh, and by the way, Nichols is a Republican, just like State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, who introduced an identical bill in the House earlier. And Nichols’ bill was co-signed by 24 of the Senate’s 31 members. Don’t look now, governor, but your troops are dropping like doves on the opening day of hunting season.
None of the three bills, nor any of the other dozen or so anti-TTC measures introduced in the last month, are guaranteed to pass, of course, and Perry would no doubt veto any that did. But they are a pretty good indication that this Republican-dominated legislature is in open revolt.
Murky Waters
How reassuring that locally active energy companies have formed a committee to discuss water conservation in North Texas’ Barnett Shale natural gas field. And by “how reassuring” we really mean “how ludicrously hypocritical.” Companies that have used millions upon millions of gallons of water during recent drought conditions to blast through the underground rock and capture natural gas are suddenly concerned? Companies that tap into aquifers — and then shun nearby homeowners who experience subsequent water well problems — are now interested in being neighborly? An industry that has bullied and lobbied and schmoozed politicians for the past 100 years to ensure flimsy laws and relaxed government oversight is now environmentally alarmed? Well, so glad that problem is solved.
Static, ever hopeful, wants to believe committee spokeswoman Deborah West when she says drilling companies are truly and proactively interested in conserving and recycling water and in sharing best practices with each other. The Barnett Shale Water Conservation and Management Committee is “not something we had to form, we just thought it was the right approach and the thing to do,” she said.
The cynic in Static sees a more likely scenario. In the past couple of years, independent publications such as Fort Worth Weekly and the Denton Record-Chronicle have revealed the energy industry’s extensive use of water and its lack of accountability when problems occur. A grassroots swelling of protest in Parker, Wise, and other rural counties that rely on groundwater is showing signs of strength. Residents in Fort Worth, Haslet, and many other cities are raising hell about the industry’s impact on their quality of life. A few legislators are beginning to listen. Energy companies are scrambling to improve their public relations by trotting out this dog-and-pony committee to protect their interests while they continue making a bundle of money. Meanwhile, the companies increasingly invade people’s privacy; create industrial worksites next to people’s homes, parks, and schools; run heavy trucks up and down little roads that can’t help but crumble under the weight; and use hundreds of millions of gallons of our most valuable natural resource in order to get at natural gas. Bottom line: Oil and gas drilling is profitable but it isn’t clean or quiet or environmentally sensitive, and it’s a pain in the ass when it occurs near your home.
I was under the impression that SB 1267 blocked just those toll roads that used PPPs.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
However, those royalty checks totalling in the thousands of dollars every month do tend to offset the pain.
BTTT
There are some *creative* plans afoot in the Austin area to take lanes of existing, free roads and change them into toll lanes. (along with tolling every road in or out of town) The Legislators might just be trying to cover all the bases.
Read the Texas Transportation Code, section 227 is for the TTC. It's too brain-numbing for most but, there's a lot of info for the Leg. to consider.
bump.
"The point should be, are we getting a good deal?"
kewl!
why should publicly paid for roads and bridges be converted to tolls, for the benefit of the spanish investors and gov. perry's cronies?
You answered your own question...
Like I said in another thread, this bill appears to be well intentioned, and may in fact get passed, but unless the governor and his handlers tell him to let it go, I am afraid all the hoopla surrounding the TTC now will die off and in two years there is a lot of work they can do under the radar to make it even harder to vote against to kill it at that point...
So what do we do now??? Your guess is as good as mine...The political make up (and demeanor) of the state legislature and the govenors' seat may be a little different in two years...Who knows...
Just something to think about...
OH...
And just one more thing...
Remember that if this all just proceeds and we cannot stop it...
These "roads" will be leased to a foriegn entity...Therefore the rights afforded to you to transport, carry and use firearms in the defense of ones self...May be restricted while on these "roads"...
Look at the wording in the Texas Transportation Code section 227, that I gave to "Wolfcreek" yesterday...
There may be something in there that does this...
Should warrant some study...
"However, those royalty checks totalling in the thousands of dollars every month do tend to offset the pain."
Dog, you are assuming that everyone in the neighborhood is getting those checks.
There are many of us on the edge of the Barnett "play" that will never see a dime in royalty but who are watching our wells and springs dry up. Sure, the drought is a factor, but so is the massive amount of groundwater being sucked from the ground in the Fort Worth basin as fracturing of the shale continues.
It's a problem, a big one if you depend on wellwater, as most of us do. Don't denigrate our serious concerns.
The FW Weekley article says moratorium on all toll roads. The article I linked to in #7 says moratorium on private toll roads, Comprehensive Developement Agreements.
And, obviously, since the moratorium is temporary, a possible permanent moratorium would cover only private toll roads/CDAs.
This would not prevent a local RMA's toll roads plans, or a State owned TTC toll road. It would not prevent a RMA or the state from entering into a PPP such as Design/Build.
Somebody should look into exactly what Nichol's moratorium covers.
bump
Ba-da-bump!
I have no problem with measures restricting the use of the aquifers that homes use for well water. The economics of the Barnett Shale play can probably handle the additional cost of trucking in water for the frac jobs.
Nobody likes the sight of a well being drilled on their land they own if they don't also own the minerals under the land. Yet it's a necessary inconvenience if one expects to have a supply of natural gas for industry and homes.
The groundwater issue is a legitimate one, although the drought is certainly a factor beyond the oil companies' control. But I'm sure a solution will be found.
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