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Blogs
March 7, 2013
Take a Video Fracking Tour with Dallas Environmentalists. And the Beatles
At the end of January, city staff arranged to have the entire City Plan Commission bused to three city-owned sites where Trinity East Energy hopes to drill for natural gas on parkland. This was so commissioners could see for themselves just how drab, un-park-like and eminently frackable they all are ... More >>
Blogs
February 7, 2013
Mary Suhm Signed a Secret Side Deal to Push for Drilling on Parkland as She Told Council It Would Be Banned
Documents released yesterday evening by the city reveal that Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm signed a side deal with a gas-drilling company five years ago to help the company win drilling rights on city parkland, even though she had assured the City Council and park board that drilling on parkland wou ... More >>
Blogs
January 28, 2013
Before They Vote on Fracking, Dallas' Plan Commissioners Will Get a Gas-Drilling Primer
The city's Gas Drilling Task Force never came to a consensus on the potential impact of allowing fracking within city limits, ultimately splintering into two opposing camps. But they did spend the better part of a year researching and debating the issue's many facets. It was curious, then, when the ... More >>
Blogs
December 7, 2012
Review: UT Study Declaring Fracking Groundwater-Safe Failed To Disclose Conflict of Interest, Should Be Withdrawn
An independent review of the University of Texas study that famously declared fracking could not be tied to groundwater contamination has recommended that the school retract it. The well-publicized report released earlier this year by the Energy Institute, "Fact-based Regulation for Environmental P ... More >>
Blogs
May 29, 2012
On Fracking and Building Roads Along the River, Who Are the Real Conservatives?
So today I put aside my morning paper after the customary two-minute encyclopedic read, and I think, "OK Lawners, you tell me." You work it out. I can't. I'm tired. So you give me the answer. Who is the "conservative" here? On the one hand I have former City Council member Lois Finkelman in report ... More >>
Blogs
April 11, 2012
UT Poll: Most Folks Want To Keep the EPA, And What is This 'Fracking' You Speak Of?
Shale gas extracted by fracking deep formations in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania and elsewhere is supposed to be the bridge fuel to the sustainable age, capable of powering power plants and, hell, even our cars. It's become the centerpiece of President Obama's "all of the above" energy plan. In Tex ... More >>
Blogs
March 22, 2012
The Anti-Drilling Set And City Councilman Scott Griggs Will Discuss The Future of Drilling
The city of Dallas has a bit of an issue with gas, one that anti-drilling activists call potentially silent but deadly and hydraulic fracturing proponents call a huge economic relief for the city -- one that would provide an whopping amount of energy. The issue seemed to briefly and temporarily subs ... More >>
Blogs
March 14, 2012
The Big Electricity Question: How Much Are Dry Nuts Worth?
As Brantley pointed out yesterday, the Texas Public Utility Commission got down to hard numbers last week as it inched further toward what appears to be inevitable -- a huge increase in the current $3,000 per megawatt-hour cap on the price of wholesale electricity during times when demand is high. T ... More >>
Blogs
February 29, 2012
Amidst Activist Outbursts, Task Force Finalizes Its Suggestions for Gas Drilling in City Limits
A few major issues, including set-back distances from drill sites and whether to protect parks from fracking, have plagued the Dallas gas drilling task force for months ... and months. (Keep in mind: Yesterday's final meeting was more than three months past the scheduled end date.) At meeting after ... More >>
Blogs
February 17, 2012
Pursuit of Shale Gas May Contaminate Water, Says UT Study, But It's Not Due to Fracking
The University of Texas Energy Institute cast a skeptical eye on the likelihood that the actual act of fracking could result in groundwater contamination. Particularly in the Barnett Shale, where aquifers sit thousands of feet above the shale rock, head researcher Dr. Chip Groat reasoned that the da ... More >>
Blogs
February 10, 2012
Gas Drilling Activists Send Council's Task Force a Letter and Their Top Five "Proposed Rules"
Photo by Patrick MichelsBack in April, Raymond Crawford and other local environmentalists brought to City Hall the 21-foot-long petition that helped spark the formation of the Gas Drilling Task Force.When first formed back in June, the city council-appointed Gas Drilling Task Force had hoped to t ... More >>
Blogs
February 4, 2012
Rockwall's Rep. Ralph Hall Blasts EPA and Science at Fracking Hearing
Allow us to re-introduce you to the octogenarian congressman who's currently perched atop the catbird seat in the oversight hearings every fracker in America is watching with bated breath. His name is Ralph Hall. He's the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. One of its s ... More >>
Blogs
January 6, 2012
Shippin' Shale, or: What's That You Say About Our Energy Independence?
The days of lease-bearing landmen making it rain on the Barnett Shale are over. The industry became so proficient at fracturing the rock thousands of feet beneath the surface and extracting the gas trapped within that they glutted the market. Gas prices took a swan dive and have stagnated eve ... More >>
Blogs
December 8, 2011
EPA Report Ties Fracking To Groundwater Contamination in Wyoming. But What Does That Mean For Texas?
Photo by Taryn Walker A gas well in ArlingtonFor folks in Dallas, where the council-appointed gas drilling task force is running to stand still, or in Southlake, the subject of a recent cover story on towns grappling with urban drilling, this EPA report released today tying fracking to ground ... More >>
Blogs
December 7, 2011
Drilling Task Force Nails Down Set-Backs, Narrowly Votes Against Injection Wells
David BieglerAt yesterday's meeting, the council-appointed drilling task force grappled with some of the more divisive issues in front of them -- and actually nailed down what they'll recommend the council do about set-back distances and allowing disposal wells for produced frack water. As th ... More >>
Blogs
November 30, 2011
Gas Drilling Task Force Mulls Over Possibility of Injection Wells For Frack Water Disposal
Via.Injection wells, like most aspects of gas drilling, elicit conflicting opinions, contradictory data and the frequent, familiar demand: "Not in my backyard!". While the wells used for the disposal of produced fracking water are not currently allowed within Dallas city limits, the issue pro ... More >>
Blogs
November 28, 2011
Assistant City Manager Answers Scott Griggs's Questions About Saving, Selling City's Water
A couple of weeks back, during those water conservation and watering restriction briefings, council member Scott Griggs had a few questions for Dallas Water Utilities Director Jody Puckett that she wasn't prepared to answer, among them: Is the city presently selling water to gas drillers, and, be ... More >>
News
November 24, 2011
Fear and Fracking in Southlake
In one of America's wealthiest suburbs, an unlikely band of drilling opponents helped drive away the world's biggest energy companies. Did they save the town or ruin it?
Blogs
November 17, 2011
Drink In the City Council's Discussion on Conserving (And Selling) Dallas's Water Supply
I was in the middle of watching the city council briefings on water conservation and the Stage 1 watering restrictions yesterday when I got pulled away -- and just when it was getting interesting too. So this morning I started going back to review the tape, beginning just as Sandy Greys ... More >>
Blogs
November 10, 2011
Local Anti-Gas Drilling Activist Catches Execs Pushing PSYOP to Deal With "Insurgency"
Last week, during an oil-and-gas drilling confab at the Hyatt Regency in Houston, execs turned their attention to a very touchy subject: how to get folks decidedly against gas drilling on their side. At which point, according to audio first obtained by CNBC earlier this week, gas-drilling spo ... More >>
Blogs
November 9, 2011
University of Texas Fracking Study: No Evidence That It Contaminates Groundwater
The University of Texas released the preliminary results today of that comprehensive study on the controversial natural gas producing process known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), drawing no link between it and claims of groundwater contamination. "While there have been casing/cement ... More >>
Blogs
October 28, 2011
"Frack is Whack" and Other Highlights From Gas Drilling Task Force's Public Hearing
Photos by Leslie MinoraAnti-drilling activists show their support for one of the public speakers.At last night's Gas Drilling Task Force public hearing at Dallas City, citizens' outcries ranged from polite thank-yous to pleas for tighter restrictions all the way to full-on verbal assaults tha ... More >>
Blogs
October 26, 2011
There's Another Gas Drilling Public Hearing Tomorrow. So Where Is City Heading, Anyway?
Photo by Taryn WalkerDrill, maybe, drill.As chair of the city's gas drilling task force, Lois Finkelman has a pretty tough job, directing task force meetings, guiding discussions, fielding calls and emails from concerned citizens. (Did we mentioned she doesn't get paid? Strictly voluntary.). ... More >>
Blogs
October 21, 2011
While Faraway Lenders Grapple with Fracking, a Word From Local Appraiser in the Trenches
Photo by Taryn WalkerA rig in ArlingtonThe New York Times ran an interesting story Thursday on the growing reluctance of banks to grant mortgages to owners of properties that have been leased for gas drilling in the northeast. Landowners often aren't giving banks a heads up before signing on ... More >>
Blogs
October 19, 2011
After Months of Debate, Southlake Keeps 1,000-Foot Setbacks From Gas Wells to Homes
The Southlake City Council Hall, once packed from floor to gallery with residents for whom gas drilling in town was either a looming menace or a windfall, had only a smattering of attendees a little after 11 last night. Many had already wearied of the debate, which had raged since February an ... More >>
Blogs
October 12, 2011
What the Frack: Task Force Isn't Done, But City Moves Closer to Issuing First Drilling Permit
Click to enlarge this map from the city's April gas drilling ordinance presentationXTO and Trinity East, two of the companies that have paid the city big money and signed leases to drill for gas within the city limits, have agreed to wait 30 months while the city rewrites its gas drilling ord ... More >>
Blogs
October 5, 2011
Citizens Form Unofficial Drilling Task Force, Present Recommendations to City Council
The Dallas gas drilling task force sees many of the same faces at each meeting: a small and dedicated group of Dallas residents who show up every Tuesday afternoon and, as it turns out, have formed an unofficial task force with the same goal as the city's official entity -- making drilling ordinance ... More >>
Blogs
September 21, 2011
After Talking Water Supply, Cause of Quakes, Drilling Task Force Gets Down to Business
Photo by Leslie MinoraPhilip Dellinger, Regional Ground Water/Underground Injection Control Chief for the EPA, presents a fracking overview.Water, water, everywhere -- more than ample supply to frack, according to Jody Puckett, the director of Dallas Water Utilities, who spoke at yesterday's ... More >>
News
September 15, 2011
Sucking Up Water and Sand in the Quest for Natural Gas
For folks in the sandy hills northwest of Dallas, it's a devil's bargain for gas, water and jobs.
Blogs
September 7, 2011
Gas Drilling Task Force Absorbs More Info as It Inches Closer to Making Reg Recommendations
Photo by Leslie MinoraReal estate expert, Dan Wright, talks to the task force about drilling's effect (or lack thereof) on property values.Yesterday afternoon, the city's gas drilling task force heard presentations (slideshows here) from three experts who explained the impact of drilling on n ... More >>
Blogs
August 18, 2011
As Dallas Rewrites Its Gas Drilling Ordinance, Fort Worth Begins Questioning Its Regs
Photo by Leslie MinoraTask force chair, Lois Finkelman, and member, David Sterling, look fresh-faced at the first meeting, when they listened to a presentation about driling in Fort Worth.A little more than a month ago, the Dallas gas drilling task force embarked on its mission to tackle the ... More >>
Blogs
August 3, 2011
City's Gas Drilling Task Force Received a Public Education at Last Night's Hearing
Photos by Leslie MinoraJeffrey Jacoby, the Program Director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment, gave the task force a passionate three minutes, emphasizing their responsibility to protect Dallas citizens.In the end, council members Delia Jasso, Dwaine Caraway and Scott Griggs skipped M ... More >>
Blogs
July 27, 2011
Dallas's Gas Drilling Task Force Navigates, Sort Of, the Labyrinth of Fracking Regulations
Photo by Leslie MinoraTask force chair Lois Finkelman and members Terry Welch and Cherelle Blazer mull over fracking regulations at yesterday's meeting.The city's gas drilling task force slurped down a hearty helping of alphabet soup last night, with visits from representatives of the EPA (En ... More >>
Blogs
July 20, 2011
Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force's Field Trip Was Practical, Educational and Quite Hot
Photos by Taryn WalkerThe crowd at yesterday's Arlington trip sizes up an actively drilling Chesapeake site.Tuesday, Dallas gas drilling task force members -- and city council members Angela Hunt, Linda Koop and, but of course, Sheffie Kadane -- poured out of two white 15-passenger vans and into the ... More >>
Blogs
July 15, 2011
At Arlington City Hall, Locals Hammer TCEQ Panel for Stricter Gas Drilling Regulations
Photos by Leslie MinoraA panel of TCEQ reps maintained their poker faces for about two hours as citizens took the mic, almost all demanding tighter fracking regulations.Shortly after the release of that Fort Worth air study, three reps from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality took a ... More >>
Blogs
July 12, 2011
City's Gas Drilling Task Force Makes Its Official Bow With Vow to Protect Citizens of Dallas
Photos by Leslie MinoraLois Finkelman and task force member David Sterling at today's introductory meetingToday's first meeting of the city's gas drilling task force meeting played out like the pilot episode of a new TV series: It laid out the basic plot line without giving away too much. Which i ... More >>
Blogs
July 11, 2011
The Day Before Council's Gas Drilling Task Force Begins Meeting, Watch Mayor's Promise
While Mike Rawlings is off in France, Rudy has a pay-walled piece in the morning's paper recapping the to-do list offered when he was a candidate and the we'll-see-about-that realities facing him as mayor: "Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings must find a way to deliver on promises." Speaking of: As Leslie ... More >>
Blogs
June 30, 2011
A Few Council Members Take in Gasland, But Not Before Mayor Mike Makes a Promise to City
Photos by Leslie MinoraAngela Hunt was asked whether it's likely Dallas will be sued by gas drillers awaiting their SUPs.Mayor Mike Rawlings took the mic before last night's Observer co-sponsored Gasland screening and told the audience of council members, activists and concerned locals, "I wi ... More >>
Blogs
June 23, 2011
Fire In the Well: Weatherford Couple Sues Range Over Nearby Gas Drilling
Maybe you've seen the ads: On Wednesday we're co-sponsoring a special screening of Gasland at the Texas Theatre, which isn't the only movie we're screening next week. More about that later. But Josh Fox's Oscar-nominated film, as you probably know, features that now-infamous scene of a Colorado m ... More >>
Blogs
June 23, 2011
EPA to Study Whether Hydraulic Fracturing Taints Drinking Water in North Texas
Photo by Patrick MichelsAt the EPA's public hearing in Arlington in August of last yearAll at once the in-box filled up with releases from the Environmental Protection Agency, both the national HQ and the regional offices. Long story short: After a series of public hearings held last year, includ ... More >>
Blogs
June 22, 2011
Gas Drilling Committee Trims List of Task Force Applicants to Nine Slated For Council Vote
Photo by Leslie MinoraLinda Koop, seated next to outgoing council member Dave Neumann, chaired yesterday's meeting.After postponing last Thursday's meeting so council members could ride in the Dallas Mavericks' parade through downtown, the city council's Ad Hoc Gas Drilling Task Force Nominating ... More >>
Blogs
June 21, 2011
Five Months After City Extended XTO's Gas Drilling Lease, Trinity East to Get Same Deal
From the city council's February 2008 briefing on gas drilling within city limitsFirst, a programming note: Plans are to liveblog, yet again, today's 2 p.m. meeting of the council's Ad Hoc Gas Drilling Task Force Nominating Committee, if only because last week's was such a humdinger as the counci ... More >>
Blogs
June 8, 2011
UT-Arlington Researchers Plan Study On Gas Drilling Operations' Affect on Water Quality
Last month, we mentioned a far-reaching University of Texas at Austin study of complaints about gas drilling operations that's just now getting underway. Meant to connect the dots between air, soil and water quality complaints from the Barnett to the Marcellus Shale, the nine-month project from t ... More >>
Blogs
May 16, 2011
UT Researcher Leading Fracking Study: "We're Gonna Look at Every Claim We Can Find."
UT-Austin geology professor Chip GroatA week ago today, as you may recall, the University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute announced they'd be joining the growing ranks of universities with major studies of hydraulic fracturing, with a $300,000, nine-month project of their own. Today, thank ... More >>
Blogs
May 12, 2011
Fracking Chemical Disclosure Bill Blasts Through Texas House, Enviros Unimpressed
From the rapidly spreading "Fracking Song" from ProPublica and Studio 20 NYU.In these final days of the 82nd Texas Legislature, lawmakers in Austin are throwing support behind Eastlake Rep. Jim Keffer's bill that'd require drillers to report the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing at each of t ... More >>
Blogs
May 4, 2011
Kunkle and Rawlings Say That As Mayor, They'd Push for Gas Drilling Moratorium
Photos by Patrick MichelsDistrict 3 City Council candidates Dave Neumann and Scott Griggs joined all four mayoral candidates in a forum with Mountain Creek neighbors last night at Harmony School of Nature and Athletics.At a campaign forum in far western Oak Cliff's Mountain Creek neighborhood last n ... More >>
News
April 28, 2011
Raymond Crawford, Actual Citizen, Fought the City on Fracking -- and Won
When Dallas' drilling rules get tougher, you'll have a professional needlepointer to thank.
Blogs
May 24, 2010
Mayor Tom Leppert Welcomes Windpower Expo to Dallas, A "Quiet" Green Energy Leader
Photos by Patrick MichelsMayor Tom Leppert welcomed wind power players to this week's convention, telling them Dallas has quietly become one of the country's leading green cities. Texas is already king of the hill when it comes to turning wind into electricity, and for folks who work in the industry ... More >>
Blogs
November 9, 2009
Breezeway: El Centro Wants to Put Wind Turbines on Top of Old Sangers Building
View Larger MapThose Landmark Commission meeting agendas are full of interesting hints -- like, oh, that green house the State Fair of Texas wants to build in Fair Park. Or, now, this vague note concerning the installation of 21 wind turbines on the rooftop of 801 Main Street. We should have more ab ... More >>
News
October 26, 2006
Corndoggle
Dallas Is Banking On Ethanol, But Is It The Fuel Of The Future Or A Barrel Of Pork?
More >>

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