Energy Sector

Mike Bishop, Hellbent on Stopping the Keystone Pipeline, Sues the Corps of Engineers

Earlier this year we introduced you to Mike Bishop, the irascible ex-Marine with 20 acres in the path of the Keystone pipeline, just east of Nacogdoches. When we met him, the retired chemist and bio-fuel tinkerer was livid, cataloging the insults to his land -- the 'dozed crops, the clear-cut woods ... More >>

Trinity East's Vapor Chase

Drilling thousands of feet into the earth is a cakewalk compared with dealing with City Hall.

State Department's New Keystone XL Pipeline Report Proves Battle to Stop Tar Sands Is Probably Already Lost

On Friday afternoon came the unheralded release of a pretty important preliminary analysis from the State Department regarding the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, a conduit for diluted bitumen mined in Alberta and destined for the Texas Gulf Coast petroleum refineries. The takeaway, however, has to ... More >>

Rawlings and Suhm's Attempt to Spin Secret Gas Deal into Something Innocent Is Hot Air

Some stuff won't spin. Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm is trying desperately to spin the story of her side-deal with Trinity East Energy. But that story is stuck in the ground like a tree. The Observer reported yesterday that Suhm signed an agreement five years ago with a gas drilling company to help ... More >>

Nacogdoches County Landowner Wins Temporary Restraining Order Against Keystone Pipeline

Nacogdoches County Court at Law Judge Jack Sinz issued a temporary restraining order against TransCanada Tuesday, preventing the company from continuing construction of the southern leg of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline crossing Mike Bishop's land. I met Bishop a few weeks ago at his place ... More >>

Texas Railroad Commission Still Needs to Work on Holding Oil and Gas Producers Accountable

Once again, the Railroad Commission of Texas' raison d'être has been evaluated by a commission comprising state legislators and two regular citizens. Once again, it was given a reprieve from being abolished, given the gang-busting pace of oil and gas development over the last several years. But not ... More >>

More North Texas Landowners Accuse Chesapeake of Skimming Royalties, File Class Action Suit

Chesapeake Energy, the country's second-largest producer of natural gas, has been hit with a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of violating royalty agreements with landowners in Tarrant and Johnson counties. As you may recall, an identical suit was brought in July by a family of Johnson Cou ... More >>

TransCanada Can Move Ahead With Texas Portion of Pipeline, But the Fight Isn't Over

Earlier this month, three East Texas hamlets with a collective population of fewer than 2,000 souls filed suit in a federal court in Oklahoma City to halt construction of the southern half of The International Pipeline Formerly Known as Keystone XL. The Keystone was to be a massive piece of infrastr ... More >>

Rep. Ralph Hall From Rockwall Is Turning 89, Will Do Keg-Stands with Rick Perry, T. Boone Pickens, Harlan Crow

Congressman Ralph Hall, the near-nonagenarian, oldest serving member of Congress, who was elected to things five years after World War II ended, just turned 89 years old. What do you give the man who has everything -- a powerful committee chair; a devilish sense of humor (he loves Mormons!); and a f ... More >>

How One Man's Flaming Water Fired Up a Battle Between Texas and the EPA

Steve Lipsky's epic battle and what it means for the future of fracking.

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 >>

Rolling Stone Article Launches Fracking Fight with Chesapeake

Chesapeake Energy and Rolling Stone writer Jeff Goodell are battling over his March feature. The abridged version of the lengthy piece, unpacked further by Brantley, goes like this: Drilling appears to be a Ponzi scheme with Chesapeake's founder, Aubrey McClendon, as its leader. Neither McClendon no ... More >>

Fracking Boom a Ponzi-Inflated Bubble About To Pop? Rolling Stone Sure Thinks So.

Is the United States the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas?" as President Barack Obama has said. Or has the energy industry used fuzzy math to hype its estimated reserves to entice buyouts and Wall Street investment? Tough to say for sure, but last month the U.S. Energy Information Administration scaled ... More >>

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 >>

As Council Was to Take Up L.B. Houston Gas Drilling, It Retreated Behind Closed Doors

From today's council agenda​Council just wrapped discussing that police helicopter sale; Sandy Greyson, concerned about terrorist what-ifs, wanted it pulled from the consent agenda for further discussion, but the sale sailed through. This item's about something a little further down the agenda. As ... More >>

Well, At Least One Council Member's Ditching the Mayor's Dinner Tomorrow Night

Photo by Patrick Michels​Still having a hard time figuring how Mayor Mike or his staff could schedule a dinner with the council tomorrow night -- the same night as one of only two gas drilling task force public hearings. A couple of council reps think it's important enough to mention to their cons ... More >>

Want to Be on Dallas's Gas Drilling Task Force?

​After council member Angela Hunt pushed the city council to form the gas drilling task force Dave Neumann only talked about, it's time to assemble the dream team: Moments ago, Dallas City Hall sent word that it's taking applications from those interested in serving on the task force. For those wh ... More >>

Activists Ask West to Kill Bill That Would Gut Cities' Ability to Regulate Gas Drilling

Photo by Patrick MichelsRaymond Crawford and his 21-foot-long scroll of signatures unfurled at Dallas City Hall on April 20​Dallas anti-gas drilling activist Raymond Crawford just copied us on a letter he's sending to state Sen. Royce West today, asking him to "personally get involved [and] do wha ... More >>

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.

Environmentalists, NAACP Unite To Ask Council For Strong Gas Drilling Task Force

Photos by Patrick MichelsRaymond Crawford unfurls a 21-foot scroll of signatures from folks concerned with gas drilling in Dallas during this morning's press conference..​It's The Big Day today for gas drilling activists here at City Hall, and as Robert mentioned yesterday, the environmentalist se ... More >>

Liveblogging City Council's Look at Gas Drilling Task Force. Or: The Return of Lois Finkelman!

Welcome back to City Hall, where the council's settling back into their seats in the briefing room after a much-needed break for lunch. Word was that the council was going to treat us to its gas drilling update in the morning -- but after taking an extra-long executive session to work out just who' ... More >>

Natural Gas Drilling Continues to Define Council Battle Between Dave Neumann and Scott Griggs

Photo by Sam MertenDave Neumann (left) and Scott Griggs (right) at their first debate in late February.​From the beginning of last night's forum at the Avalon at Kessler Park, questions from the crowd of nearly 100 District 3 residents focused squarely on natural gas drilling and incumbent cit ... More >>

Mayor Caraway Says He's Got That Whole Gas Drilling Task Force Thing Covered

​A few weeks ago, as you'll no doubt recall, Angela Hunt called for the formation of a gas drilling task force that would consist of no fewer than 10 people, among them experts well versed in the subject of fracking, neighborhood residents impacted by XTO Energy's requests to drill near Hensley Fi ... More >>

Oscar-Nominated Gasland Director Josh Fox On Gas Drilling in the Barnett Shale and the Backlash from Industry

Patrick MichelsGasland director Josh Fox answers questions at an October screening at the Magnolia, alongside DISH mayor Calvin Tillman and gas drilling activist Sharon Wilson.Almost as soon as Gasland nabbed one of this year's Academy Award nominations for best documentary, industry groups rushed o ... More >>

Don't Frack Me, Bro: A Look at Arlington's Gas Drilling Fight in the Shadow of Jerryworld

Patrick MichelsThat's Kim Feil at far right with her pal, Ben Zene​While we await the Dallas City Council's decision concerning XTO's permit application to gas-drill within the city limits, we look just a little westward -- toward Arlington, where, tomorrow, the council there will vote on a permit ... More >>

Gas Drilling Variances Denied Near Grapevine Lake, While A Pair of Federal Suits Allege Water Contamination from Barnett Shale Fracking

​Worries about groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing around the Barnett Shale got a fresh wave of attention yesterday -- first with a pair of federal suits filed in Dallas, and then with the Town of Flower Mound's denial of a request to drill near to Grapevine Lake. Keystone Energy w ... More >>

Drill, Maybe, Drill? Almost Three Years After Council OK'd Gas Leases, Hunt Still Concerned.

​Patrick Michels has been all over XTO Energy's efforts to sink some gas drills in and around Dallas, a piece of which may or may not wind up on the council's year-ending agenda on December 8 following the City Plan Commission's decision last month to deny the wastewater-spilling Exxon subsidiary ... More >>

Once More, With Fracking: Plan Commission Considers a Second XTO Gas Drilling Site

XTO Energy wants to drill on Joe Pool Lake, but will it effect your ability to kick back with a cold beer on the deck at The Oasis? The answer may surprise you.​If you're not sitting down here in the Council Chambers at City Hall right now, then you're missing one of the fine ways to spend a Thurs ... More >>

Liveblogging's A Gas at City Hall, As Plan Commission Denies XTO's Drill Site Application

Flickr user Schlüsselbein2007Mountain Creek Lake in far western Oak Cliff, which could be the site of Dallas's first gas drilling operation.​[Update at 6:45: To spare you the trouble of reading all the way through, here's the news. With a 7-6 vote, the commission denied XTO Energy's application f ... More >>

As Natural Gas Drilling Spreads East Into Dallas, A New Activist Group Is Born

Patrick MichelsNo word yet on whether this guy'll turn up again at tonight's meeting.The natural gas industry's slow creep toward Dallas over the Barnett Shale has launched a small army of activists in Fort Worth's exurbs, from small-town mayors to goat fromagers -- a well-organized crew that's gott ... More >>

Alan Todd May, Who Feds Say Ran Ponzi Scheme From Downtown, Caught in S.F.

Some of the very generic imagery featured on Alan Todd May's company's Web site​Alan Todd May spent the better part of 1983 to 2002 in and out of prison, having been arrested for such things as credit card abuse, check fraud, theft ... well, you name the hustle, he hustled it. There were 14 convic ... More >>

The Real World

What the Frack?

This morning's Wall Street Journal investigates the cause of the 18 earthquakes that have rattled the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 2008 -- from just east of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport down to Cleburne most recently -- and concludes, well, ya know, not really sure. Because on the one han ... More >>

Feeling Gassy!

Shale.tv Shelved

All Shale Tracy Rowlett!

Tracy Rowlett on Selling the Shale: "Chesapeake is Just the Sponsor."

In the Hunt: Fort Worth-Based XTO Buys History For $4 Billion

WFAA: To Catch a Peabody

Say, That Hits the Green Spot

Ray Hunt: Elevating Tensions Since 1974

Shanghai 5 to Get Political at the Space

Forbes: Adios, Earth Biofuels.

Take It Easy

Nicholson plays grumpy in Pieces

High Cost of Lower Prices

Clean Your PIPEs

Letters

Lauren Fine

Paper Airports (BPL Records)

Best Political Gaffe

City council members wade into deep doo-doo