Fossil Fuel Energy Production

In the Wake of Spills, the EPA is Urging Tighter Review of the Proposed Keystone Pipeline

Back in March, the Keystone XL pipeline's approval looked practically assured. Construction of the 1,179-mile leviathan, connecting Alberta's tar sand mines with Texas Gulf Coast refiners, was already well underway in Texas. The State Department said Canadian tar sands production would proceed apace ... More >>

How the Bastards Win: A Greedy Lying Bastards Review

EPA: Dallas-based Luminant Produces a Hell of A Lot of Greenhouse Gas, And So Does Fracking

The Environmental Protection Agency -- that scourge of freedom-loving Texans -- just released a nifty little interactive greenhouse-gas database that will almost certainly threaten your liberty, the free market and the Second Amendment, somehow. For starters, the data it compiled indicates Dallas- ... More >>

Judge Punts on Landowner's Keystone Pipeline Challenge

The Nacogdoches judge who granted a Douglass landowner's request for a temporary restraining order against the Keystone pipeline back in November now is telling him to take his case to another court. County Court at Law Judge Jack Sinz ruled last week that he could not hear Mike Bishop's fraud case ... More >>

There Will Be Tar Sand

Tarry Canadian bitumen is barreling its way to Texas via the Keystone XL pipeline. Will it bring energy independence or environmental calamity?

Landowner's Temporary Restraining Order Against Keystone Pipeline Dissolved By Nacogdoches County Judge

Two days after a Nacogdoches County man won a temporary restraining order against TransCanada, halting construction of the controversial, 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline across his land, the judge threw it out, citing a dearth of evidence indicating the company had defrauded him. County Court at La ... More >>

The 10 Most Corrupt Tax Loopholes

If Mitt Romney won't tell you which need to be closed, we will

Boom or Doom?

America’s fracking gold rush portends the greatest environmental disaster of a generation.

Irving-based ExxonMobil's Allegedly Ageist Pilot Retirement Policy Survives Federal Challenge

A six-year court battle waged by the feds against an ExxonMobil policy mandating the retirement of all corporate pilots at the age of 60 was dealt its second defeat in a Dallas federal court. The challenge, filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, characterized the policy as ageist and ... More >>

Keystone Pipeline Protesters Tie Themselves to Construction Equipment, Halt Work

Three protesters tied themselves to logging equipment clearing trees for the southern portion of the Keystone pipeline early Wednesday morning. A representative of the group, which calls itself the Tar Sands Blockade, says work on the East Texas site is currently halted. "A caravan of between seven ... More >>

Who's Watching the Watchers in Review of Controversial UT Fracking Report?

University of Texas prof Chip Groat's ties to the natural gas industry raised a few eyebrows last month after a report he served as lead researcher on gave the hydraulic fracturing process a clean bill of health. "New Study Shows No Evidence of Groundwater Contamination from Hydraulic Fracturing," t ... More >>

America's Petro-Terrorists

How greedy speculators bought politicians and drove up the price of oil.

Tiny East Texas Towns Join Fight Against Keystone Pipeline. Should Dallas?

Together, they have a population of fewer than 2,000, but the tiny East Texas hamlets of Reklaw, Alto and Gallatin have an outsized mission: To halt the southern portion of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, a conduit designed to ferry some 830,000 barrels of Canadian tar sands a day from an Oklaho ... More >>

ExxonMobil CEO: Burning Fossil Fuels Causes Climate Change, But Energy Independence Is Still Complete Bullshit

We at Unfair Park will never, ever tire of hearing Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Irving-based ExxonMobil, the largest private oil and gas company in the world, admit that the product he peddles has in fact caused the earth's climate to change. This is the corporation that has for decades bankrolled a c ... More >>

In Completely Unsurprising News, Protesters Protest Exxon Mobil Shareholders Meeting

There are many reasons lots of folks hate Exxon Mobil: It makes about as much profit in 35 seconds as the average U.S. household makes in a year; it gets humongous tax breaks from the U.S. government; it bankrolled anti-climate change "research" that set debate on the issue back decades; it charges ... More >>

Southwest Airlines' Herb Kelleher: Energy Independence, As You Understand It, Is A Myth

Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher and a gaggle of other titans, from former U.S. Spec Ops commanders to Sam Gilliland, chief executive officer of Dallas-based Sabre Holdings, reject outright the idea that we can drill our way to energy independence. In an Energy Security Leadership Council ... More >>

Clean Electricity Bill Could Be A Bonanza For Shale Barons

A senator from New Mexico has proposed a bill that could change the face of Texas electric generation. And it has another interesting side-effect: It could reinvigorate a shale gas play depressed by tanking prices. U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committ ... More >>

Roll Red Tide: Still No Good News for Oyster Lovers from the Coastlines of Texas

Steven Doyle​Red tide, the naturally occurring algae bloom that causes toxicity in shellfish, continues to plague the state's coastline -- keeping Texas oysters out of local restaurants and threatening the $18.5 million Texas oyster industry. The state closed the entire coast of Texas to oyst ... More >>

EPA Report Ties Fracking To Groundwater Contamination in Wyoming. But What Does That Mean For Texas?

Photo by Taryn Walker A gas well in Arlington​For 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 >>

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?

Didn't Take Long at All For Perot Museum of Nature & Science to Make Its (Big, Big) Money

Photo by Anna MerlanApparently, this is how you announce you've raised $185 million a year earlier than expected.​For days we've been promised a major announcement today from the Perot Museum of Nature & Science; as in, said the week's worth of press releases, "a MAJOR announcement" would be m ... More >>

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 >>

Water Rights Policies At the TCEQ Could Affect Your Lunch

It's tough being a gulf oyster. The BP oil spill devastated Louisiana oyster beds, and then a historic Texas drought reduced river flows into Galveston Bay, seriously increasing the bay's salinity. Predators and disease are thriving and threatening the already hobbled industry. Now the Texas Commis ... More >>

Is That a Gun Under Your Dress, Sir? Because We Know Those Are Panties On Your Head.

What do you need to know about this video sent out by the Dallas Police Department? Well, let's see. The stick-em-up in question took place yesterday at around 5:25 in the morning at the Exxon TigerMart at 2503 Lemmon, which is right off of N. Central Expressway. And, per the DPD:The suspect is seen ... More >>

Dallas's Gas Drilling Task Force to Begin Meetings With Overview From Fort Worth

Via.​This morning the city posted the agenda for the first-ever meeting of the Gas Drilling Task Force, which kicks off Tuesday at 2 p.m., don't be late. The agenda's mostly a bunch of introductory what-whats: Chair Lois Finkelman will give some opening remarks, outline its scope and schedule, rev ... More >>

In Legislature's Final Days, Lawmakers Extend Court Protections for Polluters

Rep. Dennis Bonnen​Amid these "late nights and high feelings" of the tail end of the 82nd Texas Legislature, House lawmakers took a little time to pay the bills yesterday, tying up one last niggling loophole that was letting property owners sue polluters that were contaminating their land. As it ... More >>

Gas Drilling Activists Not Happy With Council Component of Task Force Caraway's Assembled

Photo by Patrick MichelsRay Crawford and his petition signed by those opposed to gas drilling in the Dallas city limuts​As we noted a couple of weeks back, Dallas City Hall's taking applications for the gas-drilling task force Angela Hunt demanded after Dave Neumann failed to make good on his prom ... More >>

Council Member Angela Hunt Spells Out Demands for City's Gas Drilling Task Force

​Patrick Michels, our gas-drillin' expert, is presently at the Hunt Oil Building for that Woodall Rodgers Deck Park press conference -- which, turns out, is worth $9 million (no wonder Mayor Tom's Mayor Tom till tomorrow). So, then, I'll share with you a memo council member Angela Hunt sent to her ... More >>

At City Plan Commission: Food Trucks Drive to Council, But Gas Drilling Stays Parked For Now

Robert WilonskyThe Hot Box parked on Flora Street back on October 31​I'd been all ready to settle in for a lengthy City Plan Commission meeting this afternoon, conditioned by months of long waits before commissioners got to talking about the things I'd come for -- old favorites like gas drilling o ... More >>

While Council Studies Gas Drilling Safety, Plan Commission's Taking One More Look At Another Proposal from XTO Energy

​Seems like just yesterday the City Plan Commission took up XTO Energy's second application for a specific use permit for gas drilling on city land -- this time along Camp Wisdom Road near Joe Pool Lake -- and quickly put off its decision for three months.But that was November, and here we are thr ... More >>

Once More Into the Frack: Council Considers Changes for Disposal Well at DFW Airport

Chesapeake EnergyA diagram from "Ask Chesapeake" shows a disposal well for spent fracking fluid, down into the Ellenburger Formation underneath the Barnett Shale.​If you thought you'd heard the last from the City Council on gas drilling for a while, well, think again.Originally, the council was go ... More >>

Here's Why Ron Natinsky Excused Himself When Council Talk Turned to XTO Energy

​Before the Dallas City Council voted to back Dave Neumann Wednesday and wait till October to vote on XTO Energy's gas drilling proposals, we did get a little more insight into where the council stands right now. Angela Hunt, for instance, mentioned why she was for extending the city's leases to X ... More >>

At City Hall, A New Lease for XTO's Drilling Plans and An Update on Dallas' Budget Shortfall

Hensley Field, where XTO Energy hopes to begin Dallas' first gas drilling operation.​I'm wedged into the corner of the briefing room at City Hall -- no complaints, because really, Brad Watson needs his legroom. The council's running through its various opening proclamations -- Delia Jasso just in ... 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 >>

Lawyer Says Dallas Woman Sued Halliburton After She Violated "Policy Against Procreation"

The Dallas case is one of many attorney Todd Kelly has brought against Halliburton.​A Dallas woman filed suit against Halliburton last week claiming she was fired after her supervisors learned she was pregnant. In court documents filed on December, 21, Lynda Darden alleges she was fired in the sum ... More >>

Turnips, Happy Meals and Tainted Eggs: The Year's 10 Biggest National Food Stories

​Food lovers must talk with their mouths full, since there was plenty of discussion of many, many food-related topics in 2010. But a few national stories struck us as most important. Let us know what you think. 1. The food safety bill The massive food safety bill had been left for dead when the ... More >>

City Plan Commissioners Recused Themselves from Gas Drilling Talk Last Week for Owning Stock in XTO Energy Parent Exxon

​Even before their meeting last Thursday afternoon, City Plan Commissioners had decided to hold off voting on XTO Energy's second application for a gas drilling site in Dallas -- leaving time for the city council to figure out what to do with XTO's first application, maybe even delaying that call ... 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 as the City Plan Commission Hears from the People on Gas Drilling and Food Trucks

This guy didn't make it to City Hall this afternoon, but plenty more folks have something to say about new gas drilling sites in Dallas.​We're down in the big room at City Hall, where the City Plan Commission's taken over the big boy chairs and taped their nametags over the City Council's placards ... More >>

Waiting on a Buyer, Dallas-Based Chief Oil Plans To Start Drilling in the City By Year's End

Last week around this time, the Wall Street Journal was telling us about three very private oil and gas companies -- two of them based in Dallas -- with designs on getting bigger in the gas drilling world. So, to help take their operations up a notch, both Talon Oil & Gas and Chief Oil & Gas ... More >>

Holy Death!? Inside the Pleasant Grove Factory Pouring Mystical Candles for the World's Altars

Photos by Brandon Thibodeaux​Of all the didn't-quite-make-it-into-the-story facts I discovered while researching the botánica biz for this week's cover story on Chango Botánica in Oak Cliff, one of the most interesting discoveries was that many of the candles sold on the shelves of area botánic ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes: Asado De Puerco Rojo At Chitos

​As a countdown to the Dallas Observer's "Best of Dallas" 2010, City of Ate is serving up 100 of the favorite dishes we crave, savor and hope to scarf down again soon. These dishes are in no particular order. Some are little known, others celebrated. Some are pricey, others can be eaten on the ... More >>

Local Musicians To Host Benefit For The Gulf Coast at Lola's in Fort Worth on Thursday

​July 1 marks another hot, run-of-the-mill day for us here in North Texas, but for the folks directly affected by the oil spill in the Gulf, it's another day without work. And some DFW musicians have decided to do something about it--namely, they'll be teaming up with venues all over the country t ... More >>

Did Joe Barton Have a Point?

Jon Stewart Doesn't Like Joe Barton, and He's Not Impressed With Rex Tillerson Either

​No doubt by now you've heard all about Rep. Joe Barton of Arlington telling BP chief exec Tony Hayward how sorry he is -- how so so so so so sorry he is -- that President Obama shook him down for a $20 billion "slush fund." And by slush fund, he meant dough to be doled out to those in the Gulf Co ... More >>

Texas Rangers: Fool's Gold or Gritty Perseverance?

​While I was gone the Texas Rangers, well, um, let's face it ... they crumbled. Starters not making it past the fifth inning. Bullpen overworked. Bottom third of the order about as effective as BP's oil spill plans G, H and I. Four consecutive losses. Division lead kaput. Not good. I keep app ... More >>

Fueling Up at Lunch at La Paisanita Taqueria is a Gas

Texaco: Fill Up With Gas--From the Tacos, Not Petrol

Funky Quarters

Inwood Quarter Café mixes the seedy with the charming