Oil Production and Refining

Texas Landowners Say TransCanada is Digging Up Parts of Keystone Pipeline for Repairs

Landowners along the nearly 500-mile southern section of the Keystone XL pipeline say contractors have been excavating long-buried lengths of pipe to repair apparent defects. They've documented stakes jutting from turned-up dirt near the pipeline right-of-way through East Texas that read, "anomaly," ... More >>

Angela Hunt and Scott Griggs Want a Vote On Trinity East Drillsites in 30 Days

Before term limits and elections change the complexion of the Dallas City Council in unknowable ways, Scott Griggs and Angela Hunt want an up-or-down vote on proposed natural gas wells along the Trinity River. Last month, the Dallas Plan Commission voted down the permits for drilling outfit Trinity ... More >>

Trinity East, Staunch Defender of Truth and Above-Board Dealing, Threatens to Sue an Environmental Group

So Trinity East, the gas drilling company that did a secret deal with the Dallas city manager to drill on city-owned parkland, is threatening to sue an environmental group because the group demanded more transparency about previous drilling operations. The drilling company has threatened to sue th ... More >>

Attorney General Greg Abbott is Backing Bill to Push Elected Officials' Written Debate Online

Last week's City Council meeting, at which City Manager Mary Suhm was alternately grilled and applauded over her side deal to allow natural gas drilling on city parkland, was an amazing piece of political theater. How could it not be, what with Vonciel Jones Hill donning her preacher voice and compa ... More >>

Meet Texas' Six Newest Billionaires

Yesterday, Forbes released the billionaires list, its annual parade of the ridiculously, absurdly super-rich. This year, the list stretches to some 1,426 names worth a combined $5.4 trillion. Texas claims a small if significant portion of that, counting 50 billionaires among its 26 million resident ... More >>

Morning News Praises Angela Hunt on Drilling! While God's Passing Out Miracles, Maybe We Can Get a Strong Mayor.

In the very wee hours as my eye first opened to the light of this day, I thought I heard a rushing of wings aloft. I caught my breath. Was this ...? And then distinctly as if from the next room, I heard the oinking of pigs. Only later with coffee in hand and the daily newspaper on my knees did I co ... More >>

Vonciel Hill: City Council Member, Prophet, Theologian and Sell-Out

This is a little embarrassing. Nobody wants to say it. It's sort of rude, I guess. Uh-oh. Sounds like my job. OK. Here goes. Dallas City Council member Vonciel Hill is a mean-spirited, spiteful suck-up to the rich who is also increasingly unhinged. Ugly-talking. And way over the top out of bounds ... More >>

Fire Mary Suhm? Not a Chance, Because the Big Money Likes Her.

Over the weekend I have been chatting with people who were all counting on their fingers. Does City Manager Mary Suhm take a powder over this month's gas drilling revelations? No. They were counting their fingers secretly and spoke to me only off the record, because they know they can't win. Not t ... More >>

Mary Suhm's Secret Drilling Deal Proves That the City Manager System Doesn't Work

Don't think about this: your city manager, the CEO of Dallas City Hall, signed a secret deal five years ago promising to help a gas company set up drilling rigs and processing plants in city parks. Think about this instead: the city manager did not sign a secret agreement with drilling opponents to ... 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 >>

Mayor Rawlings Says New Drilling Rules Are At Least Six Months Away. In the Meantime, Trinity East May Drill Under the Old Ones.

Yesterday afternoon, we were summoned down to City Hall via a text message from Paula Blackmon, Mayor Mike Rawlings' chief of staff. After several long months of silence, it appeared that there was finally going to be some semi-official word on the new regulations for gas drilling within Dallas city ... More >>

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 >>

All Sides Are Pissed at City Council as Fracking Debate Comes to a Head

Over Thanksgiving weekend, the Morning News' Randy Lee Loftis posed a question we'd been wondering about ourselves: Just what the hell happened to that fracking ordinance the City Council was supposed to pass, the one that would finally and completely resolve all those unanswered questions about gas ... More >>

America's Second Richest City Is ... Midland?

Writing in the Atlantic today, Derek Thompson reports from recently released data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that Midland -- not Washington, D.C. or San Francisco, but a 110,000-person speck of dust out in West Texas -- is the country's second richest city, per capita. It might well be fir ... More >>

A Moron's Guide to the Fracking of Dallas

In this week's print edition, staff writer Anna Merlan provides a handy guide to natural-gas drilling debate in Dallas. Read on for a primer, a glossary of terms, a look at the opponents and supporters and a special fracking board game! Important civic issues have a way of sneaking up on you. They ... More >>

Tomorrow's Gas Drilling Hearing is Getting Pissy Before it Even Starts

A friend of Unfair Park passed along an interesting email exchange between some members of the Gas Drillng Task Force in advance of tomorrow's throwdown public hearing. Seems that some are none too happy that Councliman Scott Griggs chose task force member Terry Welch to speak in favor of tighter dr ... More >>

As Dallas Considers Fracking in Parkland and Floodplains, the Usual Suspects Speak Out

It was Dallas city council member Tennell Atkins who, during yesterday's discussion of the city's still-far-off gas-drilling regulations, posed the million-dollar question. "Do you think that it's safe to drill in the city of Dallas?" he asked task force chair Lois Finkelman. Finkelman was noncommi ... More >>

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 >>

Butting Heads and Changing Minds Over Drilling in Dallas as Task Force Wraps It Up

City ordinances governing drilling are based on the perspectives, experiences and whims of the group gathered at the table. It's the nature of creating rules governing a contentious issue with contradictory information and competing interests coming from both sides -- the drilling industry and anti- ... More >>

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 >>

As Gas Drilling Task Force Begins to Wind Down Deliberations, Who's Fracking Whom?

As he does every week, Dallas Cothrum of MasterPlan Consulting sat in the front row of the city's gas drilling task force meeting yesterday, attentively tuning in, occasionally sighing and taking notes in order to deliver his energy company clients the latest news from the home front. Yesterday was ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 presentation​XTO 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 >>

Well, At Least You Can Still Make the Gas Drilling Task Force's Public Hearing, Right?

Photo by Taryn WalkerLois Finkelman, task force chair, on the Arlington site tour last week​We already know who won't be attending the gas drilling task force's public hearing on Tuesday night: Mayor Mike and the city council, who at that time will be breaking bread at Rawlings's request -- maybe ... More >>

Before Gas Drilling Task Force's Field Trip Today, We Take a Little Look Around Ourselves

Photos by Leslie MinoraA from-the-street view of the proposed Camp Wisdom XTO drilling site, pending SUP approval​This afternoon, the Dallas City Council-approved gas drilling task force will take a field trip out to where gas wells are more abundant than Tex-Mex joints and compressor stations ... More >>

Fort Worth Air Quality Study Says: Go Ahead, Take a Deep Breath. For the Most Part.

​The much-anticipated Fort Worth Natural Gas Air Quality Study, a major million-dollar undertaking to determine the air quality effects of natural gas drilling, was released toward day's end yesterday and indicates there's no need to get your gas masks out just yet -- for the most part. The st ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Griggs Begs Council to Hold Off On Picking Gas Drilling Task Force Till He's in Office

Photo by Sam MertenDave Neumman was ousted by Scott Griggs, who can't fathom why Neumann's involved in selecting the gas drilling task force. Good question.​The city council's last big day before going on summer vacation is June 22, when the agenda will be action-packed. On the hefty to-do list: v ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Tomorrow Night in Far West Oak Cliff, Mayor and Council Candidates Tackle Gas Drilling

Hey, Dave, how you feelin' about tomorrow night's debate over gas drilling?​Not sure if there's more fun to be had this election season than at the North Texas GLBT Chamber's mayoral forum tonight, moderated by both Robert and Schutze -- but tomorrow night in far western Oak Cliff sure might come ... More >>

As Council Tackles Fracking, Groups Marshal Forces Against City's Natural Gas Policies

Photo by Patrick Michels​As Patrick mentioned yesterday, the city council will at long last debate that gas-drilling task force Angela Hunt pitched only after Dave Neumann promised but failed to deliver his own proposal. In advance of The Big Day, several groups -- Downwinders at Risk, Dallas Area ... More >>

Days Before Council Considers Forming Gas Drilling Task Force (Or Not), Angela Hunt and Dave Neumann Join Hands in Support

Photo by Sam Merten​At long last, the Dallas City Council's set to tackle the subject: What to do about allowing natural-gas drilling on city property. According to a presentation prepared by city staff for Wednesday's briefing, the council can choose from one of the following options: form a task ... More >>

"Regionalism" Just Means Dallas is Going to Get Drilled When It Comes to Fracking

​So-called regionalism is a rip-off, a scam and a hoax designed to neuter cities and sell them down the river to the damned suburbs. A few weeks from now the Dallas City Council will take up the issue of fracking, the kind of natural gas drilling in which drillers pump millions of gallons of ... 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 >>

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 >>

In the Shadow of Cliff Manor, Scott Griggs Formally Announces His City Council Run

Patrick MichelsScott Griggs announces his run at Dave Neumann's city council seat, with Cliff Manor in the background. Last week, Robert passed along the news that omnipresent North Oak Cliff lawyer and activist Scott Griggs would be stepping up to challenge Dave Neumann for his city council seat in ... More >>

At Dave Neumann's Invitation, XTO Energy Briefs Neighbors on Hensley Field Drilling Plans

Photos by Patrick MichelsCouncilman Dave Neumann uses his hands to clear up confusion over XTO's gas drilling plans at Hensley Field along the Grand Prairie border. Never one to let an unwelcome neighbor move in unannounced, Councilman Dave Neumann invited residents around far west Oak Cliff's Hensl ... 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 >>

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 >>

Captain Marvel Cracks the Quake? Or: Drill, Baby, Drill!

One Local Attorney's Figured Out How to Get Money Out of Big Oil

The Whore Truth About Tomorrow's City Council Meeting

NPR Knows What's Buggin' Dallas