Fracking bans widen, N.Y. joins Denton, Texas.

    New York joins a small but growing conglomeration of states and cities which have instituted bans on fracking, including an astounding decision by the city of Denton, in North Texas, about fifty miles from where I live. The bans are highly significant and give me a shot of optimism here at year end especially because citizen activism has played such a huge roll in these bans. I can remember watching Mark Ruffalo on T.V. a few years back elucidating the health dangers of fracking in his native upstate New York, and truthfully, I thought he was a voice in the wilderness---but his involvement changed things.

    Involvement is nurtured by attitude and attitudes are changing---which gives me hope. People are realizing that this earth is all we have and after we have plundered it, drilled it, scraped it, mined it, destroyed the water, and cut all the trees, we are done here. People whose drinking water is contaminated and whose ambient air is not fit to breathe are now becoming environmentalists in the most effective way possible--political action and voting,   

    I think of an environmentalist as a person who has stood all alone somewhere on this planet off the beaten path, looked into a deep sky, fully taken in the sensory and emotional thrill of it, and had a soft current flow through his body just trying to comprehend his place in the Universe.The Universe has become personal.

    When a child has asthma and is breathing in dust, this thing we exist in, the environment, becomes personal and the parent is connected to it in a profound, new way. Attitudes change when things get personal. One looks into the mirror and says to himself---o.k., this is the day I do it, this is the day I change. Governor Cuomo has changed and signed off on the ban. The fracking companies can go elsewhere---but not, for now, in Denton.

    The city of Denton has been sued by energy interests, those corporations who are people, who argue the ban is unconstitutional. This is the same crowd which is corrupting the Attorneys General offices around the country---anything the Feds do is unconstitutional, give the locals back their rights, and down the line of freedoms of the local populace. Well the locals have spoken and in a historically curious arrangement the folks in conservative North Texas are aligned with all those liberals up in New York. So now the energy interests want to trample the good people of Denton in the name of constitutionalism---to which the people there have a saying---"Whatd'ya?---that's some kind of chutzpah, pard."

    The Texas Railroad Commission weighed in on Denton's fracking ban, stating, "...we are going to continue permitting up there because it's our job". Christopher Guith of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce alluded to Denton and bans in 21 other states: The Industry has been caught with its pants down"---a statement which I suspect represents an epiphany Guith experienced when all alone in the outback.

    The fracking industry has been operating with little regulation and has created major environmental and health problems for ordinary people who are working and raising families. Good people have looked the fracking demons in the eye and concluded that the line has to be drawn somewhere. The bans are good news and I think of them as a kind of bonus in what has otherwise been a very tough year. Congratulations to New York State and the city of Denton,Texas.

    Comments

    There's a big chance here, while low oil prices have the current frackers all out of sorts.  One prediction... a lot of these fracking companies are funded by high yield debt, currently trading at distressed levels.  Money is going to pour in from the distressed space.  They will buy the debt sub 40 cents on the dollar and if it turns around, get paid a very high yield plus upside.  If it doesn't, they will own the post-reord equity of these companies.  Once that happens, you will have new equity owners, unencumbered by debt, and thus able to profitably frack and a lower per barrel cost.  They will launch the next pro-fracking wave and it'll be furious.  Best to get these bans firmly in place before that happens (I'd say we have max a 2 year window).


    What do you mean by "firmly in place"? It seems likely that when fracking regains its profitability, the entities that put the bans in place will cave to the pressure.


    I'll let Mike answer but I just went looking at some of the background material and missed something cringeworthy---that none other than George P. Bush, previously an energy consultant, and eldest son of Jeb Bush will  be taking over the Texas General Land Office which manages all the mineral rights to millions of acres of state owned land. His only statement so far was, "We don't need a patchwork quilt approach to drilling operations across the state". We all know what that means, we'll do what the industry wants.

    This is getting even more disgusting when you think that papa Jeb  has spent the better part of the last decade forming investment companies in the energy industry, including major investments in the shale gas sector.   


    Wow.  I guess my answer to "what do I mean by firmly in place" is actual laws passed that would have to be repealed, rather than edicts by one governor or executive that can be rescinded by the next.  This George P. news is certainly evidence that the fix is in on the other side and makes it seem like any fracking opposition now will be only temporarily successful.


    The Denton, Texas, Nexus. This could get interesting. So Jeb outsources the family's shale gas interests to son who is in the cat bird seat in Texas of overseeing what might be the most significant legal action the industry is taking against local municipalities.

    According even to Rominey, Jeb will have trouble explaining his venture work which includes the shale gas stuff. And I wonder how Jeb's money raising in the sector is looking like right at the moment. Oh, it's that Bush projeny timing problem again.

    (the question was from barefoot)  


    Thanks, great points. I assume that in New York the facilities which have been built are simply a write-off on the books of whomever is the parent company as presumably those sites will never again be operational. And I wonder about the long term environmental effects of just having those sites rust away. It would really be ironic if the state winds up footing the bill for closing down the sites if the companies go belly up. Lots of unintended consequences here like a leaner, meaner fracking industry---damn, that's serious.

    I agree that the time is ripe for action, now that product prices are down. The fight in Denton is extremely important because if a city in Texas, the largest energy state, can win, the entire fracking industry could be adversely effected. The issue is whether the city even has the "right" to legislate a ban.

    I think that not all fracking is bad, it's just that the industry goes anywhere it wants with little consideration of the people there, and even the people in Denton aren't universally against the idea, but they want studies and control of how the things are constructed and operated.

    I'm am heartened by the ban in New York even more so than some other developments because of the "grass roots" involvement, which underlies all the hopes of Progressives to fight back against over reach by big corporations.  


    Oh we need jobs.

    Although Jobs is dead.

    But damn, if my kid or grandkid died as a result of this fracking tech....Oh I would go nutsy.

    No kidding.

    People actually cannot drink the water.

    I recall the old days and reading about nuclear power.

    I recall JFK talking about nuclear fall out.

    Is it raining today?

    Yeah, 'they' will tell us that it is somehow normal for our taps to turn into fire?

    The Supreme Court discussed balancing decades and decades ago.

    Jesus. When the kids are dying....

    Well, let us take a look.

     


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