The May 2010 issue of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association Magazine has arrived and it says Texas OGAP is Mean!
Ben Shepperd, Executive Vice President, Permian Basin Petroleum Association dedicated most of his column on pages 6 & 7 this month to that big meanie organization, Texas Oil and Gas Accountability Project.
The other recent issue has potentially very negative consequences. The Oil and Gas Accountability Project (OGAP) has set up shop in Texas. Many of you have dealt with this group in the western states including New Mexico.
Texas OGAP is part of Earthworks Action and is a very aggressive environmental group. They are well organized and well funded. Please do not ignore this group. I can tell you from my New Mexico experience that Texas has been blessed not to have them here until now, but they are here.Some policy initiatives from their recent publication Drill-Right Texas include.
That would actually be: Drill-Right Texas: The Best Oil and Gas Development Practices for Texas.
Okay, here is his list of Oh-S0-Scary initiatives:
- Operators and landowners must negotiate upfront a surface use agreement with landowners and surface users (i.e., permitees and lessees) detailing the placement of pipelines, compressor stations, roads, well sites, and related facilities,and detailing the use of drilling products and chemicals as well as baseline testing of available water resources for quality and quantity.
What a bunch of meanies we are! How unreasonable to expect that people who have worked hard all their lives to carve out their piece of the American Dream should be afforded some consideration when facing eminent domain.
- Oil and gas operators must restore water and soil damaged by exploration and production, and provide temporary water supplies during remediation.
Well, that’s really mean! Those silly landowners can just come up with some kind of imitation water. What’s the big deal about water anyway?
- Surface owners must be notified in writing at least 120 days in advance of lease sales, right of way (ROW) negotiations, and development activities.
Oh give me a break! It’s none of the surface owner’s business what industry does with their surface. Texas OGAP is so, so mean!
- Noise standards should apply to all exploration, development, work-over, transportation and refinement equipment, particularly in proximity to residences, businesses, schools, hospitals, nursing homes and churches. Low frequency noise complaints must be documented and mitigated.
Say what? Now look, Grandma can’t hear anything anyway so what does noise matter around nursing homes?
Sheppard goes on and on with example after example showing how mean Texas OGAP is. You can read all the examples of our meanness HERE. Then Sheppard closes with this:
Part of Texas OGAP’s strategy is to engage municipalities and counties to encourage them to adopt stringent ordinances.
Wow! Empowering the people is a bad, bad thing!
If you want to help make sure Texas OGAP can keep being Mean in Texas, please join us at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth to see GASLAND on May 12th.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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I am so glad the meanies are here. What a great help the main meanie, TXs, has been.
Keep up the good work OGAP (meanie), ha, ha. We have needed TxOGAP for a long time here in Texas. Big O&G needs to be reined in here in Tx.
TXOGAP is making a difference. Way to go. PBPAM has it wrong. We are blessed TO have TXOGAP here in Texas!!!
Nice of them to let us all know OGAP and it's affiliated meanies are doing a great job. I love this post. If I wasn't cheap with printer ink I would turn it into a flyer. Kitten and all.
We are truly blessed to have Texas Sharon and OGAP in Texas and I pray people are starting to figure out that surface right owners far out number mineral right owners even in this state.
It is time to speak up and demand that our children will be able to grow up on a surface where their air, soil, and water is not polluted due to the bullying, corner cutting, profit seeking at all cost, hiding behind the veil of "exemptions" industry and sometime mineral right owners.
Mineral right owners, you would do yourself a favor to start researching the "operators" you sign on with to make sure that they will, at the very least, protect the health of "your" surface owners. If we are subserviant to you for the health of our children, then you have a far bigger responsibility to us than you might have once thought. It is one thing to re-take property, it is entirely another to threaten our children's health and well-being for the sake of your profit.
This can only mean one thing…we have to make OGAP….BIGGER!
Sorry, I'm not going away, Sheppard. Me and my big mouth are going on tour all over the Barnett Shale and Marcellus Shale…and my HUNDREDS of pictures, videos and test results are coming with me.
buhahahahahahhahaha….this is like the bully crying on the playground because the wimp is beating on him.
It's time to be mean. No more Mr./Ms. "Nice". They said that offshore drilling is safe & secure. Then 11 get killed offshore in the PB rig explosion in La. last week, and the oil slick that made could be one of the worst ever in US history.
Looking forward to seeing all you other meanies there.
Oil and gas tax revenues pay for education, streets, fire protection, libraries while providing jobs during a downturn in the economy. Earthworks is working with other agressive envirnomental groups to change to a New Economy, away from the oil and gas industry, where labor unions benefit!
In a time where cities and counties are suffering from loss in tax revenues, placing more regulations on the industry that is the largest source of revenue, is an attack on jobs and services needed for the benefit of the common good.
Surface owners may outnumber mineral owners; however, we all need energy resources to heat and cool or homes and drive our cars to work! We all benefit from a better education for our children and services provided by a strong tax base.
In Texas, the oil and gas industry is the base of a strong economy. Thanks goodness for it or we would be in the same economic conditions as California and Michigan.
If you want to pay twice as high electric bills or keep buying energy resources from the Middle East, keep supporting Earthworks and other extreme radical groups. Just understand their true agenda and look at the big picture!
The New Economy will not work and you will not benefit!
No one that I know of is disputing that we need the energy. However, that does not mean that industry gets a free rein to pollute our air, land and water and destroy our property values.
Mineral owners and industry alike must be responsible and fair. Right now that's not happening.
Your scare tactic rhetoric is no longer working. Why not focus your energy on Drill-Right? That's all we are asking: just Drill-Right.
All the new schools, streets, and all the other 'things' oil revenue supposedly pays for is totally meaningless is we lose our drinking water, land, air quality and most imprtantly, our health. If my child were to get sick or contract some disease from gas well drilling, it's hardly a fair trade off. I think it's called reckless endangerment.
Do It Right, or don't do it at all. And it CAN be done right!
We need TxSharon in Gardendale, tx. North of Odessa tx. They started drilling next to our homes.
How close are they? Get all the information you can and send me pictures and videos. Let me know what's happening.