Dish mayor puts fear of frack into natural gas industry

The Dallas Morning News

2:57 PM Fri, Feb 12, 2010

Elizabeth Souder/Reporter

Posted at Bluedaze by TXSharon regarding the controversial "Energy in Depth" press release, according to The Dallas Morning News :

"The natural gas industry is paying inordinate attention to Calvin Tillman, the mayor of tiny Dish, Texas.

Sure, he's the guy who commissioned the air quality study that has triggered more studies around the Barnett Shale, as well as political chatter about drilling moratoriums and new regulations.* If these things come to pass, drilling and completing natural gas wells could become much more expensive for producers.

The typical -- and wholly expected -- industry response has been to point out the limitations of the Dish air quality study and to counter the results with other data.

But something has changed in the past few weeks. As Mayor Tillman heads to New York and Pennsylvania next week to tell his story in six towns, industry groups have begun to attack.

Now, the Texas Pipeline Association has told Tillman it will officially request a list of the people who contributed to the town's legal fund.

And an industry advocacy group called Energy in Depth issued a snarky press release that poses questions to Tillman. The questions are designed to show that natural gas drilling isn't as worrisome as Tillman might say.

So why is the natural gas industry so afraid of the mayor of a town of 362 people?

"We are very concerned about what's happening in New York, so anytime someone comes to exaggerate or possibly lie about their experiences, we're going to fight that," said Jeff Eshelman, a spokesman for Energy in Depth.

As I've stated on this blog before, I think natural gas executives worry that if regular people become fearful of drilling, politicians will place stlff regulations on the industry and people won't be very eager to lease their land to producers. Those outcomes could make drilling and completing a well more expensive, and, in some cases, unprofitable.

Jump for the Energy in Depth press release." More>>>>

* Study, Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project, "Community Health Survey Shows Shale Gas Threatens Human Health ."

Along these lines, NM HB 259 is scheduled to be head this morning. See link at Common Ground United: Update: HB 259 Support the private right to enforce environmental statutes