The Stacked Deck?

As I have previously mentioned, we have purchased a gas detection unit which detects natural gas down to five parts per million. In using this around the community we have found that we have lingering natural gas around our community with some frequency.

This concerned me for various reasons, the first being the health implications of breathing natural gas on the citizens here, and the other being the obvious danger of explosion. The Town of DISH is at the crossroads of eleven high-pressure gas lines and therefore, any source of detonation could be catastrophic, killing many of those who live close to the facility. To make matters worse, the companies actually had a barbeque grill on the site, so the workers could make their lunch I suppose.



This apparent reckless behavior has left me baffled. I have often wondered why these companies would be so reckless with the lives of those around them. Why would they tempt fate in matters that deal with life and death situations?

It would certainly appear that the liability for such gross negligence would be huge. If something were to happen here, there would be no doubt that these companies both had knowledge of the dangers, and made a conscious business decision to ignore it…or would there be?

To help in my understanding of the health affects of inhaling natural gas, a dear friend sent me a Texas Supreme Court decision. I was amazed as I read through the case at the horrible affects that these chemicals found in natural gas could potentially have.

The case surrounded a city landfill, which also produces the chemicals methane and benzene, and it certainly seemed that the city knew of the dangers and did little to protect the citizens living around the facility. It was determined by a jury that exposure to these chemicals during pregnancy caused leukemia in the family’s young daughter.

The jury for the case awarded the family $19,999,223.78 in total damages. The city appealed, and the appeals court reversed the $10,000,000 awarded for exemplary damages, but upheld the rest.

As I continued to read through the case it appeared as though the Texas Supreme Court justices were in agreement with the experts who pointed the blame for the leukemia on the chemicals omitted from the landfill. It further appeared that any logical person could determine that the city was at fault. However, in the end the Texas Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s ruling and the jury’s decision, and the family was awarded nothing.

I was amazed that after several pages of what seemed to solidify the case against the city, the justices overturned it. I have attached the case for those who get this via email.

This led to further research on the matter of how exactly this could happen in America? I knew that the Texas Supreme Court judges were elected, but surely the corruption that we see in most of our political arenas did not reach this level…unfortunately, it appears that it has.

It some very remedial research, I have found that there has allegedly been some level of corruption in the Texas Supreme Court for many years. Many of the justices take hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from those whose cases come before them. Guess which industry is always one of the top contributors…oil and gas.

I have read through several articles, which I have attached links for your convenience, and found that the Texas Supreme Court sees only a small portion of the cases that are presented. This is determined by a secret ballot vote by the justices. Therefore, it is not known how they vote on whether they see the case or not.

So to the logical person, it would certainly appear that some bias could be present. For example; if you were given a twenty million dollar judgment because your home and family was blown up by an irresponsible gas pipeline company, the Texas Supreme Court could option to take the case and overturn it.

They could also choose to not take the case if the gas company won at a lower court, and it was you that was appealing to the high court. Has this happened? I will let you read the articles and make that determination for yourself.

One of the articles shows a situation much like the one that threatens us here in DISH. There was a natural gas pipeline that exploded in South Texas killing three hundred people.

This case was presented to the Texas Supreme Court and it was brought up that one of the justices had taken huge campaign contributions from the company at fault, and should abstain from participation in the case.

Now any logical, reasonable person would have made the decision to abstain on their own to prevent the appearance of corruption.

Please note that as a local elected official, I must abstain from anything that could be perceived to benefit me. I am sure that there are cases of local elected officials taking action that benefits themselves, but the law is clear on what they are supposed to do. However, if you look at the political action committees of all of our large oil and gas companies, you will find many of your local officials have received funds from them.

I personally have never taken a campaign contribution from anyone, nor do I intend too. I look at the job of mayor, as being public service, in which we should all do our part. I do my best to make decisions that benefit everyone in the community, not just a few.

I must have been very naive in my assumption that most of our elected officials hold the same views as me. However, it has become apparent that we have no incentives for these companies to operate safely or responsibly.

The State of Texas has built a system that gives all of the cards to the various oil and gas companies that do business here. There appears to be absolutely no accountability in this industry.

We allow them to do as they wish, and it is apparent that the regulatory agencies will do what benefits the companies or the industry with little concern for those hurt or sacrificed in the process. All you have to do is make a trip to DISH, TX to see this illustrated.

These for profit pipeline companies have been given a greater power of eminent domain than any other public organization. They also have a regulatory body whose leaders take millions of dollars in campaign contributions, and serve as a lapdog to the industry, rather than the regulator they are charged to be.

And any attempt to change these laws is virtually impossible, because the State Legislature does not get paid by the taxpayers; they get their money from lobbyist, as well as oil and gas. Not growing up in Texas, I am afraid I do not understand how this system could be allowed to get this corrupt. Unfortunately, the same scenario is likely to be very similar in almost any state or local government.

We, the underlings, the hard working taxpayers, the ones who pay the bills, seem to have little say in what happens to our land, air, water, or our own property for that matter.

So what do we do now? The first is we must hold our elected officials accountable for their actions, or lack of. This starts with our local officials and goes to the highest levels. It does not matter the party affiliation, there are good and bad on both sides of this issue.

To those who have not yet seen the negative effects that this industry has to offer, you need to get ahead of the game and make the industry be responsible from the beginning. Anything they say they will or will not do; make them put it writing; in the leases, easements, or any other agreement. By the time you realize how bad it can get, it will be too late for you to take any positive action.

Here in DISH, I have asked the commissioners to allow me to get some quotes to perform a comprehensive study on the air quality here, and been given the go ahead. We will be looking for many toxins such as the methane and benzene that are known to be in natural gas as well as 66 other known toxins in our air.

As you may have seen in other studies, compressor sites have been determined to be some of the worst offenders of air quality, so hopefully we will see how they directly affect us. I am hopeful that if the results of this study show that our health is at risk, that one of the regulatory agencies will pull their heads out of the sand (or big energy’s butt) and finally does what our tax dollars pay them for, and protect us and our children.

http://www.campaignfinance.org/tracker/Summer98/2wheat.html

http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/216 ... tes-rake-in-contributions

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/new ... n_process_03-11-2009.html

http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Texas_Supreme_Court_elections

http://info.tpj.org/press_releases/suit.html

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/cont ... /0505watsonbill_edit.html

http://www.tpj.org/2009/04/austin-ame ... atesman-should-texas.html

http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/217 ... lity-wants-floyds-recusal