Suggestions that fracking is unsafe are based on fear, not facts

The Eagle

January 21, 2015

By Dr. Stephen A. Holditch

I began working on hydraulic fracturing of low permeability reservoirs in 1970 and have published more than 150 papers, most of which involve the subject of fracturing or low permeability reservoir development.

I ran a consulting company for over 20 years and we designed and supervised hundreds of fracture treatments. Many of those were Austin Chalk or Buda wells in Brazos County. We drilled dozens of wells in Brazos County, many under the city limits of Bryan and College Station, to include a few under the Texas A&M campus in the Bryan Woodbine Field.

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Schnurman: Why Texas won’t get busted again by low oil prices

The Dallas Morning News

January 19, 2015

This time is different, and not by accident.

Oil prices have fallen by more than half since last summer, prompting cuts in energy jobs and rig counts. That is stoking fears of a deep downturn in the state’s economy.

But Texas is less vulnerable to the kind of oil shock that derailed the state in the 1980s, and that’s by design.

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As North Texas Quakes Continue, Experts Look For A Cause

KERA News

January 12, 2015

 

Another small earthquake vibrated Irving Sunday night: a magnitude of 2.5 at 7:46 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That makes 17 in the last week in North Texas, most of them around the old Texas Stadium site in Irving.  As the quakes continue, speculation circulates as to what's causing them.

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What’s at fault? Scientists seek cause of Irving earthquakes

The Dallas Morning News

January 10, 2015

By 

The earth under North Texas barely stirred for at least a century, until something down there snapped in 2008.

Swarms of small quakes rippled up from unknown faults beneath the soil. They rustled Cleburne, Azle and Irving. Last week’s 15 temblors around the old Texas Stadium site included the strongest yet in Dallas County, and their waves shook downtown office towers.

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Gov.-elect Abbott: End local bans on bags, fracking, tree-cutting

Austin-American Statesman

January 8, 2015

By Jonathan Tilove

Declaring that freedom and private property rights should not be bound by city lines, Gov.-elect Greg Abbott on Thursday called for doing away with a “patchwork quilt” of local bans on everything from paper and plastic bags to fracking that he said threatens to turn Texas into California.

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U.S. Interior Secretary Criticizes Fracking Bans, Citing ‘a Lot of Misinformation’

National Review Online

January 5, 2015

By Jillian Kay Melchior

Recent local and state fracking restrictions are “the wrong way to go,” says Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

She spoke only weeks after New York imposed a fracking ban, a decision the state justified by citing a much-criticized state department of health report on the supposed negative public-health consequences, including “community impacts associated with boom-town economic effects.”

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The East and West Coast Converge on Denton

December 19, 2015

The term “you flew here, we grew here” took on a whole new meaning this week in the City of Denton. 

Three national environmental groups finally stepped out from behind their east and west coast curtains, petitioning a Texas court to allow them to intervene in litigation – brought by the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA) and the state’s General Land Office (GLO) – that challenges the city’s new fracking ban.  As reported in by the Daily Kos:

“Denton Drilling Awareness Group and Earthworks are leading the intervention charge, represented by attorneys from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Earthjustice.”

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Texas City's Fracking Ban Will Likely Cost Taxpayers Millions

Breitbart

December 16, 2014

By Sarah Rumpf

AUSTIN, Texas -- The decision by voters in the North Texas oil and gas city of Denton to pass an ordinance that would ban fracking could cost their city millions of dollars a year, with several lawsuits already filed and more potentially on the way.

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