chassroc
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Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on May 21, 2015 8:53:38 GMT -5
The Governor of Texas recently imposed a Ban on Towns banning Fracking. If you want to see the article I read: www.wsj.com/articles/texas-moves-to-prohibit-local-fracking-bans-1431967882Essentially it prohibits towns from prohibiting Fracking altogether and makes it harder for muni and county govts to control where wells can be drilled. As you might imagine, the oil industry backs these legislative efforts and are a response to voter-approved banning of fracking in Denton Tx. The oil industry points out drilling is a huge supporter of the economy. So you cannot have it both ways. or can you? Is this a victory for Freedom? Is this an oppressive Government action? Is this Progressive? Is this Regressive? Charlie
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Post by captbob on May 21, 2015 9:28:37 GMT -5
Can't read the article past the first paragraph, says: To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In Maybe you can copy & paste it here?
Just offhand, how much fracking takes place within town limits? Seems this would be an out in the country type operation. Almost sounds like an eminent domain type issue, which we all know can be abused. Would need more information to comment further.
As to oppressive Government action, one need look no further than the EPA.
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chassroc
Cave Dweller
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on May 21, 2015 10:27:12 GMT -5
Can't read the article past the first paragraph, says: To Read the Full Story, Subscribe or Sign In Maybe you can copy & paste it here? Just offhand, how much fracking takes place within town limits? Seems this would be an out in the country type operation. Almost sounds like an eminent domain type issue, which we all know can be abused. Would need more information to comment further. As to oppressive Government action, one need look no further than the EPA. Your question..."How much fracking takes place within town limits"seems to be irrelevant. The Governor has made a state wide ban on banning fracking, and nothing about eminent domain seems to be involved You can google fracking Texas Texas Prohibits Local Fracking Bans Newly signed law is one of several across the U.S. to curtail municipal governments’ power
Last year, a city in North Texas banned fracking. State lawmakers want to make sure that never happens again.
On Monday, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law that prohibits bans of hydraulic fracturing altogether and makes it much harder for municipal and county governments to control where oil and gas wells can be drilled. Similar efforts are cropping up in states including New Mexico, Ohio, Colorado and Oklahoma, where both chambers of the legislature have passed a bill that limits local governments to “reasonable” restrictions on oil and gas activities.
This is all part of a broader legislative and judicial effort, backed by the oil industry, to limit local governments’ ability to regulate drilling. Backers say that both the Oklahoma and Texas bills were proposed in response to a voter-approved ban on fracking in Denton, Texas, in November.
One of the authors of the Texas bill said his motivation was to protect an economically important industry. “Oil is a huge job driver for the state of Texas,” said state Sen. Troy Fraser, a Republican from the central part of the state.
Anti-fracking activists hold a campaign sign outside city hall in Denton, Texas, last summer, before residents in November approved the first ban in the state. ENLARGE Anti-fracking activists hold a campaign sign outside city hall in Denton, Texas, last summer, before residents in November approved the first ban in the state. PHOTO: TONY GUTIERREZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS The new law eliminates a “patchwork of local ordinances creating more and more regulation, some of which is intentionally onerous and intended to stop or limit oil and gas development,” said Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association.
The law has angered officials in Denton, about 50 miles northwest of Dallas, where residents approved the first ban in the state. Officials there said they supported it only after failed efforts to resolve quality-of-life problems including a well explosion and noisy drilling near homes and schools.
“It’s a bad situation when city leaders’ hands are tied,” said Councilman Kevin Roden. “There seems to be an attitude that big state government knows better than the citizens of a city. I just think—conservative or liberal—that is something you don’t do in Texas.”
Other critics of the bill said the balance of power between cities and the energy industry had been tilted toward drillers.
“The bill guts 100 years of traditional municipal authority to regulate oil and gas operations,” said A. Scott Anderson, a senior policy director for the Environmental Defense Fund, which advocates robustly regulating fracking. Other environmental groups say fracking, which involves injecting water and chemicals deep into shale rock formations, should be banned.
In the past decade, new technologies launched an energy boom in the U.S., sending oil and gas production soaring. But intense drilling and fracking activity triggered a backlash in some communities, which by zoning and ballot initiatives have tried to keep the drilling rigs either outside the city limits or far from housing.
Supporters of drilling say that local limits are driven by environmental ideology, not practical problems, and deprive landowners of their rights.
Across the country, the issue of the role of cities in deciding where drilling can occur “is still very much up in the air,” said Hannah Wiseman, a law professor at Florida State University. “There is plenty of work for legislators and lawyers.”
State governments are also taking the local bans to court, and winning. Earlier this year, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that state rules regulating energy development trump local laws. In January, a federal judge overruled a ban on oil and gas drilling in Mora County, N.M., northeast of Santa Fe.
One of the few places where local governments have prevailed is Pennsylvania. Lawmakers attempted to rein in cities’ ability to limit oil and gas activity, but the state Supreme Court overturned that law in late 2013.
In Colorado, after voters in several cities approved fracking bans and were sued by industry groups, the governor convened a task force to find middle ground. The group wrapped up its work earlier this year but failed to resolve the thorny issue of the appropriate role for cities.
Peter Dea, a member of the task force and chief executive of Cirque Resources LP, a Denver oil and gas exploration company, said he hopes companies and communities can reach a compromise.
“Maybe this low oil price has a silver lining,” he said. “Half as many wells will be drilled this year as last year. It’s a natural cooling-off period.”
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Post by parfive on May 21, 2015 10:48:54 GMT -5
Funny how them states’ rights zealots get uppity when the gubbernin’ gets a little more local than them.
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Post by parfive on May 21, 2015 11:09:04 GMT -5
O/T - Speakin’ of TexGub, why all the radio silence about the big Jade strike down there? : )
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Post by jakesrocks on May 21, 2015 11:21:37 GMT -5
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Post by parfive on May 21, 2015 12:03:00 GMT -5
You ain’t down there yet, Jake? I hear TheDarkLord wants to give TheAlamo back to Mexico and slip PuertoRico into TheFittySlot.
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Post by jakesrocks on May 21, 2015 12:43:54 GMT -5
Nope. Just keepin my powder dry up here in S.D.
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on May 21, 2015 14:34:18 GMT -5
Quoted from Charlie's article above:
"In Colorado, after voters in several cities approved fracking bans and were sued by industry groups, the governor convened a task force to find middle ground. The group wrapped up its work earlier this year but failed to resolve the thorny issue of the appropriate role for cities."
This country has been here for 200+ years. Town and state government have not established their mineral right boundaries in such a long time ? Progressive, regressive, try degressive. How many tax dollars will be wasted on litigating this monster. LOL. This is a classic case of government stupidity. If they don't have these bounds established by now, something is grossly wrong. A lawyer's treasure trove. Jobs created. Spend our tax money you morons.
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chassroc
Cave Dweller
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on May 21, 2015 16:19:06 GMT -5
Quoted from Charlie's article above: "In Colorado, after voters in several cities approved fracking bans and were sued by industry groups, the governor convened a task force to find middle ground. The group wrapped up its work earlier this year but failed to resolve the thorny issue of the appropriate role for cities." This country has been here for 200+ years. Town and state government have not established their mineral right boundaries in such a long time ? Progressive, regressive, try degressive. How many tax dollars will be wasted on litigating this monster. LOL. This is a classic case of government stupidity. If they don't have these bounds established by now, something is grossly wrong. A lawyer's treasure trove. Jobs created. Spend our tax money you morons. I don't know whether there is any fact to this claim in the article but it does say that the state of Texas is usurping 100 years of local regulation...“The bill guts 100 years of traditional municipal authority to regulate oil and gas operations,” I did not notice any similar claim either way for Colorado. In your opinion it may be Government stupidity but the state of Texas is rewriting 100 years of local regulation. The state government is changing the law (or possibly just a tradition) to benefit industry over local land owners. If your home was adversely affected by someone else fracking, wouldn't you want the Government to help you?
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on May 21, 2015 17:18:09 GMT -5
chassroc Charlie, very comfortable for the little govt to keep it's power of jurisdiction for the town it is so familiar with. The way it was. The way that small populations have some say in their little community. Feds overrule the states, states overrule the counties, counties overrule the towns. The next step is that the people get over ruled. Those segregations in power are part of this country. Put there for a reason. You mention law or tradition, not sure myself either. But I prefer levels of govt rather than a dictatorship or dominating larger governing body. I can have chickens on my farm, but the adjacent town does not allow them in their city limits. Brilliant, people live to close together and should not have to put up with the smell and racket. The whole idea sound stupid to me. Texas has vast open land to do the oil thing. No problem. What business does the state have banning them from banning such a thing in a town.
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Post by 1dave on May 21, 2015 18:59:31 GMT -5
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jamesp
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Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on May 21, 2015 19:29:56 GMT -5
Save your car batteries and buy a mold.
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Post by Rockoonz on May 21, 2015 21:35:28 GMT -5
I have to mostly agree with chassroc and parfive on this one. Rights begin at the local level. Oregon tried to ban local bans on growing GMO crops, courts threw it out I believe. Now that weed is becoming legal in Oregon the potential growers are trying to get the state to pass rules to keep hemp farmers from growing in the best pot growing areas, afraid that the pollen would cause their precious wacky weed to go to seed. Seems the only rights that need protecting are theirs.
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Post by parfive on May 22, 2015 1:35:40 GMT -5
The Environmental Protection Agency reduced the ambient air quality standard for lead from 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air to 0.15 in October 2008 during the Bush administration — not under Obama.
[chuckle] The impending closure of the Herculaneum plant has its origins in a 2004 lawsuit filed against the EPA by the Missouri Coalition for the Environment in the home state of the Doe Run Company.
[chuckle] The company also ran afoul of state regulators. In announcing the plant closing, Doe Run also noted that the Herculaneum smelter was scheduled to close anyway, because of state regulations.
[chuckle] The NRA-ILA update also linked to two ammunition manufacturers who say the plant closing won’t have any impact on their operations or on the nation’s ammunition supply.
[chuckle] There’s plenty more.
[chuckle] [chuckle] [chuckle] . . .
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Post by 1dave on May 22, 2015 9:42:20 GMT -5
Save your car batteries and buy a mold. So many of these "laws-regulations" whatever, make no sense. Lead is part of the environment. No matter what we do or say, it is still there - far more prominent than gold or silver. So they pass a law, so what?
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chassroc
Cave Dweller
Rocks are abundant when you have rocktumblinghobby pals
Member since January 2005
Posts: 3,586
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Post by chassroc on May 22, 2015 10:19:45 GMT -5
Yes ... metals are part of the environment lead as well as gold and silver but what's your point?
Are you debunking all the articles about lead's toxicity? Are you suggesting we should not worry about regulating lead and other heavy metals? Should we start putting lead back in gasoline?
Charlie
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Post by jakesrocks on May 22, 2015 11:00:33 GMT -5
You went right over Charlie's head with that one james.
Don't forget to save all of the old lead tire balance weights you can get.
If you're casting hollow points, collect up all of the old mercury switches & thermometers you can find too. Mercury loads are great.
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Post by captbob on May 22, 2015 11:12:23 GMT -5
If you're casting hollow points, collect up all of the old mercury switches & thermometers you can find too. Mercury loads are great. I prefer to fill my hollow points with bacon grease or any other pork product.
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Post by jakesrocks on May 22, 2015 11:19:09 GMT -5
That'll work too. Maybe pig blood from the slaughter house ?
I like the mercury loads. lead & mercury poisoning all in one load. Lead breaks up in chunks, and can be easily spotted on Xray. Mercury sprays in microscopic droplets, and is much harder to find.
Guess you could always grease your loads with pig grease to prevent corrosion on stored loads.
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