SB686 Is A Misguided Effort

If you've read this blog for long, then you know I'm a supporter of State Senator Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth). I supported her candidacy and election last Fall, and I still think she's going to make a great senator for the good people of Fort Worth. But I cannot support the newest bill she has proposed -- SB686. Rep. Bob Orr (R-Burleson) has introduced a companion bill in the House -- HB876.

It should have given Senator Davis a warning to know that the same bill in the House was introduced by a Republican. The bills are supposed to "protect" neighborhoods by allowing natural gas pipelines to be built on highway right of ways instead of through neighborhoods.

In reality, these are just more bills to help the giant gas companies. They are having trouble with neighborhood activists in their attemppt to build the unsightly and dangerous pipelines in neighborhood areas of Fort Worth. The gas companies won't have to fight the activists if they can just run the pipelines along Fort Worth's roadways.

But, aren't Fort Worth's roadways already dangerous ebough without running natural gas pipelines alongside them? Won't that just make them more dangerous for motorists who have to use those roadways?

I hope Senator Davis rethinks this bill, because I think it is misguided. The problem is not putting gas pipelines in urban neighborhoods. The real problem is allowing drilling, wells, pumps and pipelines for natural gas anywhere inside the city limits of this urban area. Fort Worth's city leaders have let their greed get the best of them by letting the gas companies drill inside their city (including downtown).

This dangerous madness needs to be stopped. The city and its citizens are more important than gas company dollars (or should be at least).