Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Chesapeake not to blame for Fort Worth’s Eighth Avenue debacle

By Steve Smith of West and Clear

So, who’s the bad guy in this whole Eighth Avenue debacle?

Is it Chesapeake Energy? Sure, they’re easy targets. They’ve been blamed for every bad thing that’s happened in Fort Worth since 1846. And why not? These Oklahoma carpetbaggers come in here and brainwash our children, shoot poison into the earth with their injection wells, pollute our television screens with bad infomercials and build a hellish zombie-beast to run for City Council to advance their devious pro-drilling agenda.

OK, just kidding about the hellish pro-drilling zombie-beast on the city council. Although … a question for all of you … if that did happen, how could we tell the difference between said hell-beast and Carter Burdette? Maybe tie a pink ribbon around the left arm of one of them? Can we go ahead and clear this up by city ordinance just in case?

But would it rock your world if I told you that maybe Chesapeake wasn’t to blame for this bit of gas drilling brinksmanship on the South Side? Well, get ready to hang on to your top hats.

What I am hearing from reliable sources is that Chesapeake isn’t the one pushing for a high-impact permit for the Eighth Avenue Drilling Site. In fact, Chesapeake is actually sick of the whole deal and is ready to walk away. They haven’t been able to get the waivers they need to sidestep the high-impact permitting process and it seems unlikely that the City Council would vote in favor of a high-impact permit. The city has never voted against issuing a high-impact permit and I don’t think Chesapeake is eager to set that precedent.

But it looks like Chesapeake might apply for that high-impact permit after all. Why?

Sources say that Bill Davis, the owner of the Fort Worth and Western Railroad, really wants to “produce his minerals” at the Eighth Avenue site. And they say he’s ready to sue Chesapeake for breach of contract if they don’t move forward and try to get a permit from the city.

“Bill gets a lot of money from his gas leases,” one source said. “And he’s willing to play hardball on this one.”

How hard? This hard: if Chesapeake applies for a high-impact permit and the city council doesn’t approve it, they say he’s ready to sue the city. I guess he’s got his lawyers revved up, so why not.

OK, so what? Everyone from Mayor Mikey to Chesapeake mouthpiece Julie Wilson trot out this whole “we’re going to get sued” thing at the first sign of intransigence. We’ve heard this before.

But most people who want to produce their minerals and are all lawyered up don’t own their own railroad. If Wild Bill doesn’t get his permit, sources say he’s going nuclear. Word is he’ll block the proposed Northeast-to-Southwest Rail Corridor if they city doesn’t make with the high-impact permit. As we all learned from playing Monopoly, owning the railroad gives the right to do what you want.

But, I gotta tell you, you’ve got to find a pretty black place in your soul to out-evil Chesapeake. That’s a page out of the Montgomery Burns playbook.

But, hey, the FWWR and Wild Bill did buy some nice playground equipment for Tillery Park Playground. That makes them not so bad, right?

Right?

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