The New Texas Gold Rush

Pipelines of the Burnett Shale

I have a sign that says, STOP URBAN DRILLING. I get sick feeling when I see another big gas well going in and I literally moan at night when I see the black sky that meets the horizon dotted with the many lighted rig towers. I know we need oil and gas but I wish we were looking for more ways to live without it. I wish we were not so fossil fuel greedy. But in saying all this, I must admit to being more than a bit happy when a drilling company knocked on our door this week asking if we had the mineral rights to our land and the land under Melanie and Casi's house. In a flash of a second, I saw us as the new Clampet family, the Beverly Hillbillies ! Thoughts of The Secret ran through my brain, I have been thinking positive about having more money to do more for my family and prepare for our retirement. But, from a gas lease ? That was not what I was thinking. They will be drilling down about 8,000 ft under our land, a horizontal drill, no rig on our land, just sucking up the gas under it. All our neighbors have signed. The drilling company had a big fat check in hand to offer us as a sign on bonus. We chose to wait and do some research but I know we will sign. Funny how different we feel about things sometimes and can jusitfy certain actions when money is dangled in front of us. "No impact on our land, everyone else is doing it, we will never know a thing is going on, unless the earth collapses from this new area of emptiness". Just joking about the earth falling in on itself (at least I hope its not possible) but one does wonder about all these places being emptied under the earths skin.

Part of me is thrilled to have this blessing of financial increase but part of me feels like we sold out to greed. In reality, the gas under us would be sucked out one way or another, we chose to get paid for it, rather than let our neighbors get more of it. If there was something I could do to do to stop all this crazy fossil fuel hunger in this nation, I would try. I wish we would build towns with care and planning so that people could walk to the stores they need instead of drive. I wish there was public transportation for everyone. I wish there were bakeries, butchers, pharmacies, hardware stores, dairy stores, fabric shops and all manner of small stores with fair prices for everyone to shop at within a mile of peoples homes, rather than super stores miles away.

We have not reached any level of desperation that drives folks to rethink the way things are done. The majority of the population has not reached any level of thinking where conveniences don't play a more important role in our lives than the higher road of "living green". Lots of talk out there, but only when its not a big deal to the way we live. Maybe a few bottles of earth friendly cleaning needs have replaced the old cleaning chemicals under your sink, but most of us still drive too much, keep the house too cool or too warm. Not many of us would shop small stores locally because they cost a bit more, when a big cheap super store is 20 miles away.

Hanging clothes rather than use a clothes dryer. Quaint but not convenient in winter or in the heat of summer so put them in the dryer and burn that fossil fuel. But you say, "our dryer is electric, not gas" the fact is that most electricity in the US, about 70%, is generated using fossil fuels, especially coal. Dishwashers use lots of electricity if you use the drying aspect of them, get an energy efficient one if you have to have one. http://theenergygrid.com/homepower/ gives an idea of how much electricity we use in our homes. This site has some great information on running a low energy home http://theyellowhouse.org.uk/themes/appli.html

We sort of feel like we had very little choice in the drilling under our land. If the people on all sides of you are doing it, and its pooled, you know that you might as well get paid for what is going to be sucked up anyway. This is a tough one for me. But I have to admit the idea of extra money is kinda hard to pass on. I have always said I wouldn't let a well be put on land I owned, but when posed with the question...."what if it gave you 3 million dollars ?" I guess that is a question I am glad I don't have to deal with.