Barnett Shale News Items

South Side Update: The FWWeekly offers a catch-up story on the gas drilling battle on the South Side, primarily focusing on Don Young and Liane Janovsky. Not really much new in here, but I think it is worth remembering that XTO's alternative to its Eighth Avenue drilling site is, as Liann reminds us, "within 1,000 feet of the Fort Worth ISD’s Daggett Montessori school, as well as Daggett Elementary and [Daggett] Middle School and the Montessori preschool. There are also a couple of dozen poor rental properties over there. And I object to the idea of a gas well that close to schools.”

In the article, Young also says that a gas drilling pad site has been staked out just south of the beautiful old Texas & Pacific warehouse on Lancaster Avenue, which is going to be developed for high-end condos. I asked Kevin Buchanan at Fort Worthology about this the other day, and he actually went down to the site and took some pictures. He didn't see anything. Did he miss it? Nonetheless, I find it hard to believe that drilling would be allowed so close to a building complex that is on the National Register of Historic Places and an active residential complex at that. But there are so many dumbfounding aspects to urban gas drilling, where do you begin the list?

Oh, funny running into you here: Talk about an awkward moment. Mayor Mikey decided to take a little stroll down by the Trinity Trees the other day. Maybe he was thinking about the $620,000 he earned from his oil and gas holdings in 2006. 2007 should be a better year. Then, boom! He runs into Melissa Kohout, who is suing the city over the Trinity Trees drilling site. Wow. Where can a Mayor go to get away around here anyway?