LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Sifting through all the ways I am opposed to the proposed Permian Highway Pipeline, trying not to be simply reactive, or coming off sounding like I do not understand the deep dependence upon oil and gas in Texas, I would like to share with you some of my thoughts.
This oil and gas pipeline, slated by a consortium of private companies to plow right through the Wimberley Valley, is the sum of all my environmental fears. Years of researching, writing, speaking and organizing in my community to stop our water from becoming polluted has barely prepared me to express the outrage welling up when I hear that people want to destroy not only our water, but our lands, our orchards, our farms, our ranches, our open spaces and put everything we hold dear at grave risk, and for what? Money. Lots and lots of money.
I suppose I never thought it would be oil and gas that would threaten this area, since we don’t have any of our own here. That has turned out to be a serious oversight on my part.
When a giant, powerful monopoly industry like oil and gas controls your state, private interests can put your life and property at risk so that THEY can make billions of dollars conveying THEIR product across YOUR land. And if your land is crisscrossed with springs and streams, or has a clean, reliable groundwater source beneath it, well, this isn’t as important to those oil drillers as getting their product to market, far from where it was pumped out of the ground.
Which brings me to the topic of “sacrifice zones.” West Texas oilfields have for a hundred years been converted into toxic sacrifice zones, as have vast stretches along the Texas Gulf Coast where oil, gas, pesticides, fertilizers, chemicals and plastics are refined and manufactured from these fossil fuels. Growing up in Texas, I guess I always just accepted the concept of having given up on certain parts of Texas because it had already been done, and I never felt like I could do anything about it. But I am unwilling to see the Wimberley Valley declared a sacrifice zone, violated, and its water destroyed, so that a small number of powerful people who are already have more money than one could spend in a lifetime, can make even more money.
Taking peoples’ land for public uses, eminent domain, can almost be tolerated when that land will be truly used in the service of a public need, like by a government to build a roadway, a school or to prevent flooding or other potential catastrophes. But when eminent domain is wielded by private companies, somehow claiming their actions are benefiting the public, not simply putting money into their own pockets, then it is time the public stood up on its hind legs and said, “No way!”
This pipeline not only will not benefit anyone along the route, unless you have investments in the industry, but it is going to be exported to Mexico and other countries. This isn’t about “energy independence” for America. No home in America will be heated with this natural gas. But, all along these pipelines American citizens are exposed to physical harm, destruction of communities, loss of property rights and the threat of water, air and land pollution from the construction process itself, plus the inevitable leaks. Like an engineer friend of mine says, “All pipelines leak.”
I hope these oil barons have met their match in Wimberley, and all up and down this proposed pipeline route, because we Texans settled this land and it is ours, and we have no intention of going gently into a benighted passivity while someone makes a giant payday at our expense.
Wake up Wimberley! Stop the Permian Highway Pipeline!
Susan Cook