LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Wimberley area, where I now live, is renowned for its natural beauty. That is the main reason people choose to be in the Texas Hill Country and why tourism is a major source of income. Now, a huge energy company, Kinder Morgan, proposes to cut a swath through the Hill Country with its “Permian Highway,” a pipeline connecting the West Texas oil and gas fields with export terminals on the Gulf Coast. This mega-sized 42-inch diameter tube would damage the environment, endanger the water supply, lower property values, and inflict considerable economic damage in the heart of the Hill Country.
Companies building oil and gas infrastructure such as pipelines have traditionally been given the status of “common carriers,” which entails the ability to use eminent domain. The laws that allow the building of pipelines with eminent domain powers were passed because pipelines arguably served the broader public good by supplying indispensable energy. The combination of localized environmental problems occurring with oil and gas production in the Permian Basin and its exacerbating effect on human-made climate change should be sufficient reason to rethink this evaluation. The recent surge of fracking has made the US the global leader in the expansion of oil and gas production, with Texas at the forefront. While Texas could lead the way tackling climate change and revamping the economy for the future with expanding renewable energy, new infrastructure like the Permian Highway pipeline will only worsen the problem of human-made climate change.
Climate change has become a major threat to our health, safety and economy. Findings of the National Climate Assessment 2018 suggests that climate change will most likely have an especially negative impact on groundwater in the Hill Country, the drinking water for two million people in Central Texas. With human-made climate change causing more and more serious weather events in this rapidly developing area of Texas, the aquifers are in jeopardy. The Edwards Aquifer is subject to direct effects of droughts and floods. There is extreme drawdown during droughts. During floods, water quality typically declines due to run off.
I also have grave concerns about the more immediate threat the pipeline poses to water throughout the entire Hill Country with its karst topography underlain by soluble limestone filled with fissures, caves, sinkholes, underground streams and complex aquifers. The company proposing to build this particular pipeline, Kinder Morgan, has a less than stellar safety record. Possible spills and explosions would contaminate groundwater, as well as creeks and rivers. Moreover, the pipeline’s route is in close proximity of Jacob’s Well, a major attraction of the Wimberley Valley and a very significant ecological preserve that feeds Cypress Creek.
The gas (and later possibly crude oil or other hazardous products) this pipeline could carry will be almost exclusively used for export to overseas markets in Asia or Europe. There is currently no shortage of supply of natural gas in the US, and a new pipeline is not needed domestically. It would, however, create new demands and intensify consumption elsewhere increasing total greenhouse gas emissions globally. Also, the export of fossil fuels might hurt Americans in the long-term by decreasing local supply and raising prices for American consumers (as has been the case in Australia).
For all these reasons, giving a private company the power of eminent domain to build the Permian Highway pipeline is not appropriate. A pipeline would decrease property values and endanger people living close by. It would be a violation of the property rights of Texansnot for the public good but for the short-term profits of corporations while harming our environment and longterm economic progress both locally and on a state and national level. Citizens must demand that eminent domain laws be reformed to bring the powers of the oil and gas sector in line with the common-sense regulations applied, for example, to electric utility companies.
While not building a new pipeline for the export of fossil fuels would be by far the best option, rerouting it away from environmentally sensitive areas like aquifer recharge zones or using existing pipeline easements would at least prevent the most immediate harm and enjoy overwhelming support from citizens - while still endangering the future of our planet, of course.
Heiko Stang