Against Big Energy; upset with Burton and Stickland; shame on Texas

Against Big Energy

When I taught high school and some of my less-than-stellar students would recycle the old “dog ate my homework” excuse, I’d explain that I wasn’t mad at them for lying, just not caring enough to give me a better, more imaginative lie.

I feel likewise about Ed Ireland’s June 4 commentary, “New law on drilling actually allows for more local control.”

It’s not that I’d expect the executive director of the Orwellian-named Barnett Shale Energy Education Council to be anything but a shill for Big Energy, but does he really have to use arguments that are so transparent?

Ireland lauds Big Energy for its generous support of the local economy, but never mentions the tremendous health costs we all shoulder for our state’s lax environmental laws. And nothing he says can get around the simple fact that House Bill 40 ignores the will of Denton voters.

To Big Energy, the sacred ballot means nothing if it interferes with its inalienable right to make dinero, so it can continue in its mission to buy ever-more compliant pols. But maybe it should spend some more money on a writer whose modus operandi isn’t quite so obvious.

— Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, Fort Worth

I’m certain I would agree with Ed Ireland’s commentary if I were getting paid what he is, but I’m not.

And I’ve watched as the gas industry has fouled drinking water, pumped millions of gallons of drinking water into the earth so deep it might never be used again, and also caused earthquakes near injection wells.

Does Ireland live in Denton with a fracking well in his backyard? No!

Just where does he get off telling us that we can’t stop fracking in a city when 59 percent of people voting in Denton voted against fracking within city limits?

And where does the state government get off telling us that we can’t stop fracking if the majority voted to stop it?

— H.K. Caraway, Fort Worth

Upset with Burton

I’m conservative by nature, politically and socially. But I couldn’t support Konni Burton as my state senator. She reinforced my negative opinion by leading the fight against a ban on texting while driving.

Objective testing clearly demonstrates that texting is as dangerous and potentially lethal as drinking and driving. It takes a lack of common sense to oppose this ban. There is no infringement of personal rights.

If there is a text that absolutely can’t wait, pull off the road and answer the text.

Seat belts, DUI arrests improve public safety. I don’t want my safety put at risk by some distracted driver fiddling with a device while taking his/her eyes off the road.

Unfortunately, we in the 10th District will have to continue with Burton for at least one more scheduled legislative session and pray for no special sessions.

— Charles Andrews, Fort Worth

Shame on Texas

Once again the state of Texas has exercised its god-like power and executed Lester Bower by lethal injection. Although convicted on purely circumstantial evidence, the state persevered in its quest to murder Bower.

Although I’m a Christian, my loathing of this act is not based on Christian principles. Rather, it’s just common sense that as human beings we have to rise above the animal kingdom and become more civilized.

Let’s hope that at least they won’t find he was innocent, as has happened before so many times. The state of Texas once again stands in shame.

— Ken Orton, Fort Worth

This story was originally published June 11, 2015 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Against Big Energy; upset with Burton and Stickland; shame on Texas."