The Moratorium Mantra Reaches Texas.
Thanks to K.B. Battaglini of GT Houston for this post.
What with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar seeking to re-impose an unpopular moratorium on deep water drilling, and with New York and Pennsylvania experimenting with various moratoria to quell drilling in the Marcellus Shale, Texas State Representative Lon Burnam (Democrat, Fort Worth) has gotten into the act by calling for a moratorium on new natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale due to allegedly high benzene levels from existing gas production. Burnam, a minority member of the Texas House Committee on Environmental Regulation, asserts in an editorial in the Fort Worth Star Telegram that "fugitive emissions" of benzene at compressor stations exceed the exposure limits recommended by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. However, the exposure cited by Burnam does not result from drilling but from compression, and Burnam does not address how a drilling moratorium is intended to address the compression issue.
Bryan Shaw, Chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, who holds a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering and is an associate professor in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, says the benzene levels pose no immediate health risk, because health problems would arise only after exposure for 24 hours a day for 70 years.
Burnam's proposed moratorium is an outgrowth of election-year politics in Texas, as the race for Governor pits incumbent Rick Perry (a Republican and proponent of drilling in the Barnett Shale) against Bill White (a Democrat and proponent of tough action against individual producers who violate pollution control standards).
