Controversy
Several groups in communities in which gas wells have been located have complained of high risk factors for catastrophic accidents, and some allege that accidents have already occurred, including several resulting in fatalities. In addition, some environmental groups and north Texas residents have expressed concern about the effects of drilling on air and water quality in the areas surrounding the drills and transportation pipelines. Texas environmental regulators and the EPA have ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to begin investigating drilling complaints on-site within 12 hours of reception. Finally, numerous lawsuits against companies operating in the Barnett Shale allege that companies have reneged on promised lease payments, altered agreements after the fact, and/or otherwise failed to meet their promised commitments to lessors of land in the shale.
Read more about this topic: Barnett Shale
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“Ours was a highly activist administration, with a lot of controversy involved ... but I’m not sure that it would be inconsistent with my own political nature to do it differently if I had it to do all over again.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)