Big Oil versus Democracy. Guess Who Won?

Big Oil versus Democracy Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

… a piece of freedom died ....

We lost  a piece of America last week.  Remember when we got upset about the British taxing us without us having representation.  You know, the Boston tea party.  We fought a war over that principal ... we want to be represented when it comes to issues that affect our lives.  Hence, DEMOCRACY.

Well, Democracy had a huge setback last month and no one was watching.  The story is a little convoluted, but I am going to simplify and hope I don't misrepresent the truth.

Denton Texas sits on the northern edge of the Barnett oil tar sands. It's citizens voted in November to ban fracking in the city limits.  The vote was about 59% in favor of the ban.  Well, despite there are millions of square miles in Texas, the Big Oil was not going to be denied drilling in the city limits of Denton.

Big Oil rounded up the governor and the legislature and passed a law that banning fracking was illegal.  Big oil had the Railroad Commission which regulates fracking in Texas proclaim that fracking could not be regulated piecemeal and only they have the right to regulate fracking.  Like a bad movie, Big Oil even spread the rumor that those that objected to fracking were funded by Russia.

Craddick, the Oil Queen, and head of the Railroad Commission, said that the citizens were not properly informed (sounds to me like she was calling them dumbasses if you listen to the video).  The government spent $800,000 on ads explaining to the public that they were dumb asses while the citizen group could only must $40,000 in ads.  Nevertheless, the dumb asses voted they did not want fracking next to their schools, etc.  I guess the Oil Queen didn’t have a big enough budget to educate the dumb asses.

But, what the Governor and the Oil Queen didn’t get, which makes them the dumb asses in my opinion, is that there is no rule in democracy that you have to be smart or even correct.  Democracy means that the majority has the right to make a decision by the simple act of voting.  They don’t need the Oil Queen and the Governor telling them that they are dumb asses to not want fracking in their town close to their homes, schools and backyards.  It is there town and they said NO to FRACKING.

Now, the Oil Queen may have the right to set the rules for safe fracking when fracking is going down, but fracking should not be going down when a city through the democratic process says no.  This is just so wrong, I don’t know what else to say.

The dumb asses put on some videos expressing their opinion on the Oil Queen.  I think you will find it enjoyable and educational.

Big Oil bought the governor of Texas ...