Re “PXP, He Says, Holds an Unfair Advantage Over the Public”
Maintaining that the dice were loaded against the public in last Monday’s community meeting sponsored by the Plains Exploration & Production Co., audience member Barry Silver says the oil drilling’s heralded study gauging the effects of fracking was deliberately skewed.
“The public is concerned about the dangers of this kind of drilling,” says Mr. Silver. “Everybody agrees on that. But they are not able to put forth their concerns because they lack the technical expertise that PXP brings.
“It is sad what we have in this instance, and many times in our society, a very unequal situation.”
Mr. Silver contends that the study, required by last year’s lawsuit settlement agreement with a group of petitioners, “was destined to fail.
“You are asking a company, you or I, anyone who has a company… it is obvious that such a study is going to be biased. It is unrealistic to think it would not be slanted toward the company going out to find the person to do the analysis.”
Why It’s Called ‘Settlement’
Since he was not a party to the settlement, and since he believes the odds were so heavily weighted in a negative direction, Mr. Silver speculated the study was ordered “because that was the best deal they could get.
“The problem is that there is not an unlimited supply of money on the public side. And there is an unlimited amount on PXP’s side.
“We have to cut it off at some point and reach an agreement to stop the hemorrhaging. They were just hoping it would serve a useful purpose. It did serve a useful purpose, but it was very weak. I don’t think it was futile, just very lopsided.
Assessing Value
“Now the company is on the record with the details of the report. So it is something you can go back to and say, ‘This is a document of fact.’ That has value.
“It was worthwhile, in a sense. Maybe that is why they agreed to it. They made a cost-benefit analysis, and they may have figured that to get something more evenhanded was not worth the cost.”
Is the value ephemeral or real?
“Real,” said Mr. Silver, “but very slight. It’s like knocking against a damn. You keep knocking, keep knocking, keep knocking. Eventually the dam will fail. It will leak.
“But it is really gruesome, long and drawn-out, and we all may be dead under some catastrophe.”
The next step?
“To keep the pressure on PXP in any way possible. It’s hard to say how, though. There’s lurching and jerking. It goes forward in fits and starts.
“Since all sorts of people are involved, you never know when someone will come up with something.”
The ideal solution, Mr. Silver said, “would be to somehow come up with experts who will work with the people against the oil company. This also is about community organizing, making more people aware. Get them concerned, alarmed. Get them moving. We have been doing this to some degree, but we need to do it more.”
