The Texas Hill Country is renowned for its natural beauty. That is the main reason people choose to be here and why tourism is a major source of income. Now, a huge energy company, Kinder Morgan, proposes to cut a swath through the Hill Country with its “Permian Highway,” a pipeline connecting the West Texas oil and gas fields with export terminals on the Gulf Coast. This mega-sized 42-inch diameter tube would damage the environment, endanger the water supply, lower property values, and inflict considerable economic damage in the heart of the Hill Country.
Companies building oil and gas infrastructure have traditionally been given the status of “common carriers,” which entails the ability to use eminent domain. The laws that allow the building of pipelines with eminent domain powers were passed because pipelines arguably served the broader public good by supplying indispensable energy. The combination of localized environmental problems occurring with oil and gas production and its exacerbating effect on human-made climate change should be sufficient reason to rethink this evaluation. While Texas could lead the way in solving the problem of climate change, irresponsibly accelerating fossil fuel production and building new infrastructure like the Permian Highway pipeline will only worsen it.
Climate change has become a major threat to our health, safety and economy. It will most likely have an especially negative impact on groundwater in the Hill Country, the drinking water for two million people in Central Texas. With human-made climate change causing more and more serious weather events in this rapidly developing area, the aquifers are in jeopardy. The Edwards Aquifer is subject to direct effects of droughts and floods. There is extreme drawdown during droughts. During floods, water quality typically declines due to run off.
