Disclosure Fail: Industry Reps Testifying for Denton, Texas Fracking Bill Left Ties Undisclosed

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Aย March 24 hearingย prior to theย passage of a controversial bill out of committee that preempts citiesย in Texas from regulatingย hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€)ย for oil and gas obtained from shale basins, featured numerous witnesses who failed to disclose their industry ties, including some with ties to theย Koch brothers.ย 

The next day on March 25,ย Texas Senate Bill 1165ย โ€” โ€œRelating to the express preemption of regulation of oil and gas operations and the exclusive jurisdiction of those operations by the stateโ€ย โ€”ย passed in theย Senate Natural Resources & Economic Development Committeeย unanimously. Its companion bill, HB 40, also only received a single dissenting vote, and it now advances to a full floor vote in both chambers.ย ย 

The legislation is seen by some as part of the multipronged effort to chip away and ultimately defeat the Denton, Texas fracking ban voted on by the city’s citizens on Election Day 2014, with another prong being theย lawsuits filed against the city.

The March 24 Senateย Natural Resources & Economic Development hearing on SB 1165,ย lasting over four hours, featured a long list of witnesses testifying for and against theย bill.

Though everyone testifying in support of it had industry ties, a DeSmogBlog investigation reveals thatย a few of them did not disclose this when signing up to testifyย and simply wrote they were testifying asย โ€œself.โ€ย 

Amongย them:ย 

1.)ย Kirk Edwards:ย President and CEO ofย Latigo Petroleum, formerly a subsidiary of Plains Exploration & Productionย now owned by Freeport-McMoRan, which goes unmentioned on the witness list. Edwards did not respond to questions fromย DeSmogBlog.

Kirk Edwards Odessa, Texas

Image Credit: YouTubeย Screenshot

2.)ย Glynis Holm Strause: Community relations advisor for ConocoPhillips, though this remains undisclosed on the witnessย list.

โ€œI am indeed the Community Relations Advisor for ConocoPhillips and inadvertently left that out of my out of the testimony due to reduce time from the House testimony where I stated that connection,โ€ she said via email when asked about the omission of her jobย title.ย 

Glynis Holm Strause

Image Credit: LinkedInย ย 

3.)ย Leigh Thompson: Though Thompson did identify her affiliation with theย Texas Public Policy Foundation, she failed to disclose who funds it: the Koch brothers. As investigative journalist Lee Fang has revealed, theย Kochs have a major stake in fracking. They also have aย major stakeย inย liquefied natural gas (LNG)ย exports,ย as we pointed out here on DeSmogBlog.

Unlike in the U.S. House of Representatives or U.S. Senate committees, in which witnesses are called to testify by committee chairs, those testifying in front of Texas Legislature committees do not have to fill out disclosure forms before doing so. Further, they do not have to be called to testify by the committee and can sign up on theirย own.ย 

Tacticalย Reduxย 

In the run-up to the November referendumย vote, the industry deployed a front group calledย Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economyย andย spent millions of dollarsย in its attempt to win a battle it ultimately lost, at least forย now.

And yet it appears they have doubled down with the same tactics, fighting with a vengeanceย as the first quarter of 2015 comes to a close with the hopes of Denton being the first and last city in Texas history to ban fracking.

Image Credit:ย ย CarmenKarinย |ย Shutterstock

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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