Pipeline lawsuit shifts strategy
Michael Bishop sues the regulator rather than aim at eminent domain.
Acting as his own lawyer, a retired chemist from East Texas filed a lawsuit Thursday against the state’s oil and gas regulator to try to stop a Canadian company’s pipeline from running across his property.
Michael Bishop, 64, took a new legal approach to keep TransCanada’s pipeline off his 20-acre plot of land in the town of Douglass in Nacogdoches County.
Bishop, who is representing himself, isn’t suing TransCanada over its use of eminent domain laws, as has been tried previously by others in Oklahoma and Texas.
Instead, Bishop is suing the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry in the state. His approach is two-pronged.
For one, he is accusing the regulatory body of not meeting its responsibility to protect the environment, surface water and ground water from oil spills. Ramona Nye, a spokeswoman from the Railroad Commission, declined to comment on pending litigation.
“If you don’t protect the public, we’re going to take up arms against you,” Bishop said and added that he’s doing just that by filing his lawsuit.
Bishop also said the oil that could flow through the pipeline from Cushing, Okla., to refineries on the Texas coast would not be crude oil, as called for in the permit. The construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013.
“This Canadian crap is not crude oil,” he said a news conference and rally outside the Railroad Commission oflces.
David Dodson, a TransCanada spokesman, said Bishop is incorrect. Dodson said all the oil currently in Cushing likely came from U.S. operations, though it’s possible a small amount of Cana- The
calendar tells us we are in that festive time of year when Loop 360 becomes a Rorschach test. The enlightened among us look upon that scenic stretch of highway and see delightfully decorated roadside trees. Some are whimsical (my early favorite this year is a Merry KISSmas treebute to the band), some are meaningful, and all are trimmed for the holiday season in what has become an Austin tradition.
Others see today’s decorations as tomorrow’s litter, correctly recalling that it’s not unusual to see leftover tinsel on trees long after Santa has headed to Boca Raton for the rest of winter.
Last year, I wrote about how much I like the tradition and how much I wish folks would help protect it by remembering to clean up their decorations when the holiday season ends. There never has been 100 percent compliance, and that, in the past, has left some Texas Department of Transportation oflcials wondering aloud about possibly