Exxon Chief to Frackers in His Neighborhood: Frack You!

As ExxonMobil’s CEO, it’s Rex Tillerson’s job to promote the hydraulic
fracturing enabling the recent oil and gas boom, and fight regulatory
oversight. The oil company is the biggest natural gas producer in the
U.S., relying on the controversial drilling technology to extract it.

The exception is when Tillerson’s $5 million property value might be
harmed. Tillerson has joined a lawsuit that cites fracking’s
consequences in order to block the construction of a 160-foot water
tower next to his and his wife’s Texas home.

The Wall Street Journal reports the tower would supply water to a nearby
fracking site, and the plaintiffs argue the project would cause too much
noise and traffic from hauling the water from the tower to the drilling
site. The water tower, owned by Cross Timbers Water Supply Corporation,
“will sell water to oil and gas explorers for fracing [sic] shale
formations leading to traffic with heavy trucks on FM 407, creating a
noise nuisance and traffic hazards,” the suit says.

Though Tillerson’s name is on the lawsuit, a lawyer representing him
said his concern is about the devaluation of his property, not fracking
specifically.

When he is acting as Exxon CEO, not a homeowner, Tillerson has lashed
out at fracking critics and proponents of regulation. “This type of
dysfunctional regulation is holding back the American economic recovery,
growth, and global competitiveness,” he said in 2012. Natural gas
production “is an old technology just being applied, integrated with
some new technologies,” he said in another interview. “So the risks are
very manageable.”

In shale regions, less wealthy residents have protested fracking
development for impacts more consequential than noise, including water
contamination and cancer risk. Exxon’s oil and gas operations and the
resulting spills not only sinks property values, but the spills have
leveled homes and destroyed regions.


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