Some statutes that seem ridiculous on the surface make more sense when you peel back the verbiage and find out the intent. Others, not so much: Peel back the surface stupidity and what you find is more stupidity.
We’re not making any laundry list of bad laws here – don’t have the space. Let’s just concentrate on one: the federal regulation that limits how profits from development of minerals on airport property can be used.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires that any money derived from mineral rights – gas or oil or mining – at any publicly owned airport in this country must be spent at the airport that yielded the bounty, regardless of whether it is owned by a city, a state, or the federal government. Somebody in Washington, D.C., apparently figured that, without such restrictions, local governments might get blinded by dollar signs and allow mining operations that would endanger passengers.
Besides its share of Dallas/Fort Worth International, Fort Worth owns three airports: Meacham, Spinks, and Alliance. Because of the acreage involved, the three properties may produce as much Barnett Shale gas revenue as any other city property (or more) – $120 million over 20 years is a conservative estimate of bonus and royalty profits, and if the drilling goes on longer, as some geologists now predict, the total could top $200 million.
So, let’s see – how do you wisely spend $200 million at three airports that currently have a combined annual operating budget of $5 million? At these facilities, landing fees and leases already cover those operating costs, and state and federal dollars pay for most of the runway maintenance and, when needed, extensions. They’re not passenger airports, where terminals and parking garages are being constantly renovated and upgraded.
City council members, city staffers, and FAA officials all answer the question the same way: “A law is a law.” That answer is, of course, correct. But it misses one of the major tenets of government: Laws, regulations, and policies can be changed.
According to several FAA sources, the agency has never dealt with anything like the Barnett Shale money in a city as big as Fort Worth. And because Barnett Shale wells can be drilled horizontally, from a site off the mineral lease itself, safety issues are reduced – so there’s even less need for retaining the drilling profits.
The solution is fairly simple: Lobby Congress for a Fort Worth exception to the FAA rule. If U.S. Rep Kay Granger can stick “earmark” funding for the Trinity River Vision project into unrelated bills, she could do this as well.
What would the city get out of it? The exception could limit the non-airport spending of mineral profits specifically to transportation-related projects. That could include new highway projects, and funding for the light-rail system that some city leaders are pushing for. It could pay for bridge repairs and even for filling the potholes that city leaders always say is the top item on constituents’ complaint lists. Anything that involves moving people around.
There seems to be little downside to this for the federal government. North Texas’ air pollution is a national scandal, and the Environmental Protection Agency and local governments are looking for more efficient transit options. Federal and state highway agencies are trying to figure out how to pay for roadways to accommodate the population boom. In fact, federal transportation agencies could get a sweet deal from such an exception: They could ask for their own piece of that gas-money pie, if the current ridiculous restrictions are lifted.
As the city council members confer in the next few months over how to spend the billion dollars or so they might be sitting on, maybe the politicians and bureaucrats ought to take up the airport mineral-money dilemma.
Mayor Mike Moncrief seems hell-bent on putting as much gas money as possible into trust-fund bank accounts, while ignoring most other gas drilling issues. On the other hand, maybe he sees some overwhelming need at Spinks or Meacham or Alliance that the rest of us don’t comprehend. Maybe the fast-food restaurants are lobbying him to build “fly-through” restaurants there – Wings on-the-Wing. Airburgers. Taxiway Tacos. Pizza by Plane. Who knows.
City leaders have often described the gas drilling profits as “found money” that should be used for “legacy projects.” Well, long-term solutions to some of Fort Worth’s transportation problems should certainly qualify. Clean air – now there’s a legacy worth having.
