Naked City

Scenic Padre Island National Seashore is under attack, according to the Sierra Club. Tuesday, the club's Southern Plains office held a rally on the Capitol steps to highlight the findings of the organization's new report, "Wildlands at Risk" (available at www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/wildlands atrisk), and specifically a looming environmental catastrophe on the Texas coast.

President George W. Bush's regime "clearly encourages oil and gas development on public and private land" according to Sierra Club conservation organizer Chris Wilhite, and such is the case along the 112-mile-long seashore, the longest undeveloped barrier island in the world. Natural-gas rights owned by individuals and the state have been appropriated by multinational BNP Petroleum to drill in Padre Island, disrupting the environment, turtles and tourists alike, all for dubious results, Wilhite said. The club estimates that Padre's gas reserves are only large enough to meet U.S. needs for one day.

The construction of the wells poses great risk, as "up to 20 trucks per day" destroy the island's dunes when hauling in equipment. Once built, they pose a serious contamination threat to the surroundings and disrupt the "vast barrier island habitat and could ruin wetlands important to hundreds of species of wildlife," said Wilhite. One species surely to be affected is the "incredibly endangered" Kemp's ridley sea turtle, of which roughly 40 are currently nesting on the island.

With two wells up, and 16 more planned over the next 30 years, increased drilling and construction is due to start soon. None of this goes unnoticed – the club points to evidence of a dramatic drop in seashore visits (Padre normally attracts 800,000 visitors a year) during the drilling phase, which impacts the $39 million generated in tourist revenue in South Texas.

Perhaps the best way to protect the wildlands, their residents, and revenue would be a federal buyout of the island's gas rights. However, according to Wilhite, conflicting interests may be at work– the buyout proposal is stalled with Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who has "received campaign contributions of over $28,000 from BNP Petroleum." Meanwhile drilling continues.

Yet the Sierra Club seems undeterred in their efforts to preserve Padre. The club is supported in its struggle by the Texas Public Interest Research Group and Sea Turtle Restoration. There is precedent for a buyout; indeed, the First Brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, had proposed a buyout of drilling rights in a sensitive area of the Sunshine State. If it can be done there, intoned Wilhite, why not "in the President's own state?"