Con Law (23 page)

‘Everyone in the business knows Billy Bob. He’s like a character out of a movie, a modern-day Jett Rink. Last I heard, he was sitting on a gold mine out there, held oil and gas leases on all the land in the Big Bend. So this dead lawyer had proof that Billy Bob is contaminating the groundwater?’

‘Said he did. But I can’t find it.’

‘That kind of proof wouldn’t be good for Billy Bob. You think he killed the lawyer, to shut him up?’

‘It’s a theory.’

‘Book, I trust Billy Bob as far as I can throw the fat bastard, but a murderer? People murder for money, and he’s already got lots of money.’

‘He doesn’t have a good reputation in the industry?’

‘When he dies, they’re going to have to screw him in the ground. He’s like a lawyer—you figure he’s lying anytime his lips are moving.’

‘Not a straight shooter?’

‘Only when he’s shooting you in the back.’

‘So the lesson is …?’

‘Don’t turn your back on Billy Bob Barnett.’

‘I’ll try to remember that.’

‘So how can I help?’

‘What do you know about fracking?’

‘Everything. Fracking
is
the oil and gas business today. Virtually every gas well in the U.S. is fracked, and sixty percent of oil wells. Fracking accounts for fifty percent of all natural gas production, twenty-five percent of oil.’

‘Billy Bob took me through the process. I thought I’d fact-check with you.’

‘Shoot.’

‘Water usage. Billy Bob said he uses five million gallons of water to frack a well, but says that’s really not much water compared to ethanol.’

‘He’s right. Relative to other energy production, fracking uses very little water. But he didn’t tell you the whole story.’

‘Which is?’

‘Which is,
shale gas wells are short-life wells because the gas flows very fast out of the reservoir. The decline curves are steep, production levels drop off fast. So they have to constantly frack more wells to keep their production revenues up to cover expenses—fracking is expensive, about seven million dollars per well—and turn a profit. So even though on a per-well basis water usage is relatively low, the fracking industry uses a massive amount of water in total, something like three to four trillion gallons annually, mostly from lakes and aquifers, the sources for our drinking water.’

‘He didn’t mention that.’

‘They never do.’

‘Groundwater contamination.’

‘Environmentalists have been trying to connect the dots from a frack well to a contaminated aquifer for the last decade. If they ever do, the Feds might shut down fracking. Which is what they want.’

‘Why? Billy Bob said switching from coal to gas cuts carbon emissions in half.’

‘And switching to green energy cuts it to zero. That’s what the environmentalists want, to shut down the oil and gas industry and go straight to renewables—without a bridge. Just a big leap from eighty-five percent carbon energy to one hundred percent renewable. We’re three, maybe four decades from that.’

‘Billy Bob said the Energy Institute at UT found no direct connection between groundwater contamination and fracking.’

Henry laughed again.

‘He didn’t read the entire report. They also said that contamination is not unique to fracking, that casing failures and improper cement jobs occur in conventional drilling as well. But so far, no one’s found direct evidence of contamination, not even the EPA. There’s some anecdotal evidence—tap water turning brown and smelling foul, folks in Pennsylvania lighting their water on fire because of methane, the so-called “flammable faucets”—but hard to know if it’s caused by fracking. So that’s the first potential for contamination, failure of the well hole casing, which would allow frack fluids to flow directly into the aquifer. And we don’t want those chemicals in our drinking water.’

‘He said it’s all under-the-kitchen-sink-type stuff.’

‘But you don’t
want to drink any of that stuff. And some frackers have used known carcinogens like benzene and formaldehyde in their frack fluids. We don’t know who or when or where because they’re not required to disclose their chemicals.’

‘Federal water and pollution laws don’t regulate this stuff?’

‘If you want to inject any chemical into the earth for any reason, you’re subject to the EPA rules and regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act … unless you’re fracking. Then you’re free to pump any chemical you want down that hole.’

‘Why?’

‘Back in oh-five, Congress exempted fracking from the Water Act at the behest of Halliburton’s ex-CEO, Vice President Cheney. Since Halliburton invented fracking, the exemption became known as the “Halliburton Loophole.” So they can put anything except diesel fuel down the well hole without a permit or disclosure.’

‘Doesn’t sound smart.’

‘What about politics is?’

‘You said first potential for contamination. What’s the second?’

‘Migration. Even if the frack fluid goes down the hole without leakage, most of it stays in the reservoir. Over time it might migrate up through the rock and contaminate the aquifers from below.’

‘What’s the likelihood?’

‘Shale
gas formations are two or three miles below the aquifers, so migration through the rock is highly unlikely, at least that’s what the geologists say. But they’ve been wrong before. And now they’re “super fracking,” using more powerful explosives to make even deeper cracks in the shale rock, which offers more migration paths. Problem is, migration contamination would be worse because the fracking process releases arsenic, underground shale gases like radon, radium two-two-six, methane, benzene, and what they call “
NORM
,” naturally occurring radioactive material—’

‘I see why they use an acronym.’

‘—all of which is picked up by the fluid and transported up. That stuff gets into the drinking water, we’re in a world of hurt.’

‘Is there a third potential?’

‘Flow-back. That portion of the frack fluid that’s pushed up the hole by the gas. It’s highly toxic after the fracking process, so you can’t just dump the stuff into surface waters, rivers and lakes. You can recycle and reuse the flow-back, which is the best solution because we’d also cut down on the total water usage in fracking. But recycling is expensive. A few of the majors are recycling some of their frack fluid, but the independents like Billy Bob, they can’t afford to. So they inject it down Class Two disposal wells. Should be Class One wells for hazardous wastes, but the industry got oil and gas waste exempted under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, so flow-back is deemed nonhazardous no matter what’s in it.’

‘Why’d they want flow-back exempted?’

‘Cheaper to dispose in Class Two wells. We’ve got a hundred forty thousand of those wells, only five hundred Class Ones. We’re putting every waste imaginable down those wells.’

‘Why?’

‘We’ve got to put it somewhere. Problem is, the industry disposes of a trillion gallons of flow-back every year, so Class Two disposal is getting more expensive. Supply and demand. Some operators push too much down the hole under too much pressure, and that’s caused the reservoir walls to crack and the flow-back to migrate and contaminate nearby water wells. The Railroad Commission is supposed to regulate that sort of thing, but they’ve always been puppets of the industry. When you’re in the industry, you like that. When you’re out, you wish to hell they’d do their job.’

‘Jobs.’

‘Lots of jobs.
Fracking employs fifty thousand workers in the Eagle Ford in South Texas, a hundred thousand in the Barnett, maybe three hundred thousand if the Marcellus is developed. And those jobs pay well—roughnecks can make a hundred thousand—and that’s money to buy homes and cars, food and clothes, pay taxes. And gas powers factories, so cheaper gas makes the U.S. more competitive in the global economy. Which means more manufacturing jobs, more income, more prosperity. Which in turn creates more jobs in the service and retail industries. The economy grows. Cheap energy is good for America. Good for the world. And shale gas is cheap energy. For a long time.’

‘Last thing: tell me about the geopolitics of shale gas.’

‘It’s a game-changer. If shale wins, the West wins and Russia and Iran lose big-time. If shale loses, they win and we lose. Energy equals political and economic power. It’s that simple.’

‘That’s what Billy Bob said.’

‘He’s right about that.’

‘So Billy Bob Barnett’s not just a dumb-ass Aggie?’

‘That “I’m just a dumb ol’ Aggie” routine is a role he plays. Figures it’s better to have people underestimate him. But don’t you make that mistake. He’s not stupid. He knows the business. He knows how to find oil and gas and how to make money. He’s rich, and he’s made a lot of important Aggies in Texas rich. Not me, but other Aggies.’

Henry paused.

‘I’m
applying to the new Aggie law school. Next time you see Billy Bob, ask him to put a good word in for me.’ He laughed. ‘Just kidding. Look, Billy Bob Barnett’s a driller. He knows how to punch holes in the earth. He’s fracked maybe a thousand wells over the last decade—he was fracking before fracking was fashionable. He knows the environmentalists are gunning for fracking, praying a fracker contaminates an aquifer so they can shut it all down. He’s not dumb enough to kill his golden goose. Fracking is a money machine for him. He’s not going to blow it all by intentionally contaminating groundwater. You don’t get rich in the oil business by being a dumb-ass.’

‘So what’s your advice, counselor?’

‘Get the lawyer’s proof.’

‘I’ve shown his letter all over town, trying to get a bite. No takers. I’ve talked to everyone who might know anything about that proof, but no one does. Nathan didn’t show his proof to his wife, his best friend, or the environmentalist he was working with.’

‘Okay, Book, let’s take an objective look at the facts: first, the lawyer said he had proof, but no one’s seen it and you can’t find it. Second, the sheriff said there was no evidence of foul play. All facts point to an accidental death. Third, Billy Bob’s too rich and too smart to shoot himself in the foot. He doesn’t need to cheat to make money. And fourth, you’re suffering a serious sense of guilt about this intern, so you’re searching for something that’s not there. All of which leads me to conclude that there is no proof. And no murder. It was just an accident.’

Henry paused.

‘Sometimes,
Book, there is no mystery. Sometimes things are exactly what they seem to be.’

‘Nothing in this movie is what it seems to be.’

Book had again found his intern in the
Giant
museum watching the movie. She held a large coffee cup with one hand—‘I found that Frama’s’—and pointed at the screen with the other.

‘The big Reata ranch house, it was just a façade. There was no inside or back to it. They only built the front, made it look like a mansion.’

‘The magic of movies.’

‘Bick Benedict’s this macho cattleman and Jett Rink’s a surly ranch hand turned ruthless oil tycoon, but in real life Rock Hudson and James Dean were both gay.’

‘Back then, if the world knew they were gay, their acting careers would’ve been over. So the studios kept up their heterosexual images, had them appear with starlets around Hollywood. They had to keep their true lives secret. They lived façade lives, like the ranch house.’

‘Like
Nathan Jones.’

Book watched the movie, Rock Hudson and James Dean in the big fight scene on the front porch of the ranch house, all pretending to be something they weren’t. All just acting out roles in Marfa, Texas. Had Nathan Jones pretended to be someone he wasn’t? Had he just acted a role in Marfa, Texas? If Nadine were right, Nathan had lived a hard life out here, hiding himself from his wife and his friends. That thought made Book sad for his intern. But it didn’t make Nathan’s death anything more than just a tragic accident.

He had found Nathan Jones’s truth.

His truth—the truth—was that he had died in a horrible accident. The sheriff was right: there was no evidence of foul play. No evidence of murder. No proof of contamination. Nadine was right: Book was emotionally invested in Nathan’s death. He had not remained objective. He had searched for a murder instead of the truth. For something that wasn’t there. There was no murder. It was time to close this case and return to the law school. Henry was right: sometimes things are exactly what they seem to be.

‘I’m just like Rock and James and Nathan,’ Nadine said.

‘Gay?’

‘A pretender. They were gays pretending to be straight. I’m a chef pretending to be a law student.’

‘Perhaps you are, Ms. Honeywell. So I suggest we see what chefs do here in Marfa, try out one of those fancy restaurants tonight. Before we leave town tomorrow morning.’

Nadine’s mouth gaped, and her eyes got big.

‘Well, shut the front door.’

The red
front door of Maiya’s contrasted with the white adobe of the Brite Building where the restaurant occupied a ground-floor space. Marfa gathered at Maiya’s for drinks and dinner each night Wednesday through Saturday. They walked in and saw the mayor at a table, apparently selling the Marfa concept to his dining companions. He waved at Book, and Book waved back. At one end of the bar was Border Patrol Agent Angel Acosta with a young woman; he was not dressed in a green uniform but in all black. He waved, and Book waved back. At the other end of the bar was a group of young males in hipster attire, no doubt artists. Talking to them as if lecturing a class were Carla Kent and a young man dressed in a suit without a tie. She saw Book and came over with the man in the suit.

‘Professor,’ Carla said, ‘this is Fred Phillips. He’s an environmental lawyer from Santa Fe.’

Book shook hands with Fred and introduced him to Nadine.

‘Professor, it’s an honor. I’ve read all your books and watched you on TV. I really appreciate your point of view.’

‘So what brings you to Marfa?’

‘Carla got me down here, to represent landowners in condemnation suits brought by Barnett Oil and Gas.’

‘Tough cases given the law in Texas.’

‘We can’t win, but we can drag it out, slow him down, make it very expensive.’