New Concerns Over Hydraulic Fracturing
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-12-19/new-concerns-over-hydraulic-fracturing
This month we’ve seen a lot of stories on fracking, hydraulic fracturing to get natural gas from shale. Among these, an EPA statement on water pollution, a report on earthquakes happening in unusual areas, fights over which government controls the land and how shareholders get information on fracking risks that landowners don’t. Shale natural gas accounts for 27 percent of natural gas production in the U.S. And natural gas provides a large part of this country’s energy needs. With jobs, energy and the impact on the environment, Diane and her guests look at new concerns over hydraulic fracturing.
Guests
Ian Urbina
investigative reporter, The New York Times.
Dusty Horwitt
senior council, the Environmental Working Group.
Bill Leith
manager of the Advanced National Seismic System at the U.S. Geological Survey.
Lee Fuller
vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.
Peter Robertson
senior vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs of America's Natural Gas Alliance
Comments
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This is what happens when you have years of no regulation under a republican administration and then have to play catch up to resolve all the environmental issues. These very very well paid mouth pieces for the industry have zero credibility when it comes to environmental concerns. At least the NY and NJ governors had the sense to put a moratorium on drilling in their states.
I have lived in Dimock, Pa for over 30 years and less than one mile from Carter Road. Our water is fine, we had it tested ourselves and paid for it, then the gas company had it tested and they paid for it. Both results by different labs were the same. My neighbor's well was drilled many years ago before any gas company started drilling and it has had gas in it from the git go. The folks on Carter Road are locked into a lawsuit with the gas company and already have been paid 2 times the assessed value of their homes and as I understand it the gas company will also buy their homes at fair market value. They have not allowed anyone on their property to install filtration systems or drill new wells at the gas company's expense. One of the Carter Road litigants has never accepted water deliveries at the gas companies expense (Hmmmm, your water is bad?), yet they still live there. Another Carter Road litigant that received water from NYC by some actor is now bragging that he can sell water (Hmmmmm, they are really hurting aren't they?) Oh, did I forget to mention that they are collecting royalties from the gas company each month? Now I doubt that they are returning the checks. Did the Carter Road litigants forget to mention that there was a home heating oil truck that slide off a bridge a couple of years ago and lost his load in the creek at Carter Road? Small company, not worth suing. And what about the repair garage along that creek that has many junk vehicles laying near to the creek. Oh wait, he is also a litigant. What about the water well drilling companies that would hit gas pockets on many occasions when drilling for water. (Hmmmmmm, they forgot to mention that.) Seems to me that some folks around Carter Road got suckered into a lawsuit that they can't get out of by a few crafty families.)
The situation is changing now that large amounts of gas leases have been bought by foreign companies. No one is tracking the percentage, but one company alone, Australia's BHP Billiton, has bought 1.5 million lease acres in Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana for over $17 billion dollars and now will spend another $4.5 billion for a pipeline that can eventually carry this to the Gulf to an LNG plants for export. Other countries joining the land rush for leases, U. S.’s intellectual property to develop NG, and investments in LNG export facilities are China, France, Norway, and the UK. Wake up, folks, our Bridge to the Future is being sold and huge future energy profits will go to those holding the leases. Check out
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/gasexport07032011/
As to NG being clean, that is false if you look at the life cycle analysis and consider exploration, production, transportation, and disposal in addition to consumption. You have to consider contamination at every phase. It is cheap (right now) because of government subsidies and externalized costs plus over production that has created a glut. Huge foreign interests will drive the costs up by placing this product on the world market and we will be competing with Japan, China, and India for our own NG or pay the world market price to use it.
But at least we like to think there is abundance. Every pre-developed shale play is predicted as to having a production level that never measures up in reality. Companies claiming all lease’s productivity at the rate only found in hot spots has over estimated the reserves as much as 80%, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This is done to keep investors ponying up for more stock. Even the SEC is in cahoots with the companies by tweeking accounting practices to cover the companies’ questionable practices.
For those who look to the gas industry exclusively for information, a sad day of revelation is coming down the road.
There are a number of forms of meditation besides that of the Buddhist practice. For example approaching meditation from the mode of transpersonal psychology, one is actually allowing their mind to wander and asked to pay attention to these thoughts so one may understand themselves more, since these thoughts may a direct connection to the sub conscious. This gives the statement "know thyself" a little more merit and applies to how and what we think.
on becoming a culture that is motivated by information (whether right or wrong)
rather than wisdom:
Adding to a previous caller; My husband and I also practice Sabbatical Sundays- which at first took some effort! Now we see how it cultivates adventure (going out and discovering places we haven't been), liveliness in our relationship (not being in separate pods) and creativity-
doing things we wouldn't do if we were watching TV, internet, etc.
My happiest times are when I am painting or writing, with no distractions.
It seems obvious - those in favor of fracking are those who will benefit financially. And they are the ones spending lots of money on convincing the rest of us how safe it is and how many jobs there will be. The same things we heard from the industry before Valdes, Deep Water Horizon and Cherynobl. "THIS time it will be safe."
The industry continues to claim "clean-burning, cheap, domestic" gas. There is abundant evidence that the industrial processes, of drilling, producing and transporting shale gas results in a life-cycle carbon footprint that is worse than coal.
The industry has applied for and received permits to liquify and export the gas on the global market so that prices would rise to the global price. Why sell at the cheapest price so that industry can double and triple their profits abroad.
New York would be much wiser to leave the gas in the ground until the industry has developed a much safer and less intrusive way of extracting it and NY can realize a fair price. In the meantime, we should focus on conservation and development of renewable energy that will generate more local jobs and support the existing economies of agriculture and tourism.
I appreciate Diane's continuing focus on this issue. It's an important one. We have more experience than most urban areas with natural gas drilling and "fracking" in Fort Worth. It's not always a happy experience for residents. Everyone wants his royalties and most are in favor of drilling; however, there is a growing number of residents who are concerned that various aspects of the drilling in our area are not safe enough yet. The operators are unwilling to voluntarily use the safest practices and the local governments have not been requiring them to do so. There is a tight connection between campaign contributions for local elected officials and the natural gas operators who give them and who are subject to regulations which city council members do -- or often do not -- impose upon them. There is also a longstanding tight connection between our state regulatory agencies, the governor, and the cash from these natural gas operators. Some feel that our state oversight of fracking is not what it should be. Key point: FracFocus, the new website which industry insists reveals all chemicals in fracking fluid, actually continues to withhold information about what is in the "proprietary" ingredients in the fluid. So they tell us they are giving all the information, but they aren't, really. The general public still doesn't realize that, I'm afraid.
Listening carefully to the petro-lobby guests, I noticed they statistically diluted the risks of fracking for natural gas by including "a million wells" of oil and gas over the past 150 years! This is blatantly dishonest: the focus of the show was specifically on the fracking process in regards to natural gas and nothing else. Sneaking in oil well statistics is patronizing and an insult to my intelligence.
I live in Fort Worth TX less than a mile from Texas Wesleyan University. It is in the middle of the Barnet Shale. Our city, county and state governments have allowed Oil & Gas Drilling Companies to pretty much do as they please with very few restrictions. They have come into many of our neighborhoods including mine. There is a gas well at the end of my street about four blocks (on TWU land behind their soccer field). They intend to drill over 5,000 wells in this area. You cannot tell where wells are because they take the derricks down when drilling is finished and move them to another site. Of course the drilll pad is very noticible because it is large flat and white, with all vegetation destroyed. They are using up all our drinking water. They hook up to the fire hydrants.
I am so angry and afraid of what is happening to our world. For this is a worldwide problem. It is upsetting to realize that the President is being pressured into accepting gas drilling and the Keystone Pipeline to get some of his proposals passed. It is just like when Bush wanted to go to war and everyone was coerced and blackmailed to vote for it or be called a traitor. You do know that many wells can be drilled at one site like spokes of a wheel because it is slant drilling? Thank you for the program.
I live in Fort Worth TX less than a mile from Texas Wesleyan University. It is in the middle of the Barnet Shale. Our city, county and state governments have allowed Oil & Gas Drilling Companies to pretty much do as they please with very few restrictions. They have come into many of our neighborhoods including mine. There is a gas well at the end of my street about four blocks (on TWU land behind their soccer field). They intend to drill over 5,000 wells in this area. You cannot tell where wells are because they take the derricks down when drilling is finished and move them to another site. Of course the drilll pad is very noticible because it is large flat and white, with all vegetation destroyed. They are using up all our drinking water. They hook up to the fire hydrants.
I am so angry and afraid of what is happening to our world. For this is a worldwide problem. It is upsetting to realize that the President is being pressured into accepting gas drilling and the Keystone Pipeline to get some of his proposals passed. It is just like when Bush wanted to go to war and everyone was coerced and blackmailed to vote for it or be called a traitor. You do know that many wells can be drilled at one site like spokes of a wheel because it is slant drilling? Thank you for the program.