WTFrack.org

Erie Approves Fracking Moratorium

2012-03-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

March 7th 2012

ERIE, Colo. (CBS4)- Erie’s Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a moratorium that prevents new permits for gas and oil companies for 180 days.

A group of concerned parents are trying to educate the public about the potential danger of fracking near two schools. The group fought for the temporary hold on the process until it is deemed safe.

Fracking between the two schools, Erie Elementary School and Red Hawk Middle School, was slated to begin this summer.

“We continue to get more and more emails, more concerned momsand dads,” said Erie Rising spokeswoman Jennifer Palazzolo.

Erie Rising is a group made up of concerned parents trying to raise awareness about fracking. Three of the largest oil and gas companies are operating in the town of Erie.

Colorado and Ohio Governors Talk Fracking

2012-03-07T21:00:00.000-08:00

States must address public perception issues related to shale oil and gas drilling.

IndustryWeek.com

By Jonathan Katz

March 7, 2012

HOUSTON -- Ohio Gov. John Kasich said March 7 his state has observed and learned from the mistakes other states have made with hydraulic fracturing.

"We studied all the states, and they were very forthcoming with us," Kasich told reporters during IHS CERA Week. "So we've learned a lot from the mistakes they made. And we'll make mistakes. I have no doubt about it. But I think we can get ourselves in a position we're going to be vigilant on this. We'll have more inspectors out there. It's important we handle this the right way."

Ohio has become a hotbed of shale gas activity with the Utica and Marcellus shale plays both located in the eastern half of the state.

Kasich, a Republican, and Colorado's Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper discussed how shale gas and other energy issues are impacted their states during the event in Houston.

Kasich discussed how he and other state agencies worked together to address an issue in Youngstown where earthquakes were occurring near wastewater injection wells for a hydraulic fracturing operation.

Kasich met with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources on New Year's Eve and they determined the well was too deep and likely located on a fault line, Kasich recalled.

The state responded by shutting down all wells within a five-mile radius of the site.

Continue reading...

CO Governor's statement

On public concerns regarding fracking, Hickenlooper said communication is the main issue. He noted that there have only been a couple documented cases of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing activities.

"We have to get real facts out there," Hickenlooper said.

..................................................

It's about time the industry has a bite of their own apple!

Finally!!!!

Fracking Sites - Open to the public? [VIDEO]

2012-03-05T19:23:00.001-08:00

NOAA Air Study Data - Erie Colorado

2012-03-05T18:24:00.000-08:00

EPA heightens scrutiny of Pa.'s Marcellus Shale

2012-03-05T17:27:00.000-08:00

AP
March 5th, 2012

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Tugging on rubber gloves, a laboratory worker kneels before a gushing spigot behind Kim Grosso's house and positions an empty bottle under the clear, cold stream. The process is repeated dozens of times as bottles are filled, marked and packed into coolers.

After extensive testing, Grosso and dozens of her neighbors will know this week what may be lurking in their well water as federal regulators investigate claims of contamination in the midst of one of the nation's most productive natural gas fields.

More than three years into the gas-drilling boom that's produced thousands of new wells, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Pennsylvania are tussling over regulation of the Marcellus Shale, the vast underground rock formation that holds trillions of cubic feet of gas.

The state says EPA is meddling. EPA says it is doing its job.

Grosso, who lives near a pair of gas wells drilled in 2008, told federal officials her water became discolored a few months ago, with an intermittent foul odor and taste. Her dog and cats refused to drink it. While there's no indication the problems are related to drilling, she hopes the testing will provide answers.

"If there is something wrong with the water, who is responsible?" she asked. "Who's going to fix it, and what does it do to the value of the property?"

Federal regulators are ramping up their oversight of the Marcellus with dual investigations in the northeastern and southwestern corners of Pennsylvania. EPA is also sampling water around Pennsylvania for its national study of the potential environmental and public health impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the technique that blasts a cocktail of sand, water and chemicals deep underground to stimulate oil and gas production in shale formations like the Marcellus.

Fracking allows drillers to reach previously inaccessible gas reserves, but it produces huge volumes of polluted wastewater and environmentalists say it can taint groundwater. Energy companies deny it.

The heightened federal scrutiny rankles the industry and politicians in the state capital, where the administration of pro-drilling Gov. Tom Corbett insists that Pennsylvania regulators are best suited to oversee the gas industry. The complaints echo those in Texas and in Wyoming, where EPA's preliminary finding that fracking chemicals contaminated water supplies is forcefully disputed by state officials and energy executives.

Caught in the middle of the state-federal regulatory dispute are residents who don't know if their water is safe to drink.

Hickenlooper apologizes to enviros over pro-fracking ad

2012-03-02T13:56:00.001-08:00

FOX31 News
March 1, 2012,
by Eli Stokols

DENVER – Gov. John Hickenlooper Thursday looked to explain his decision to celebrate fracking in a radio ad on behalf of the oil and gas industry, and to apologize to environmental groups who were upset by it.

“Maybe we should have talked to the environmental groups before we did the ad,” Hickenlooper told FOX31 Denver during an exclusive interview at the Capitol.

Hickenlooper explained that the ad was meant to celebrate the new rule, agreed to last year by both the oil and gas industry and environmental groups, that forces companies to disclose more of the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, a process in which a water-sand-chemical mix is shot deep beneath the ground to loosen mineral reserves for extraction.

“The oil and gas industry asked if we’d do some sort of an ad celebrating this compromise,” Hickenlooper said. “It wasn’t about celebrating oil and gas, it was celebrating this compromise. And we said sure.

What we should have done is reached out to the environmental community and asked if they were okay with the language. A few tweaks here and there and I think they would have been fine. Certainly, they would have appreciated being asked in advance.

“So I take that. That’s my fault.”

Continue reading...

............................

Really Gov? What's really your fault is the lack of transparancy and what appears to be a hand-holding contest with the oil and gas industry. You have appeared to step waaaay over the line and now your back-peddling.

Ever make beer Gov.? Ever drink too much?

Open Letter to Governor Hickenlooper [FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

2012-03-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Hey Gov,... you got a little oil and gas on your tooth.
WTFrack.org

Coalition for a Clean Colorado

Open Letter to Governor Hickenlooper

The Coalition for a Clean Colorado is a newly formed alliance of grassroots citizen groups working to protect their communities from destructive oil and gas drilling and fracking. We are united in our belief, that clean air and water, clean government and an economy powered by local, clean energy are essential for healthy communities and a livable future. We depend on and expect our elected officials to represent and protect our interests.

Your recent advertisements on behalf of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA), an industry that stands to reap billions from the accelerated extraction of dirty and life threatening fossil energy, is in direct conflict with your sworn duty to prevent adverse environmental and human health impacts to the People of Colorado, and a shocking breach of public trust.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s own database confirms over 1,000 oil and gas spills have impacted groundwater since 2009. These releases and other chemical emissions, legalized through multiple industry exemptions, have long impacted the health, safety and welfare of our communities. It’s time these impacts be acknowledged and mitigated with the level of diligence the citizens of Colorado deserve.

County land use regulations, ordinances and charter amendments empowered by the Colorado Constitution and upheld by the courts, are the only means left for people to protect their communities from the abuses of an overly powerful industry. Two weeks ago, thousands of citizens and the legislature spoke firmly against total state preemption as embodied in HB 12-088 and in favor of local regulatory authority over oil and gas activities.

Your executive order on fracking goes against the will of the people and undermines our democratic process. We, the people of Colorado who will be directly affected by its decisions, are in no way represented by the Task Force; therefore, we call on you to rescind the executive order.

Respectfully,

· Jennifer Palazzolo, for Coalition for a Clean Colorado
· Ceal Smith, for Renewable Communities Alliance
· Keli Kringel, President for Citizens for Huerfano County, La Veta
· Sonia Skakich-Scrima, Founder, for What the Frack?! Arapahoe
· Joe Bassman, for LongmontROAR, Longmont
· April Beach, for Erie Rising, Erie
· Rick Blotter, for Elbert County Oil & Gas Interest Group (ECOGIG), Agate
· Ken Regelson, for RenewablesYES!, Boulder
· Doris LeDue, for The South Park Coalition, Inc., Como
· Phil Doe, for Be The Change, Denver
· Robert James IV, for Be The Change, USA, Lakewood
· Kyle Elston, for Routt County Frack, Steamboat Springs
· Alison Gannett, Founder for North Fork Fracking, Paonia
· Lisa Bracken, for Journey of the Forsaken, Silt

· Greg Eells, PE for Coloradoans for Fair Rates and Clean Energy (CO-FORCE)
· Kathleen Dudley, for Drilling Mora County, Mora, NM
· B. Arrindell, Director for Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Milanille, PA

New signatories since first release:
· Fred Kirsch, Director for Community for Sustainable Energy, Ft. Collins
· Cecelia Severance, for Rural Property Owners Association, Walsenburg
· Tracy Dahl, North Fork Ranch, Weston
· Ashley Collins, for Citizens for Safe Fracking in Adams County, Commerce City

SIGN the c3 PETITION HERE

to tell Hickenlooper: Clean Up Colorado!

Environmentalists blast Colorado’s new drilling task force as Trojan horse

2012-03-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

Colorado Independent
3/1/2012
By Troy Hooper

See it as attempt to thin popular drive to win greater local authority over oil and gas activity

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s intervention in the debate over whether the state or local jurisdictions should regulate oil and gas drilling is rankling environmentalists who, two days earlier, called him out for making misleading statements on groundwater contamination.

The governor signed an executive order Wednesday to create an 11-member task force “to help clarify and better coordinate” the regulatory jurisdiction between the state and local governments over oil and gas operations. He asked the task force to report its recommendations and findings to him, the speaker of the state House and president of the state Senate by April 18.

The move follows heated debate at the capitol, where a Republican senator proposed empowering the state with sole regulatory authority over drilling. The proposal, HB 12-088, died in the Democrat-controlled Senate. A competing bill, introduced by a Democrat, would have assigned oil and gas regulatory power to local governments. It was killed in the GOP-controlled House.

“County land use regulations, ordinances and charter amendments empowered by the Colorado Constitution and upheld by the courts here and in New York, are the only means left for people to protect their communities from the excesses of an abusively powerful industry,” said Ceal Smith of the newly launched Coalition for a Clean Colorado.

“Two weeks ago, thousands of citizens spoke firmly against HB 12-088 and in favor of local regulatory authority over oil and gas activities. The governor’s executive order on fracking is a blatant attempt to circumvent the will of the people,” Smith said. “The communities most impacted have no voice or representation whatsoever on the governor’s hand-picked task force. We are frankly shocked by this autocratic assault on our democracy and community rights.”

Continue reading...

SIGN PETITION HERE

Environmental Groups Continue Fight against LNG Fracking

2012-03-01T12:44:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Sierra Club

Contact: Jason Pitt, 202.675.6272

Environmental Groups Continue Fight against LNG Fracking
Asks Federal Environmental Agencies to Protest Export Facilities

Washington, D.C.— Today multiple environmental organizations called on the President's chief environmental advisor asking for a full environmental analysis of plans to export liquefied natural gas (LNG). The letter to the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency sounds the alarm that the agencies considering these export plans are not analyzing or disclosing the environmental impacts of the increased hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' that would be necessary to support major LNG exports.

"Exporting liquefied natural gas means more dangerous fracking, a secretive and toxic part of the production process that the Sierra Club has no confidence in," said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "With the health of our communities and our environment at stake, it's up to our leaders at EPA and other agencies to keep their commitment to protecting Americans from the toxic threats to our air and water that come with liquefied natural gas."

"LNG facilities like the one proposed for Cove Point are intended to ship natural gas extracted in this country off to foreign lands, said Michael Helfrich of Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper. "The result is that gas drillers can ship American gas overseas in order to make more money, but this increases the price of natural gas for us, and our communities and environment get ravaged by the shale gas "gold rush", including thousands of miles of new pipelines and new compressor stations through the Susquehanna Watershed. It may be a win for the gas drillers but it throws the idea of American energy independence out the window."

"Gas drilling is devastating the communities where it is happening; the claim of environmentally friendly fracking and shale gas drilling is just another expensive messaging campaign" says Maya van Rossum of the Delaware Riverkeeper. "People are losing their drinking water, their clean air, their health, and the beautiful landscapes they call home. The assertion of cheap gas and energy independence is just another marketing campaign – drillers are investing heavily in building and expanding LNG facilities in order to ship American extracted gas overseas. Americans are suffering all of the pollution and harm from gas drilling while foreign countries get to use the gas and drillers get to reap the profits. It's a lose lose for Americans."

On February 7th, 2012, The Sierra Club filed the first formal objection with the Department of Energy against the export of domestic gas produced from fracking. This objection called the export proposal an unwise plan which would make a dirty fuel even more dangerous and would cost families money by raising gas and electricity prices. The Sierra Club also intervened in proposals for LNG export facility permits in Sabine Pass, LA and Coos Bay, OR.

The letter is signed by the Sierra Club, the Columbia Riverkeeper, the Delaware Riverkeeper, Earthjustice, Friends of Living Oregon Waters (FLOW), Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper and the Rogue Riverkeeper. Full text of the letter as submitted is available upon request.

# # #

Time to Clean up Colorado

2012-02-29T20:54:00.001-08:00

2/29/2012

Why This Is Important

The Coalition for a Clean Colorado believes that a clean environment, clean government and an economy powered by local, clean and renewable energy is essential for our livable future. To achieve this, we need elected officials who will fight to protect the health, welfare, safety and environment of our communities.

Governor Hickenlooper, your ad campaign on behalf of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, an industry that stands to reap billions from the accelerated extraction of dirty and life threatening fossil energy, is wholly inappropriate and an insult to the People of Colorado.

The claim that since 2008, "we have not had one instance of groundwater contamination associated with drilling and hydraulic fracturing" is incorrect. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commissions own database documents over 1,000 oil and gas spills that have impacted groundwater since 2008. These spills and the significant chemical emissions allowed through multiple industry exemptions, are directly impacting the health, welfare and safety of our communities.

County land use regulations empowered by the Colorado Constitution and upheld by the courts, are the only means left for local communities to protect themselves from the abuses of an overly powerful industry that has corrupted our government and undermined prospects for a clean energy future.

Therefore, we the undersigned, demand that you immediately rescind the executive order on fracking, withdraw the COGA ad and get dirty energy out of the State house.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN PETITION

Hickenlooper forms task force to address drilling regulations

2012-02-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

DenverPost.com
2/29/2012
Mark Jaffe

Facing a rash of local initiatives to control oil and gas drilling, Gov. John Hickenlooper Monday created a task force to "clarify" the roles of state an local governments in regulating drilling.

"This is an important step to better define state and local jurisdiction regulatory structures as Colorado's oil and gas industry continues to grow," Hickenlooper said.

Spurred by the discovery of oil in the Niobrara formation, which stretches from El Paso County to the Wyoming border, companies have been buying up mineral leases and ramping up drilling.

In 2011, Weld County had the most drilling activity in the West, according to a study by Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based natural resource consultant.

That lead 10 Front Range municipalities and counties to develop drilling rules, raising concerns among drillers that projects could be stalled.

"This is makes attracting investment a real challenge," said Tisha Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, which will have a spot on the task force.

The task force also will include a representative the Colorado Petroleum Association, two members of the state oil and gas conservation commission and one environmental group representative.

"The composition of the task force seems weighted in favor of industry," Kate Zimmerman, the National Wildlife Federation's senior policy adviser, said in a statement.

Continue reading... Who's on the task force?

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Who the hell got to select the task force members? This is botched from the start. Apologetic,special interest, backdoor soothsayers,with hands in your cookie jar.

Let the people vote.

Colorado Govenor Hickenlooper issues executive order on fracking

2012-02-29T15:26:00.001-08:00

FOX31
2/29/2012

DENVER — Gov. John Hickenlooper, already having irked Colorado environmentalists this week for voicing a radio ad in favor of hydraulic fracturing on behalf of the state’s oil and gas industry, issued an executive order Wednesday afternoon creating a task force to determine whether the state or local cities and counties have control over fracking operations in the state.

“This is an important step to better define state and local jurisdiction regulatory structures as Colorado’s oil and gas industry continues to grow,” Hickenlooper said in a statement.

“We want to protect public health, the environment and wildlife and to avoid duplication and conflict between different regulations of oil and gas activities. We expect these efforts to also help foster a climate that encourages responsible development and enhances existing cooperation and coordination between state and local government.”

The order comes after the town of Erie voted Tuesday night to draft an emergency 180-day moratorium on fracking, a common process used by oil and gas companies to loosen mineral reserves for extraction by shooting a mix of water, sand and chemicals more than mile beneath the surface.

The town had rejected a moratorium proposal a month ago, but reversed course based largely on a report last week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that showed levels of propane — a chemical used in fracking — 10 times higher in Erie than in other cities.

Environmentalists have long argued that fracking is contaminating groundwater and causing health problems for people living nearby.

Continue reading...

Get a clue Governor, your statements appear wrong in that, that this rogue oil and gas industry is not causing groundwater contaminations, air quality degradation etc...

OVERTURN THE FEDERAL EXEMPTIONS THE INDUSTRY DOESN'T HAVE TO ABIDE BY AND LET'S SEE IF THE INDUSTRY CAN OPERATE!

Enough already!

Colorado Oil and Gas Association Statement Not Correct, Again [FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]

2012-02-29T14:47:00.002-08:00

For Immediate Release
February 29, 2012
Sierra Club Poudre Canyon Group and Clean Water Action
Contacts: Shane Davis, 509-570-4422; Gary Wockner, 970-218-8310

Colorado Oil and Gas Association Statement Not Correct, Again

Contamination of Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer and Residential Water Well Occurred in 2009
Fort Collins, CO -- In the February 28, 2012 online version of the Denver Post, the President of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association is quoted as making this statement:

Colorado's rules include provisions addressing "cementing and casing of wells," Schuller said. And since 2009 "there has not been a drilling or hydraulic-fracturing incident that has affected groundwater, and there have been no incidents which have affected a family's or community's drinking water," she said. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_20058409

This statement is not correct.

One such "incident" occurred on August 11, 2009 in which toulene and dissolved methane were found in a residential water well in Weld County that included contamination of the Fox-Hills Aquifer. The homeowner filed a complaint ("gas bubbles were present in his water"). The COGCC tested the water and found the contaminants. The COGCC required a nearby gas well to be tested and concluded there was a hole in the casing. The gas well was then shut down. The operator (Eddy Oil) was fined $46,200 and required to remediate the property owner's impacts. The extent of the contamination to the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer is unclear at this time as is any effort to decontaminate the aquifer.

Here is the "NOAV" Report for the incident: http://cogcc.state.co.us/cogis/NOAVReport.asp?doc_num=200222149

Here is the Spill/Release Report ("Form 19, 6/99"): http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/Form-19-Final-at-02-19-10-EDDY-OIL-CO.pdf

Here is the "Administrative Order By Consent 1V-349" in which it states (http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/Administrative-Order-By-Consent-1V-349.doc):

16. Based on the above facts, COGCC Staff contend that a hole in the production casing in the Well resulted in a significant waste of oil and gas resources and a significant adverse impact on public health, safety or welfare or the environment as it pertains to Rule 324A.a. COGCC Staff further contend that Eddy Oil’s failure to maintain a casing program to prevent the migration of produced gas from Codell Formation in the Well to the Laramie-Fox Hills Aquifer resulted in the degradation and contamination of ground water. (page 3)

"COGA's statement in the Denver Post is not correct," said Shane Davis of the Sierra Club. "Groundwater and aquifer contamination have occurred in a residential water well since 2009."

Further, the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action point out that "since 2009," Spill/Release Reports sent to the COGCC by drilling operators in Weld County show that 46.3% of the 452 spills/releases contaminated groundwater and 2.2% of 452 spills/releases contaminated surface water. (Table here: http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/SC-CWA-to-COGA-Since-2009-2-29-2012.pdf)

"Groundwater and surface water are being contaminated by oil and gas production activities," said Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action.

The Sierra Club, Poudre Canyon Group and Clean Water Action continue to analyze the data from Weld County, Colorado.

--end--

Erie trustees vote to draft emergency fracking moratorium

2012-02-28T23:48:00.000-08:00

Daily Camera
2/28/2012
By John Aquilar

NOAA air pollution study serves as prime catalyst for board's change of heart

ERIE -- In a dramatic turnaround late Tuesday evening, Erie trustees unanimously voted to craft an emergency ordinance to temporarily ban new gas drilling permits from being filed with the town.

The ordinance will come before the town's elected leaders at their next meeting, on March 13, and, if voted on as an emergency ordinance, would require six votes to pass. It would go into effect immediately and last 180 days.

If it passes, Erie would join Longmont and Boulder County in imposing a moratorium on new drilling operations.

Mayor Pro Tem Cheryl Hauger brought the motion to the table late in the evening, saying that a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that came to light last week showing that levels of propane -- a pollutant associated with oil and gas drilling and production -- are 10 times higher in Erie than they are in cities such as Houston and Los Angeles was instrumental in prompting her to give a moratorium another try.

Just last month, the board voted against imposing a moratorium.

Several trustees mentioned the NOAA study as a primary reason for changing their opinion on the safety of drilling and hydraulic fracturing, an extraction process known as fracking that uses a sand-water-chemical mix to loosen gas from underground rock.

Trustee Ronda Grassi said that a moratorium would provide time for the town to work out issues with oil and gas operators in Erie, though she cautioned it wouldn't stop companies already drilling and fracking here. She said Erie doesn't currently have an application for a drilling permit in front of it.

"A moratorium won't change one thing today -- they are allowed to drill in our community and they won't stop,"

she said.

The town is in the midst of drafting a set of rules drilling operators would be expected to follow, including air and water monitoring, larger wellhead setbacks and noise, light and dust mitigation. Gas drilling is regulated by the state and municipalities are limited in what they can control operationally.

Trustee Joe Carnival said...

Media Advisory: Northern Colorado Conservation Groups Request COGA Remove Radio Ad from Airwaves

2012-02-28T15:01:00.000-08:00

Feb 27th, 2012

Hello Media,

Please be advised that 2 northern Colorado conservation groups have sent the attached letter to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association requesting that this radio ad be removed from the airwaves because it contains information that is not correct. We offer an analysis of Weld County Spill/Release Reports to support our request.

Here's the radio ad: http://www.coga.org/audio/Gov_Hickenlooper_HF_Rule_30sec.mp3

(The letter is also posted here: http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/SC-CWA-to-COGA-2-27-2012.pdf)

In addition, Clean Water Action signed on to the letter to Governor Hickenlooper and the press release attached.

Thank you,

Gary Wockner, Clean Water Action
Shane Davis, Sierra Club

pdf of data
http://water.clean.home.comcast.net/~water.clean/SC-CWA-to-COGA-2-27-2012.pdf

Aurora forgoes fracking moratorium but begins looking at local regulations

2012-02-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

AuroraSentinel
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
By SARA CASTELLANOS

AURORA | It’s illegal for the city of Aurora to outright ban hydraulic fracturing but the city could enact an ordinance that regulates drilling-related land uses, city attorneys told Aurora City Council members at a public meeting on Feb. 25.

Council members at the meeting informally approved a draft ordinance regulating oil and gas development amidst growing tensions from the community about the environmental impacts of fracking.

City staff members in the coming weeks are slated to meet with major oil and gas developers to discuss the proposed draft, and council members will have to formally vote on the draft at a later date.

The draft ordinance puts stricter regulations on oil and gas developers than the city’s current ordinance, but concerned residents still say council should have done more.
City council members at the meeting rejected the idea of a moratorium to study the environmental impacts of oil and gas drilling, although Councilwoman Renie Peterson tried to push that proposal at the meeting.

Bob Rogers, deputy city attorney, said the moratorium would be pointless.

“We don’t need that breather,” he said. “Staff is on the way to change the ordinance and we think it’s better to get public hearings and to force negotiations on the (drilling) operators instead of waiting 30 or 60 days for nothing because we’re not going to be doing a fracking study.”

That was disappointing to Sonia Skakich-Scrima, a member of What The Frack? Arapahoe, a grassroots group that has spent the past several months trying to convince council members of the need for a moratorium.

“I would have liked to see a six-month moratorium to allow staff to better inform themselves,” she said.

Continue reading...

Boulder County commissioners to review impacts of potential increase in oil, gas drilling

2012-02-25T23:17:00.001-08:00

Longmont Times-Call
By John Fryar
2/25/2012

BOULDER -- Significant expansion of oil and gas exploration in Boulder County could cause expensive-to-repair damages to county roads near those well sites, according to the County Transportation Department.

"The impacts of heavy trucks necessary to serve potential oil and gas development on Boulder County roads could be equivalent to the wear and tear of hundreds of millions of passenger vehicles,"

Transportation director George Gerstle has written the Board of County Commissioners.

That additional truck traffic might also "increase conflicts with other vehicles and bicyclists and would place significant new demands for road infrastructure and safety improvements on the county, without additional revenue to address the potential needs," Gerstle said in his memo, which is part of a 277-page report the county staff prepared for a commissioners' meeting this coming Thursday.

Boulder County's Land Use Department has initially estimated that as many as 1,800 oil and gas wells could be drilled in unincorporated Boulder County under current county and state regulations.

Parks and Open Space director Ron Stewart wrote the commissioners that there are now about 345 active oil and gas wells in Boulder County. About a third of those active wells are on county-owned open space. Another third are on privately held lands covered by Boulder County conservation easements, and the rest are on privately held land not protected by conservation easements.

Stewart said his department has had its own both short- and long-term experiences with the impacts of oil and gas operations on county open space -- wells the county had to let be drilled and operated because the property was subject to existing oil and gas leases when the county bought it. The county doesn't have the legal ability to prevent that drilling and production when it doesn't own the mineral rights that previous property owners severed from the surface rights -- or even when it does own those mineral rights but has to honor existing leases.

Continue reading...

Oil and gas drilling issues

What: Boulder County commissioners will hold a public hearing on issues relating to the adequacy of the county's current Land Use Code regulations about oil and gas exploration in unincorporated Boulder County.

When: March 1st, 4 p.m. Thursday

Where: Commissioners' third-floor hearing room, Boulder County Courthouse, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder

Further information: After a county staff presentation that's expected to last at least an hour, members of the public will be invited to comment. There'll be a three-minute time limit for each individual speaker. Comments also can be submitted via email, to commissioners@bouldercounty.org.

People unable to attend the meeting in person can watch it over the Internet, via a live stream at http://bouldercounty.org/government/pages/hearings.aspx. Further information about the issue, including the county staff's report for Thursday's hearing, is available at http://bouldercounty.org/live/property/pages/oilgas.aspx

Gas-Fracking Ban in Upstate New York Upheld by State Court Judge

2012-02-22T11:13:00.001-08:00

Businessweek
Feb 22, 2012
Jim Efsyathiou Jr.

Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A central New York town can block natural-gas drilling after a state judge, in the first test of local laws, upheld the Town of Dryden’s ban on hydraulic fracturing.

State Supreme Court Judge Phillip Rumsey in a ruling released yesterday said the town’s zoning amendment on gas drilling wasn’t pre-empted by state law. Denver-based Anschutz Exploration Corp. sued in September, seeking to overturn the ordinance, which bans gas and oil exploration in the town about 200 miles (322 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan.

New York placed a moratorium on the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing in 2010 while state regulators developed environmental rules. Since then, about 20 towns in the state have adopted laws to ban drilling, Karen Edelstein, a geographic information-systems consultant in Ithaca, said.

“I think you’d call this a pretty substantial victory,”

Mahlon Perkins, attorney for Dryden, said yesterday in an interview. “The pertinent part of it is, he declared that the zoning amendment as slightly modified is not pre-empted by state law.”

Tom West, an Albany attorney representing Anschutz, said the ruling was disappointing. Anschutz has 30 days to decide whether to appeal in state court, he said.

“These pure questions of law have a tendency to get reviewed, and different judges can see it differently,” West said in an interview. “We still feel very confident in our position that the oil and gas law does pre-empt municipalities from these types of regulation.”

Suck it up Anschutz Exploration Corp.!

Study: Dirty air in Erie linked to gas drilling - Homes built on top of abandoned wells?

2012-02-22T09:40:00.005-08:00

Daily Camera
John Aguilar
2/21/2012

ERIE -- A study showing that Erie exceeds Houston and Los Angeles in the levels of certain air pollutants commonly connected to oil and gas activity became a point of concern for several trustees Tuesday night during a meeting held to formulate local rules for resource extraction.

"I was kind of shocked by the things I heard," said Trustee Ronda Grassi, after listening to a presentation from a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Steven Brown, a NOAA scientist in Boulder, told the trustees and a roomful of industry experts that an air monitoring study conducted in Erie last winter revealed that levels of butane, ethane and propane -- compounds associated with oil and gas drilling and production -- were "large."

Specifically, Brown said Erie's propane levels exceeded by a factor of 10 those detected in Pasadena, Calif., in 2010.

That prompted a scoffing reaction from Trustee Mark Gruber, who said he used to avoid Pasadena when he lived in southern California strictly because of its poor air quality.

"Propane is much, much larger in Erie than it is in major urban areas, and that is a clear signature that we are impacted by oil and gas," Brown said.

But the scientist said the data don't definitively show if the air pollution detected in the study is being produced by the hundreds of active natural gas wells operating in Erie or whether most of it is migrating in from surrounding communities also located in the massive Wattenberg Gas Field northeast of Denver.

Tuesday's revelation came as Erie is in the midst of...

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Citizens of Erie, Colorado,

Remember your Mayor and Board of Trustees work for you. It's not what's in the best interest for their longevity, or navigating their positions politically that matters. It's your health, and your children's health, that matters how they should address these incredible concerns. It appears these significant concerns would, in-fact, pose long-term health risks to you from associated oil and gas development.

It is your vote that counts. You, the Erie citizen, should email the Mayor and all Trustees your imminent health concerns. The Mayor appeared to showcase a 'fake' concern and quickly wash his hands during his 'damage controlled' final statement last night.

The current elevated chemicals in Erie's air are very harmful in large concentrations to you, and do pose significant increased risks of asthma, scarring of the lungs and other chemically associated risks. Why would anyone take a risk and allow further development when your air quality standards exceed acceptable harmful levels. Will your city properly address these issues or will they have their own interests in mind?

Another question that came up at the city council meeting/study session was that it appears many homes in Erie are situated in close proximity or possibly on-top of abandoned oil and gas wells. We are trying to obtain more information on this from the source and will report back later.

Call or email your Mayor and Board of Trustees about your concerns. Should oil and gas development continue in the city limits of Erie? Should you know if your house is on-top of an abandoned oil and gas well? Let them know you will not vote for them unless they call for a moratorium to address the current concerns and work towards cleaning your air and environment.

To email the Mayor and all trustees at once, please use: bot@erieco.gov

Joe Wilson - Mayor Email April 2012 1656 Alpine Dr.
Erie, CO 80516 Ph: 303-358-4114
Fx: 303-926-2706
jwilson@erieco.gov

Cheryl Hauger - Mayor Pro Tem Email April 2012 1179 Northview Dr.
Erie, CO 80516 Ph: 303-828-9109
Fx: 303-926-2706
chauger@erieco.gov

Joe Carnival - Trustee Email April 2014 1656 Bain Dr.
Erie, CO 80516 Ph: 303-834-5410
Fx: 303-926-2706
jcarnival@erieco.gov

Ronda Grassi - Trustee Email April 2014 1894 Grenfell Court
Erie, CO 80516 Ph: 303-665-3217
Fx: 303-926-2706
rgrassi@erico.gov

Mark Gruber - Trustee Email April 2014 1398 Clayton Way
Erie, CO 80516 Ph: 720-383-4212
Fx: 303-926-2706
mgruber@erieco.gov

Paul Ogg - Trustee Email April 2012 96 Bonanza Dr.
Erie, CO 80516 Ph: 303-828-0764
Fx: 303-926-2706
pogg@erieco.gov

Colin Towner - Trustee Email April 2012 720 Austin Ave., Suite 105
Erie, CO 80516 Ph: 303-818-3314
Fx: 303-926-2706
ctowner@erieco.gov

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The Fracking Industry Buys Congress - But for how much?

2012-02-20T15:54:00.000-08:00

Environmental News Service
Blue Ridge Press
By Sharon Guynup

WASHINGTON, DC, February 16, 2012 (ENS) - A natural gas drilling rush is on in rural North Dakota. And with it, residents are reporting growing numbers of respiratory ailments, skin lesions, blood oozing from eyes, and the deaths of livestock and pets.

Elsewhere, residents of Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wyoming and other states who thought they'd hit the lottery by signing natural gas drilling leases have watched their drinking water turn noxious: slick, brown, foamy, flammable.

In December, for the first time, federal regulators scientifically linked hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to the contamination of an aquifer, refuting repeated industry claims that the practice does not pollute drinking water.

It happened in the rural ranching community of Pavillion, Wyoming, an area riddled with 162 natural gas wells dug between 1990 and 2006. Despite a decade of complaints from residents that their reeking water was undrinkable - and that many suffered from nerve damage, asthma, heart trouble and other health problems - state officials did nothing.

Finally the EPA stepped in, launching a three-year study running from 2008 to 2011.

In its report, the EPA identified numerous fracking chemicals in Pavillion's water. Cancer-causing benzene was found at 50 times safe levels, along with other hazardous chemicals, methane, diesel fuel, and toxic metals - in both groundwater and deep wells.

Continue reading... Just how much money is spent on oil and gas lobbying?

Boulder County commissioner candidates focus on fracking - A Ban?

2012-02-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

Times-Calltimescall.com
By John Fryar Longmont
2/18/2012

All are critical of county's regulations on drilling

BOULDER -- Boulder County shouldn't waste time tinkering with land use regulations in an attempt to reduce the potential public health and safety hazards that might come with using hydraulic fracturing to free up oil and gas deposits, a Boulder County commissioner candidate said Saturday.

Instead, commissioners should enact an outright prohibition against such "fracking" for future wells drilled anywhere in unincorporated areas of Boulder County, said Garry Sanfacon, even if that means paying to defend the county in any oil and gas exploration companies' lawsuits that might result.

All the Democratic candidates for the two Board of County Commissioners seats up for election this year expressed strong concerns about the adequacy of this county's current land use code's rules about oil and gas drilling, during a candidates' forum at Boulder County Democratic Party headquarters on Saturday afternoon.

Present regulations "don't have any strength to them," said Commissioner Deb Gardner, who voted with fellow board members on Feb. 2 to impose a six-month temporary moratorium on accepting and processing new drilling applications in order to give the county staff time to study and propose possible revisions to those existing Boulder County rules.

Gardner -- a Longmont resident who was appointed to the vacant District 2 seat on the county board in January and is seeking election to a full four-year term in that seat -- urged people to attend the March 1 public hearing the commissioners have scheduled as they consider whether to terminate, renew or otherwise amend that temporary drilling moratorium.

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But District 1 candidate Sanfacon, a Nederland-area resident who manages county government's Fourmile Canyon Fire recovery effort, said Boulder County needs to ban fracking, and not just "monkey around with the regulatory framework."

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Makes perfect sense to us! Ban it! Who's on the 'Ban Wagon?'

Oil Field Deaths Could be a Record

2012-02-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

KXNews
Posted: Feb 16, 2012 6:38 PM EST
By Marci Narum

Two oil-field deaths in two weeks--and OSHA says we are on pace to set a record.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is investigating the most recent case--a man found dead early today at a fracking site northwest of Parshall. Bismarck Area OSHA director, Tom Deutscher says it was reported to OSHA at 4-o'clock this morning. A compliance officer is at the scene investigating. The name and age of the victim is not known, but Deutscher says the man was an employee of Key Energy Services and was working at a well servicing site. Our calls to Key Energy Services have not been returned.

OSHA is also investigating a death that was reported February 3rd north of Alexander. Deutscher says an employee of KKA Drilling fell about 14 feet from a rig. Workers were in the process of dismantling the rig floor when the accident happened. The victim died as a result of the injuries sustained in the fall. OSHA could not identify the man.

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Committee Review of House Bill 1277 Assuring Local Control of Oil Gas Regulation - PLEASE SIGN

2012-02-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

Now House Bill 12-1277 is in Committee this Monday!

House Bill 1277 gives local governments more control. Let's support this bill which gives local county governments the power to regulate oil and gas activities. The provision to allow a ban was removed, and we need to ask that it be put back in.

Event: Committee Review of House Bill 1277 Assuring Local Control of Oil Gas Regulation

Start: Monday, February 20, 2012 1:30 to 3:30 pm

HB12-1277 expressly reconfirms that local land use regulation of the impacts of oil and gas operations, including fracking, is an important state interest, and that requirements imposed by the COGCC are in addition to NOT instead of local land use permit requirements. Oil and gas operations have to go through city or county permitting processes in which local governments can impose conditions or even reject a permit for fracking wells that do not satisfy local permit requirements.

Click here to view the bill in its entirety

Water, gas continue flowing from Alaska blowout

2012-02-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

Associated Press
Feb 16, 2012

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A blowout at an exploratory well near the coast of the Beaufort Sea underscores the threat to the pristine Arctic Ocean environment if offshore drilling is allowed by the Obama administration, environmental groups said Thursday.

No crude oil spilled onto the tundra and no workers were injured in the incident Wednesday, but an estimated 42,000 gallons of drilling mud was spit out of the well owned by Repsol E&P USA Inc. The blowout on the Colville River Delta, 18 miles northeast of the village of Nuiqsut, also expelled natural gas that could have ignited.

"What it shows is that there can be blowouts with exploratory wells hitting pockets of gas," said Pamela Miller of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center in Fairbanks.

Lois Epstein of The Wilderness Society in Anchorage said the well was drilled by an experienced company whose plans were reviewed by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

"What this shows, and this is not the first time, is that drilling is a dirty and complicated business and that accidents happen, even to the best of companies, even with the best of oversight," she said. "What that tells me as someone who is working to find the right balance between drilling and protection is that you've got to recognize that certain areas, if you're going to allow drilling, there are going to be problems, and therefore the most sensitive areas need to be protected from drilling."

Water and small amounts of gas continued to flow from the well Thursday, said Cathy Foerster, one of three members of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The commission oversees drilling for worker safety, environmental protection and petroleum conservation.

Workers must wait for gas to completely clear before starting machinery that can be used to regain control of the well, she said.

The cause of the incident has not been determined, Foerster said, but the commission will investigate.

The incident began when Repsol's contractor, Nabors Drilling, penetrated a shallow gas pocket at 2,535 feet. The release of pressure resulted in a gas kick that sent drilling mud spewing out of the hole.

Drilling mud, also called drilling fluid, is used to lubricate the drill shaft, cool the hole and carry cut rock to the surface. It's also used to apply downward pressure on gas or liquids that could flow upward.

"The drilling fluid that they had in the hole should have been adequate for what they were expecting to encounter," Foerster said. "We need to understand why it wasn't, and that will be part of our investigation."

Workers tried killing the well by pumping more fluid down the borehole. That mud also was blown out.

House passes Keystone bill, Senate action uncertain

2012-02-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

REUTERS
FEB 16,2012

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives passed an energy bill on Thursday that would wrest control of a permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline away from President Barack Obama, who has put the project on hold.

The bill, part of a broader House Republican effort to fund highways and infrastructure projects, would also expand offshore oil drilling and open up parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

While approval of the Keystone measure by the House was widely expected, what happens with a similar proposal in the Democratic-controlled Senate is not yet clear.

Senate leaders were still negotiating on Thursday whether to allow a vote on Keystone as part of debate on a highway funding legislation, said Senator John Hoeven, a Republican from North Dakota who has been a key advocate for the $7 billion Canada-to-Texas project.

"I think on the merits we're going to get it done. I don't know when. I hope in the highway bill, but if not, we'll stick with it," Hoeven told Reuters.

Hoeven developed legislation that would see Congress grant TransCanada a permit for the project, and filed the bill as an amendment to the highway funding package.

PUMP PRICES SURGE

Republicans have seized upon the Canadian oil pipeline as a way to criticize Obama for his job creation and energy policies in the 2012 election race.

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Senate Bill 12-088 DEFEATED 4-1

2012-02-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

Senate Bill 12-088

Senator Harvey

The Colorado Senate has proposed SB088 wherein they propose to preempt all local County control to regulate the oil and gas industry. This means that the COGCC alone will be in charge of all oil and gas operations. Without local control, their are no protections for the citizens that are affected by oil and gas.

This means that control over the setback distances, drilling spacing units, storage/disposal of carcinogenic waste water, the depletion of underground water supplies, the contamination of underground water supplies, the flaring of carcinogenic gas from wells, the traffic as well as the general impact on human and animal health, property values and quality of life will reside only in the hands of the State bureaucrats. The COGCC does not have a mission to protect landowners and residents.

Urge your state legislators to reject SB088 and replace it with a bill that grants local authority the power to regulate over the COGCC.

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This Senate Bill was one of the most ridiculous bills ever introduced in Colorado! Senator Harvey, you should be ashamed of yourself!

Thank you to all the Twitter friends out there for your 1,000 lightning fast signatures!! YOU ROCK!

To Preserve Our Rights, We Must Stand Up For Them - Josh Fox

2012-02-15T17:31:00.000-08:00

by Josh Fox
February 15, 2012

This morning, the charge of "unlawful entry" brought against me was dismissed without condition. The US Attorney dropped the case, finding it baseless and without merit. Although this is a personal victory and I am very grateful and relieved at the US Attorney's decision, it serves as a painful reminder that we do not have rights unless we exercise them .

On February 1st, I was arrested, briefly jailed, and charged with "unlawful entry" for attempting to film a public hearing in the Science, Space and Technology committee. I did not enter unlawfully, I lined up outside just as everyone else did and walked in when the room opened. I set up my tripod and camera where cameras normally are set up in that particular hearing room and I was calm and peaceful. I did not disrupt the hearing nor did I intend to do so. I believed I was within my first amendment rights, as a journalist and filmmaker. I was reporting on a case that is intensely personal to me, that I have been following for 3 years.

The House had convened a hearing in the House Energy and Environment subcommittee to challenge EPAs findings that hydraulic fracturing fluids had contaminated groundwater in the town of Pavillion, Wyoming. I have a long history with the town of Pavillion and its residents who have maintained since 2008 that fracking has contaminated their water supply. I featured the stories of residents John Fenton, Louis Meeks and Jeff Locker in GASLAND and I have continued to document the catastrophic water contamination in Pavillion for the upcoming sequel GASLAND 2. It was clear that Republican leadership, including Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland, who ordered my arrest, was using this hearing to attack the three year Region 8 EPA investigation involving hundreds of samples and extensive water testing which ruled that Pavillion’s groundwater was a health hazard, contaminated by benzene at 50x the safe level and numerous other contaminants associated with gas drilling. Most importantly, EPA stated in this case that fracking was the likely cause.

When I was being led out of Congress in handcuffs, Representative Paul Tonko, Democracy of New York shouted out "This is the People's House!" in disgust. Representative Brad Miller of North Carolina, moved to suspend the rules so that we could continue to film the proceedings stating "All god's children should be allowed to film this hearing!" It was a surreal moment. Later that day, Congressman Maurice Hinchey would write, "This is blatant censorship and a shameful stain on this Congress."

But if it is not now the "People's House", it is now, more than ever the "people's media". I was able to watch my own arrest on youtube because members of the audience filmed it and posted their videos. It was the citizen journalism that first documented people lighting their water on fire in gas fracking areas. It was citizen journalism that posted videos of the recent mass arrest of peaceful protestors in New York and in California. The people's media is our system of accountability and transparency and we must continue to practice it.

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In order to preserve our Constitutional Rights we must Occupy them. They are your rights, they are our rights. Collectively, they are the rights of free Americans. Do not let anyone take away your rights, no matter what they cost.

Please forward Josh's request(s) to everyone who appreciates the freedoms our country was founded upon.

Stop the preemption of local control over oil and gas - Please sign the petition and RT everywhere (only 12 hours left!)

2012-02-15T16:16:00.000-08:00

The Colorado Senate has proposed SB088 wherein they propose to preempt all local County control to regulate the oil and gas industry. This means that the COGCC alone will be in charge of all oil and gas operations. Without local control, their are no protections for the citizens that are affected by oil and gas.

This means that control over the setback distances, drilling spacing units, storage/disposal of carcinogenic waste water, the depletion of underground water supplies, the contamination of underground water supplies, the flaring of carcinogenic gas from wells, the traffic as well as the general impact on human and animal health, property values and quality of life will reside only in the hands of the State bureaucrats. The COGCC does not have a mission to protect landowners and residents.

Urge your state legislators to reject SB088 and replace it with a bill that grants local authority the power to regulate over the COGCC.

Please reject this bill and replace it with a proactive bill that gives alll surface property control to the Counties.

SIGN PETITION HERE PLEASE (only takes 15 seconds)

Please help by sending this to all of your friends.

Basically the oil and gas industry wishes to force communistic rule on all cities and frack everyone's lives but their own.

Congressman Introduces Bills To Stop US Natgas Exports

2012-02-14T20:19:00.000-08:00

PlanetArk.org
Date: 15-Feb-12
Country: USA
Author: Roberta Rampton

The United States should stop exports of natural gas to prevent domestic prices from rising, Democratic Congressman Edward Markey said on Tuesday while introducing two bills in the House of Representatives to prevent shipments.

The bills, which would face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House, come as U.S. regulators consider applications for exports of a glut of natural gas that has weighed down prices and caused some companies to step back from drilling.

One of the bills from Markey, an outspoken critic of the oil and gas industry, would prevent the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission from approving any natural gas export terminals until 2025.
The other bill would prevent exports of natural gas drilled on federal lands, and would ban pipelines crossing federal lands from carrying natural gas destined for export. It was cosponsored by Rush Holt, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey.

"Low natural gas prices are a competitive advantage for American businesses and a relief for American families, and exporting our natural gas would eliminate our economic edge and impose new costs on consumers,"

...Markey said in a statement.

Front-month March natural gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange were trading around $2.50 per million British thermal units on Tuesday, rising from a 10-year low of $2.231 hit in late January that forced some producers to announce drilling cuts.

Markey has also tried to block exports of oil that would be carried by TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline, but has so far been rebuffed in the House.

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Chesapeake Energy is in a bind - Another oil & gas welfare recipient?

2012-02-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

Christopher Helman
Forbes Staff
2/12/2012

Billionaire Wildcatter, Risk Addict Aubrey McClendon Has Bet It All On Shale

The company says it aims to raise $2 billion by spinning off assets from its service company and pipeline division. It expects another $2 billion from upfront sales of future flows from gas fields. And it earmarks another $6 billion or so from the sale of its largely undeveloped acreage in the oil-rich Permian basin. And for good measure, it will raise another $1 billion by issuing more senior debt. The $10-12 billion it hopes to raise is “substantially in excess of the difference between the company’s expected cash flow from operations and its planned capital expenditures.” Gosh I should hope so. Analyst Arun Jayaram at Credit Suisse pegs Chesapeake’s 2012 cash hole at $6 billion.

But with natural gas prices already at decade-long lows and set to go even lower in the months ahead, there’s no telling whether even Aubrey McClendon‘s legendary financial finagling will be able to save the day.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Chesapeake Energy is in a bind. It’s the second-biggest natural gas producer in the country after ExxonMobil. But with natgas prices having fallen to their lowest levels in a decade ($2.40 per thousands cubic feet), Chesapeake isn’t generating enough cash.

Chesapeake has curtailed its drilling in some plays, and in January said it would shut in production of marginal gas fields. But the company has $10 billion in debt to service and is obligated to keep drilling wells on newer oil and gas leases in order to hold the land. Over the course of 2012, if gas prices were to stay where they are now, Chesapeake would face a cash shortfall of several billion dollars.

A gift for financial engineering is part of the genius of Chesapeake Energy Chief Aubrey McClendon. For years he has driven Chesapeake hard and fast to gobble up oil and gas acreage across the country. To keep his land machine running, McClendon has continuously raised more cash from joint ventures, spin offs and by issuing debt. This wouldn’t have been a problem if gas prices just cooperated by staying around $5 or $6 per thousand cubic feet. Yet Chesapeake and other drillers have found so much new gas that what used to look like a bonanza has now turned into a glut.

A couple years ago McClendon redirected Chesapeake to focus on oily, liquids-rich plays. First the Eagle Ford shale, then newer areas like the Mississippi Lime and Permian Basin. The idea was that while gas prices were low, the cash flow from the higher-value liquids would be enough to keep Chesapeake solvent.

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Say NO to oil and gas welfare and YES to small business loans.

Two people dead…contaminated water after fracking

2012-02-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

Barnett Shale Hell
Feb 12, 2012

The Butler County story is extremely sad…..Kim McEvoy wrote her governor

“Since the fracking and flaring have begun, the air quality has deteriorated. We can’t play outside without getting a headache or a sore throat”

Kim’s neighbor, Janet McIntyre, reported……

”One man died just over a week ago.” she said “Mr. Dennis Peterson, 49, had reported last September that he had ‘rashes all over his body,’ and he was diagnosed with leukemia by December.”

Half way through the story, you are prompted to click on the related story where one of Janet’s three dogs died. Her other two dogs refused to drink the water and are still alive. But before the graphic details of the death of Janet’s dog she reported, “Before they (Janet’s daughter) were allowed to complete the adoption process, they were required to have their well water tested. Results from a 2004 test showed their water was in good condition.”

”On the evening of January 23, 2011, Janet and her family (including her two grown children and grandchildren) had dinner together, the meal having been prepared using tap water pumped from her well.

In the middle of the night, Janet received a frantic call from her daughter whose nine-month old baby was projectile vomiting and had diarrhea running out of her diaper and down her legs.

By the next day, Janet and her husband woke up feeling ill and started projectile vomiting as well.

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Gas drilling destroying Pennsylvania forests

2012-02-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

CollegianOnline
By Nathan Pipenberg
Collegian Columnist
Feb 8, 2012

If you listen to the natural gas industry’s talking points, what they have to say about the impact of gas drilling paints a nice picture. Natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels, making it the perfect fuel to transition into greener energy sources. Drilling sites are small and non-invasive, since after initial construction the forest can replenish itself. I imagine a small well sitting atop a mountain, surrounded by trees.

Then my eyes snap open and I adjust to reality again — the reality that gas drilling is destroying our state forests.

This past weekend, a friend and I took a trip up to Waterville, a small town in Lycoming County, to see this truth first hand.

I had heard from other hikers that the miles of trails near Waterville are some of the most depressing around because they’re located right on top of the Marcellus Shale formation and are a hot spot for gas drilling.

They were right.

We hiked about three miles, and afterward drove another 10 miles on public forest roads in the area. Over this short distance, we saw three well sites on the mountaintops and two pipelines cutting directly back into the valley.

From the moment we stepped out of our car at the base of the mountain, we could already hear what we would see at the top — engines revving, pipes being laid and beeps emanating from machines being put into reverse. It sounded like a highway was being constructed on the mountain top.
During our hike, we walked directly past a gas pad we found cutting across a public access hiking trail. I took photos from the trail, proving what the gas companies don’t want us to know. The fact is, each well pad resembles a small town. The mountain tops are clear cut, paved with tons of gravel and inhabited by dozens of trucks, bulldozers and storage containers the size of freight cars.

I snapped a shot of the well permit. The pad was built by Anadarko, the same energy giant which recently doled out $4 billion to pay for its involvement in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, according to a company press release.

We left when a security guard approached us and told us to put away the camera.

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We would like to kindly remind the public the definition of 'Santorum'

2012-02-10T13:46:00.000-08:00

"Liberal politicians and green groups are exaggerating the dangers of hydraulic fracturing to scare people and raise money, Rick Santorum said Thursday in a wide-ranging rant against environmental activists"

Continue to article...

We would like to kindly remind the public the definition of 'Santorum'. If you are offended, we apologize to you, but not Santorum. Go ahead, GOOGLE 'Santorum.'

Definition: Santorum

Oil mergers, acquisitions total $9.9 billion in region last year

2012-02-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

By Mark Jaffe
The Denver Post
2/9/2012

The prospect of large oil reserves in Rocky Mountain shale and tight-sands formations generated nearly $10 billion in merger- and-acquisition deals in the region in 2011, according to two studies released Wednesday.

The $9.9 billion in deals represents a 32 percent increase over 2010, according to a study by accounting and consulting firm De- loitte LLP.

"It is clear people are really focused on these oil-rich plays," said Roger Ihne, Deloitte's Mid-Americas portfolio leader.

The biggest draw in the region is the Niobrara shale formation, which stretches from El Paso County into Wyoming, said Pete Stark, a vice president with consultant IHS.

"The little guys and some larger independents developed the resource," Stark said. "They 'derisked' the play. Now the big companies with resources to develop hundreds or thousands of wells move in."

Denver and Colorado will be a focal point in that development, according to consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"Rocky Mountain deals were of particular focus for many energy companies throughout 2011," Rowena Cipriano-Reyes, a Denver-based PwC partner, said in a statement.

"With Colorado's geographical convenience and proximity to booming oil and gas markets, companies will remain drawn to this region in 2012," Cipriano-Reyes said.

In 2011, there were 191 deals nationally with values greater than $50 million, accounting for $186.5 billion — a 35 percent increase over 2010, according to PwC.

Union Pacific Railroad Company to pay $1.5 million for Clean Water Act violations in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming

2012-02-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

Source: EPA

Company cited for oil and coal spills, inadequate prevention and planning

Contact Information: Donna Inman (303) 312-6201; Matthew Allen, (303) 312-6085

(Denver, Colo—February 9th, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced a settlement with Union Pacific Railroad Company regarding alleged violations of the Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act.

This settlement resolves a Clean Water Act enforcement action against Union Pacific that involves continuing operations at 20 rail yards in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as spills of oil and coal in 2003 and 2004 along railroad lines in all three states.

For the railyards, EPA alleges Union Pacific violated EPA’s Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) and Facility Response Plan (FRP) regulations. These regulations are the first line of defense for preventing oil spills and providing immediate containment measures when an oil spill does occur.

“Today we have secured a settlement that will help prevent spills, protect water quality, and improve the safety of Union Pacific’s operations in 20 communities across Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming,” said Jim Martin, EPA regional administrator. “Union Pacific has already begun putting necessary measures in place and we will ensure they continue to do so.”

As part of the settlement, Union Pacific will pay a civil penalty of $1.5 million of which approximately $1.4 million will be deposited into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, a fund used by federal agencies to respond to oil spills. The remaining $100,000 will be deposited in the U.S.

Treasury for the coal spills and stormwater violations. In addition, the settlement requires the company to develop a management and reporting system to ensure compliance with SPCC regulations, FRP regulations, and storm water requirements at 20 rail yards in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Union Pacific must take further actions to control stormwater runoff at the Burnham Rail Yard in Denver, which are anticipated to prevent the discharge of approximately 2,500 pounds of chemical oxygen demand, 50 pounds of nitrate, 11,000 pounds of total suspended solids, and 30 pounds of zinc annually to waters in the Denver area.

This settlement will benefit many communities in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, many of which are disadvantaged, by requiring Union Pacific to install secondary containment to safely store oil and prevent oil spills from leaving its properties. Further, it will require the company to designate an environmental vice-president responsible for complying with oil spill prevention and stormwater control requirements at the 20 railyards. The majority of the 20 locations cited in the settlement are in disadvantaged areas with significant low-income and/ or minority populations.

The complaint alleges the following violations:

· Six oil spills in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming
· Three coal spills in Colorado
· Inadequate SPCC plans and/or inadequate SPCC plan implementation (e.g., inadequate secondary containment) at the following 20 rail yards:
- o Denver 36^thStreet, Burnham, Denver North, East Portal Moffatt Tunnel, Grand Junction, Kremmling, Pueblo, and Rifle, all in Colorado
- o Helper, Ogden, Provo, Roper, Salt Lake City North, and Summit, all in Utah
  - § Also for six rail yards in Utah, failure to provide certifications and reports for storm water pollution prevention plans (SWPPPs) as required by the Utah Multi-Sector General Permit.
o Bill, Buford, Cheyenne, Green River, Laramie, and Rawlins, all in Wyoming
- § Also for the Rawlins, Wyoming rail yard, an inadequate FRP and a failed Government Initiated Unannounced Exercise

For more information on the Clean Water Act, visit EPA's compliance web page: http://www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/cwa/index.html

For more information on Environmental Justice within EPA Region 8 please visit: http://www.epa.gov/region8/ej/index.html

Help EPA protect our nation's land, air and water by reporting violations: http://www.epa.gov/tips/

Lobbyist: Bill threatens local controls on oil & gas - Please sign petition against it - HERE

2012-02-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

John Colson
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO
Feb 5, 2012

But Commissioner Martin says it would maintain the ‘status quo' with industry

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — A bill before the Colorado Legislature is aimed at eliminating any local control over oil and gas activities, according to the Colorado Municipal League, which is opposing the bill.

Introduced by state Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, Senate Bill 88 is before the Senate Local Government Committee, chaired by Sen. Joyce Foster, D-Denver. Its title is “Preempt Local Regulation of Oil and Gas Operations.”

According to a bulletin in the Colorado Municipal League's Jan. 23 Statehouse Report, the bill is “aimed at radically limiting or completely extinguishing local government authority over one class of industrial land use: oil and gas operations.”

Garfield County Commissioner John Martin, however, believes the bill is little more than a restatement of existing law.

“As I read it, local regulations are the ones that would be ‘operational conflicts,'” Martin said. He was referring to existing state law that gives the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) complete jurisdiction over, as Martin termed it, “everything on the pad and underground.”

Local governments, Martin continued, have jurisdiction only over the land-use aspects of the industry, including traffic concerns, air and water quality issues, and the creation of man camps to house employees who work on the drilling rigs and other remote facilities.

“I see it as pretty much the status quo,” Martin said.

But the municipal league and Colorado Counties Inc. (CCI), a lobbying organization for county governments, believe the bill would have serious, negative repercussions if passed.

“It would be devastating,”

said Andy Karsian, legislative supervisor for CCI. “We would undo years of productive relationship-building with the oil and gas industry.”

Continue reading... OR

SIGN PETITION PLEASE HERE

Exclusive: How the Sierra Club Took Millions From the Natural Gas Industry—and Why They Stopped [UPDATE]

2012-02-08T17:50:00.000-08:00

Ecocentric
By Bryan Walsh @bryanwalsh
Feb 2, 2012

Mainstream environmental groups have struggled to find the right line on shale natural gas and the hydraulic fracturing or fracking process. Gas has a much smaller carbon footprint than coal—according to most scientists—and produces far fewer air pollutants. That was enough for many major green groups to give support to gas as a “bridge fuel” to a cleaner energy future—the next best domestic alternative to coal as an electricity source while alternatives like wind and solar scaled up. But for grassroots members of those groups—especially in parts of the country where fracking was already underway—the risk of local pollution wasn’t worth the national and global climate benefits of greater gas consumption, especially as media and scientific attention on the potential threats to water supplies grew. It was a major challenge for environmental leaders: how to balance local concerns about traditional pollution with planet-sized worries over climate change, and how to work with corporate America without being seen as selling out.

Now the biggest and oldest environmental group in the U.S. finds itself caught on the horns of that dilemma. TIME has learned that between 2007 and 2010 the Sierra Club accepted over $25 million in donations from the gas industry, mostly from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy—one of the biggest gas drilling companies in the U.S. and a firm heavily involved in fracking—to help fund the Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. Though the group ended its relationship with Chesapeake in 2010—and the Club says it turned its back on an additional $30 million in promised donations—the news raises concerns about influence industry may have had on the Sierra Club’s independence and its support of natural gas in the past. It’s also sure to anger ordinary members who’ve been uneasy about the Club’s relationship with corporations. “The chapter groups and volunteers depend on the Club to have their back as they fight pollution from any industry, and we need to be unrestrained in our advocacy,” Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director since 2010, told me. “The first rule of advocacy is that you shouldn’t take money from industries and companies you’re trying to change.”

MORE: Could Shale Gas Power the World?

Continue reading...

From Gung-Ho to Uh-Oh: Charting the Government’s Moves on Fracking

2012-02-08T16:40:00.000-08:00

ProPublica
by Lena Groeger
Feb 7, 2012

Fracking has only recently become a household word, but government involvement with the drilling technique goes back decades. President Obama has championed the potential of natural gas drilling combined with more regulation. While there has been mounting evidence of water contamination, few regulations have been implemented. The graphic below traces officials' moves -- and levels of caution -- over time.

1969 The government detonates a 43-kiloton nuclear bomb deep underground in an effort to get at natural gas deposits in Colorado. The gas unlocked by "Project Rusilon" is deemed too radioactive to use.

1976 In response to energy shortages, the DOE launches the Eastern Gas Shales Project, a joint research project between state, federal, and private industrial organizations to research "unconventional" natural gas resources.

1986 As part of an early federal effort to investigate new methods of extracting natural gas, the Department of Energy sponsors the drilling of a 2,000-foot horizontal well in the Devonian shales of Wayne County, WV.

June 2004 An EPA report concludes that fracking is safe for drinking water. The report, which didn't include a scientific study, has since been criticized as politically motivated.

August 2005 Congress passes a law prohibiting the EPA from regulating fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act. In most other cases the law dictates what chemicals can be injected underground.

August 2005 The Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Research Program is established to develop technologies to increase national oil and gas production and reduce dependency on imports.

January 2007 A Bush administration memo effectively loosens the limits on air pollution from many natural gas wells.

June 2009 Congress introduces the FRAC Act, a law that would allow the EPA to regulate fracking and require companies to disclose the chemicals they pump into the ground. The bill never came to a vote.

June 2009 The Department of Energy funds AltaRock, a project to extract renewable energy from hot bedrock by using fracking to drill more than two miles deep. The test, which was the Obama administration's first major geothermal venture, is cancelled quickly due to concerns about causing an earthquake.

August 2009 In response to complaints of drinking water contamination, the EPA begins investigating wells in drilling areas of Pavillion, Wyoming. Initial testing finds at least three water wells that contain a chemical used for fracking.

October 2009 The Obama administration rescinds the 2007 memo that loosened restrictions on air pollution caused by drilling.

DecemberIn a controversial decision, the Bureau of Land Management approves gas drilling within a three mile buffer zone of a radioactive Colorado site, the home of the 1960's nuclear test Project Rusilon.

February 2010 The House Committee on Energy and Commerce launches an investigation into the potential environmental and health impacts of fracking.

March 2010 The EPA launches a study looking at the impacts of fracking on drinking water nationwide. The final report is due out in 2014.

December 2010 The Department of the Interior holds a forum to discuss the impact of current drilling practices and to consider a policy requiring companies to disclose the chemicals they use for fracking. President Obama has spoken in support of such a policy, but no official rules have been implemented.

March 2011 The FRAC Act mandating more oversight is reintroduced into the House and Senate. It is still in committee.

April 2011 Continue to ProPublica to review more...

May 2011

July 2011

October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

Bombshell Study: High Methane Emissions Measured Over Gas Field “May Offset Climate Benefits of Natural Gas”

2012-02-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

ThinkProgress

By Joe Romm on Feb 8, 2012 at 6:29 pm

Air sampling by NOAA over Colorado Finds 4% Methane Leakage, More Than Double Industry Claims

Natural-gas operations could release far more methane into

the atmosphere than previously thought. [Source: Nature]

How much methane leaks during the entire lifecycle of unconventional gas has emerged as a key question in the fracking debate. Natural gas is mostly methane (CH4). And methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than (CO2), which is released when any hydrocarbon, like natural gas, is burned.
Even without a high-leakage rate for shale gas, we know that “Absent a Serious Price for Global Warming Pollution, Natural Gas Is A Bridge To Nowhere.”
But the leakage rate does matter. A major 2011 study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) concluded:

The most important result, however, in accord with the above authors, is that, unless leakage rates for new methane can be kept below 2%, substituting gas for coal is not an effective means for reducing the magnitude of future climate change.

The industry has tended kept most of the data secret while downplaying the leakage issue. Yet I know of no independent analysis that finds a rate below 2%, including one by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the DOE’s premier fossil fuel lab.
Now, as the journal Nature reports, we finally have some actual air sampling measurements, and they appear to confirm the higher estimates put forward by Cornell professor Robert Howarth:

When US government scientists began sampling the air from a tower north of Denver, Colorado, they expected urban smog — but not strong whiffs of what looked like natural gas. They eventually linked the mysterious pollution to a nearby natural-gas field, and their investigation has now produced the first hard evidence that the cleanest-burning fossil fuel might not be much better than coal when it comes to climate change.

Led by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado, Boulder, the study estimates that natural-gas producers in an area known as the Denver-Julesburg Basin are losing about 4% of their gas to the atmosphere — not including additional losses in the pipeline and distribution system. This is more than double the official inventory, but roughly in line with estimates made in 2011 that have been challenged by industry. And because methane is some 25 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, releases of that magnitude could effectively offset the environmental edge that natural gas is said to enjoy over other fossil fuels.

Methane is 25 times more efficient than CO2 trapping heat over 100 year — but it is 100 times more efficient than CO2 trapping heat over two decades.

“If we want natural gas to be the cleanest fossil fuel source, methane emissions have to be reduced,” says Gabrielle Pétron, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA and at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and first author on the study, currently in press at the Journal of Geophysical Research. Emissions will vary depending on the site, but Pétron sees no reason to think that this particular basin is unique. “I think we seriously need to look at natural-gas operations on the national scale.”

Eat this data @TishaSchuller - COGA

Drilling permit moratorium passes - One more down, many more to go

2012-02-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

DentonRC.com
February 8, 2012
By Lowell Brown / Staff Writer

City won’t approve new requests while review continues

Image: WTFrack.org

The Denton City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to impose a moratorium on new gas drilling and production permits, giving the city some breathing room to finish an ongoing ordinance overhaul.

The moratorium will last for 120 days, although the council could extend it if necessary. During that time, city staff members are supposed to complete their review of current drilling regulations and offer recommended changes.

A task force is meeting weekly to review new regulations, and staff members have said they hope to get a draft ordinance to the council in March.

The moratorium applies to new oil and gas well permits as well as applications for specific-use permits, site plans, development plans and plats that relate to mineral production. The moratorium does not apply to applications already on file with the city or to wells associated with previously approved permits or development plans, among other exceptions.

“A moratorium that froze everything in the pipeline would have just delayed some inevitable activity, because there are some approvals that are vested under our current regulations and the new rules wouldn’t have any effect on them,” Gregory said.

Gas industry representatives opposed the moratorium.

Gilbert Horton, representing Devon Energy, said Denton’s regulations were already “extensive and comprehensive.” A moratorium is unnecessary and could threaten Devon’s development plans, he said.

Continue reading...

“We in Denton are opposed to drilling in our city,” he said. “These are our elected officials and they answer to us and not their checks.”

Land of the greed and the home of the knaves

2012-02-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

NYTIMES
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: February 7, 2012

Pennsylvania Senate Passes Compromise Bill on Gas Drilling

HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that would impose a tax on the shale gas industry in exchange for removing many of the barriers to development, a compromise that critics said left municipalities with little control over the use of their own land.

The bill passed the state Senate 31 to 19, after an hour of bitter debate. It had been the subject of controversy for months and was pushed by Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican. It faces a vote in the House later Tuesday, where it is expected to pass.

State and local lawmakers in Pennsylvania have been trying to agree on how to regulate the development of the Marcellus Shale, a giant gas deposit under a large swath of Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. In Pennsylvania, the industry is booming, and those who support the bill say it is high time to streamline government’s approach to it.

Supporters said the bill raised environmental standards by instituting how far the industry has to be from occupied buildings. It also imposes a fee that will rise and fall with the price of natural gas, and which State Senator Joe Scarnati, a Republican who supported the bill, said would bring in over $1 billion in badly needed revenue over the next five years.

“We walked a fine balance,” Mr. Scarnati said. “We have landed in a good spot.”

The only good spot you could land on, is the moon. The set-backs are ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. The stance of all governments should be; Health over Wealth, NOT Wealth over Health. Period. We think that all Senators who voted to approve these minimal setbacks should first have a well pad drilled on their property 300' from their children's bedroom window. We find it appalling that the Senate would 'compromise' the health of the citizens.

Wake up America and take back your Constitutional Rights to clean air, clean water and a clean healthy environment. Many countries all around the globe are practicing this, why can't we? Simple, it's the American Oligarchy that tells us what kind of energy we must eat and at what cost. This is not the land of the free, but rather the land of the greed and the home of the knaves.

‘We the People’ Loses Appeal With People Around the World - 'We the Oligarchy'

2012-02-06T17:21:00.000-08:00

NYTIMES
Adam Liptak
Feb 6, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Constitution has seen better days.

Sure, it is the nation’s founding document and sacred text. And it is the oldest written constitution still in force anywhere in the world. But its influence is waning.

In 1987, on the Constitution’s bicentennial, Time magazine calculated that “of the 170 countries that exist today, more than 160 have written charters modeled directly or indirectly on the U.S. version.”

A quarter-century later, the picture looks very different. “The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere,” according to a new study by David S. Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia.

The study, to be published in June in The New York University Law Review, bristles with data. Its authors coded and analyzed the provisions of 729 constitutions adopted by 188 countries from 1946 to 2006, and they considered 237 variables regarding various rights and ways to enforce them.

“Among the world’s democracies,” Professors Law and Versteeg concluded, “constitutional similarity to the United States has clearly gone into free fall. Over the 1960s and 1970s, democratic constitutions as a whole became more similar to the U.S. Constitution, only to reverse course in the 1980s and 1990s.

“The turn of the twenty-first century, however, saw the beginning of a steep plunge that continues through the most recent years for which we have data, to the point that the constitutions of the world’s democracies are, on average, less similar to the U.S. Constitution now than they were at the end of World War II.”

There are lots of possible reasons. Our Constitution is terse and old, and it guarantees relatively few rights.

please comment

Gas company, lung association team up

2012-02-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Politico.com
By ANNA PALMER and ROBIN BRAVENDER
12/14/11 7:40 PM EST

Chesapeake Energy is a major donor to the lung-health trade group. | AP Photo

A major natural gas company has found itself an ally in the war over clean air regulations — the American Lung Association.

Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy, which bills itself as the No. 2 producer of natural gas in the United States, is a major donor to the lung-health trade group.

Over the years, its contributions have paid for TV ads supporting cleaner air and an environmental education campaign.

The American Lung Association is currently running ads across the country featuring a coughing baby in a carriage next to a dirty power plant and calling for stricter environmental rules for the coal industry.

While nonprofits often take corporate money to help pay the bills, the lung association is catching heat from coal supporters over its cozy relationship with Chesapeake.

“It comes as no surprise that Chesapeake is trying to buy credibility for its lobbying objectives,” said National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich. “But that the ALA would sell its credibility to a gas company should disturb those who still view the ALA as an impartial voice.”

The ads come as the coal industry is at war with the Obama administration over new rules to curb pollution from coal-fired power plants. The EPA is expected to issue new rules on Friday to curb air toxics from power plants, which are estimated to cost industry about $10.9 billion each year.
Stricter rules for power plants are expected to offer a competitive advantage to the cleaner-burning natural gas industry.

To be sure, Chesapeake is using other avenues in Washington to make sure its position is known. The company spent $1.4 million on lobbying during the first nine months of 2011. The energy giant also has hired guns like Bracewell & Giuliani, Chad Bradley & Associates, Delta Strategy Group and the Duberstein Group on retainer and is a member of the trade group America's Natural Gas Alliance.

Continue reading...

Gas masks for all residents; not included...

Save the Colorado River - Please Sign Petition

2012-02-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends of the Colorado River!

Yesterday, Nicholas Kristof, a renowned columnist for the New York Times, wrote a piece about how the online petition organization, Change.org, is changing the world. Take a read of Kristof's editorial by clicking here. Elected officials, companies, and governments at all levels are increasingly paying attention to Change.org's petitions because, as Kristof says, "the Web can turn the world upside down."
We at the Save the Colorado River campaign have been delighted to work with Change.org on two petitions. The first was a successful effort to address the threat of the proposed Flaming Gorge Pipeline. The second -- our current petition -- is working with 25 regional, national, and international environmental organizations to restore water to the Colorado River Delta where it no longer reaches the Gulf of California.

You can read and sign our current petition by clicking HERE:

With Change.org, we are working to protect and restore the Colorado River from the Source To The Sea.

Thank you for your support of the Colorado River!

Gary

-- 
Gary Wockner, PhD
Campaign Coordinator
Save the Colorado
http://savethecolorado.org
http://www.facebook.com/savethecolorado
https://twitter.com/savethecolorado

Lobbyist: Bill threatens local controls on oil & gas

2012-02-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

John Colson
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO
Feb 5 2012

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — A bill before the Colorado Legislature is aimed at eliminating any local control over oil and gas activities, according to the Colorado Municipal League, which is opposing the bill.

Introduced by state Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, Senate Bill 88 is before the Senate Local Government Committee, chaired by Sen. Joyce Foster, D-Denver. Its title is “Preempt Local Regulation of Oil and Gas Operations.”

According to a bulletin in the Colorado Municipal League's Jan. 23 Statehouse Report, the bill is “aimed at radically limiting or completely extinguishing local government authority over one class of industrial land use: oil and gas operations.”

Garfield County Commissioner John Martin, however, believes the bill is little more than a restatement of existing law.

“As I read it, local regulations are the ones that would be ‘operational conflicts,'” Martin said. He was referring to existing state law that gives the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) complete jurisdiction over, as Martin termed it, “everything on the pad and underground.”

Local governments, Martin continued, have jurisdiction only over the land-use aspects of the industry, including traffic concerns, air and water quality issues, and the creation of man camps to house employees who work on the drilling rigs and other remote facilities.

“I see it as pretty much the status quo,” Martin said.

Continue reading...

Longmont considers oil/gas regs, invites public help

2012-02-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

Longmont Times-Call

By Scott Rochat

Posted: 02/04/2012

LONGMONT -- So far as it can tell, Longmont can't stop fracking. But it may be able to set some limits -- with the community's help.

On Monday afternoon, city officials will hold an open house to discuss options for regulating the oil and gas industry, including the controversial practice of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing, a drilling method which reaches deep deposits by creating minute fractures in the rock. After the open house, Longmont's water board, parks board and Board of Environmental Affairs will meet jointly to give their advice.

But there's one tricky area. The regulations all those groups are advising on still don't completely exist. A first draft of the new regulations won't be done until at least Feb. 10, as Longmont's staff feels its way past Colorado Supreme Court decisions, possible legislative action, and the limits set by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state's regulating authority.

"Typically, the city has the land use authority to develop the regulations that they'd like to see, to meet the community's vision," said senior planner Brien Schumacher. "This has been a lot more challenging, trying to balance what the community's goals and vision are with some of the limitations that you have."

So in areas where Longmont wants to regulate -- or even in areas where it already has, back in 2000 -- the city has sometimes run into a state roadblock saying "Thou shalt not." For instance:

Longmont already requires a 350-foot separation between wells and occupied buildings; many people want that widened. Not so fast, the Colorado Supreme Court said in a 2002 case involving Frederick; state "setback" limits reign supreme and a city can't trump them.

If you go

What: Open house to discuss updates to city oil/gas regulations.
When: 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Where: Lobby of City Council chambers, 350 Kimbark St.
What's Next?: Joint city board meeting on same topic, 7 p.m. Monday, at council chambers. The council has asked for new regulations to be drafted and approved before an oil/gas permit moratorium ends April 17.
More Information: Call Brien Schumacher at 303-651-8764. or go online to ci.longmont.co.us/pwwu/oil_gas/.

Continue reading...

Judge: Halliburton cement specialist can testify

2012-02-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

Associated Press –
Fri, Feb 3, 2012

UPI/U.S. Coast Guard

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal judge will allow a Halliburton cement specialist at the heart of decisions that led to the blowout of a BP-owned well in 2010 to testify — against the wishes of BP.

Jesse Gagliano, who worked on the well's cementing job, was interviewed by a congressional committee and testified before a government panel probing the disaster.

But in May 2011, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to be questioned under oath for the litigation. He has been identified as a possible subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation of the disaster.

On Jan. 13, Gagliano agreed to be questioned by civil attorneys.

BP argued against letting Gagliano testify so close to the trial, claiming it would give Halliburton a strategic advantage.

Continue reading...

Fracking opponent seeks amendments - Voters could decide on water in natural streams

2012-02-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

DailyCamera

By Catherine Tsai

Associated Press

Posted: 02/04/2012

Illustration: ddsnorth ™

DENVER -- An opponent of hydraulic fracturing south of Denver is leading an effort to have voters decide on two proposals that critics say would change the way Colorado has handled water rights since 1876.

The Colorado Constitution says unappropriated water in natural streams is public property, but water can be diverted for beneficial uses. It then outlines the state's "first come, first serve" approach to having water users with older, or senior water rights take what they're due from limited rivers or streams before those with junior water rights.

Denver-area resident Phillip Doe has proposed amending the constitution to highlight the clause saying streams are public property -- and making the public ownership legally superior to longstanding water rights, contracts or property law. A related proposal would spell out in the constitution that water rights can be constricted to prohibit uses that would harm the public's ownership in the water, and water that goes back into rivers would have to be returned unimpaired.

"It reaffirms and reasserts that the public of Colorado owns the water, and the state has an obligation to protect the public's interests," said attorney Richard Hamilton, who is working with Doe.

But State Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, said ballot proposals 3 and 45 would turn the way Colorado handles water upside-down.

"It's the most devastating thing that could happen to the state of Colorado," said Sonnenberg, a farmer and rancher.

#WTFrack

Colorado May Restrict Shale Fracturing at Former Bombing Range

2012-02-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg.com
By Jennifer Oldham -
Feb 3, 2012

Proposed drilling on a former bombing range that contains unexploded munitions and a landfill promptedColorado lawmakers this week to introduce a bill that would require rules for fracking near toxic-waste sites.

“This is quite immediately a public health and safety issue,” said State Senator Morgan Carroll, a Democrat who co-sponsored the measure. “The room for error here is limited.”
With the measure, Colorado joins other states, includingWest Virginia, New York and Ohio, seeking to regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which sand, water and chemicals are forced into rock under pressure, cracking it and releasing oil and natural gas.

In January, the Colorado State Land Board signed a tentative $137 million agreement with ConocoPhillips to lease oil and gas resources underneath 21,048 acres on the bombing range, said Davy Kong, a ConocoPhillips (COP) spokeswoman.

The Niobrara Shale formation extends from southeasternWyoming through northeastern Colorado and underneath the range, which is partly held in trust by the land board and includes the Aurora Reservoir, which provides recreation and drinking water for nearby residents.

There are 4,000 unexploded munitions on the former Lowry Bombing and Gunnery Range, which was used by the U.S. Army during World War II, Carroll said, as well as a landfill listed under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund toxic-waste cleanup program because of contaminated ground water.

Continue reading...

Sierra Club - Coming clean, returns $26 million to oil and gas

2012-02-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

February 2, 2012

The Sierra Club and Natural Gas

Follow me on Twitter andFacebook.

Have you ever had to turn away millions of dollars? It sounds crazy, but here's why the Sierra Club chose to do exactly that.

In 2010, soon after I became the organization's executive director, I learned that beginning in 2007 the Sierra Club had received more than $26 million from individuals or subsidiaries of Chesapeake Energy, one of the country's largest natural gas companies. At the same time I learned about the donation, we at the Club were also hearing from scientists and from local Club chapters about the risks that natural gas drilling posed to our air, water, climate, and people in their communities. We cannot accept money from an industry we need to change. Very quickly, the board of directors, with my strong encouragement, cut off these donations and rewrote our gift acceptance policy. Let me tell you how it came about.

In the fall of 2005, Sierra Club staff and volunteer leaders agreed to make the enormous challenge of climate disruption the Club's highest priority. By that time, we had already begun to have great success with our Beyond Coal campaign, which had started in 2002, and which had already stopped the construction of several dozen new coal-fired power plants.

This Beyond Coal initiative has continued to have unparalleled success working with literally hundreds of other organizations, small and large, and using grassroots power to stop more than 160 new coal plants and prevent 500 million tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere. Sierra Club activists are now fighting Big Coal pollution in all 50 states and on college campuses nationwide. Today, the Sierra Club is not just focusing on stopping new plants from being built but is also accelerating efforts to retire old and dirty coal plants nationwide.

As this campaign was gearing up, the Sierra Club board of directors, working with the best science at the time and with extensive input from staff and volunteers, determined that natural gas, while far from ideal as a fuel source, might play a necessary role in helping us reach the clean energy future our children deserve. It was also during this time, in 2007, that the first contributions to the Sierra Club were made from entities or individuals associated with Chesapeake Energy. The idea was that we shared at least one common purpose -- to move our country away from dirty coal.

The big challenge, however, is what follows coal. How do we keep the lights on as we move quickly to an economy powered by clean, renewable energy? During the period that the Sierra Club first started receiving donations, several of our local chapters were becoming increasingly alarmed by dangerous and disruptive natural gas industry practices in their communities -- particularly horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a technique where millions of gallons of water, laced with other ingredients (including, often, toxic chemicals) are pumped into rock to release gas deposits. Gradually, more and more legitimate questions were raised about the risks that fracking poses to our air, water, communities, and indeed our climate.

By the time I assumed leadership of the Club in March 2010, our view of natural gas had changed -- so I made sure our policy did, too. We created a strong natural gas campaign comprised of staff and volunteer leaders. Some chapters sought to establish tough safeguards at the state and federal level to protect their air and water; others sought to suspend fracking completely until those standards were in place. By mid-August 2010, with gas industry practices and our policies increasingly in conflict, I recommended to the Board, and it agreed, to end the funding relationship between the Club and the gas industry, and all fossil fuel companies or executives.

Our position today could not be more clear: We still need to move America beyond coal, as quickly as we can while taking care of the workers in the mines and at coal-burning utilities. And as we retire these coal plants, we'll need to replace them with as much clean energy as we possibly can. In the process, we'll use as little gas as possible and work to ensure that the gas that is used is produced as responsibly as possible.

It's time to stop thinking of natural gas as a "kinder, gentler" energy source. What's more, we do not have an effective regulatory system in this country to address the risks that gas drilling poses on our health and communities. The scope of the problems from under-regulated drilling, as well as a clearer understanding of the total carbon pollution that results from both drilling and burning gas, have made it plain that, as we phase out coal, we need to leapfrog over gas whenever possible in favor of truly clean energy. Instead of rushing to see how quickly we can extract natural gas, we should be focusing on how to be sure we are using less -- and safeguarding our health and environment in the meantime.

The Sierra Club opposes any natural gas development that poses unacceptable toxic risks to our land, water, and air. We insist that the volume and content of all fracking fluids and flowback should be disclosed, and that all toxics should be eliminated. There should be proper treatment, management, and disposal of both fracking fluids and toxic flowback. Fracking should not be permitted unless it can be demonstrated that drinking water is protected and that all cumulative impacts can be mitigated. And, of course, many beautiful areas and important watersheds across this country should be off-limits to drilling.

Exempting the natural gas industry from environmental protections was a terrible idea. It looks even dumber today, when the real risks that natural gas drilling poses to water supplies and critical watersheds are that much more apparent.

Ultimately, the only safe, smart, and responsible way to address our nation's energy needs is to look beyond coal, oil, and gas, and focus on clean, efficient energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal. It's clear to countries around the world that the most successful 21st-century economies will be based on using energy that is safe, secure, and sustainable. Let's get to work building that economy right here at home.

Michael Brune is the Sierra Club's executive director.
Sierra Club85 2nd St.
San Francisco, CA 94105
michael.brune@sierraclub.org

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It's about time Sierra Club wash their hands from fossil fuels and special interest money. Grassroots is where it's at, and the people have left Sierra Club membership en masse at times because they felt you left them. Sierra Club needs to get back to its grassroots efforts and not only look at 'Beyond Coal', but rather 'Beyond Fossil Fules' completely! We challenge the Sierra Club to get up to speed as this fracking thing has been under your nose and ignored for far too long. If you want the people to believe you, then do something.

Gulf oil spill still leaking after 7 years subject of lawsuit - Clean Water Act

2012-02-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

By msnbc.com staff and news services

Waterkeeper Alliance says this image was taken on Dec. 30, 2011, and shows an oil sheen from the Taylor Energy

platform that was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Environmental groups on Thursday sued an oil company over the pace of its cleanup of a Gulf of Mexico spill that continues seven years after it was triggered by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

"The plaintiffs filed suit to stop the spill and lift the veil of secrecy surrounding Taylor oil’s seven-year-long response and recovery operation," Marc Yaggi, executive director of Waterkeeper Alliance, said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in New Orleans. "Neither the government nor Taylor will answer basic questions related to the spill response, citing privacy concerns."

Justin Bloom, a Waterkeeper Alliance director, told msnbc.com that the group had made Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation "and ultimately the Coast Guard has refused to provide us documents citing the Privacy Act."

The groups allege that Taylor Energy, based in New Orleans, has violated the Clean Water Act provisions that require public participation in any enforcement of the law.

Continue reading...

New Oil Shale Plan Limits Western Research Land

2012-02-03T19:35:00.000-08:00

CBSLOCAL
February 3, 2012

DENVER (AP) — The federal government’s new plan for oil shale development on public lands would keep activity off thousands of acres of environmentally sensitive areas, with new leases initially being issued strictly for research on how to commercially produce oil from oil shale in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.

The George W. Bush administration had made almost 2 million acres available for potential oil shale development and 431,000 acres for tar sands development, but federal officials took a new look after conservation groups filed a lawsuit in 2009 alleging the government hadn’t fully reviewed possible environmental impacts.

A new draft environmental impact statement released Friday says the preferred plan now is to make 35,308 acres in Colorado, 252,181 acres in Utah, and 174,476 acres in Wyoming available for oil shale research. Also, 91,045 acres in eastern Utah would be available for activities related to tar sands.

Together, the total is around a half million acres. Areas with wilderness characteristics, core sage grouse habitat, areas of critical environmental concern, and the Adobe Town area in Wyoming are among those that would be off limits.

The public has until May 4 to comment on the proposal.

The Bureau of Land Management estimates the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming has 1.2 to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil resources, but not all may be recoverable.

Getting petroleum-like substances out of oil shale, which is first mined, is tougher than pumping oil out of traditional wells, and companies haven’t found an economic way to do it in the U.S.
Oil shale contains kerogen, which must be subjected to temperatures of more than 750 degrees before it can produce oil. Studies have indicated up to about 500 gallons of water may be needed to produce one barrel of oil from it, which could be an issue in the dry West, the Government Accountability Office has said.

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Boulder County imposes moratorium on oil, gas drilling

2012-02-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Times Call

By John Fryar

Posted: 02/02/2012

BOULDER -- Boulder County commissioners on Thursday imposed a temporary moratorium on accepting and processing new applications for oil and gas drilling operations in any unincorporated areas of the county.

The six-month moratorium, which took effect immediately and is to remain in place until Aug. 2, is intended to give the county staff time to study the adequacy of Boulder County's current land use regulations as they apply to oil and gas development, and to propose possible amendments to those existing local rules.

"I think we all agree that we have some sense of urgency around this," said Commissioner Deb Gardner, who said the time-out on processing new drilling applications is needed to make sure Boulder County is doing everything a local government legally can do, in "protecting the people and the environment."

Gardner and Commissioners Cindy Domenico and Will Toor unanimously voted Thursday to adopt a resolution imposing the temporary moratorium resolution and to tentatively set a March 1 public hearing on the issues associated with oil and gas drilling, particularly those involving the potential impacts of horizontal drilling and of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" -- the process of injecting a mixture of sand, water and chemicals into rock formations in order to free up hard-to-reach oil and natural gas deposits.

"This is a time to take a breath and step back," said Domenico, chairwoman of the Board of County Commissioners.

Continue rading...

Fixing the Perfect Storm on the Colorado River

2012-02-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

Huffington Post
Gary Wockner
Posted: 01/31/2012

"Fix your eyes on perfection and you can make almost everything speed towards it." -- William Ellery Channing

Over five trillion gallons -- that's how much water is drained out of the Colorado River every year leaving it bone stinkin' dry.

I know, I was there.

A couple months ago I stood in the sand about 75 miles south of Mexicali, Mexico and scanned the horizon -- sand and barren dirt as far as the eye could see. It's a startling sight, not so much for what you see, but for what you don't. Many decades ago that scene was one of the largest wetlands in North America, nearly two million acres of water and grass and one of the largest desert migratory bird oases on the planet.

We humans, busy as beavers, have dammed, diverted, and drained the Colorado River until there ain't nothing left. The river starts high in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, but just feet away from its headwaters also starts the dams and diversions. Of the five trillion gallons, cities and farms in the U.S. take the vast majority of it. A small portion, 10 percent, still flows into Mexico, but then is quickly diverted for cities and farms south of the border.

Continue reading...

Primetime protest against fracking gets activists booted out of Winter X Games

2012-02-01T11:06:00.000-08:00

Colorado Independent
By Troy Hooper
Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Anti-drilling demonstrators make a statement

as snowboarder Shaun White flies by. (Photo by Eric Allen)

Aspen — A revolt against hydraulic fracturing in Colorado went worldwide Sunday night as a group of self-described “fractivists” flashed anti-drilling signs along the superpipe of the Winter X Games.

About a dozen local twenty-somethings waved signs reading “Keep Our Water Pure,” “Rig Free For You And Me” and “Stop Frac’ing Colo” that television cameras carried live when Shaun White twisted and tumbled through the air on his way to his fifth consecutive men’s snowboard superpipe victory.

The ESPN Winter X Games provided an ideal venue, the activists said, to educate an extremely large and youthful crowd about fracking — a method of extracting natural gas and oil by breaking rocks with a pressurized mixture of fluids. The protestors specifically sought to raise awareness of the threat of drilling in the nearby roadless area of Thompson Divide and energy plays on the other side of the Elk Mountains in the North Fork Valley.

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Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid

2012-02-01T10:33:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg Businessweek
Feb 01, 2012

By Mark Niquette

Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The millions of gallons of chemical- laced wastewater that fracking produces must flow somewhere, and Ohio is trying not to be that place.

The oil and natural-gas drilling boom spurred more permits for disposal wells there during the past two years than during the previous decade combined. The volume injected into them was on a near-record pace last year, according to the Department of Natural Resources, and more than half was from out of state. That included 92.6 percent of the water sent to a Youngstown well closed last year after 11 nearby earthquakes.

“We have become in Ohio the dumping ground for contaminated brine,”

state Representative Armond Budish, the House Democratic leader, said at a Jan. 26 forum in Columbus. “We didn’t prepare adequately for the potential for earthquakes and other environmental problems.”

Now, Ohio is considering tightening regulations governing wells in response to the temblors and seeking to stem out-of- state fluid shipments. It’s an example of the challenges U.S. states face as they try to enjoy hydraulic fracturing’s economic boost while avoiding its side effects.

Ohio’s situation highlights the tradeoff that may come with the technique of using chemical-laced water to bring forth natural gas and oil, said Glen Andersen, energy program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver. While states benefit from investment by companies including Chesapeake Energy Corp., Halliburton Co. and Vallourec SA, they also may contend with roads damaged by heavy equipment and concerns about polluted drinking water, he said.

Negotiating the Constitution

“It doesn’t necessarily mean there needs to be this tradeoff with environment versus energy extraction,”

Andersen said in a telephone interview. “It really comes down to the degree to which it’s regulated and whether those regulations are enforced.”

In Ohio, companies pay to operate disposal wells after they have been approved by the state, and brine haulers hired by drillers pay the companies to inject the fluid. The well owners pay a disposal fee to the state of 5 cents per barrel for brine originating in the state and 20 cents for out-of-state wastewater, according to the Ohio Natural Resources Department.

Republican Governor John Kasich said that while he’s not happy about the increasing volume of wastewater from neighboring states, the U.S. Constitution prohibits interference with shipments. He declined to speculate about what might be done.

Soaking It Up

“When people are using our things, and they could disrupt our ability to have progress here, we have to be concerned about it,” Kasich said in an interview in Columbus on Jan. 26. “We’re thinking about what we can do and not violate the interstate commerce clause.”

David Neslin, Colorado's chief oil and gas regulator, stepping down

2012-02-01T10:21:00.000-08:00

Denver Business Journal
by Cathy Proctor, Reporter
Wednesday, February 1, 2012

David Neslin, head of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) since 2007, said Wednesday he is leaving to become a partner at Denver law firm Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP starting March 1.

Neslin oversaw the agency charged with regulating Colorado's $24 billion-a-year oil and gas industry. The agency has a staff of 60, up from 54 in 2008, and an annual budget of about $9 million a year.

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Sorry to see you leave Dave. You were our Saturday Night Live Special, the Guv's puppet, the industries girlfriend. How can we live without you? You leaving is pure strategy. When you are up to your gas mask in resistance, you know it's time to shed that weight and allow another person to hold the elephant. We welcome the 'noob', whomever it is.

Josh Fox arrested at hearing

2012-02-01T09:53:00.000-08:00

POLITICO
By TALIA BUFORD | 2/1/12

Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Josh Fox was arrested Wednesday morning after attempting to film a House Science Committee hearing on hydraulic fracturing.

Fox was led out in handcuffs by the Capitol police shortly after 10 a.m., before the hearing could be gaveled into order. The "Gasland" director was attempting to film the hearing looking into EPA's investigation of potential water contamination from natural gas drilling in Pavillion, Wyo

"I'm within my First Amendment rights, and I'm being taken out," Fox shouted as he was led away.

Fox has been charged with unlawful entry, according to Capitol police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.

Fox is working on a sequel to his Oscar-nominated "Gasland."

An ABC news crew was also turned away from... Continue reading...

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We are continually amazed that this country is called "The land of the free, home of the brave." We think it's more the latter. Our brother Josh will prevail. We have no doubt.

Tanker Truck Rolls, Spills Substance Similar To Fracking Fluid

2012-01-31T17:51:00.000-08:00

CBSDENVER
January 31, 2012

An image from the rollover (credit: CBS)

COLLBRAN, Colo. (CBS4) – Investigators are checking for environmental impacts after a tanker truck rolled in Mesa County.

Several gallons of a substance similar to fracking fluid spilled out. It happened Monday afternoon near the town of Collbran on Buzzard Creek Road near Kimble Creek Road.

Fire crews say the truck was carrying 110 barrels of “production water,” which is very similar to fracking fluid.

Continue reading...

Why did Cheney make gas drilling exempt from the Clean Air and Water Acts. This is why! (VIDEO)

2012-01-30T23:03:00.000-08:00

Source: unknown

To White House January 28, 2012

Why did Cheney make gas drilling exempt from the Clean Air and Water Acts. This is why!

Carl Stiles of Bradford County, PA passed away yesterday. He had been fighting health issues ever since finding high levels of barium and arsenic in their well water, and fought hard and suffered much in the last 2 years, has lost the fight tonight. Stiles had intestinal cancer which he blames on Chesapeake’s gas drilling. He and his wife abandoned their home last November at the urging of a toxicologist who found barium, arsenic, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) in Carl’s blood. Strontium, uranium and radium were found in their water. They were told to expect to get leukemia within two years. Carl did not have that long.

Your inclusion of shale gas as a panacea for all our woes in the State of the Union speech was reckless and ignorant. You will cause the death of thousands soon and millions down the road if you do not immediately stop this insane process.

There is no reason for it except greed. With a bit of patience, common sense and true concern for the well being of our people, we can follow Germany's example and get off poisonous fuels- nuclear and fossil fossil - forever.

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Some call it murder - What do you think?

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Dear All,

Carl Stiles, who stayed with his fiance, Jude, at my house last year
after his home was contaminated, passed away yesterday. He had been
fighting health issues ever since finding high levels of barium and
arsenic in their well water, and fought hard and suffered much in the
last 2 years, has lost the fight tonight.

His widow, Jude, asked that memorial donations be made to GDAC.
I thought you would be touched.

- paula

Carl Stiles had intestinal cancer which he blames on Chesapeake's gas drilling. He and his wife abandoned their home last November at the urging of a toxicologist who found barium, arsenic, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals) in Carl's blood. Strontium, uranium and radium were found in their water. They've been told to expect to get leukemia within two years."
http://waterandmoreblog.com/2011/06/21/gas-drilling-disrupts-lives-endangers-...
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How many innocent people have to suffer for the greed of the industry? How many people's families have to be completely destroyed before anyone truly does anything about this 'horror' and 'catastrophe' called hydraulic fracturing?

We say BAN IT NOW!

Fracking Quakes Shake the Shale Gas Industry

2012-01-27T18:42:00.000-08:00

Published by MIT
Friday, January 20, 2012
By Peter Fairley

Well shutdowns prompted by fracking-induced seismicity may inspire technology tweaks.

Geophysicists are increasingly certain that expanding production of shale gas is responsible for a spate of minor earthquakes that have upset some communities and prompted authorities in Arkansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and the U.K. to shut down some natural-gas operations. The question now, say the experts, is whether the underground operations causing the trouble should be scaled back or more closely monitored to minimize future quakes—and whether the relatively small quakes may yet have the potential to trigger truly destructive ones.

At least one shale gas producer is already talking change: U.K.-based Cuadrilla Resources, whose first project set off quakes near Blackpool last year.

Shale gas operations generate microseismicity in two ways. One is through hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the underground blasts of water, sand, and chemicals used to release the natural gas trapped within shale deposits. Fracking is how Cuadrilla caused a quake that measured 2.3 on the Richter scale last April, according to an analysis by the firm's geophysical consultants.

Continue reading...

Isn't it about time the industry pulls its ugly head out of the hole in the ground and admit that 'unconventional methods' are not sound science? It's perfectly clear to us that you cannot control nature, thus you cannot control the outcome(s) from unconventional methods.

unconventional methods = unconventional outcomes

Say NO to Shale Gas Meeting (VIDEO)

2012-01-27T18:07:00.000-08:00

2 of 2 VIDEOS

SAY NO TO SHALE GAS, video clips about hydro-fracking, taken at a public meeting held June 30, 2011, at Rexton, New Brunswick, Canada, Part 1
BAN FRACKING NB - join the group!!
The website addy is http://www.banfrackingnb.ca and the Facebook link is http://www.facebook.com/BanFrackingNB

Ex-oil worker blasts shale gas industry / Ex-oil worker's concerns

2012-01-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

Source: TheRGDN on Dec 12, 2011

Maxime Daigle worked in the oil industry for seven years but is now protesting against further development of the shale gas sector

See also "Say No to Shale Gas June 30, 2011, Rexton, New Brunswick, Part 2"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRYHCYS18tQ#t=1m44s

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/12/01/nb-daigle-shale-...

Boulder County is about to get fracked

2012-01-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

Food And Water Watch

There are proposals to frack on dozens of sites throughout Boulder County, including on seven open space areas. Fracking won't preserve these open spaces; it is an industrial process that can contaminate water, cause earthquakes and result in significant noise and air pollution—all on land paid for with your tax dollars.

Tell the Boulder County Commissioners to ban fracking now! HERE