tagged w/ shale
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A U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team has found that a sharp jump in earthquakes in America’s heartland appears to be linked to oil and natural gas drilling operations.
As hydraulic fracturing has exploded onto the scene, it has increasingly been connected to earthquakes. Some quakes may be caused by the original fracking — that is, by injecting a fluid mixture into the earth to release natural gas (or oil). More appear to be caused by reinjecting the resulting brine deep underground.
Last August, a USGS report examined a cluster of earthquakes in Oklahoma and reported:
Our analysis showed that shortly after hydraulic fracturing began small earthquakes started occurring, and more than 50 were identified, of which 43 were large enough to be located. Most of these earthquakes occurred within a 24 hour period after hydraulic fracturing operations had ceased.
In November, a British shale gas developer found it was “highly probable” its fracturing operations caused minor quakes.
Then last month, Ohio oil and gas regulators said “A dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were almost certainly induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater into the earth.”
Now, in a paper to be deliver at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America, the USGS notes that “a remarkable increase in the rate of [magnitude 3.0] and greater earthquakes is currently in progress” in the U.S. midcontinent. The abstract is online. EnergyWire reports (subs. req’d) some of the findings:
The study found that the frequency of earthquakes started rising in 2001 across a broad swath of the country between Alabama and Montana. In 2009, there were 50 earthquakes greater than magnitude-3.0, the abstract states, then 87 quakes in 2010. The 134 earthquakes in the zone last year is a sixfold increase over 20th century levels.
The surge in the last few years corresponds to a nationwide surge in shale drilling, which requires disposal of millions of gallons of wastewater for each well. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, shale gas production grew, on average, nearly 50 percent a year from 2006 to 2010.
The USGS scientists point out that ”a naturally-occurring rate change of this magnitude is unprecedented outside of volcanic settings or in the absence of a main shock, of which there were neither in this region.” They conclude:
While the seismicity rate changes described here are almost certainly manmade, it remains to be determined how they are related to either changes in extraction methodologies or the rate of oil and gas production.
EnergyWire points out, “all of the potential causes they explore in the paper relate to drilling, or more specifically, deep underground injection of drilling waste.”
More at the linkA U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team has found that a sharp jump in earthquakes in... more
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Why is North Carolina not yet a site for drilling rigs, mud and service companies? Why is there shale gas exploration and production in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and on different rock formations in Arkansas, Texas and in the Rocky Mountains?
The answer is political.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/03/21/1947986/potential-bounty-for-north-carolina.html#storylink=cpyWhy is North Carolina not yet a site for drilling rigs, mud and service companies? Why... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here: http://www.johnlocke.org/events/videos.html
Dr. Daniel I. Fine works with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. He is a longtime research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT. Fine is also a policy adviser on nonconventional oil and gas. He is co-editor of Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week, the Engineering and Mining Journal and the Washington Times. Fine has testified on strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources. In this speech, he discusses "Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."
http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PADr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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After natural gas drilling began near their rural homes about 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, Carol Moten and her neighbors noticed that their well water began to smell. Then came the headaches, skin lesions, and diarrhea, in household after household. A two-year-old dog fell over dead.
“We’re talking about little children that have nosebleeds, cats that fall off windowsills,” she said.
Three years ago, Moten and her neighbor, Donald Allison, visited Dr. Amelia Pare in nearby McMurray for their skin infections. Allison’s health continued to deteriorate and earlier this month he died from what the neighborhood understood to be bone cancer. He was 46. Since there was no autopsy, Pare said, the exact cause of Allison’s death is unclear. “Does anybody really know?” she said. “There’s no funding for this.”
Some experts are concerned that the chemical make-up of the witches brew used to force gas from rock is at the heart of these health problems. When a few members of Congress tried to amend the Safe Water Drinking Act to remove a special exemption for hydraulic fracturing and require that drillers disclose to state regulators the chemicals being used, the industry objected. The actual content of these chemical mixes is a closely guarded secret. Exxon’s top official, Rex Tillerson, said that his company would not go through with its $41 billion dollar purchase of gas giant XTO if Congress made hydraulic fracturing “commercially impracticable.” DCBureau reported in 2010 that nanotechnology is being used in a new generation of drilling fluids.
Reports of drilling-related chemical spills that cover an acre or more fuel suspicion that drilling operations are triggering the outbreak of symptoms in heavily drilled Washington County, Pennsylvania. But as Pare acknowledged, there is no proof – no smoking gun –that a specific drilling practice or byproduct makes animals and people sick.
Industry vigorously challenges any assertion that a link exists – in Pennsylvania or anywhere else – and scientific study of the question is still in its infancy. Experts in government tread cautiously in describing the potential threat, and regulatory efforts lack focus.
In January, a senior official at the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta declined to say for certain that gas drilling poses a threat to public health, but he added that “site-by-site work is turning up data of concern.”
Christopher Portier, head of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said in an email to The Associated Press that future studies should explore “all the ways people can be exposed, such as through air, water, soil, plants and animals.”
“In addition to groundwater,” Portier said, “exposure pathways could include the air at well sites, impoundment sites, and compressor stations… livestock … and recreational fish.”
In the face of official calls for “future studies” of how high-volume hydro fracking might affect human health, states like Pennsylvania and New York have avoided these issues.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Corbett and the Republican political establishment have eagerly embraced fracking, touting its economic benefits and downplaying its possible health consequences. Corbett’s 52-member advisory panel on Marcellus Shale drilling has no members with health expertise, according to a recent analysis by professors at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health. (Neither do advisory panels on gas drilling for the state of Maryland and for the U.S. Secretary of Energy.)
New York State, which is poised to allow high-volume hydro fracking of shale formations as soon as it completes its final rules, has rejected repeated calls for a thorough study of the health implications of fracking.
In 2009, a regional official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urged the New York Department of Health to take a major role with the Department of Environmental Conservation in preparing the fracking rules. That did not happen. In 2011, dozens of physicians and health care professionals signed a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, urging him to order a comprehensive health impact assessment of fracking. If the state DOH would not perform one, the health professionals said, the governor should assign the task to a graduate school of public health.
But Cuomo took no action. The draft drilling rules, which run more than 1,000 pages, still do not have a section devoted to drilling’s potential effects on human health.
The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York has repeatedly argued that the state has – if anything – erred on the side of too much study. The rule-making process is in its third year, and drillers have long criticized the DEC for delays in issuing permits to use high-volume fracking on horizontal wells.
That process involves drilling vertically down into a shale formation and then angling the drill horizontally along the shale stratum. Drillers then force roughly 5 million gallons of water, along with sand and proprietary chemicals, into each well to crack the shale and free gas. Much of the fracking fluid returns to the surface mixed with subsurface brine, which tends to be laced with heavy metals and radioactive materials. In Pennsylvania, this flowback mixture often sits in open pits, which are prone to leaking into fields and streams.
While the industry has used less invasive forms of fracking for decades, the efficiency of high-volume fracking has led to an explosion of gas drilling activity across the country.
That growth trend could be threatened by evidence that fracking endangers human health, and drillers have aggressively challenged hints of a link.
That is what happened after the EPA issued a draft report on December 8, 2011, that concluded that groundwater in Pavillion, Wyoming, had been contaminated by chemicals associated with fracking. In a press release, Encana, a driller in Pavillion, called the EPA’s findings “irresponsible.” The same day an official of Chesapeake Energy, another leading driller, sent an email to employees that accused the EPA of being “more interested in their PR strategy and in establishing a connection between hydraulic fracturing and water contamination than finding the truth.”
On Dec. 18 – less than three months after Chesapeake Energy had contributed $250,000 to a super PAC backing his then-active presidential bid – Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared that there had never been a proven case of fracking causing groundwater contamination.
In fact, even when circumstantial evidence is strong, it is extraordinarily difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a gas drilling operation caused a contamination.
In April 2009, 17 cows foamed at the mouth and fell dead within an hour after they allegedly lapped up frackingflowback that had leaked into a Louisiana field from a nearby natural gas well that had recently been fracked.
More at the linkAfter natural gas drilling began near their rural homes about 30 miles southwest of... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here: http://www.johnlocke.org/events/videos.htmlDr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here:
Daniel Fine discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (two minutes)---
http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PA
The full one hour video can be seen here-->"North Carolina?s approach to natural gas fracking" ---> http://lockerroom.johnlocke.org/2012/02/27/no...
Dr. Daniel I. Fine works with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. He is a longtime research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT. Fine is also a policy adviser on nonconventional oil and gas. He is co-editor of Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week, the Engineering and Mining Journal and the Washington Times. Fine has testified on strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources. In this speech, he discusses "Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here:
Daniel Fine discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (two minutes)---
http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PA
The full one hour video can be seen here-->"North Carolina?s approach to natural gas fracking" ---> http://lockerroom.johnlocke.org/2012/02/27/no...
Dr. Daniel I. Fine works with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. He is a longtime research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT. Fine is also a policy adviser on nonconventional oil and gas. He is co-editor of Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week, the Engineering and Mining Journal and the Washington Times. Fine has testified on strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources. In this speech, he discusses "Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here:
Daniel Fine discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (two minutes)---
http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PA
The full one hour video can be seen here-->"North Carolina?s approach to natural gas fracking" ---> http://lockerroom.johnlocke.org/2012/02/27/no...
Dr. Daniel I. Fine works with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. He is a longtime research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT. Fine is also a policy adviser on nonconventional oil and gas. He is co-editor of Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week, the Engineering and Mining Journal and the Washington Times. Fine has testified on strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources. In this speech, he discusses "Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Fine offered these comments during a Feb. 27, 2012, presentation to the John Locke Foundation's Shafesbury Society. Video courtesy of CarolinaJournal.tv. Watch full-length video of JLF events here:
Daniel Fine discusses North Carolina's approach to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing (two minutes)---
http://youtu.be/4Lbn9diK1PA
The full one hour video can be seen here-->"North Carolina?s approach to natural gas fracking" ---> http://lockerroom.johnlocke.org/2012/02/27/no...
Dr. Daniel I. Fine works with the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy. He is a longtime research associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT. Fine is also a policy adviser on nonconventional oil and gas. He is co-editor of Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week, the Engineering and Mining Journal and the Washington Times. Fine has testified on strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate committees on Foreign Affairs and Energy and Natural Resources. In this speech, he discusses "Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."Dr. Daniel Fine of the New Mexico Center for Energy Policy discusses North... more
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In his State of the Union speech, President Obama lauded natural gas from shale as a key part of his clean energy plan. Fracking shale for natural gas is an intensive extractive process that has polluted the water and air of communities across the country. There is nothing clean about it.
President Obama said that he "will not walk away on the promise of clean energy." Tell him that the gas industry's promises are deceptive.
Fill out the form below to send a message today!
More at the linkIn his State of the Union speech, President Obama lauded natural gas from shale as a... more
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Bowing to public pressure, Bulgaria's government says U.S. oil company Chevron cannot explore for shale gas in the country using the extraction technique known as "fracking."
Energy Minister Traicho Traikov said that under Tuesday's decision "Chevron can still have the right to test for oil and gas, but without using the controversial technology of hydraulic fracturing."
He says San Ramon, California-based Chevron had not yet been notified of the decision and negotiations on the contract are pending.
Over the last weeks, thousands of people gathered at protest rallies across Bulgaria to protest against shale gas extraction and the use of fracking, fearing it could have a hazardous impact on the environment and people's health.
Last June, Bulgaria granted U.S. oil company Chevron a permit to explore for shale gas in the northeastern part of the country. The potential reserves of shale gas in this area – the country's main grain producing region – are estimated at up to 1 trillion cubic meters.
More at the linkBowing to public pressure, Bulgaria's government says U.S. oil company Chevron... more
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CNN...
Work halted at 4 more Ohio fluid-injection wells in wake of quake
From Maggie Schneider, CNN
updated 6:18 PM EST, Sun January 1, 2012
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Officials have shut down fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Ohio officials order the closure of four fluid-injection wells near Youngstown
This comes amid a probe looking at links between "fracking" and recent quakes
"We need to get more information," an official says of any possible connection
A magnitude 4.0 quake struck Saturday, one of 11 to occur in the past year
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(CNN) -- Work has been halted at four more fluid-injection wells in eastern Ohio in the aftermath of heightened seismic activity in the area, a state official said.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director James Zehringer had announced on Friday that one such well -- which injects "fluid deep underground into porous rock formations, such as sandstone or limestone, or into or below the shallow soil layer," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains -- was closed after a series of small earthquakes in and around Youngstown.
Then on Saturday, a magnitude 4.0 earthquake struck that released at least 40 times more energy than any of the previous 10 or more tremors that had rattled the region in 2011.
Andy Ware, deputy director of Ohio's natural resources department, told CNN on Sunday that Zehringer and Gov. John Kasich subsequently have ordered the closure of four other nearby injection wells as well.
The decision comes as authorities investigate a possible link between the earthquakes and hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. That controversial drilling technology involves injecting water, sand and chemicals deep into the ground at high pressure to crack the shale and allow the oil or gas to flow.
Last Friday's order affecting the first well in Youngstown came six days after a magnitude 2.5 earthquake that struck that area around 1:24 a.m. on December 24. After Saturday's larger earthquake, scientists recommended that operations stop at all wells within a 5-mile radius of that original site.
"We need to get more information," Ware said.
The epicenter for Saturday's tremor was 5 miles northwest of Youngstown, 6 miles southeast of Warren and 55 miles east-southeast of Cleveland, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. According to the preliminary estimate, the earthquake struck 1.4 miles deep.
There was a lot of shaking "and a rumbling sound," said Jimmy Hughes, a former Youngstown police chief running for sheriff of Mahoning County. "I could see the house move. ... It seemed like the ground was moving. "
Ohio is far from the edges of Earth's major tectonic plates, with the nearest ones in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, the U.S. Geological Survey explains on its website. Still, there are many known faults in this region, with the federal agency noting that it is likely there are additional "smaller or deeply buried" ones that haven't been detected.
While earthquakes are not unprecedented in the area, the rate of them in the past year has been unusual. That fact led Zehringer, the Ohio department head, to act late last week.
"While conclusive evidence cannot link the seismic activity to the well, Zehringer has adopted an approach requiring prudence and caution regarding the site," the natural resources department said Friday in a press release, explaining its decision to shut the first well.
Ben Lupo -- CEO of D&L Energy, an independent natural gas and oil exploration, production and marketing group that oversees the first well that was closed -- recently told CNN affiliate WKBN that there's full cooperation with experts, though he expressed grave doubts that the injection wells were to blame for the quakes.
"We have approximately 1,000 wells between Ohio and Pennsylvania and we've never had a problem ... with an earthquake or spill," Lupo said.
Dr. Won-Young Kim, one of the Columbia University experts asked by the state to examine possible connections between fracking and seismic activity, said that a problem could arise if fluid moves through the ground and affects "a weak fault, waiting to be triggered." He explained the underground waste "slowly migrates" and could cause issues miles away, adding that the danger could persist for some time as the fluid travels and seeps down toward the fault.
"In my opinion, yes," the recent spate of earthquakes around Youngstown is related to a fluid-injection well, Kim stated -- though there has been no definitive determination, by the state or other authorities, indicating as much.
There have been "moderately frequent" reports of earthquakes in northern Ohio since the first recorded one was reported in 1823, the federal agency noted. A 1986 tremor, measuring magnitude 4.8, caused some damage. Another in 1998 measured a 4.5 and was centered in northwest Pennsylvania.
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CNN's Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt contributed to this report.
.CNN...
Work halted at 4 more Ohio fluid-injection wells in wake of quake
From... more
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The United States is a country that has received many blessings, and once upon a time you could assume that Americans would come together to take advantage of them. But you can no longer make that assumption. The country is more divided and more clogged by special interests. Now we groan to absorb even the most wondrous gifts.
http://goo.gl/mJ1xXThe United States is a country that has received many blessings, and once upon a time... more
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INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
Fletcher School Tufts University
Dr. Daniel I. FineResearch AssociateMining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT
LUNCHEON LECTURETUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 201111:00AM – 1:00PMCABOT 703
“Shale Gas War: The Geopolitics of U.S.Self-Sufficiency”
Dr. Daniel Fine
is a Research Associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute,MIT. Dr. Fine is also a current Policy Adviser on Non-Conventional Oil and Gas. He isco-editor of
Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week , the Engineering and Mining Journal and theWashingtonTimes
. Dr. Fine participated in the Atlantic Council Workshop on Central Asian Policyand the Hudson Institute Russia-United States Relations Project. He has given testimonyon strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs andthe Energy and Natural Resources. Dr. Fine was a member of the Domestic EnergyProduction Issue Team of the Center For The Study Of The Presidency and Congress“Strengthening America’s Future Initiative.” He has participated as a panelist on energy public policy at the Rocky Mountain Global New Energy Summit.
Register to attend this event at
http://www.danielfine.eventbrite.com
Business Casual Attire Required
http://www.scribd.com/doc/64842008/Shale-Gas-Wars-Flyer-9-20-11INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
Fletcher School Tufts University
Dr. Daniel... more
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INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
Fletcher School Tufts University
Dr. Daniel I. FineResearch AssociateMining and Minerals Resources Institute, MIT
LUNCHEON LECTURETUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 201111:00AM – 1:00PMCABOT 703
“Shale Gas War: The Geopolitics of U.S.Self-Sufficiency”
Dr. Daniel Fine
is a Research Associate at the Mining and Minerals Resources Institute,MIT. Dr. Fine is also a current Policy Adviser on Non-Conventional Oil and Gas. He isco-editor of
Resource War in 3-D: Dependence, Diplomacy and Defense, and has contributed to Business Week , the Engineering and Mining Journal and theWashingtonTimes
. Dr. Fine participated in the Atlantic Council Workshop on Central Asian Policyand the Hudson Institute Russia-United States Relations Project. He has given testimonyon strategic natural resources before the U.S. Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs andthe Energy and Natural Resources. Dr. Fine was a member of the Domestic EnergyProduction Issue Team of the Center For The Study Of The Presidency and Congress“Strengthening America’s Future Initiative.” He has participated as a panelist on energy public policy at the Rocky Mountain Global New Energy Summit.
Register to attend this event at
http://www.danielfine.eventbrite.com
Business Casual Attire Required
http://www.scribd.com/doc/64842008/Shale-Gas-Wars-Flyer-9-20-11INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
Fletcher School Tufts University
Dr. Daniel... more
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Aujourd’hui, la plus récente version de Forumschiste l’Émission est dévoilée en ligne. Cette courte capsule web vidéo résume les activités et les faits saillants qui ont marqué les forums lors des dernières semaines qui ont été mouvementées.
Une version HD est aussi disponible pour Forumschiste l’Émission. Si vous désirez inclure des images dans un reportage, n’hésitez pas à nous contacter afin que nous puissions vous fournir cette version.
www.forumschiste.comAujourd’hui, la plus récente version de Forumschiste... more
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In an unprecedented and pioneering move, New Jersey’s state legislature became the first in the nation to pass a bill to enforce a statewide ban on a controversial gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”. The bill passed the Senate 32-1 and the Assembly 58-11.
“Today, New Jersey sent a strong message to surrounding states and to the nation that a ban on fracking is necessary to protect public health and preserve our natural resources,” said. Sen. Bob Gordon (D-Bergen). “Any benefits of gas production simply do not justify the many potential dangers associated with fracking such as pollution of our lakes, streams and drinking water supplies and the release of airborne pollutants. We should not wait until our natural resources are threatened or destroyed to act. The time to ban fracking in New Jersey is now.”
Fracking involves injecting water, toxic chemicals and sand deep underground to break up dense rock formations and release natural gas. Opponents of fracking cite the high potential for water and air pollution as a leading reason to ban the practice. The Delaware River provides drinking water to approximately 3 million people in New Jersey and this supply could be contaminated if fracking moves forward in the Delaware River Basin. Over 200,000 acres of land in the Upper Delaware River Watershed in Pennsylvania and New York are already under lease for gas drilling.
“Fracking is a man-made disruption to the environment, many times on large-scale proportions,” said Assemblywoman Connie Wagner (D-Bergen). “We’ve already seen a number of eco-casualties from this practice in surrounding states. It would be irresponsible to leave the door open for this practice to be pursued in New Jersey.”
Public opposition to fracking has escalated in recent months, with concerned residents and environmental and consumer advocacy groups campaigning against the practice in New Jersey and the surrounding states, where a gas drilling frenzy has taken hold or is ramping up to begin in the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation which extends up the East Coast. Pennsylvania alone is producing a glut of millions of gallons of fracking wastewater that is being shipped out of state. Gas drilling there is resulting in more than 11 violations of environmental permits per day at well sites, according to PADEP records, causing growing pollution and health problems.
“The New Jersey Legislature is taking the pro-active step of preventing contamination of our drinking water and environment, the only sure way to protect our residents from fracking pollution. This is a great day for the State’s present and future generations,” said Tracey Carluccio, deputy director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
New Jersey contains gas bearing shale formations, notably the Utica Shale in northern New Jersey, that could be targeted by energy companies in the new “gas rush”, threatening the State’s drinking water and resident’s health.
In Texas and western states, where fracking has been used for some time, air and water pollution are leading to degraded environmental conditions and reported health problems from residents – concerns which led those living in Dish, Texas, a town located near 11 natural gas compression stations, to hire a private environmental consultant to sample the air. The consultant found that it contained high levels of neurotoxins and carcinogens, including benzene.
A 2011 Cornell University study found that the process of fracking also releases methane, which according to the EPA, is 21 times more damaging as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Similarly, a study released by researchers at Duke University in April found methane levels in drinking water wells near active gas drilling sites at a level 17 times higher than those near inactive ones.
Earlier this year, the U.S. House and Energy Commerce Committee determined that 14 oil companies had injected 780 million gallons of fracking chemicals and other substances into U.S. wells between 2005 and 2009. This included 10.2 million gallons of fluids containing known or suspected carcinogens. The companies, however, are not required to disclose the chemicals in fracking fluid, which they claim should be protected as a “trade secret”. They are also exempt from portions of seven major federal environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act.
Scientists at the Endocrine Disruption Exchange who tested fracking fluids found that 25 percent can cause cancer; 37 percent can disrupt the endocrine system; and 40 to 50 percent can affect the nervous, immune and cardiovascular systems.
More at the linkIn an unprecedented and pioneering move, New Jersey’s state legislature became... more
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This is a convenient story to throw out there after some peak oil cables hit the news...
But 'new drilling technique' and 'out of reach oil' = hazardous, meaning we're running out of easily recoverable oil and this won't be worth the destruction or cost, just like tar sands and deepwater drilling, as the Gulf Coast will attest. There are no new discoveries, just really bad techniques at getting very hard to get oil. We've been past peak for awhile. How much destruction has to happen before we realize it is not the solution to our energy problems?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_re_us/us_shale_oilThis is a convenient story to throw out there after some peak oil cables hit the... more
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DCBUreau.org - At the same time liberal Upstate New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey, 71, championed strict control over gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, his wife lobbied for a Texas-based landmen association whose members represent gas drillers securing leases from New York property owners. Hinchey claimed that he was unaware of his wife’s lobbying on behalf of the landmen.
For at least two years of their marriage, Hinchey’s wife, Allison Lee, 47, who was previously his district office representative and administrative aide, represented members of the Forth Worth-based American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL). AAPL members came to New York to work for energy companies acquiring gas leases from property owners.
Hinchey, considered a pro-environment liberal, was one of two congressmen who cautioned against rushing natural gas drilling in New York – the other was Congressman Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) who resigned over allegations about his behavior toward male office staff.
Allison Lee ran Hinchey’s district office before the pair become romantically involved and married in 2006. The former radio reporter turned lobbyist joined Patricia Lynch Associates Inc., one of the state’s top lobbying firms in Albany. The marriage was Hinchey’s third and her second.
During a video interview last month in his Washington office about Marcellus Shale issues and his wife representing the AAPL, Hinchey said he was unaware that Lee lobbied on behalf of landmen. “I don’t know if you did know about your wife’s involvement with landmen,” said a DCBureau reporter.
“No,” Hinchey responded tersely.
His press secretary, Mike Morosi, later said the question about her involvement with landmen was “offensive,” and the next day, he and two other senior staff members complained that the question was unfair since their boss had an outstanding environmental record. “I didn’t necessarily think it was a fair question to begin with,” Morosi said.
Despite repeated attempts to talk to her, Lee has not responded to interview requests.
Larry Haskell, head of the Joint Landowners Coalition – which consists of 24 neighborhood coalitions from nine south-central counties in New York and represents over 15,000 households – said landmen have used “coercion, threats and forceful behavior” to obtain gas leases.
He said: “One of the big things with them is that they would come in and say, ‘Look at it,’ and then they’d have a map, and they’d all be colored in but your property. ‘You’re holding up this whole process because your property isn’t signed up yet.’ Well, guess what? They’d go to the next door neighbor. That map had your property colored in, but the next door neighbor’s wasn’t – and he was the one that was holding up the process.”
According to Ashur Terwilliger, head of the Chemung County Natural Gas Coalition and president of the Chemung County Farm Bureau, the AAPL – an international organization of approximately 12,000 landmen – wanted to meet with him because property owners reported so many “misgivings” involving its members to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office. He said the AAPL wanted property owners to submit a complaint form to the organization, rather than the attorney general, so it could discipline members. Terwilliger reported complaints to the AAPL, but members got shipped to a different area, he said.
According to Terwilliger, in February 2008, he met with about 10 representatives from the AAPL, their lobbyist Lee, New York Farm Bureau area field advisor Lindsay Wickham, and New York Farm Bureau deputy director and manager of governmental relations, Jeff Williams. He said they sat around a large, rectangular table in the Chemung County Soil and Water Conservation District building in Horseheads, N.Y., and for the first 20 minutes, AAPL representatives spoke with Wickham and Williams about creating a system for reporting complaints about landmen.
Terwilliger said he sat quietly as the conversation transitioned into technical aspects of drilling but spoke when an AAPL representative talked about the organization’s integrity: “I said ‘You know, if I run a national organization, I wouldn’t let my men go out and tell the stories they tell and have the fake maps they have…lying to the landowners, coercing them…’”
According to Terwilliger, the meeting ended in heated exchanges about natural gas reserves in New York between him and the AAPL representative – the AAPL representative said they were difficult to locate, but Terwilliger said he found information on reserves from U.S. Geological Survey and Cornell University.
He said: “Anyway, we went out the door. The governmental relations man was laughing. I said, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ He said, ‘Well, he shouldn’t have jumped you, but you sure gave it back to him.’ He said, ‘By the way, do you know who the woman was?’ I said, ‘No.’ ‘That’s their lobbyist.’ ‘Well yeah, who is it?’ ‘That’s Maurice Hinchey’s wife.’ How would you like to be up against that?”
Lee represented the AAPL while she worked for Patricia Lynch Associates Inc., and by the end of 2008, the organization spent approximately $130,000 on services provided by the lobbying firm.
According to lobbying records, representation ended April 1, 2008. Robin Forte, executive vice president for the AAPL, verified the 2008 date. He said the organization stayed with Patricia Lynch Inc. but switched its representation to Michelle Cummings.
Forte said: “…When we became aware of that (that their lobbyist was married to a New York congressman) is when we changed our representation at the firm… We were concerned for all the obvious reasons: one, that she would have a conflict at home if she was representing the oil business with her husband’s positions and two, the possible and propriety appearance that if she could influence him in our favor that wouldn’t look good for anybody.”
When asked when Lee stopped representing the AAPL, Morosi said, “She hasn’t represented them for three years.”
According to Morosi’s three-year marker, the relationship ended in 2007, but New York State lobbying records indicate the relationship ended in April 2008. Because Morosi’s timeline conflicted with New York State lobbying records, DCBureau asked him to clarify.
Morosi then said: “I can’t comment on a specific date. The information that I have is that she said that she did not take the client with her to her new firm, and that when she left her old firm, she had no longer been working for that client for a couple of years.”
Lee left Patricia Lynch Associates Inc. in the fall of 2009 to join DKC Government Affairs, which has ties to Attorney General Cuomo.
Darren Dopp, former communications director for Gov. Eliot Spitizer and now a partner and head of the media relations unit at Patricia Lynch Associates Inc., said, “I think she still represents them – I don’t believe that we do anymore, but I can double check on that.”
But Morosi said Lee doesn’t represent the AAPL at her new firm. Both Dopp and Patricia Lynch failed to return repeated phone calls. According to lobbying records and Forte, Patricia Lynch Associates Inc. represents the organization.
Hinchey co-sponsored the FRAC Act in the House last summer. The FRAC Act would require oil and gas companies to disclose materials in hydraulic fracturing fluids in compliance with Safe Drinking Water Act.
Allison Sickle reportingDCBUreau.org - At the same time liberal Upstate New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey, 71,... more
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