Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Wyoming Water Problems

WYOMING (wpr) - For years now, people living amid the natural gas fields east of town have complained about foul smelling and discolored water. They've also claimed to experience unexplained health problems, from respiratory difficulties to neurological issues. Late last month, federal officials said that residents shouldn't drink or cook with water from 41 area wells. Wyoming Public Radio's Molly Messick has this story about what's next for Pavillion.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Taos Threatened AGAIN by Military Training Route Overflights


EXCERPT:
"And by implication there is no human value assigned to our indigenous peoples nor natural wildlife populations or issues, not to mention our reliance on tourism and solar industries that are developing here...... We need to prepare a region-wide resistance to this attempt to turn our beautiful homeland into a practice zone for these colonial wars of aggression against people with whom we actually have a lot in common."

COMMENT:
In general, they do not take these flights to the cities, as the risks/costs if catastrophes happen are greater. Not to mention the number of people who would be terror-struck at the sight of fighter planes bearing down on them at 200 feet over metropolitan areas! Unfortunately, like with the hydraulic fracking, destruction is taken to the wild and the poor--read the Cerrell Report used to locate all destructive industry.

Drilling Mora County

EXCERPT:
The Universe
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King Jr.

If the U.S. Air Force gets its way, some of Taos sacred places will become official Low Altitude Tactical Navigation areas. Training flights from Cannon Air Force Base are being planned to come roaring through the Sangre de Christo Mountains and throughout Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. The plan is to train pilots to operate at high speeds and very low altitudes an average of three times a day. The Air Force posted a relatively obscure notice on page B10 of last weeks Taos News indicating the comment period on the program will close October 4th .

A notice appeared in the Albuquerque Journal Friday, Sep. 3, 2010 that the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command wants to create a covert war training zone that stretches from Albuquerque, NM to Aspen, CO and Grand Junction, CO to Clovis, NM

go to LATN on the website www.cannon.af.mil ......continued....

Oil and gas industry writes its own standards

By Andrew Restuccia
8/13/10 5:31 PM Digg Tweet

This story is the third in a series on federal oversight of the nation’s 2.3 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines. You can read the first story here and the second story here.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the federal agency that oversees the country’s 2.3 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines, has adopted as part of its regulations all or parts of at least 29 standards written by the oil and natural gas industry.

The revelation, which comes to light as part of an investigation into pipeline safety by The Washington Independent, raises significant questions about the relationship between PHMSA and the industry that it regulates. It also feeds into comparisons between the agency and the now-defunct Minerals Management Service, which was in charge of permitting and licensing offshore drilling projects in the run-up to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill....continued...

Encana Says Drilling Did Not Taint Wyoming Water-Reuters

EXCERPT:
"Contamination detected by U.S. regulators in some Wyoming water wells near natural gas sites was unrelated to oil and gas operations or showed hydrocarbon levels below official action
standards, an official for the company conducting the drilling said on Thursday."


"EnCana will pay for alternative sources of drinking water for affected residents; studying the integrity of its wells, including the casings that run through aquifers, and reassessing
the remediation of wastewater pits, Hock said."


COMMENT:
• EnCana says drilling did not taint Wyoming water, but will pay for the water anyway. Since when does industry do something they are not responsible for? Just look to the Gulf of Mexico and the finger pointing. In Pavillion it is easier for industry to come out as the "good-guy" rather than have testing continue that will link their natural gas field contamination to the drinking water.

• EPA has reached no conclusion (although a water well tested in 2008 found benzene at 1200 ppb in the water) in spite of knowing that benzene is a known occurring carcinogen from industry's fracking.

• Benzene levels do exceed "federal or state levels for hazardous concentrations" (according to ProPublica report 2008 where benzene was found at 1200 ppb in a 300 foot deep water well) although this report is stating none do.

• This is another attempt to cover-up facts so that industry can continue to pollute the water with impunity! The 2004 EPA study of hydraulic fracturing exposed hazardous chemicals being injected into the ground (such as benzene), but the conclusion was that no undue harm would occur. Whistle blower Weston Wilson, EPA environment engineer, reported this cover-up to Congress.....however, the next year the Bush Cheney Administration passed the 2005 Energy Bill EXEMPTING industry from all liabilities: "Clean Water Act", "Safe Drinking Water Act", "Clean Air Act" making them above the law.

Drilling Mora County



Wed, Sep 8 2010
By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA - Contamination detected by U.S. regulators in
some Wyoming water wells near natural gas sites was unrelated to oil and
gas operations or showed hydrocarbon levels below official action
standards, an official for the company conducting the drilling said on
Thursday.

Doug Hock, a spokesman for EnCana Corp., said government tests on 17
private water wells in the farming town of Pavillion, Wyoming, showed
low levels of petroleum hydrocarbons, and inorganic substances that
naturally occur.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report from August found a
"drinking water concern" on the basis of hydrocarbons and other
chemicals found in wells tested in January...continued...

COMMENT:


• 3 fighter jet per night from dusk to dawn flying as low as 200 feet Monday through Friday and possibly weekends over northern New Mexico rural areas

• These flights are simulated war missions. Simulating warring on our wild animals and human population in New Mexico

• A fighter jet bearing down at 200 feet overhead is an attack without bombs and bullets. The energy is the same as being under fire in war.

• What will happen to the welfare of the wildlife, the people, who are exposed to these daily attacks?

• One jet's emission is equivalent to the toxic chemical emissions of 10,000 cars (the toxic chemicals in jet fuels consists of the same basic chemicals as used in hydraulic fracturing fluids used for drilling gas wells!--benzene, toluene, xylene, etc....diesel fuel and many additional chemicals)


• No public meetings are currently scheduled. People's only access is by email, writing or calling. We understand the impact of public meetings.

• Air Force is seeking public input, however, will we have the right to stop this invasive activity by saying "No?"

• Call your state and federal representatives and tell them to help set up public comment meetings.

• Comment period ends October 4th, 2010

Drilling Mora County


Air Force proposes area training
Planes could fly low altitude
September 09, 2010
By Las Vegas Optic

The U.S. Air Force is interested in flying low over the region.

In an advertisement that ran in Friday’s Las Vegas Optic, the Air Force announced that it is seeking public input regarding a proposal to establish a low-altitude tactical navigation, or LATN, area over northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. The Air Force wants to do an assessment of the proposal to determine possible environmental consequences should the plan go through.

Current missions require aircraft training in varied mountainous terrain and desert-like environments, the ad stated. The Air Force is interest in this region because of “the lack of large civilian populations, proximity to Cannon (Air Force Base)” and the varied topography and weather conditions. The idea is to train C-130 and CV-22 Osprey aircrews in the area.

The training would include about three flights a day, or about 688 per year, with aircraft flying between 200 and 3,000 feet above ground level, with most flights at about 500 feet. Airspeeds would be below 250 knots, or about 288 mph, with most flights on weeknights, according to the Air Force....continued....

Life vs. Productivity: "What Would You Live and Die to Protect?--Truthout

COMMENT:
What if Royal Dutch Shell subsidiaries began drilling and pumping 1000s of gallons of their toxic chemicals into your land and into your aquifers? What would you be willing to do to protect your family and water?

Drilling Mora County

EXCERPT:
"I say, do something," Jensen urges. "The big dividing line is not between those who advocate resistance through any means necessary and those who don't. It's not even between grassroots and mainstream. The big divide is between those who do something and those who don't."
Derrick Jensen

05 September 2010
by: Dahr Jamail
"If someone broke into your house, pinned down your loved ones and began pouring poison down their throats, would you stop that person? What if someone poured crude oil all over your crops and livestock? Wouldn't you try to stop them from doing it? Pointed questions like these come from a man named Derrick Jensen. They provide a lens through which to view the havoc that corporate capitalism is wreaking on our planet. They are meant to jolt us into the awareness that we are watching life on earth annihilated. They are also meant to challenge us into thinking about what form our resistance to this should take."

"It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself, when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks." -Malcolm X

If someone broke into your house, pinned down your loved ones and began pouring poison down their throats, would you stop that person?

What if someone poured crude oil all over your crops and livestock? Wouldn't you try to stop them from doing it?...continued....

Gulf Oil Platform Explodes, Burning Off LA. Coast--Associated Press


COMMENT:
How many more environmental disasters by the oil companies can this Earth take?

Drilling Mora County


By ALAN SAYRE
09/02/2010

NEW ORLEANS, La.‹An offshore petroleum platform exploded and was burning
Thursday in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, west
of the site where BP's undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.

The Coast Guard said no one was killed in the explosion, which was spotted
by a commercial helicopter flying over the site Thursday morning. All 13
people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury. The extent
of the injury was not known.

They were rescued from the water by an offshore service vessel, the Crystal
Clear, said Coast Guard Cmdr. She said they were taken to a nearby platform.
All were being flown to the Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma to be
checked over.....continued...

Officials say they learned lessons


COMMENTS:
If we cannot ban an industry that pollutes our water, causes ill health (death), and depletes our most important resource (water), then we have no rights, we are not free, and we are not equal under the law of the land. We are mere captives of corporate industry and our governments.

EXCERPT: "I don’t think we can ban oil and gas exploration,” [Nicholas] Leger (San Miguel County Commissioner) said. “By the same token, I think it needs to be done in a cautious, careful manner.”

"When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the
people fear the government, there is tyranny.".....Thomas Jefferson

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed,
or numbered. My life is my own."...........THE PRISONER

"No one is as hopelessly enslaved as the person who thinks he's free."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Drilling Mora County

September 02, 2010
By David Giuliani

San Miguel County officials say they have learned some lessons from the task force that produced a proposed ordinance regulating wind farms.

They spoke during the first meeting of the oil and gas task force, which is expected to draft an ordinance for energy production in the county.

County Manager Les Montoya said he hopes the new task force will focus on its members.

“We got a little out of hand with the wind task force,” Montoya said. “We wanted to be open in that process. Maybe we were too open. We had a lot of different perspectives. We want to keep it focused on the people who are here.”...continued...

Feds Warn Residents Near Wyoming Gas Drilling Sites Not to Drink Their Water

COMMENTS:
We put a man on the moon in shorter time than the EPA can determine the cause of the contaminants in the ground and well water in Pavillion, WY. Just what is the delay in determining the link to gas well drilling and hydraulic fracturing and Pavillion's polluted water?

Could it be the conflict of interest our government plays with corporate oil companies? The loss of revenue if the EPA was actually permitted to put humans and ecosystems above industrial development?

Could acknowledging and addressing human rights over jobs and profit be such a gigantic step for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)? Orwellian, perhaps. Certainly one small step for mankind was made going to the moon....perhaps we can witness one small step for mankind by connecting the dots in Pavillion with some haste and moral responsibility on the part of the EPA and our federal and state leaders.

It would be refreshing to see small,local, renewable energy development such as solar begin to be promoted so that our natural gas and oil dependency could be curbed. Jimmy Carter put in place solar tax credits that created new businesses and installations across the county. His leadership showed it could be done!

Drilling Mora County


By Abrahm Lustgarten

The federal government is warning residents in a small Wyoming town with extensive natural gas development not to drink their water, and to use fans and ventilation when showering or washing clothes in order to avoid the risk of an explosion.

The announcement accompanied results from a second round of testing and analysis in the town of Pavillion by Superfund investigators for the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers found benzene, metals, naphthalene, phenols and methane in wells and in groundwater. They also confirmed the presence of other compounds that they had tentatively identified last summer and that may be linked to drilling activities...continued...

Samling Threatens Penan With Retaliations Over Rape Allegations

COMMENT:
Orchestrated and condoned by Empires, corporate plundering and raping of cultures and ecosystems throughout history by Spain, England, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, France and Russia, and today, China and the United States of America, seem of little consequence in our day-to-day lives.

However, today, the Samling Global (www.samling.com) corporation is conducting business with impunity as it rapes, harasses, abducts, and assaults the indigenous women of the Malaysian Penan communities. A United States corporation (http://www.samlingusa.com) is an LLC of Samling Global and profits from the actions of Samling Global in Malaysia. The criminal acts of Samling Global are the criminal acts of the US corporation.

Oil companies AND logging companies both have person-hood in the United States. They are "above the law" (permitted to do business in spite of the health-damaging impacts to people and the ecosystems) regarding human rights violations and crimes. They are in fact, sanctioned by the governments and the profits are shared by both industry and government. This blatant conflict of interest keeps governments protecting corporations over the people. One corporation's activities speaks for all corporations as seen in Nigeria and Royal Dutch Shell, and Samling Global in Malaysia. BP in the Gulf of Mexico brings an ever closer look at the devastation brought by corporate business.

If corporations can be granted rights as honourable as "person-hood", as decided by the US Supreme Court, then it is time that corporations acknowledge their blatant human rights and ecosystem violations. In the case of Samling Global, their business methods are outright criminal and should be tried for their barbaric actions. The US corporation should be stripped of their license to do business and the board and stock holders held accountable via prison sentences.

Offences:
• Crimes against the people by corporate industry--Samling Global
• Government collusion with corporate industry--Samling Global
• Denial of the people's abuses by government
• United States imports product from Samling Global thereby condoning these actions

"Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations;
entangling alliances with none.".........Thomas Jefferson

Drilling Mora County

Samling Threatens Penan With Retaliations Over Rape Allegations

Logging giant threatens to suspend all transport services for locals
unless Penan retract sexual abuse allegations

LONG AJENG, MALAYSIA, August 30, 2010, --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Malaysian
logging giant Samling has threatened the indigenous Penan communities
of Sarawak's Upper Baram region with the suspension of all transport
services provided for locals unless they retract sexual abuse and
rape allegations against the timber companies active in the region.
The new dispute between Samling and the Penan arose after the release
of a report by an international fact-finding mission

No Fracking Way--The Globe and Mail

COMMENT:
If our governments stand holding their hands over their eyes, ears and nose while industry tells them they are being "good neighbors" and not contaminating the ecosystem: the water, air, and land, do you think there is something wrong with the picture?

Our governments allow industry to continue fouling our lives with their health-damaging chemicals without consequences other than a meagre "cost of doing business" fine. In New Mexico industry is limited by the Oil Conservation Division (OCD) to a mere $10,000 fine. There are no o incentives nor accountability to "protect" when an oil company's annual PROFITS is upwards of $30 billion dollars ($30,000,000,000).

"You have to wonder why do we have money for propaganda and not for proper science?,"
Professor SCHINDLER QUOTE from Graham Thomson's article below

"It's not the role of Alberta Environment to advocate on behalf of the environment."
Rob Renner, Alberta Minister of Environment,

Do we have the foxes guarding the hen house? Are there any hens left?

Drilling Mora County


Globe and Mail
Aug. 31, 2010
Letters to the editor

Your article Quebec Moves to Develop Natural Gas Industry (front page, Aug. 30) should serve as a wake-up call.

The use of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to break up underground geological formations and release trapped natural gas is proving to be an extremely controversial practice south of the border. Families there who find that their drinking water is now flammable because of the gas present in the water supply are justifiably outraged. Indeed, widespread claims of contaminated ground water have prompted the New York State Senate to halt such gas-extraction plans until much more is known about fracking.

Clearly, before much more independent research is done to analyze the safety of such methods of hydrocarbon extraction, the only sane reply to gas companies wishing to push ahead is "no fracking way!"

With Neighors Unaware, Toxic Spill at BP Plant

COMMENT:

The permits for BP to do business come from state government agencies. Who are the people in charge in these agencies that are issuing "permits" (legalizing) these industries that cause these criminal acts upon the people and ecosystems? The state of Texas government put industry above the law when they put the children, adults, animals and ecosystem in harms way so that profits can be made. They made all people, animals and the ecosystem "property" by taking away their rights of knowledge about the toxic chemicals released in their atmosphere by BP.

Is the "cost of doing business" (fine issued by the Attorney General at $600,000) that cheap and easy that the health or life of the child, adult or animals comes with but a nod and a handshake by our governments and corporations?

When is enough enough?

"When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the
people fear the government, there is tyranny.".....Thomas Jefferson

Drilling Mora County

August 29, 2010
With Neighbors Unaware, Toxic Spill at a BP Plant
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
TEXAS CITY, Tex. — While the world was focused on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a BP refinery here released huge amounts of toxic chemicals into the air that went unnoticed by residents until many saw their children come down with respiratory problems.

For 40 days after a piece of equipment critical to the refinery’s operation broke down, a total of 538,000 pounds of toxic chemicals, including the carcinogen benzene, poured out of the refinery.

Rather than taking the costly step of shutting down the refinery to make repairs, the engineers at the plant diverted gases to a smokestack and tried to burn them off, but hundreds of thousands of pounds still escaped into the air, according to state environmental officials.

Neither the state nor the oil company informed neighbors or local officials about the pollutants until two weeks after the release ended, and angry residents of Texas City have signed up in droves to join a $10 billion class-action lawsuit against BP. The state attorney general, Greg Abbott, has also sued the company, seeking fines of about $600,000....continued....

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

10 Reasons our Deep Water Supply is in Deep Trouble


Jeffrey Green
Activist Post

Fresh clean water is essential to all life forms. It seems that a resource so vital should not be corralled, controlled, or corrupted by any corporation or government. However, with fresh water supplies under assault on multiple fronts, governments seek to further clamp down on individual human usage, while doing very little to reduce the reasons for the contamination. At the same time, corporations that repackage water and sell it back to the public enjoy financial benefits from the scarcity of their "product."

Upon review, water scarcity is an alarming prospect indeed; especially in areas of the world where clean water was limited to begin with. The extended droughts caused by climate shifts, cumulative aspects of general human pollution, dirty industrial and agricultural practices, and blatant chemical contamination significantly reduce the supply of clean water. The more precious this resource becomes, the more our friendly multinational corporations profit from this new "commodity," and the more our governments seek to tax it.

Here are 10 reasons why our water supply is in deep trouble:
1. Fracture drilling for natural gas: Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act after it was considered safe since a 2004 study (PDF) by the Environmental Protection Agency found that it posed no risk to drinking water. The evidence is now overwhelming that it does indeed contaminate the groundwater to where some residents can even light their tap water on fire. The new documentary Gasland does a great job educating the public about this method and its effects on the water supply.
CONTINUED

Monday, September 13, 2010

Elevated levels of toxins found in Athabasca River-Globe and Mail

COMMENTS:
For anyone who believes that the Canadian government is protecting the environment and the indigenous people downstream from toxic impacts of industry, read the article below. People and the environment are being sold out as profits and power are amassed.

The stream of revenue governments make via their partnership with corporations (whose sole focus is revenue production for their board of directors, shareholders and the aligned governments) represent an historical relationship between the colonial governments and industry.

This partnership aligns industry with governments around the globe. Willing governments sell out their people and the ecosystem with blatant lies and coverups (U.S. EPA hydraulic fracturing study 2004) and not so blatant (Brazil water privatization to Bechtell) as they issue permits to industry to rape and pillage land and sea at continued loss to human and animal life as well as total destruction to ecosystems. Read Vandana Shiva "Soil not Oil."

Those who reveal the lies are heroes and their courage and moral convictions give citizens the fortitude to forge ahead to continue to demand human and environmental rights and protections in spite of government's criminal actions. The people, whether those colonized, enslaved, or trampled, can still reach for the highest goals and set examples for our governments. Read Howard Zinn "Peoples' History of the United States."

While this will take an historical departure from the pillage and plunder pattern, there still is hope, and in the words of Martin Luther King, JR., "The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice."

"When a well packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to
the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly
preposterous and it's speaker a raving lunatic."........Anonymous

Drilling Mora County



Josh Wingrove
8/30/2010

A study set to be published on Monday has found elevated levels of mercury, lead and eleven other toxic elements in the oil sands' <#> main fresh water source, the Athabasca River, refuting long-standing government and industry claims that water quality there hasn't been affected by oil sands development.

The author of the study, University of Alberta biological scientist David Schindler, criticized the province and industry for an "absurd" system that obfuscates or fails to discover essential data about the river. "I think they [the findings] are significant enough that they should trigger some interest in a better monitoring program than we have," he said. [comment: ya, and send some of that better monitoring to the frac fields too!!]

The Athabasca has increasingly become a flashpoint for debate. Earlier this year, Environment Minister Jim Prentice dismissed Dr. Schindler's previous peer-reviewed work as "allegations."...continued....

Road Renews White Peak Fight--Rancher’s Plans Raise Access Issue

COMMENT:
In spite of the cease and desist order by the Attorney General and the pending decision on the White Peak land swap by the New Mexico Supreme Court, David Stanley and the State Land Office Commissioner Pat Lyons continue to move ahead on the development of the new road access to White Peak.

Mora County Land Use Commissioner, Rumaldo Pino, said during the Mora Commission meeting August 14th, that any attempt by either Stanley or the Land Office to close the County Red Hill road C-010 would bring the county into this issue since it is county jurisdiction.

Excerpt: "Under conditions of his trade with the Land Office, Stanley can’t close any road until he’s built another access point into White Peak."

That issue will be up to Mora County government not the State Land Commissioner. It is generally not the county's tenor to close a maintained county road.

There appears to be little regard to the cease and desist order by either Stanley or Lyons.

EXCERPT: "From the standpoint of the Office of the Attorney General, the best course of action for all parties is to hold off on the construction of Mr. Stanley’s proposed road,” the letter, dated Aug. 19, says. It goes on to say that building the road “conflicts with the stay issued by the (Supreme Court).”

We will see what happens given that Stanley and Lyons are pushing the envelope with their actions.

Drilling Mora County


By Phil Parker Journal Staff Writer
Journal Santa Fe

Private rancher David Stanley began building a road into the White Peak area earlier this month, reigniting controversy over the much-contested swaps between the State Land Office and private owners involving thousands of acres north of Ocate in northeastern New Mexico.

Stanley said the new road is not quite finished. And it won’t be, not until state government agencies can untangle exactly what’s supposed to happen in White Peak.

The New Mexico Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legality of the White Peak land trades, negotiated last year between Land Office officials and four different ranchers....continued...

Shale resources set to double market share in 20 years

COMMENT:
It is clear that the "bridge" to clean, green fuels is not on the agenda for either this administration nor the corporations who fuel this fossil energy agenda. To become the world natural gas producer is what is on the table, which industry claims, and apparently is backed by our federal and state governments.

In spite of the mounting health claims where natural gas is extracted, the contaminated and depleted water, air, and degradation to communities/cultures, and our natural world, industry receives permits to drill and extract at will.

See below for the projections of the US natural gas market for the next 20 years. When the frenzy to drill began, people were told this was a "bridge" to green fuels, but where is the discussion and advancement of this clean, green energy taking place? It is no longer on the table, it appears.

EXCERPT:
"This week, the U.S. Department of State launched its new Global Shale Gas Initiative, a move seen by experts to sell the U.S. industry's success story abroad and expand market opportunities for American gas exploration and production firms."


08/26/2010
Nathanial Gronewold, E&E reporter

NEW YORK -- Unconventional natural gas sources will double their share of the U.S. market in the next 20 years, say analysts at Deloitte in a new report.
Abundant supplies of gas from huge shale deposits in the United States and the expanding international market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) should also keep prices depressed for years to come, the company says. At the same time, Deloitte's survey of evolving trends in the industry shows shale gas production is getting cheaper and more cost-effective, enticing the world's largest oil companies to creep into a sector long dominated by smaller independent producers.
"Together, shale gas and LNG are abundant new sources of gas that can be produced at lower prices than gas from conventional sources," concludes the new market analysis by Deloitte's Center for Energy Solutions. "It is anticipated that both of these sources will continue to grow significantly in the long term."
Deloitte sees gas supplies from shale rock formations and coal-bed methane growing from about 17 percent of U.S. production today to 34 percent by 2030. New regulations could affect that outlook but likely in a favorable way as costs for Gulf of Mexico producers increase and state and federal environmental legislation comes to favor gas over coal-fired power generation, analysts say.
Gas prices in the United States continue to sink to new lows in the wake of depressed economic news, slipping under $4 per million British thermal units earlier this month. Henry Hub natural gas futures for October delivery were trading at $3.85 per million Btu at the New York Mercantile Exchange at press time.
Deloitte sees low pricing as the norm for some time but does not see it as a problem for shale gas developers as companies have undertaken impressive cost reductions. Gas at $3.38 per million Btu is the "break even point" for producers at the Eagle Ford shale formation in south Texas, the firm points out. Still, analysts acknowledge that the North American average implies producers need a price of at least $6.86 per million Btu to generate an operating profit.
The pricing pressure is driving more competition for cost reductions and enhanced efficiencies, and gas producers are now reorienting their operations around unconventional gas production as they shed ways of doing business that centered more on conventional output, Deloitte analysts believe.
The relative success of independent oil and gas producers, driven largely by shale exploration, is now causing larger producers to enter the fray in an increasingly big way.
"While the independents are building low cost, lean organizations, larger international independents, majors and national oil companies are taking notice," the authors of the report say. "As they watch the transformation of small North American independents into industry movers, they are employing strategies and seeking new business models to gain entry into the unconventional assets."
The best recent example of this trend cited in the study is Exxon Mobil Corp.'s acquisition of XTO Energy Inc. in March for $41 billion. The purchase makes Exxon Mobil the largest natural gas producer in the United States.
Other examples include Royal Dutch Shell PLC's purchase of a 1.25-million-acre stake in the Marcellus Shale in the Northeast from East Resources Inc. for $5 billion. And where they are not buying shale producers or assets outright, the oil majors are likely to increase their number of joint ventures and partnerships with the independents over the coming years, analysts project.
The shale gas industry is now looking to expand overseas. Shale gas exploration involving U.S. and British firms are now under way in Poland and China. This week, the U.S. Department of State launched its new Global Shale Gas Initiative, a move seen by experts to sell the U.S. industry's success story abroad and expand market opportunities for American gas exploration and production firms.

Say No To Weakening the Clean Water Act!

COMMENTS: As if it is not enough that industry is exempt from the "Clean Water Act", now industry is working along side government to weaken the "industry standards" that put the "Clean Water Act" into to place initially. Industry wrote the original specs for the "Clean Water Act" and today, along side government, is working to degrade it further. Call and write your Senators and Representatives today to OPPOSE the Cardin Bill.

Drilling Mora County


Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of a subcommittee of the Senate's Environmental and
Public Works Committee, introduced legislation which amends the Clean Water Act
(CWA).

The bill weakens the Clean Water Act.

I urge you to write your Senators today and ask that they oppose the Cardin Bill
known as the "Chesapeake Clean Water and Ecosystems Restoration Act."

As its title suggests, the bill purports to address the continuing environmental
decline of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by introducing some very fundamental changes
to the way the CWA has functioned for almost four decades. Supporters of the Bill
claim the CWA has failed the Bay and it needs to be fixed. But that's not true.
The Chesapeake Bay is dirty today not because the CWA is deficient, but because
the CWA is not being properly enforced.

This bill relies on voluntary measures on the part of state environmental agencies.
These state agencies have demonstrated that they lack the political will to enforce
the existing mandates of the CWA.

The Cardin Bill allows states to create exemptions to polluters such as developers,
wastewater utilities, and agricultural producers that are required to have permits
under current law. The end result of these exemptions is that the most powerful
tool for cleaning up watersheds will be lost....continued...

State Dept. gathering aims to boost int'l shale development

EXCERPT:
"......met with delegates from nearly 20 countries to explain the domestic regulatory structure."

In other words, the Obama Administration is explaining that in the United States of America, the corporations write the rules, and the government then passes them into law. The government then makes huge profits off corporate extraction on private, state and federal lands.

In the United States, the federal government exempts the oil industry from responsibility/liability when they pollute our aquifers, air and land (2005 Energy Bill exempts industry from the "Clean Air Act", "Clean Water Act", "Safe Drinking Water Act"). The state issues a permit (New Mexico Oil Conservation Division, OCD) to the corporation, and the county follows suit, issuing a permit, if they have the authority to do so. This "permitting" legalizes all corporate business within the county. Industry is now "above" the law and can legally damage our health, water, air, land and wild animals without recourse. Proving harm by industry is then up to the individual to prove in court that industry is responsible. This is the regulatory structure in the United States of America.

Any fines issued in New Mexico are limited to $10,000.00.....the cost of doing business comes cheaply for industry here. And all fines are tax right-offs for these multi billion dollar industries.

To date, no government health studies have been done to access harm to either the people, animals or ecosystems yet industry continues to drill for oil and gas in spite of the health consequences to all living species and ecosystems.

Drilling Mora County

The Abama administration is selling out the people!



8/24/2010
Katie Howell, E&E reporter

In what is being cast as an effort to promote global energy security, the Obama administration is schooling governments from four continents on the development of shale gas resources.

The State Department this week is holding its first multilateral meetings under the new Global Shale Gas Initiative to help other countries develop a resource that has boomed in the United States in recent years. The only other nation to start work on shale gas is Poland, which is drilling exploratory wells.

"Other countries want to replicate this process, and we wish them the best in doing this," David Goldwyn, State's coordinator for international energy affairs, said today. "But there are a lot of things that governments need to know in order to develop shale gas safely and efficiently."..continued...

Fracking Linked to Water Contamination, Health Problems In Several States

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Gas drilling via a process called hydraulic fracturing has been the
subject of controversy across the nation. Critics of hydraulic
fracturing, also called fracking, claim the chemicals used in the
process, coupled with a lack of regulation, are endangering both the
environment and the health of people who live near such drilling
operations. Indeed, water contamination, air quality problems, and an
increase in health ailments have been reported in several communities
where fracking operations are prevalent.

Hydraulic fracturing is now used in about 90 percent of US gas and oil
wells. The process involves injecting water, sand, and a cocktail of
chemicals at high pressure into rock formations thousands of feet
below the surface. Because the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005
exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Drinking
Water Act, shale gas drillers don’t have to disclose what chemicals
they use. According to a report issued by the Environmental Working
Group, fracking has already been linked to drinking water
contamination and property damage in Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania and
Wyoming...continued...

Group: Survey Shows Ill Health In Wyo. Frack Zone--Associated Press

MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Writer
August 18, 2010

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- Four out of five people who have returned health
surveys report respiratory problems in a central Wyoming community
where some residents say gas drilling has polluted their water wells,
an environmental group said Wednesday.

Respondents also reported headaches, nausea, itchy skin, dizziness and
other ailments, according to the Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability
Project.

Wilma Subra, a Louisiana chemist and environmentalist who has
investigated oil and gas industry pollution worldwide, is conducting
the survey. She said survey forms from the first 16 people -- more are
coming in -- show a need for public health officials to investigate.

"It's critical to identify the health impacts and track them over
time," Subra said...continued...

A Bill of Rights Banning Corporations from Drilling For Gas

HUMAN RIGHTS AND ECOSYSTEMS RIGHTS

CONTACT: Ben Price, (717) 254-3233
benprice@celdf.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Tuesday, August 17, 2010- Pittsburgh, PA) At a City Hall press conference today, Councilman Doug Shields announced he will introduce a bill that would ban corporations from drilling for gas in the city of Pittsburgh. He said he will introduce the ordinance following Council’s current recess.

At the heart of “Pittsburgh’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance” is this statement of law: It shall be unlawful for any corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas within the City of Pittsburgh.

Also included in the ordinance is a local “bill of rights” that asserts legal protections for the right to water, the rights of natural communities, the right to local self-government, and the right of the people to enforce and protect these rights through their municipal government.

The bill was drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund at the invitation of Council members....continued...

EPA considers expanding fracturing study to air quality

By Dennis Webb
Saturday, August 14, 2010

Recently retired Environmental Protection Agency environmental engineer Weston Wilson is best known for criticizing his employer’s 2004 finding that hydraulic fracturing poses little or no risk to domestic groundwater.

Now, the Denver EPA whistleblower is encouraged by the agency’s interest in studying the natural gas development procedure’s potential impacts on air quality as well.

“I’m proud of EPA now,” not just for undertaking the study, but indicating it may expand the study’s reach beyond water, Wilson said.

His position puts him at odds with the oil and gas industry. At a Denver EPA meeting this summer, several industry representatives argued the study should be limited, as directed by a congressional committee, to the relationship between fracturing and groundwater. “And certainly not air quality,” as Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance put it....continued...

CLIMATE CHANGE

CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Ojibwe prophecies speak of a time when we will have a choice between two paths. The first path is
well-worn and scorched. The second path is new and green.

It is our choice as communities and as individuals how we will proceed. We’ve already raised the average temperature of the globe one degree. The question is whether we can stop it from rising much more: this is at the core of our survival.

It is essential for us to look at the world’s economic and environmental realities in order to make critical decisions about our future. That means we must address issues such as climate change, peak oil and food insecurity.

We must decide whether we want to determine our own future or lease it out for royalties.

Kenya Passes New Constitution

HUMAN RIGHTS STORY

8/12/2010
Tristan McConnell, GlobalPost

"Kenyans voted overwhelmingly for a new constitution that could signal a fresh start for the country's historically damaged and divisive politics. Two-thirds of the country's 12.4 million voters cast their ballot in favor of a constitution that promises to limit the president's powers, reform land ownership, devolve more power to the county level. The new constitution would also introduce a bill of rights for the first time in the country's history."

Drilling Industry and Gubernatorial Candidates Move to Weaken Some State Regulations--Propublica

by Sabrina Shankman
Aug. 5, 1:08 p.m.

As the federal government focuses on strengthening regulations for deepwater drilling, the gas and oil industry is quietly trying to weaken state regulations for drilling on land.

The industry's current targets are regulations passed by New Mexico and Colorado in 2008 and 2009. The New Mexico regulations mandate that the industry use thick industrial liners in the pits that hold its toxic waste. The Colorado regulations tighten controls on just about every aspect of the industry, from the waste pits to air quality.

The industry is challenging the regulations in court and through administrative appeals, arguing that the regulations are unreasonably expensive and are forcing companies to move to states with looser regulations. That argument has also surfaced in the New Mexico and Colorado gubernatorial races, where candidates from both parties have promised to repeal, or at least re-evaluate, the rules....continued....

Pennsylvania broke law on natgas water use

By Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA | Mon Aug 9, 2010

(Reuters) - Pennsylvania regulators are illegally allowing natural gas
companies to withdraw water from rivers and streams for use in the
Marcellus Shale drilling boom, an environmental group claims.

The Allegheny Defense Project says the state's Department of Environmental
Protection has no legal right to permit drillers, as it does, to take
millions of gallons of water from rivers in the western part of the state.

That right belongs to owners of riparian land -- that which borders
waterways -- but DEP has ignored the law in facilitating the industry's
demands, the group said in a letter sent to DEP Secretary John Hanger in
late July....continued...

Bean Day Wagon Mound Centenial

Join the Village of Wagon Mound Celebrate their 100th Bean Day celebration this Labor Day Weekend in Wagon Mound.

Guadalupita in Mora County is being considered for nomination of an historical and cultural site--SF NM


August 02, 2010 - 7/31/10

Preserving state's hidden gems

More than 8,000 acres north of Mora, which is described as one of New Mexico's most unchanged areas, has been nominated as a "cultural and agricultural landscape" for the State Register of Cultural Properties.

Malcolm Ebright, who wrote the nomination for the Guadalupita/Coyote Historic District, said the area historically "was kind of an end of the line. ...

"We just have to hope it doesn't get too much recognition," he said. "We want it to be preserved and keep it a secret a little bit."

The Cultural Properties Review Committee is to decide whether to list the district on the state register this month.

Tom Drake, a spokesman for the state Historic Preservation Division, said the State Register of Cultural Properties lists nearly 2,000 properties, both buildings and districts....continued...

Avoiding America's next drilling disaster

By Robert Casey and Diana DeGette
8-3-2010

While our nation copes with the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the
multiple failures of offshore drilling regulation that led to it, another
potential fossil-fuel crisis lurks onshore.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking," injects tens of thousands of
gallons of water, sand, and chemicals at high pressure into underground rock
formations to release natural gas. The injected fracking fluids are known to
include a variety of harmful chemicals, such as diesel fuel, benzene, methanol, and formaldehyde. Even low concentrations of these chemicals can have severe health and environmental consequences, and they are being used near drinking water supplies....continued...

New BP Boss: Time to Scale Back Part of Oil Cleanup--AOL News

COMMENT: BP has filed for a 9.9 billion dollar tax credit, which means that the cleanup will cost them nothing but will simply defer their income.

Lauren Frayer Contributor
July 30 2010

BP's incoming CEO told Gulf Coast residents today that it's time to begin scaling back parts of the oil spill cleanup.

Bob Dudley, who doesn't officially take over until Oct. 1, met with residents and government officials in Biloxi, Miss., to discuss the company's long-term plans for dealing with the nation's worst-ever environmental disaster.

His comments came more than two weeks after the ruptured well was capped and with crude disappearing from the surface of the gulf....continued...

United States District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania

BY STEVE MCCONNELL
Scranton Times-Tibune

A natural gas drilling company has filed a federal lawsuit against Damascus Twp. in Wayne County, just days after township officials issued a "cease-and-desist" work order on one of the company's exploratory wells because it didn't obtain a permit.

The suit, filed July 6 by a subsidiary of Houston-based Newfield Exploration Co., claims that on July 2 township officials "took administrative action to stop the drilling project" by issuing a stop-work order. It further states the township does not have any regulatory authority to do so through its zoning ordinance.

The suit alleges that state law, in particular the state Oil and Gas Act, which is enforced by the state Department of Environmental Protection, supercedes all local authority to regulate or require any special provisions upon natural gas exploration and development.

Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge oil spill

Train derails on refuge, spills fuel oil
Written by T.S. Last   
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 06:00


While the eyes of the nation have been focused on the Gulf oil spill, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge now has to contend with its own oil spill and environmental disaster. A Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad train derailed about an hour after
sunrise Tuesday morning (July 27) at the southern end of the refuge, when a trestle collapsed. Although no injuries were reported, some environmental damage inevitably occurred.....continued...

Brazil's congress Cleaning Up a Campaign Against Corruption

Jul 8th 2010 | SÃo Paulo

ORGANISED crime takes several forms in Brazil. One is politics—a lucrative trade. Of the 513 members of the lower house of Congress, 147 face criminal charges in the supreme court or are under investigation, and the same goes for 21 of the 81 senators, according to Congresso em Foco, a website that acts as a watchdog. Some—nobody knows quite how many—have already been convicted in lower courts. Most of the crimes involve either violating campaign-finance laws or stealing public money.....continued....

Not So Fast Natural Gas:Why Accelerating Risky Drilling Threatens America's Water

Protect drinking water from natural gas drilling and contamination!

Some energy analysts are predicting that natural gas will be the fuel of the future if advances in drilling technology allow drillers to tap into domestic shale rock formations on a large scale. But because of the impacts that the technology can have on water, natural gas could become our next energy disaster.

Although the industry argues that fracking is safe, there have been numerous documented cases of water contamination near drilling sites.

In order to extract gas from shale, drillers use a method called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” for short. This means injecting millions of gallons of hydraulic fluids—a mix of water, chemicals and sand—into a well to create pressure that cracks open the rocks under the ground, allowing the gas to escape and flow into wells.

E.P.A. Considers Risks of Gas Extraction--The New York Times

By TOM ZELLER Jr.
Published: July 23, 2010

CANONSBURG, Pa. — The streams of people came to the public meeting here armed with stories of yellowed and foul-smelling well water, deformed livestock, poisoned fish and itchy skin. One resident invoked the 1968 zombie thriller “Night of the Living Dead,” which, as it happens, was filmed just an hour away from this southwestern corner of Pennsylvania.

A residents say hydraulic fracturing is polluting water.

Terry Greenwood, a farmer in Daisytown, Pa., at a hearing with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The culprit, these people argued, was hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting natural gas that involves blasting underground rock with a cocktail of water, sand and chemicals....continued....

800,000 Gal of oil Flowing Into The Kalamazoo River

Michigan Oil Spill Among Largest In Midwest History: Kalamazoo Spill SOAKS Wildlife
The Huffington Post July 29, 2010

As the Gulf Coast deals with the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Midwest is now facing an oil spill of its own.

A state of emergency has been declared in southwest Michigan's Kalamazoo County as more than 800,000 gallons of oil released into a creek began making its way downstream in the Kalamazoo River, the Kalamazoo Gazette reports.

The trouble began Monday at 9:45 a.m., when an oil pipeline owned by Enbridge Liquids Pipelines sprung a leak in Marshall Township. Enbridge Energy is a subsidiary of Calgary, Canada based Enbridge Inc., the Detroit Free Press reports. According to the company, it is the largest transporter of oil from western Canada....continued...
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
July 29, 2010


BP Has Paid $256 Million in Claims

BP estimated July 28 that it would pay at least $60 million in advance payments in August to claimants throughout the Gulf States region for lost income or business profits. BP said it had paid $256 million to date for claims, including $30 million in the last week. Darryl Willis, a member of the BP claims team, said Kenneth R. Feinberg, administrator of the $20 billion compensation fund, would take over the operation in "the next several weeks."

'Static Kill' May Begin August 2

BP still expects to permanently shut the well as soon as August 2. "It is possible that as early as Monday or Tuesday this well might be killed," Robert Dudley, the company's new chief executive, said on National Public Radio. "There's no precision; there's nothing guaranteed. I'm hopeful, and I do believe we've seen the end of oil flowing into the gulf."....continued....

UN Resolution on the "RIGHT TO WATER" Passes Overwhelmingly


HUMAN RIGHTS!

UN resolution on right to water passes overwhelmingly. 124 yes, 42 abstentions, 0 no!

On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly agreed to a resolution declaring the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation.” The resolution, presented by the Bolivian government, had 124 countries vote in its favour, while 42 countries – including Canada – abstained.

For more than a decade the water justice movement, including the Council of Canadians' Blue Planet Project, has been calling for UN leadership on this critical issue. Right now nearly 2billion people live in water-stressed areas of the world and 3 billion have no running water within a kilometre of their homes. Every eight seconds, a child dies of water-borne disease – deaths that would be easily preventable with access to clean, safe water....continued

Department Of Environmental Protection Unlawfully permitting Water Withdrawal

July 26, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Department of Environmental Protection Unlawfully Permitting Water
Withdrawals For Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling in Western Pennsylvania
Only riparian owners can make use of water in streams and rivers

Natural gas companies have descended on Pennsylvania's forests and
farmlands to drill into the Marcellus Shale. Each Marcellus Shale gas
well requires millions of gallons of water for the drilling process.
That water is taken from Pennsylvania's streams and rivers under the
alleged authority of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP). The DEP, however, does not have the authority to
permit water withdrawals in Pennsylvania.

In central and eastern Pennsylvania, water withdrawals are managed by
the Susquehanna River Basin Commission and Delaware River Basin
Commission.
Congress created the two commissions as federal-interstate compacts with
the authority to permit water withdrawals within their respective
basins.

A Fracking War: Industry Tries and Fails to Debunk "GasLand" Documentary

Thursday 22 July 2010
by: Mike Ludwig

The information war over the natural gas drilling practice commonly called "fracking" is heating up as filmmaker Josh Fox responds to an industry attempt to debunk his hit film "Gasland."

"Gasland" won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and gave new life to a national controversy after airing on HBO. The film exposes the environmental and health dangers associated with largely unregulated hydraulic fracturing practices - or "fracking" - and includes interviews with residents across the county who say their air and drinking water has been contaminated by nearby gas wells....continued....

Two Killed in Indiana TWP Gas Well Explosion-Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Friday, July 23, 2010
By Jim McKinnon and Dante Anthony Fuoco

Two people were killed this morning when a natural gas well exploded in Indiana Township, emergency dispatchers said.

Workers had been at a gas well site when the explosion was reported around 9:50 a.m. in a wooded area of the township between Rich Hill Road and Challenge Lane.

No other injuries were reported.

Reporters were being kept away from the site, where officials said a fire continues to burn. Emergency crews tried to use foam to put out the blaze, but when that failed they began sending tanker trucks to the site....continued