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...