tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32156936153474544632024-03-05T13:22:30.372-08:00Concerned Burlington NeighborsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger102125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-38126128020986604052013-10-13T10:01:00.000-07:002013-10-13T10:01:01.909-07:00<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Fracking's impact on severe weather</span></h1>
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<span class="name" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Wes Gillingham, Commentary</span></h5>
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Published 3:59 pm, Friday, October 11, 2013</h5>
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<i style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;"><a href="http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=opinion&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Wes+Gillingham%22" style="border: 0px; color: #08478d; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wes Gillingham</a> is program director at Catskill Mountainkeeper.</i>I am heartbroken over the pictures I've seen of the flooding destruction in Colorado. It particularly hits home because in 2006 flooding from an extreme, intense, isolated thunderstorm destroyed my vegetable farm in Youngsville, Sullivan County. In a few hours, torrents of water ruined three of my tractors, devastated my irrigation equipment and took away 60 percent of my topsoil. I couldn't recover, and it put me out of business.</div>
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In some ways I was lucky, especially compared to the people in Colorado. I didn't have to worry about toxic fracking chemicals that are linked to cancer, infertility, autism, diabetes, thyroid disorders and many more conditions poisoning my family, which is a real fear for people in Weld County, Colo.</div>
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I did not have a natural gas well pad or a wastewater containment facility on my land. I did not have condensation tanks or open pits that contained toxic fracking waste. That meant that the washout across my field had water in it and not toxic waste.</div>
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In New York, proponents of gas drilling say we can protect ourselves from this type of devastation by having better regulations. The tragedies in Colorado and the 2006 flood of my farm eviscerate this theory.</div>
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While the regulations in the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, the conditions under which New York state proposed to regulate fracking, may be better than what they have in Colorado, history tells us they are unlikely to address a weather calamity like the Colorado flooding.</div>
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My farm was destroyed by what was considered a 500-year flood, but the SGEIS only seeks to prohibit wells in areas that are defined as 100-year flood plains. This flood plain definition has been rendered almost meaningless, as climate change has created a "new normal" where we are seeing the increased frequency of weather events that previously were defined as 100-year, 500-year and even 1,000-year occurrences. We experienced two 100-year floods and the 500-year flood in a five-year period.</div>
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Even if the proposed regulations were more stringent, our government does not have the ability or willingness to enforce regulations. A recent study showed the <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=opinion&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Department+of+Environmental+Conservation%22" style="border: 0px; color: #08478d; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department of Environmental Conservation</a> has lost one third of its staff. And in case after case, the <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=opinion&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Federal+Environmental+Protection+Agency%22" style="border: 0px; color: #08478d; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Federal Environmental Protection Agency</a> has been walking away from dealing with fracking pollution.</div>
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Ironically, it is the carbon emissions from burning natural gas and other fossil fuels that is accelerating climate change, which in turn is increasing the intensity of storms.</div>
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Gov. <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=opinion&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Andrew+Cuomo%22" style="border: 0px; color: #08478d; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Andrew Cuomo</a> has maintained a moratorium as the <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=opinion&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Department+of+Health+and+DEC%22" style="border: 0px; color: #08478d; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Department of Health and DEC</a>studies the science on fracking. If there was ever a sign that fracking is not right for New York and we need to move to clean energy, the Colorado disaster is it.</div>
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Read More: <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Fracking-s-impact-on-severe-weather-4888577.php" style="color: #4c6633; text-decoration: none;">http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Fracking-s-impact-on-severe-weather-4888577.php</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-25319284993275249572013-10-07T20:57:00.001-07:002013-10-07T20:57:05.905-07:00<br />
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October 2, 2013</h2>
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<a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/10/radioactive-wastewater-from-fracking-is-found-in-a-pennsylvania-stream/" rel="bookmark" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Radioactive Wastewater From Fracking Is Found in a Pennsylvania Stream</a></h3>
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New testing of treated wastewater from fracking shows that it contains high levels of radioactive radium, along with chloride and bromide. Image via <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Environmental Science and Technology</em>/Warner et. al.</div>
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In the state of Pennsylvania, home to the lucrative <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_Formation" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Marcellus Shale formation</a>, 74 facilities treat wastewater<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></strong> from the process of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">hydraulic fracturing</a> (a.k.a. “fracking”) for natural gas and release it into streams. There’s no national set of standards that guides this treatment process—<a href="http://www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the EPA notes</a> that the Clean Water Act’s guidelines were developed before fracking even existed, and that many of the processing plants “are not properly equipped to treat this type of wastewater”—and scientists have conducted relatively little assessment of the wastewater to ensure it’s safe after being treated.</div>
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Recently, a group of Duke University scientists decided to do some testing. They contacted the owners of one treatment plant, the Josephine Brine Treatment Facility on Blacklick Creek in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, but, “when we tried to work with them, it was very difficult getting ahold of the right person,” says <a href="http://fds.duke.edu/db/Nicholas/eos/faculty/vengosh" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Avner Vengosh</a>, an Earth scientist from Duke. “Eventually, we just went and tested water right from a public area downstream.”</div>
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Their analyses, made on water samples collected repeatedly over the course of two years, were even more concerning than we’d feared. As <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es402165b" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">published today</a> in the journal <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Environmental Science and Technology</em></a>, they found high concentrations of the element radium, a highly radioactive substance. The concentrations were roughly 200 times higher than background levels. In addition, amounts of chloride and bromide in the water were two to ten times greater than normal.</div>
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“Even if, today, you completely stopped disposal of the wastewater,” Vengosh says, there’s enough contamination built up that”you’d still end up with a place that the U.S. would consider a radioactive waste site.”</div>
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<a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/files/2013/10/map.jpg" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-23696" height="470" src="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/files/2013/10/map.jpg" style="border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" title="map" width="611" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #231f20; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px !important; line-height: 19px; padding: 4px 6px 15px 9px; text-align: left;">
The scientists tested wastewater released by the Josephine Water Treatment plant (black square) into Blacklick Creek, which feeds into the Allegheny River, a drinking water source for Pittsburgh. Image via <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Environmental Science and Technology</em>/Warner et. al.</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #e69138; font-size: 10px;">Read more: </span><a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/10/radioactive-wastewater-from-fracking-is-found-in-a-pennsylvania-stream/?utm_source=smithsoniantopic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20131006-Weekender"><span style="color: #003399; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/10/radioactive-wastewater-from-fracking-is-found-in-a-pennsylvania-stream/#ixzz2h6CX6Knv</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10px;"> </span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=cd5NqsI_0r3Qffab7jrHtB&u=SmithsonianMag" style="color: #006791; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@SmithsonianMag on Twitter</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-1534549259440287472013-09-23T21:07:00.002-07:002013-09-23T21:11:16.825-07:00<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; letter-spacing: -1px;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-large;"><b>Exclusive: Pipeline Safety Chief Says His Regulatory Process Is 'Kind of Dying'</b></span></span></div>
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With 'few tools to work with,' PHMSA's Jeffrey Wiese says he is creating a YouTube channel to persuade industry to voluntarily improve safety.</h3>
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<span style="font-size: 15px;">By Marcus Stern and Sebastian Jones </span><span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Sep 11, 2013</span></span></div>
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<img align="" alt="Jeffrey Wiese, PHMSA's associate administrator for pipeline safety" class="caption imagecache imagecache-home_page_slideshow imagecache-default imagecache-home_page_slideshow_default" src="http://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/home_page_slideshow/jeffwiesephmsa_0.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #231f20; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" title="Jeffrey Wiese (center), PHMSA's associate administrator for pipeline safety, testifies at a hearing on pipeline safety. Credit: Rep. Gus Bilirakis" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; font-size: smaller;">Jeffrey Wiese (center), PHMSA's associate administrator for pipeline safety, testifies at a hearing on pipeline safety. Credit: Rep. Gus</span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; font-size: smaller;"> </span></div>
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Jeffrey Wiese, the nation's top oil and gas pipeline safety official, recently strode to a dais beneath crystal chandeliers at a New Orleans hotel to let his audience in on an open secret: the regulatory process he oversees is "kind of dying."</div>
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Wiese told several hundred oil and gas pipeline compliance officers that his agency, the <a href="http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/" style="color: darkgreen; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration</a> (PHMSA), has "very few tools to work with" in enforcing safety rules even after Congress in 2011 allowed it to impose higher fines on companies that cause major accidents.</div>
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"Do I think I can hurt a major international corporation with a $2 million civil penalty? No," he said.</div>
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Because generating a new pipeline rule can take as long as three years, Wiese said PHMSA is creating a YouTube channel to persuade the industry to voluntarily improve its safety operations. "We'll be trying to socialize these concepts long before we get to regulations."</div>
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Wiese's pessimism about the viability of the pipeline regulatory system is at odds with the Obama administration's <a href="http://phmsa.dot.gov/portal/site/PHMSA/menuitem.ebdc7a8a7e39f2e55cf2031050248a0c/?vgnextoid=9c4a7b288ed6c310VgnVCM1000001ecb7898RCRD&vgnextchannel=8fd9f08df5f3f010VgnVCM1000008355a8c0RCRD&vgnextfmt=print" style="color: darkgreen; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">insistence</a> that the nation's pipeline infrastructure is safe and its regulatory regime robust. In <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/22/presidential-memorandum-expediting-review-pipeline-projects-cushing-okla" style="color: darkgreen; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">a speech last year</a>, President Obama ordered regulatory agencies like PHMSA to help expedite the building of new pipelines "in a way that protects the health and safety of the American people.</div>
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<span style="color: #f1c232; font-size: 15px;">Read More: </span><span style="color: #231f20;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130911/exclusive-pipeline-safety-chief-says-his-regulatory-process-kind-dying">http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130911/exclusive-pipeline-safety-chief-says-his-regulatory-process-kind-dying</a></span></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-51948487042350146502013-09-17T20:58:00.009-07:002013-09-17T20:58:37.500-07:00<br />
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/fracking-and-colorado-flooding-dont-mix/" rel="bookmark" style="color: #324b81; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Fracking and Colorado Flooding Don’t Mix</a> </h1>
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Phillip Doe</h3>
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A lot is being written in the state and national press about the terrible human devastation week-long rain storms have created in Colorado. The impact has been greatest along what is known locally as the Front Range, the flat land directly east of the Rocky Mountains. The city of Boulder and smaller towns such as Lyons and Jamestown have been particularly hard hit, but no city along the front range from the Wyoming state line through Denver to Colorado Springs has been spared. In Colorado, we’ve experienced massive drought, wildfires and flooding all in the same year. Welcome to the brave new world of <a href="http://ecowatch.com/p/air/climate-change-air/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">climate change</a>.</div>
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In time, the corporate press may turn to measuring the environmental damage these floods have caused wildlife and land, both public and private. But it’s doubtful, given the ruling elite’s bias toward oil and gas development everywhere in the state, that the reporting will look at the extent of the pollution to our waterways and land resources flooded by <a href="http://ecowatch.com/p/energy/fracking-2/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">oil and gas wells</a>. I don’t suspect, given the industry’s run of the place, that there will be a call for the industry to clean up its mess. After all, <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/grandparents-tell-gov-hickenlooper-not-to-frack/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Gov. Hickenlooper</a> has been known to say that <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/governor-admits-no-one-wants-fracking/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Colorado has the strongest oil and gas regulations</a> in the country.</div>
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The following photos, a mere snapshot of the true extent of the damage, call into doubt, once again, the happy talk of our political class, and the oil and gas industry:</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Displaced condensate tanks near Greeley and Kersey, CO, from flooding.</strong> These tanks are used to store waste liquid from drilling operations. Oil and other hydrocarbons not captured in earlier separation processes rise to the top of these tanks and are recovered as marketable. The toxicity of the liquids stored in these tanks is largely unknown because they have been exempted from federal environmental laws. In Colorado, these liquids are collected and reinjected into deep wells that are theoretically below usable groundwater. The industry claims this liquid, of unknown toxicity, will never migrate upwards into shallower groundwater. This is a highly contested assertion since many academic geologists and engineers think contamination of groundwater is inevitable over the long term. These tanks vary in size. When full, they contain between 12,000 and 20,000 gallons of liquid. The state of Colorado does not require these tanks be secured to the ground, though the industry says some operators do use chains for tethering.</em></div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/oilgastank.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Photo courtesy of Carl Ericson" class="size-full wp-image-305541" height="324" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/oilgastank.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="484" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
Photo courtesy of Carl Ericson</div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/coflooding1.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="coflooding1" class="size-full wp-image-305523 " height="354" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/coflooding1.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="486" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
Photo courtesy of Greeley Tribune</div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/tank.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Photo courtesy of Greeley Tribune" class="size-full wp-image-305542" height="349" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/tank.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="527" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
Photo courtesy of Greeley Tribune</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Flooded oil and gas wells, and pipeline, near Greeley, Kersey and Erie, CO, and along the Platte River.</strong> Preliminary press reports indicate that perhaps as many as 13,000 of the more than 20,000 wells in Weld County may have some degree of flood damage. This county has more wells than any other county in the country. The flooding and devastation have spread east along the Platte River drainage, out to the Nebraska line to be eventually recaptured in Lake Mcconaughy, the largest man-made impoundment in the state. The cresting on the Platte is estimated to be 17 to 20 feet above normal. Though wells are not as numerous on the eastern plains as in Weld County, oil development is plentiful. Many of the wells in this part of the state are believed to store drilling waste liquids in open pits rather in tanks as required in Weld County. Ozone created by leaking methane makes enclosed storage mandatory in Weld County. Not so, out east. Open pits may be widely flooded and disgorging their toxics into waterways.</em></div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Colorado regulations contain no setback requirements from water courses or impoundments, though a gentlemanly 50 foot setback has sometimes been suggested. Neither was flooding of well sites, whether in a flood plain or not, given even a glimmer of consideration in the COGCC’s 2009 statement of purpose and new rulemaking. This sort of blindness to reality is hard to understand since local flooding is common in Colorado, albeit not on the past week’s pervasive scale. The mantra of drill baby drill probably helped create this blind spot.</em></div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/underwater.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Photo courtesy of Paula Powell" class="size-full wp-image-305531 " height="296" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/underwater.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="482" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
Flooded well site near Greeley, CO. Photo courtesy of Paula Powell</div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/linebreak.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt=""Line break, gas has been blowing for two days, northeast of Kersey," Oil and gas employee said. Photo courtesy of Fracking Opponents United, Facebook page" class="size-full wp-image-305532 " height="508" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/linebreak.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="396" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
“Line break, gas has been blowing for two days, northeast of Kersey,” oil and gas employee said. Photo courtesy of Fracking Opponents United</div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/oilspill10.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Along the South Platte river. Photo courtesy of Kathy Woz Tompkins Facebook page" class="size-full wp-image-305533 " height="384" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/oilspill10.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="606" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
Along the South Platte river. Photo courtesy <a href="http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=176640d5c7ce4b70b1bda1634f915568&extent=-105.3246%2C39.9071%2C-103.9788%2C40.754" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ArcGIS Weld County 2013 Flood</a></div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/countyline.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="County Line Road, north of Erie, CO. Photo courtesy of Cliff Willmeng" class="size-full wp-image-305535" height="384" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/countyline.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="512" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
County Line Road, north of Erie, CO. Photo courtesy of Cliff Willmeng</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Flooded wells and tanks near Greeley.</strong> At a recent public hearing in Greeley on March 12, before the city’s planning commission, Rachael Wilbur a senior at the Colorado School of Mines and former resdident of Greeley suggested the city do a risk assessment of more drilling in Greeley, especially under a 100 year flood scenario. There has been no reply. At present, more than 460 wells exist in Greeley, with more than 200 new ones in the permitting process. Some say ultimately the city could see more than 1,600 wells. The invasion of the industry into cities and towns has caused numerous cities along the front range to consider bans or moratoria using the initiative process. The right of the people to protect home and hearth is being hotly contested by the industry and Gov. Hickenlooper.</em></div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/flood.jpg" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Poudre River. Photo Courtesy Bob Winkler" class="size-full wp-image-305537" height="362" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/flood.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="484" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 11px !important; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 0px 4px 5px;">
Poudre River. Photo Courtesy Bob Winkler</div>
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More photos are available at the following websites: <a href="http://frackcity.blogspot.com/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Frack City, USA</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EastBoulderCountyUnited/photos_stream" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">East Boulder County United</a>and <a href="http://weldairandwater.org/2013/09/14/114/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Weld Air and Water</a>.</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Phil Doe, environmental director of <a href="http://btc-usa.net/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Be the Change</a>, wrote this article with the assistance of many grassroots activists, not least of which were Cliff Wilmeng, Conny Jensen, Bob Winkler, Therese Gilbert and Wes Wilson.</em></div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">READ MORE:<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1800719844"> </a></span></em><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/fracking-and-colorado-flooding-dont-mix/">http://ecowatch.com/2013/fracking-and-colorado-flooding-dont-mix/</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-71983715926714604022013-09-11T17:58:00.003-07:002013-09-11T18:01:54.155-07:00<br />
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<span class="blogdate" style="bottom: 5px; font-size: 13px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute;">Wed, 2013-09-11 12:45</span><span class="blogname" style="bottom: 5px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 60px; text-transform: uppercase;">STEVE HORN</span><span class="blogname" style="bottom: 5px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 60px; text-transform: uppercase;">STEVE HORN</span><span class="blogpicture" style="font-size: 13px; height: 50px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 50px;"></span><span class="blogname" style="bottom: 5px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 60px; text-transform: uppercase;"><br /></span><span class="blogpicture" style="font-size: 13px; height: 50px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px; top: 0px; width: 50px;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-weight: 300;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-large; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.3em;"><span style="line-height: 1.3em;">Breaking: First Marcellus Fracked Gas Export</span><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span>Permit Approved by Energy Dept</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">DESMOBLOGBLOG.COM v </span><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wed, 2013-09-11 12:45</span> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.3em;">STEVE HORN</span><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/user/steve-horn" style="background-color: white; color: #3399cc; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 300; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="View user profile."><img alt="Steve Horn's picture" src="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/pictures/picture-7018-1372894641.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: 50px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 50px;" title="Steve Horn's picture" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.3em;"> </span></h2>
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)<a href="http://energy.gov/downloads/dominion-cove-point-lng-lp-fe-dkt-no-11-128-lng" style="color: #3399cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">has granted the first ever LNG export permit license to Dominion Resources, Inc. to export gas</a> obtained from the controversial <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/" style="color: #3399cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">hydraulic fracturing ("fracking")</a> process in the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5401" style="color: #3399cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Marcellus Shale basin</a>. </div>
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It's the fourth ever export terminal approved by the DOE, with the <a href="http://www.lngglobal.com/latest/dominion-cove-point-receives-authorization-to-export-lng-to-non-free-trade-countries.html" style="color: #3399cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">three others along the Gulf Coast</a>: Cheniere's Sabine Pass LNG, Freeport LNG (50-percent owned by ConocoPhillips) and Lake Charles Exports, LLC. </div>
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<a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-06-14/opinions/39972934_1_dominion-cove-point-prices-fracking" style="color: #3399cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Located in Lusby, Maryland,</a> the Dominion Cove Point LNG terminal will be a key regional hub to take gas fracked from one of the most prolific shale basins in the world - the Marcellus - and ship it to global markets, with <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/what-the-us-and-russia-are-really-fighting-about/167164/" style="color: #3399cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">shale gas exports a key geopolitical bargaining chip with Russia</a>, the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=RS" style="color: #3399cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">biggest producer of conventional gas in the world</a>.</div>
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Dominion owns not only Cove Point, but also the pipeline infrastructure set to feed the terminal.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">THE ARTICLE GOES ON TO SAY: </span>"Exporting LNG to foreign buyers will lock us into decades-long contracts, which in turn will lead to more drilling -- and that means more fracking, more air and water pollution, and more climate-fueled weather disasters like record fires, droughts, and superstores like last year's Sandy...As we have shown, once environmental impacts are evaluated, it becomes clear that the additional fracking and gas production exports would induce is unacceptable."</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">READ MORE: </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/09/11/breaking-1st-ever-marcellus-shale-fracked-gas-export-permit-approved-doe">http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/09/11/breaking-1st-ever-marcellus-shale-fracked-gas-export-permit-approved-doe</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-11201086578934021462013-09-01T11:35:00.000-07:002013-09-01T11:36:00.322-07:00<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #393939; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><b>Can the US Export its Way to Energy </b></span></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Independence?</span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #477375; font-size: 0.96em;">By</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #477375; font-size: 0.96em;"> </span><a class="black" href="http://oilprice.com/contributors/Kurt-Cobb" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kurt Cobb</a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #477375; font-size: 0.96em;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #477375; font-size: 0.96em;">| Sun, 18 August 2013, OILPRICE.COM</span></div>
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Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. That's the credo of the oil and gas industry as it continues to lobby for increased oil and natural gas exports from the United States. After all, the industry claims, we're on our way to achieving energy independence, and we can help our balance of trade by exporting the extra hydrocarbons we produce. The data, however, contradicts the industry's claim.</div>
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Even as the Obama Administration approved the <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Third-LNG-project-wins-federal-license-4715682.php" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">country's third natural gas export terminal</a>, the United States remained a net importer of natural gas. Production in the United States averaged <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9050us2m.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">69.5 billion cubic feet </a>(bcf) per day this year through May, the latest month for which data is available. But the country consumed <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9140us2m.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">76.9 bcf per day</a>. It IMPORTED almost <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9102cn2m.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">7.8 bcf per day</a> from Canada. And, then it EXPORTED about <a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9132mx2m.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">1.8 bcf per day</a> to Mexico, a number that is likely to rise <a href="http://www.platts.com/latest-news/natural-gas/Houston/US-gas-export-capacity-to-Mexico-could-more-than-6133846" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">as pipeline export capacity to Mexico expands.</a> (Both Canada and Mexico are part of an integrated North American natural gas pipeline system.)</div>
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The latest approval would lift the capacity for daily <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquefied_natural_gas" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">liquefied natural gas</a> (LNG) exports from the United States to <a href="http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Third-LNG-project-wins-federal-license-4715682.php" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5.6 bcf per day</a> or about 8 percent of what we currently produce. The exports would be shipped using special freighters to Europe and Asia. Strangely, these exports would make it necessary for the United States to IMPORT more natural gas in order to support current consumption! The situation seems surreal, and yet, additional approvals for LNG exports are likely in the future.</div>
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Natural gas producers keep telling the public and policy makers that U.S. natural gas production is set to grow continuously for decades as they tap large shale gas resources u<a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/fracking/" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sing hydraulic fracturing.</a> But the story isn't holding up. U.S. natural gas production has been moribund, bouncing along a plateau from January 2012 through May of this year (the latest month for which data is available).<a href="http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/hist/n9050us2m.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Monthly production last year averaged 2.11 trillion cubic feet (tcf), but was slightly less through May of this year at 2.10 tcf per month. </a>This is despite prices that have nearly doubled from the lows in April 2012.</div>
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It's possible that the situation could change, but unlikely for two reasons. Production decline rates for natural gas wells in the United States are <a href="http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8914" style="border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">averaging around 32 percent PER YEAR.</a> That means about one-third of U.S. production must be replaced EACH YEAR just to stay flat. And, that's really all that we've been doing for the last year and a half.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">But the situation is likely to get much worse. Here's why: Gas from shale deposits is rising as a percentage of total U.S. production. Shale gas wells decline much faster than the current overall rate (which includes conventional gas wells), </span><a href="http://www.postcarbon.org/reports/DBD-report-FINAL.pdf" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #24606c; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">between 79 and 95 percent</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #393939; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"> in the first three years. That means some 80 to 90 percent of all existing shale gas production must be replaced every three years. With shale gas, it is as if we are on a down escalator trying to go up; but, the down escalator, in this case, is increasing its speed, making any upward progress difficult, if not impossible.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">READ MORE: </span> <a href="http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Can-the-US-Export-its-Way-to-Energy-Independence.html" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/Can-the-US-Export-its-Way-to-Energy-Independence.html</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-45858250449857267602013-08-22T09:18:00.003-07:002013-08-22T09:19:23.525-07:00<div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Fracking leaves property values tapped out</span></span></h1>
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The oil and gas extraction process can be lucrative for homeowners, but it can also jeopardize their mortgages and ability to sell their homes.</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">By <a href="http://money.msn.com/keyword.aspx?author=x94f695c806bf4f4a23f1bd5b7f44d213d650989426e1c38f" style="color: #999999;">Jason Notte</a> Wed 7:13 AM</span></div>
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</span><img alt="Natural gas tanks at a site in North Dakota (© Rich LaSalle/The Image Bank/Getty Images)" class="imagefloatleft userImage lead" src="http://media-social.s-msn.com/images/blogs/00120065-0000-0000-0000-000000000000_469b5687-f4ab-4992-a2ac-46c322b7a161_20130820202058_NorthDakotaOilGas_050113_RM_300-1.jpg" style="color: #333333; float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0.333em 1.25em 1.25em 0px; text-align: left;" /><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Depending on where you stand and what's beneath the ground you're standing on, fracking is either paving the way toward </span><a href="http://money.msn.com/investing/energy-independence-in-america-finally-within-reach" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" title="http://money.msn.com/investing/energy-independence-in-america-finally-within-reach">American energy independence</a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> or dooming it to </span><a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-13?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/ee/safeisfracking" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" title="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-13?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/ee/safeisfracking">methane-addled water and man-made tremors</a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">.</span><br />
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The one certainty about fracking, however, is that it doesn't exactly do wonders for property values.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">As reported by The Atlantic, mortgage lenders are becoming more cautious about approving loans for properties near fracking sites. Lawyers, real estate agents, public officials and environmentalists have noted that banks and federal agencies are revisiting their lending policies to account for the potential impact of drilling on property values. In some cases they are refusing to finance property with or even near drilling activity.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Depending on where you stand and what's beneath the ground you're standing on, fracking is either paving the way toward </span><a href="http://money.msn.com/investing/energy-independence-in-america-finally-within-reach" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" title="http://money.msn.com/investing/energy-independence-in-america-finally-within-reach">American energy independence</a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> or dooming it to </span><a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-13?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/ee/safeisfracking" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" title="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/08/economist-explains-13?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/ee/safeisfracking">methane-addled water and man-made tremors</a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">.</span><br />
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The one certainty about fracking, however, is that it doesn't exactly do wonders for property values.</div>
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As reported by The Atlantic, mortgage lenders are becoming more cautious about approving loans for properties near fracking sites. Lawyers, real estate agents, public officials and environmentalists have noted that banks and federal agencies are revisiting their lending policies to account for the potential impact of drilling on property values. In some cases they are refusing to finance property with or even near drilling activity.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333;">That's particularly problematic, considering that many home insurance policies do not cover residential properties with a gas lease or gas well, though all mortgage companies require home insurance from their borrowers. Part of the problem stems from uncertainty over the effects of the process itself.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">The article goes on to say: </span></div>
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The Federal Housing Administration's lending guidelines prohibit the financing of homes within 300 feet of a property with an active or planned drilling site. Mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also prohibit property owners from signing a gas lease or keeping hazardous materials on their property. Doing so puts their mortgages in "technical default."</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">While drilling companies tend to pay well for drilling rights, that's of little use to homeowners if the property they're sitting on can't be sold or isn't eligible for a mortgage if it does.</span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;">Read the entire article: </span><a href="http://money.msn.com/now/post--fracking-leaves-property-values-tapped-out">http://money.msn.com/now/post--fracking-leaves-property-values-tapped-out</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-22550565374685331232013-08-12T08:33:00.001-07:002013-08-12T08:39:33.449-07:00<b><span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span></b>
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<span style="color: #783f04;">A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water</span></h1>
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<span style="color: #783f04;">Fracking boom sucks away precious water from beneath the ground, leaving cattle dead, farms bone-dry and people thirsty</span><span style="color: #666666;"> </span><br />
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<span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-weight: bold; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="name" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="contributor" href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/suzannegoldenberg" itemprop="url" rel="author" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Suzanne Goldenberg</a></span></span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;"> in Barnhart, </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/texas" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Texas">Texas</a> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/" itemprop="publisher" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">theguardian.com</a><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px;">, </span><time datetime="2013-08-11T10:07EDT" itemprop="datePublished" pubdate="" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sunday 11 August 2013 </time></div>
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Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/water">water</a>.<br /><br />"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking back tears. "I went: 'dear God help us. That was the first thought that came to mind."<br /><br />Across the south-west, residents of small communities like Barnhart are confronting the reality that something as basic as running water, as unthinking as turning on a tap, can no longer be taken for granted.<br /><br />Three years of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/drought">drought</a>, decades of overuse and now the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/oil">oil</a> industry's outsize demands on water for <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2011/apr/26/shale-gas-hydraulic-fracking-graphic">fracking</a> are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse.<br /><br />In <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/texas">Texas</a> alone, about 30 communities could run out of water by the end of the year, according to the <a href="http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/">Texas Commission on Environmental Quality</a>.<br /><br />Nearly 15 million people are living under some form of water rationing, barred from freely sprinkling their lawns or refilling their swimming pools. In Barnhart's case, the well appears to have run dry because the water was being extracted for <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/20/shale-gas-fracking-question-answer">shale gas fracking</a>.<br /><br />The town — a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/gas">gas</a> station, a community hall and a taco truck – sits in the midst of the great Texan oil rush, on the eastern edge of the Permian basin.<br /><br />A few years ago, it seemed like a place on the way out. Now McGuire said she can see nine oil wells from her back porch, and there are dozens of RVs parked outside town, full of oil workers.<br /><br />But soon after the first frack trucks pulled up two years ago, the well on McGuire's property ran dry.<br /><br />No-one in Barnhart paid much attention at the time, and McGuire hooked up to the town's central water supply. "Everyone just said: 'too bad'. Well now it's all going dry," McGuire said.<br /><br />Ranchers dumped most of their herds. Cotton farmers lost up to half their crops. The extra draw down, coupled with drought, made it impossible for local ranchers to feed and water their herds, said Buck Owens. In a good year, Owens used to run 500 cattle and up to 8,000 goats on his 7,689 leased hectares (19,000 acres). Now he's down to a few hundred goats.<br /><br />The drought undoubtedly took its toll but Owens reserved his anger for the contractors who drilled 104 water wells on his leased land, to supply the oil companies.<br /><br />Water levels were dropping in his wells because of the vast amounts of water being pumped out of the Edwards-Trinity-Plateau Aquifer, a 34,000 sq mile water bearing formation.<br /><br />"They are sucking all of the water out of the ground, and there are just hundreds and hundreds of water trucks here every day bringing fresh water out of the wells," Owens said.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">Read More: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water">http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water</a></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-56029991299585424152013-08-09T08:50:00.002-07:002013-08-09T08:50:38.376-07:00<h1 class="post-title" style="background-color: #f7f6f1; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 2.17em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="" href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/08/07/feds-approve-lake-charles-lng-export-project/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 26px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Feds approve third project to export US natural gas"><span style="color: #351c75;">Feds approve third project to export US natural gas</span></a></h1>
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<span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fuel Fix.com</span></b></span><span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Posted on</span><span style="font-size: 0.92em; line-height: 1.3;"> </span><span class="entry-date" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> August 7, 2013 at 6:10 pm</span><span style="font-size: 0.92em; line-height: 1.3;"> </span><span class="meta-sep" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;"> </span></span><span class="meta-sep" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #999999; font-size: 0.92em; line-height: 1.3;"><br /></span></span><span class="meta-sep" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #999999; font-size: 0.92em; line-height: 1.3;"><br /></span></span><span class="meta-sep" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #999999; font-size: 0.92em; line-height: 1.3;"> By </span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.3;"> </span><a class="url fn n" href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/author/jenniferdlouhy/" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;" title="View all posts by Jennifer A. Dlouhy">Jennifer A. Dlouhy</a></span></div>
<img alt="" class="promo-photo wp-post-image" height="258" src="http://fuelfix.com/files/2013/05/Golden-Pass-LNG-teriminal-306x198.jpg" style="background-color: #f7f6f1; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="A ship sits at the Golden Pass import terminal, which is awaiting federal approval to add an LNG export facility . (Golden Pass Products)" width="400" /><span style="background-color: #f7f6f1; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;"></span><div style="background-color: #f7f6f1; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.09em; margin-top: 1.09em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333366; font-size: xx-small;">A ship sits at the Golden Pass import terminal, which is awaiting federal </span><span style="color: #333366; font-size: xx-small;">approval to add an LNG export facility . (Golden Pass Products)</span></div>
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The Obama administration licensed a third company to broadly sell U.S. natural gas overseas on Wednesday, renewing fears that widespread exports of America’s bounty could spike domestic prices for the fossil fuel.</div>
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<b><a href="http://energy.gov/fe/downloads/fe-docket-no-11-59-lng" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">In conditionally approving exports </a></b>from a $2 billion facility in Lake Charles, La., the Energy Department has now put U.S. companies on track to eventually export as much as 5.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day to Japan and other countries that aren’t free-trade partners with the U.S.</div>
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And 19 other export applications are still pending at the Energy Department, propelled by U.S. natural gas producers’ zeal to capitalize on growing demand in Europe and Asia.</div>
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Critics say the rush to export domestically harvested natural gas could cause U.S. prices to climb, hiking household energy bills and thwarting a resurgence of U.S. manufacturing.</div>
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“Each permit approval brings us closer to the point that would begin to harm the manufacturing renaissance,” warned<strong><a href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/01/10/manufacturers-lobby-against-unfettered-natural-gas-exports/?cmpid=eefl" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">America’s Energy Advantage,</a></strong> a group of industrial natural gas users, including Dow Chemical, that is fighting unfettered exports.</div>
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<strong>Study: <a href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/06/14/study-exports-will-have-significant-impact-on-us-natural-gas-price/?cmpid=eefl" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Study: Exports will have significant impact on US natural gas price">Exports will have significant impact on US natural gas price</a></strong></div>
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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who heads the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, suggested the government should be more skeptical as it weighs future export proposals.</div>
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“With each new permit to send natural gas overseas, the Energy Department has a higher bar to prove these exports are in the best interests of American consumers and employers,” Wyden said.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">READ MORE: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><a href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/08/07/feds-approve-lake-charles-lng-export-project/">http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/08/07/feds-approve-lake-charles-lng-export-project/</a></span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-29246175804785540692013-08-03T21:46:00.001-07:002013-08-03T21:46:47.466-07:00<br />
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<span class="submitted" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Published on Friday, August 2, 2013 by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Dreams</a></span><div class="node-title" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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Tens of Thousands of Pipeline Miles at Risk of Pegasus-Style Rupture That Spewed Tar Sands Into Arkansas Town</h2>
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Review of Pegasus pipeline found known 'manufacturing defects' likely cause of Mayflower oil spill</h3>
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- Lauren McCauley, staff writer</div>
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<span class="image-full" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; display: block; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 7px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 540px;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.commondreams.org/sites/commondreams.org/files/imce-images/pegasus_gash.jpg" style="display: block; height: 300px; width: 540px;" title="Workers remove the ruptured portion of Exxon's Pegasus pipeline. (Screenshot: ABC Channel 7 News)" /><span class="caption" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #515151; display: block; font-size: 11.05px; line-height: 15.4667px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Workers remove the ruptured portion of Exxon's Pegasus pipeline. (Screenshot: ABC Channel 7 News)</span></span>The <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/04/01-2" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">March 29 rupture</a> of Exxon Mobil's Pegasus pipeline—which flooded a Mayflower, Arkansas neighborhood with over 200,000 gallons of tar sands oil—was likely caused by known "manufacturing defects," with grave implications for the tens of thousands of similarly built pipelines still in the ground and operating, according to a review released Thursday.</div>
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An examination of the 70-year-old Pegasus pipeline and its 22-foot-gash found that the pipeline failure "resulted from an original manufacturing defect of the electronic resistance welded (ERW) pipe," <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/01/us-usa-pipeline-exxon-idUSBRE97012S20130801" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">according</a> to a spokesman from the Hurst Metallurgical Research Laboratory.</div>
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Citing an ongoing investigation, both Exxon and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) waited nearly a month after receiving the report before releasing the details to Arkansas newspaper <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Log Cabin Democrat</em> Thursday.</div>
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Implications of the report are significant as it shows that pipelines "similarly manufactured, and in the same era as the ruptured line in Mayflower, are inferior and susceptible to failure," the <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Democrat </em><a href="http://thecabin.net/news/local/2013-08-01/pegasus-era-pipelines-have-dirty-history#.UfvTllOxOJU" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #005588; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reports.</a></div>
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A pipeline industry insider who declined to be named told <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Dreams</em> that there are "tens of thousands of miles of pipeline in the ground and operating from the approximate vintage" as the Pegasus pipeline.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">READ MORE: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit;"><a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/02-7">http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/02-7</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-34730347792431213832013-07-27T14:34:00.000-07:002013-07-27T14:34:04.387-07:00<br />
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<nyt_headline type=" " version="1.0">Halliburton Pleads Guilty to Destroying Evidence After Gulf Spill</nyt_headline></h1>
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<span itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/07/26/business/global/26halliburton/26halliburton-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"><img alt="" border="0" height="450" itemid="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/07/26/business/global/26halliburton/26halliburton-articleLarge.jpg" itemprop="url" src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/07/26/business/global/26halliburton/26halliburton-articleLarge.jpg" width="600" /><div class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder" style="color: #909090; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; line-height: 1.223em; margin-bottom: 3px; text-align: right;">
U.S. Coast Guard</div>
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A file photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard of the fire aboard the drilling unit Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the spill.</div>
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By <span itemid="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/clifford_krauss/index.html" itemprop="author creator" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/clifford_krauss/index.html" rel="author" style="color: #666699; text-decoration: none;" title="More Articles by CLIFFORD KRAUSS"><span itemprop="name">CLIFFORD KRAUSS</span></a></span></h6>
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Published: July 25, 2013</h6>
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HOUSTON — Halliburton has agreed to plead guilty to destruction of critical evidence after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.</div>
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The oil services company said it would pay the maximum allowable fine of $200,000 and will be subject to three years of probation. It will also continue its cooperation in the government’s criminal investigation. Separately, Halliburton made a voluntary contribution of $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.</div>
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The Justice Department filed one criminal charge against the company. In a statement, Halliburton said that the violation was a misdemeanor associated with the deletion of records created after the accident. Additionally, the company said, “The Department of Justice has agreed that it will not pursue further criminal prosecution of the company.”</div>
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Halliburton has suffered enormous damage to its reputation — as have BP and Transocean, the operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig — in the explosion that killed 11 workers and soiled hundreds of miles of beaches. All three companies have pleaded guilty to a criminal charge related to the spill.</div>
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The Justice Department said Halliburton had recommended to BP, the British oil company, before the drilling that the well include 21 metal centralizing collars to stabilize the cementing. BP chose to use six instead. During an internal probe after the accident, Halliburton ordered workers to destroy computer simulations that showed little difference between using six and 21 collars, the government said, after which the company continued to say that BP was neglectful to not follow its advice.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">Read More: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/business/halliburton-pleads-guilty-to-destroying-evidence-after-gulf-spill.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/business/halliburton-pleads-guilty-to-destroying-evidence-after-gulf-spill.html?_r=0</a></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-38368343727988279932013-07-26T04:06:00.001-07:002013-07-26T04:06:15.699-07:00<span class="pub_date" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #111111; display: block; font-family: Baskerville, 'Goudy Old Style', Palatino, 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 1.5em; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">July 24, 2013</span><br />
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<a class="url entry-title" href="http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x2040132584/Survey-shows-angst-over-pipeline-in-Davenport" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 33px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #073763;">Survey shows angst over pipeline in Davenport</span></a></h3>
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<span class="author vcard" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="story_credit fn" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Joe Mahoney Staff Writer</span></span><span class="source-org vcard story_source" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://thedailystar.com/" style="border: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Daily Star</a> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.25;">A town-wide survey of Davenport residents has determined there is significant public opposition to the proposed Constitution Pipeline, prompting town officials to seek intervenor status with the federal agency that will decide whether the project is licensed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Davenport Town Supervisor Dennis Valente, who has remained neutral on the pipeline, said he “mildly surprised” that most residents whose property would not be traversed by the natural gas transmission system are opposed to it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Valente said he has been impressed with what he called the effective organizing tactics of the grassroots group Stop the Pipeline in the public debate over the $683 million project.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">“This group really knows how to disseminate its side of the story,” the supervisor said. “It seems as though the deck is stacked against them, but they’re undeterred.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: x-small;">The article reports: </span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.25;">Some proponents of the pipeline, such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have said it has the potential to become a source of low-cost energy for businesses, institutions and residents in the region of the system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">But Valente said he and many residents are skeptical that any of the gas that will be transported through the system will be channeled to local residents via feeder lines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Moriarty said the opponents cited safety concerns, the possibility the project could lower property values, environmental impacts, the eminent domain authority the pipeline company would acquire and the potential that the project would invite hydraulic fracturing for shale gas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Read More:</span><span style="color: #111111;"> </span></span><span style="color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.25;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x2040132584/Survey-shows-angst-over-pipeline-in-Davenport</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-22421929576144532652013-07-18T08:19:00.001-07:002013-07-18T08:27:10.847-07:00<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">OIL AND GAS SPILLS:</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many mishaps among drillers, but few fines</span></h1>
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Mike Soraghan, E&E reporter <span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic;">EnergyWire: </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic;">Monday, July 15, 2013</span><br />
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Reported spills from oil and gas well sites, according to publicly available state and federal data. Click the map for a larger version. Map by Andrew Holmes.</div>
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</aside>So she's frustrated that Wyoming officials didn't fine Chesapeake Energy Corp. for an April 2012 blowout near her home outside Douglas, Wyo. The ruptured gas well spewed gas and chemicals for three days, forcing her and her neighbors to evacuate their homes.If Kristi Mogen causes a crash on the road, she knows she'll probably get a ticket and have to pay a fine.<br />
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"There's no punishment on that. There's nothing," said Mogen, who believes the gas and chemicals released in the spill sickened her family. "They're just going around with business as usual."</div>
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It may have surprised Mogen, but it's actually rare for state oil and gas regulators to hit companies with fines after spills and blowouts.</div>
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There are no national figures on oil and gas spills or enforcement. But where state records are available, they show agencies pursue fines against oil and gas producers in only a small minority of spill cases.</div>
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The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality pursued water quality fines against 10 producers in 2012, records show, as it recorded 204 oil and gas production spills.</div>
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In Texas, the leading producer of oil and gas, regulators sought enforcement for 2 percent of the 55,000 violations identified by drilling inspectors in the last fiscal year.</div>
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In Pennsylvania, the heart of the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom, 2012 records show state regulators levied fines in 13 percent of the cases where inspectors found violations.</div>
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And in New Mexico, oil and gas regulators haven't issued fines in years.</div>
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State oil and gas agencies are the main regulators of the nation's drilling boom. That boom is creating new wealth for oil and gas drillers and some landowners, but it's also leading to more accidents and pollution.</div>
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Spills, blowouts and other mishaps rose 17 percent from 2010 to 2012 in states where comparable data was available, an <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">EnergyWire</em> investigation found (<a href="http://www.eenews.net/energywire/stories/1059983941" style="background-color: transparent; color: #990000; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">EnergyWire</em></a>, July 8). Drilling activity in those states went up 40 percent.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">READ MORE: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059984342</span></div>
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</aside>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-61113020663575111532013-07-17T00:10:00.000-07:002013-07-17T00:10:26.022-07:00<h1 class="article-title title-link" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-1, ff-meta-serif-web-2, Georgia, serif; font-size: 34px; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;">
EPA’s Abandoned Wyoming Fracking Study One Retreat of Many</h1>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 15px;">by </span><a href="http://www.propublica.org/site/author/Abrahm_Lustgarten/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #2262cc; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Abrahm Lustgarten</a><div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 15px;">ProPublica, July 3, 2013, 11:58 a.m</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px;"></span><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://www.propublica.org/images/ngen/gypsy_image_lead_ngen/pavillion_wyo_300x200_070313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="." border="0" src="http://www.propublica.org/images/ngen/gypsy_image_lead_ngen/pavillion_wyo_300x200_070313.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 13px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 470px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></a><span style="color: #999999; font-size: 11px; font-style: italic; line-height: 13px;">In this photo taken Nov. 8, 2007, John Fenton and others examine neighbor Louis Meeks' water in Pavillion, Wyo. (AP Photo/Casper Star-Tribune, Dustin Bleizeffer) </span></div>
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When the Environmental Protection Agency abruptly retreated on its multimillion-dollar investigation into water contamination in a central Wyoming natural gas field last month, it shocked environmentalists and energy industry supporters alike.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.4;">In 2011, the agency had</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span><a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/epa-finds-fracking-compound-in-wyoming-aquifer" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #2262cc; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">issued a blockbuster draft report</a><span style="line-height: 1.4;"> </span><span style="line-height: 1.4;">saying that the controversial practice of fracking was to blame for the pollution of an aquifer deep below the town of Pavillion, Wy. – the first time such a claim had been based on a scientific analysis.</span>The study drew heated criticism over its methodology and awaited a peer review that promised to settle the dispute.<a href="http://governor.wy.gov/media/pressReleases/Pages/WyomingtoLeadFurtherInvestigationofWaterQualityConcernsOutsideofPavillionwithSupportofEPA.aspx" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #2262cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now the EPA will instead hand the study</a> over to the state of Wyoming, whose research will be funded by EnCana, the very drilling company whose wells may have caused the contamination.</div>
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Industry advocates say the EPA’s turnabout reflects an overdue recognition that it had over-reached on fracking and that its science was critically flawed.</div>
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But environmentalists see an agency that is systematically disengaging from any research that could be perceived as questioning the safety of fracking or oil drilling, even as President Obama lays out a plan to combat climate change that rests heavily on the use of natural gas.</div>
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Over the past 15 months, they point out, the EPA has:</div>
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· Closed an investigation into groundwater pollution in Dimock, Pa., saying the level of contamination was below federal safety triggers.</div>
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· Abandoned its claim that a driller in Parker County, Texas, was responsible for methane gas bubbling up in residents’ faucets, even though a geologist hired by the agency confirmed this finding.</div>
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· Sharply revised downward a 2010 estimate showing that leaking gas from wells and pipelines was contributing to climate change, crediting better pollution controls by the drilling industry even as other reports indicate the leaks may be larger than previously thought.</div>
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· Failed to enforce a statutory ban on using diesel fuel in fracking.</div>
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“We’re seeing a pattern that is of great concern,” said Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. “They need to make sure that scientific investigations are thorough enough to ensure that the public is getting a full scientific explanation.”</div>
<span style="color: #e69138;">Read More:</span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.propublica.org/article/epas-abandoned-wyoming-fracking-study-one-retreat-of-many</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-16296299794399201682013-07-15T20:25:00.002-07:002013-07-15T20:25:26.358-07:00<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" type="cite">
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">EPA to ALLOW CONSUMPTION of TOXIC FRACKING WASTEWATER BY </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">WILDLIFE and LIVESTOCK</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">By New Mexico Coalition for Community Rights </span><span style="color: #6b6b6b; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px;">Published: Sunday 14 July 2013</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">Millions of gallons of water laced with toxic chemicals from oil and gas drilling rigs are pumped for consumption by wildlife and livestock with the formal approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to </span><a href="http://www.peer.org/assets/docs/epa/7_10_13_Wind_River_Permit_Comments.pdf" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">public comments filed yesterday</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;"> by </span><a href="http://www.peer.org/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;"> (PEER). Contrary to its own regulations, EPA is issuing permits for surface application of drilling wastewater without even identifying the chemicals in fluids used for hydraulic fracturing, also known as </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/p/energy/fracking-2/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">fracking</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">, let alone setting effluent limits for the contaminants contained within them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;">The EPA has just posted proposed </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/epa-fracking-wastewater-agriculture/www2.epa.gov/region8/npdes-permits-document-download" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">new water discharge permits</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;"> for the nearly dozen oil fields on or abutting the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming as the EPA has </span><a href="http://ecowatch.com/p/water/clean-water-act-water/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Clean Water Act</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;"> jurisdiction on tribal lands. Besides not even listing the array of toxic chemicals being discharged, the proposed permits have monitoring requirements so weak that water can be tested long after fracking events or maintenance flushing. In addition, the permits lack any provisions to protect the health of wildlife or livestock.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">Read More: </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.nationofchange.org/epa-allow-consumption-toxic-fracking-wastewater-wildlife-and-livestock-1373811581</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-11858794905734871342013-07-14T23:26:00.000-07:002013-07-14T23:26:00.708-07:00<br />
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Fate of 200,000 fracking comments unclear</h1>
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9:18 PM, Jul 12, 2013 </h6>
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Written by</h6>
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Jon Campbell</h5>
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Albany Bureau</h5>
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/JonCampbellGAN" style="color: #005596; font-size: 11px; line-height: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;">@JonCampbellGAN</a></h5>
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<strong>ALBANY</strong> — New York's proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing drew an unprecedented response in January, when more than 200,000 comments were submitted by the public to the state Department of <a class="itxtnewhook itxthook" href="http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20130712/NEWS11/307120085/Fate-200-000-fracking-comments-unclear?nclick_check=1#" id="itxthook0" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: none; border: 0px none transparent; color: #005596; cursor: pointer; display: inline; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap" id="itxthook0p" style="border: 0px; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; line-height: normal; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; white-space: nowrap !important;"><span class="itxtrst itxtrstspan itxtnowrap itxtnewhookspan" id="itxthook0w" style="border-color: transparent transparent rgb(0, 204, 0); border-style: none none solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; bottom: auto; color: #009900; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; height: auto; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px 0px 1px !important; position: static; right: auto; text-decoration: underline !important; top: auto; white-space: normal;">Environmental</span><img class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" id="itxthook0icon" src="http://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png" style="border: 0px !important; bottom: auto; display: inline !important; float: none !important; height: auto !important; left: auto; margin: 0px !important; max-height: none; max-width: none !important; padding: 0px 0px 0px 4px !important; position: static; right: auto; top: auto; vertical-align: baseline !important; white-space: normal; width: auto !important;" /></span></a> Conservation.</div>
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<span class="pp"></span>Seven months later, the fate of those comments is unknown, with the DEC refusing to say whether it will respond to the concerns raised in the submissions or allow them to sit unanswered.<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>"We know a vast majority of those comments expressed clear opposition to fracking, but we don't know if the DEC has read them or catalogued them or simply thrown them away," said Alex Beauchamp, Northeast director for Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group opposed to hydrofracking. "It's absurd that we don't know."<span class="aa"></span></div>
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<span class="pp"></span>The DEC ignored a series of inquiries over the past week from Gannett's Albany Bureau about the comments, which were submitted by the boxful in mid-January by a coalition of fracking opponents.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: x-small;">Read More: </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20130712/NEWS11/307120085/Fate-200-000-fracking-comments-unclear?nclick_check=1</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-75723672979703734592013-07-10T13:29:00.001-07:002013-07-10T13:29:21.272-07:00<span class="pub_date" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #111111; display: block; font-family: Baskerville, 'Goudy Old Style', Palatino, 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 1.5em; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">July 10, 2013</span><br />
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<a class="url entry-title" href="http://dailyitem.com/0100_news/x881895020/Governor-signs-bill-strengthening-gas-drillers-rights" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #447799; font-family: inherit; font-size: 33px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Governor Corbett signs bill strengthening gas drillers’ rights</a></h3>
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HARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Corbett has signed legislation that critics say was fast-tracked and undermines some landowners’ negotiating rights when dealing with drilling companies.<br /><br />Corbett signed the bill without comment Tuesday.<br /><br />The National Association of Royalty Owners says the bill’s last-minute changes allow drilling companies to use decades-old mineral leases to force landowners to allow Marcellus Shale natural gas wells on their properties.<br /><br />Industry group the Marcellus Shale Coalition says it helps drilling proceed in the most efficient and environmentally sensitive manner.<br /><br />But NARO member Trevor Walczak says most lawmakers didn’t understand the provision. The legislation means heirs to drilling leases signed decades ago for traditional, shallow vertical wells could be forced to allow deep shale gas wells that include underground horizontal bores extending horizontal bores extending out thousands of feet, even under neighbors’ properties.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">Read More:</span><span style="color: #111111;"> http://dailyitem.com/0100_news/x881895020/Governor-signs-bill-strengthening-gas-drillers-rights</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-43757682334690635212013-06-21T04:28:00.002-07:002013-06-21T04:34:25.825-07:00<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">EPA abandons study that linked fracking, Wyoming water pollution</span></h1>
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<span class="author" style="border: 0px; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By Ben Geman </span>- <span class="date" style="border: 0px; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">06/20/13 06:15 PM ET</span></div>
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<span class="date" style="border: 0px; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">THE HILL's Energy & Environment Blog </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it won’t finalize a <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/198253-epa-pollution-finding-shakes-up-fracking-debate">draft 2011 study</a> that concluded water pollution in a Wyoming region might stem from hydraulic fracturing, the controversial oil-and-gas development method.<br /><br /> The decision to abandon the probe quickly buoyed gas industry advocates of the method dubbed “fracking,” who say it’s a safe practice.<br /><br /> The EPA said it will not complete or seek peer review of a 2011 draft study, which found that groundwater pollution in the Pavillion, Wyo., area was consistent with chemicals used in gas production.<br /><br /> The EPA said it stands by its work but that it would now support further study led by the state of Wyoming. <br /><br />“While EPA stands behind its work and data, the agency recognizes the State of Wyoming’s commitment for further investigation and efforts to provide clean water and does not plan to finalize or seek peer review of its draft Pavillion groundwater report released in December, 2011,” the EPA said as part of a joint release with the state of Wyoming.<br /><br /> “Nor does the agency plan to rely upon the conclusions in the draft report,” the EPA said. <br /> <br /> The EPA, in a 2011 summary of its draft findings, had said its investigation “indicates that ground water in the aquifer contains compounds likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing.”<br /> <br />The agency had also said in 2011 that the presence of certain chemicals in drinking water wells was “consistent with migration from areas of gas production.”<br /><br />But Wyoming state officials and industry officials have criticized the EPA’s draft report that linked pollution to fracking, notes The Associated Press, which <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/apnewsbreak-epa-confirm-frack-pollution-tie-19450433#.UcNrV5gq5ok">broke the news</a> of the agency’s decision not to finalize its study.<br /><br />Steve Everley, a spokesman for the industry group Energy In Depth, said EPA's decision “says pretty clearly that the agency is finally acknowledging the severity of the report’s flaws, and leaning once again on the expertise of state regulators.”</span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />But the environmental group Food & Water Watch lamented the EPA's decision to abandon its Pavillion investigation, alleging the agency is “abdicating its responsibility.” <br /><br /> “If there is any question whatsoever about the safety of fracking and its effects on drinking water supplies, the EPA should make it a top priority to investigate the matter fully,” said Wenonah Hauter, the group's executive director. </span></h1>
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<span style="border: 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="border: 0px; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #e69138;">Read more: </span><a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/306961-epa-wont-confirm-fracking-link-to-wyoming-water-pollution-#ixzz2WqhSZ6Lx"><span style="color: #003399; font-size: x-small;">http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/306961-epa-wont-confirm-fracking-link-to-wyoming-water-pollution-#ixzz2WqhSZ6Lx</span> </a><br style="border: 0px; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bNYbpAvBir4Pxiacwqm_6l&u=thehill" style="border: 0px; color: #181d78; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@thehill on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bNYbpAvBir4Pxiacwqm_6l&u=TheHill" style="border: 0px; color: #181d78; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">TheHill on Facebook</a></span></h1>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-78472458909878151262013-06-07T19:48:00.002-07:002013-06-07T19:50:41.798-07:00<br />
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Drillers Silence Fracking Claims With Sealed Settlements</span></h1>
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BLOOMBERG</div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;">By</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jim Efstathiou Jr.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;">&</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><span class="last" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mark Drajem</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;">-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #6f6f6f; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em;"> </span><span bgdatestamp="mmm d, yyyy h:MM TT Z" bglocalize="true" class="datestamp" epoch="1370491200000" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #6f6f6f; display: inline; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jun 6, 2013 12:00 AM ET</span></div>
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The companies insisted <a density="full" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/infographics/2013-06-06/can-fracking-spoil-your-drinking-water.html" rel="external" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Open Web Site">hydraulic fracturing</a> -- the technique they used to free underground gas -- wasn’t the cause. Nevertheless, in 2011, a year after the family sued, <a density="full" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/RRC:US" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Get Quote">Range Resources Corp (RRC)</a>. and two other companies agreed to a $750,000 settlement. In order to collect, the Hallowiches promised not to tell anyone, according to court filings.</div>
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The Hallowiches aren’t alone. In cases from <a density="full" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/wyoming/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Wyoming</a> to<a density="full" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/arkansas/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Arkansas</a>, Pennsylvania to <a density="full" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/texas/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Texas</a>, drillers have agreed to cash settlements or property buyouts with people who say hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, ruined their water, according to a review by <a density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/bloomberg-news/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Bloomberg News</a> of hundreds of regulatory and legal filings. In most cases homeowners must agree to keep quiet.</div>
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The strategy keeps data from regulators, policymakers, the news media and health researchers, and makes it difficult to challenge the industry’s claim that fracking has never tainted anyone’s water.</div>
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“At this point they feel they can get out of this litigation relatively cheaply,” Marc Bern, an <a density="full" href="http://www.napolibern.com/Meet-Our-Attorneys/Marc-J-Bern.aspx" rel="external" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Open Web Site">attorney</a> with Napoli Bern Ripka Sholnik LLP in <a density="full" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/new-york/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New York</a> who has negotiated about 30 settlements on behalf of homeowners, said in an interview. “Virtually on all of our settlements where they paid money they have requested and demanded that there be confidentiality.”</div>
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Energy Transformation</h2>
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Because the agreements are almost always shrouded by non-disclosure pacts -- a judge ordered the Hallowich case unsealed after media requests -- no one can say for sure how many there are. Some stem from lawsuits, while others result from complaints against the drillers or with regulators that never end up in court.</div>
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“We are transforming our energy infrastructure in this country from burning coal for electricity to potentially burning a lot of natural gas,” Aaron Bernstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of <a density="sparse" href="http://topics.bloomberg.com/public-health/" style="background-color: transparent; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #0066cc; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Public Health</a>, said in an interview. Non-disclosure agreements “have interfered with the ability of scientists and public health experts to understand what is at stake here.”</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: 15px;">Read More: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-06/drillers-silence-fracking-claims-with-sealed-settlements.html</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-1840189552793636452013-05-30T20:32:00.003-07:002013-05-30T20:33:48.813-07:00<div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px;">
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Sunday Times review of DEP drilling records reveals water damage, murky testing methods</h1>
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BY LAURA LEGERE (STAFF WRITER) Published: May 19, 2013</div>
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State environmental regulators determined that oil and gas development damaged the water supplies for at least 161 Pennsylvania homes, farms, churches and businesses between 2008 and the fall of 2012, according to a cache of nearly 1,000 letters and enforcement orders written by Department of Environmental Protection officials and obtained by The Sunday Times.</div>
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The determination letters are sent to water supply owners who ask state inspectors to investigate whether oil and gas drilling activities have polluted or diminished the flow of water to their wells.</div>
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View interactive map:</div>
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<a href="http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/gas-drilling-complaints-map-1.1490926" style="color: #15688d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Gas Drilling Complaints Map</a></div>
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Inspectors declared the vast majority of complaints - 77 percent of 969 records - unfounded, lacking enough evidence to tie them definitively to drilling or caused by a different source than oil and gas exploration, like legacy pollution, natural conditions or mining.</div>
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One in six investigations across the roughly five-year period - 17 percent of the records - found that oil and gas activity disrupted water supplies either temporarily or seriously enough to require companies to replace the spoiled source.</div>
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The letters confirming contamination or water loss from drilling and the orders that require companies to fix the damage provide what is likely the best official count of the industry's impact on individual water supplies in Pennsylvania because the state does not track the disruptions.</div>
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The Sunday Times requested the records in late 2011, and received access to them late last year after a state appeals court ruled that the DEP had to release the documents regardless of whether it was hard for the agency to find them in its files.</div>
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While the records compiled by the newspaper offer a more complete tally of the number of affected properties than was previously available, the count is not exhaustive:</div>
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- DEP tracks oil and gas-related disruptions to water supplies based on broad incidents, each of which might affect one or many water supplies, making comparisons between the totals difficult. A case of gas migrating into Dimock Twp. drinking water, for example, is considered one incident by DEP even though the state determined it affected 18 water wells used by 19 families. DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday said the agency compiles "some information" on the number of affected water wells and springs, but DEP's statistics on impacted water supplies differ from the numbers documented in the letters and orders released to The Sunday Times. Between 2010 and 2012, DEP counted 103 impacted water supplies - six more than were documented for those years in the records released to the newspaper.</div>
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- DEP repeatedly argued in court filings during the open records case that it does not count how many determination letters it issues, track where they are kept in its files or maintain its records in a way that would allow a comprehensive search for the letters, so there is no way to assess the completeness of the released documents.</div>
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- Before a 2011 regulatory update, solutions worked out privately between homeowners and drillers were not required to be reported to the department. The Sunday Times requested the notices of potential water contamination that now have to be passed on to DEP by drilling companies that receive them from residents, but the request was denied by DEP and the state's Office of Open Records because the documents are considered part of protected investigations.</div>
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- The conclusions described in the determination letters are seldom absolute because substances read as signals of drilling-related contamination are also routine signs of other man-made or natural influences.</div>
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The department's water testing and reporting protocols have come under scrutiny in recent months as environmental activists and homeowners whose drilling-related complaints were dismissed have come to doubt the determinations' accuracy and value.</div>
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DEP recently changed its policy for issuing water contamination notices to require administrators in Harrisburg to approve them before they are sent out from the regional field offices that conduct the investigations. The state's laboratory technical director, deposed when a resident appealed the DEP's conclusion that drilling activities had not polluted his water supply, acknowledged that DEP reviews and reports back to homeowners only those contaminants it considers indicative of drilling-related contamination, not all of the contaminants that might surface in its water tests - a common practice for tailoring laboratory analysis but one that spurred critics to question the thoroughness and transparency of DEP's investigations.</div>
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In January, state Auditor General Eugene A. DePasquale announced his office is conducting a performance audit of the DEP's water testing program to "determine the adequacy and effectiveness of DEP's monitoring of water quality as potentially impacted by shale gas development activities" between 2009 and 2012.</div>
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Debate over the safety of oil and gas extraction - especially the combined tools of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing used in pursuit of fuel from unconventional sources like the Marcellus Shale - is often characterized as an argument between activists who exaggerate claims of damage and industry public relations teams who minimize them.</div>
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But the determination letters released by the state reveal a widespread suspicion among water supply owners - farmers and summer residents, school board members and mini-mart operators, churches and a Wyoming County municipal water authority - that when their water seems soured, gas drilling operations might be to blame.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: 14px;">Please read more: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/sunday-times-review-of-dep-drilling-records-reveals-water-damage-murky-testing-methods-1.1491547">http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/sunday-times-review-of-dep-drilling-records-reveals-water-damage-murky-testing-methods-1.1491547</a></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-48200803551839892462013-05-25T06:41:00.001-07:002013-05-25T06:41:58.318-07:00<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Marcellus shale testing to start in Perry Township, PA</span></span><span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></span><span style="font-size: 12px;">By </span><a href="mailto:rickbruni@tribweb.com?subject=RE:%20Marcellus%20shale%20testing%20to%20start%20in%20Perry%20Township%20story%20on%20TribLIVE.com" style="color: #5b99e3; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Rick Bruni Jr.</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><small style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Published:</strong> Thursday, May 23, 2013, 12:26 a.m.</small><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"></span><span style="color: grey; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Updated: Thursday, May 23, 2013 </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"></span><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><div class="News-VI-copy" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0.25em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">
From spooked cattle to losing underground water, Fayette County residents vented their anxieties Wednesday to a pair of natural gas industry representatives at the Perry Township Volunteer Fire Hall.</div>
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The concerns are over seismic testing which uses planted explosives and vibrating trucks to create sound waves that measure Marcellus shale at least 9,000 feet below the surface.</div>
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The testing will be conducted in the township and vicinity within the next three weeks.<span style="background-color: white;">Seismic testing produces underground sound waves to map areas of shale suitable for hydraulic fracturing that, in turn, allows extraction of natural gas and other substances.</span></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #e69138;">The article goes on to say:</span></span></div>
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<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"> the bulk of testing would begin within the next 21 to 28 days and residents should prepare for heavy helicopter traffic. Helicopters are used to airlift equipment onto test sites.</span></span></div>
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Canadian company CGG Veritas will then perform the actual geological testing, White said, to pinpoint where Chevron would conduct drilling and fracking.</div>
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“We are not going to cause damage. That is not in anyone's best interest,” Zimmerman said. “But if, in some case something does happen, we will make sure you are made right. If it is damage that is caused by our operations, we will work with you to make it right.”</div>
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However, several cynical residents repeatedly blasted White, stressing concerns that ranged from property rights, to cattle getting spooked by explosions and/or helicopters, to structural damage in their homes.</div>
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Ron and Rosemary Matway, who operate a cattle farm on French Island Road in Perryopolis, are fearful for their water supply. Ron Matway said he can hear nearby drilling while sitting inside his home.</div>
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“My water, my house, and the road that goes through our property to another bunch of houses,” Ron Matway said when asked what his specific concerns were. “They're using up all our resources way too fast. I don't want to see your kids or our grandkids have to have it hard.”His wife was more troubled over potential fracking by Chevron, adding McDonald stands to profit from $30,000 to $60,000 per parcel of land.</div>
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“We have well water, springs for the cattle, and there have been a lot of problems on other farms,” Rosemary Matway said. “In Washington County, how many cattle died because their pond was contaminated, and nobody was held accountable. Why didn't the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) do anything? Money talks.”</div>
<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: #e69138;">Please read the entire article:</span> <a href="http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/4069551-74/testing-residents-township#ixzz2UJMpZbv2" style="color: #003399; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/4069551-74/testing-residents-township#ixzz2UJMpZbv2</a> <br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=d-D-nM8emr4ALpacwqm_6l&u=triblive" style="color: #5b99e3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@triblive on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=d-D-nM8emr4ALpacwqm_6l&u=triblive" style="color: #5b99e3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">triblive on Facebook</a></span><div class="News-VI-copy" style="margin-bottom: 0.25em; padding: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-65013103282573914722013-05-21T18:54:00.002-07:002013-05-21T18:54:43.471-07:00<br />
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Aftermath of a Drilling Boom: Wyoming stuck with abandoned gas wells</h1>
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<a href="http://wyofile.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/abandonedwells_leakywell.jpg" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="This coal-bed methane gas well in the Powder River Basin leaked water, which caused some erosion. The facility was abandoned by its operator, and the state later plugged the well and reclaimed the area." class=" wp-image-22343 " height="473" src="http://wyofile.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/abandonedwells_leakywell.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="630" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 0.857em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-top: 12px !important; padding: 0px;">
This coal-bed methane gas well in the Powder River Basin leaked water, which caused some erosion. The facility was abandoned by its operator, and the state later plugged the well and reclaimed the area. (Courtesy of Jill Morrison — click to view)</div>
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<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">WyoFile <span style="color: grey;"> By </span><a href="http://wyofile.com/author/dustin/" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">Dustin Bleizeffer</a></em></address>
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— May 21, 2013</address>
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The Powder River Basin coal-bed methane gas industry that drilled at a pace of 2,500 wells annually for a decade has been in sharp decline in recent years. Operators have mostly stopped drilling and are now idling thousands of wells, and perhaps thousands more have been abandoned — “orphaned” — by operators struggling financially.</div>
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Last week, Wyoming lawmakers heard testimony that the number of orphaned wells likely exceeds 1,200 — and more will be added to the list of liabilities to the state.</div>
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<a href="http://wyofile.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/abandonedwells_cattle.jpg" style="color: #2361a1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="The Powder River sometimes runs dry in this arid region of northeast Wyoming. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile — click to view)" class="size-medium wp-image-22345 " height="225" src="http://wyofile.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/abandonedwells_cattle-300x225.jpg" style="border: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="300" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 0.857em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-top: 12px !important; padding: 0px;">
The Powder River sometimes runs dry in this arid region of northeast Wyoming, yet only a small portion of groundwater associated with coal-bed methane gas development was put to beneficial use. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile — click to view)</div>
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State officials say they’re having difficulty measuring the exact scope of the problem due to complex record-keeping among multiple agencies. Ryan Lance, director of the Office of State Lands and Investments, told WyoFile that his staff is working through stacks of files to try to determine which operators owe money, and how much.</div>
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In some cases, the orphaned wells devalue ranch properties, and in other cases they complicate a promise that the industry made at the onset of the play: that some wells would be transferred to ranchers for use in watering livestock on the arid high plains.</div>
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Coal strata are often aquifers in the region. In some areas, the production of coal-bed methane gas has substantially drained the coal aquifer because operators had to pump large volumes of water from the coal to get the methane gas also contained there to flow to the surface. By 2010, the industry had pumped 783,092 acre feet of water from the coals, according to the Wyoming State Geological Survey. That’s enough water to fill Lake DeSmet three times.</div>
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Only a small percentage of that water was put to beneficial use.</div>
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“There’s concern from land and mineral owners who are not getting surface use and damage payments anymore. … Money is spent on attorneys trying to recoup surface use payments,” as well as royalties, said Jill Morrison of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a landowner advocacy group based in Sheridan.</div>
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Morrison testified before the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Interim Committee last week in Gillette.</div>
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Committee member Rep. James Byrd (D-Cheyenne) said that for years he and others on the committee have heard warnings about the potential for orphaned wells and unpaid bills in the coal-bed methane gas play, “and now it is happening.”</div>
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While some operators, such as Anadarko Petroleum Corp., are financially sound enough to plug wells that are no longer commercial, a handful of smaller operators flirt with bankruptcy and fail to conduct required maintenance on the wells, creating potential hazards to human health and the environment. Some operators have simply walked away from their coal-bed methane properties in the basin.</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138; font-size: 14px;">Read More: </span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://wyofile.com/dustin/aftermath-of-a-drilling-boom-wyoming-stuck-with-abandoned-gas-wells/">http://wyofile.com/dustin/aftermath-of-a-drilling-boom-wyoming-stuck-with-abandoned-gas-wells/</a></span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-24699792319247275832013-05-18T15:35:00.001-07:002013-05-18T15:35:13.751-07:00<br />
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/doe-approves-fracked-gas-lng-export-terminal/" rel="bookmark" style="color: #324b81; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">DOE Approves Second Fracked Gas LNG Export Terminal</a> <div class="date " style="color: #999999; display: inline; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px !important; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 2px; white-space: nowrap !important;">
1 hour ago</div>
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By <a href="http://desmogblog.com/user/steve-horn" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Steve Horn</a></div>
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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/lng.jpg" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="alignright wp-image-294479" height="248" src="http://ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/lng.jpg" style="border: 0px none !important; float: right; margin: 5px 0px 5px 10px; padding: 0px;" title="lng" width="345" /></a>Friday is the proverbial “take out the trash day” for the release of bad news among public relations practitioners and this last Friday was no different. </div>
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In that vein, yesterday the Department of Energy (DOE) <a href="http://www.elpasoinc.com/news/wire/politics/article_fb739981-4902-5e24-82d2-c124f3c08d11.html" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">announced a conditional approval</a> for the second-ever <a href="http://ecowatch.com/p/energy/fracking-2/lng/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">liquefied natural gas</a> (LNG) export terminal. </div>
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LNG is the super-chilled final product of gas obtained—predominantly in today’s context—via the controversial <a href="http://ecowatch.com/p/energy/fracking-2/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">hydraulic fracturing</a> process that is taking place throughout many states in the U.S. Fracked gas is shipped from the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/rpd/shale_gas.pdf" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">domestic shale basins</a> via <a href="http://ecowatch.com/p/energy/pipelines/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">pipelines</a> to various <a href="http://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/lng/LNG-proposed-potential.pdf" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">coastal LNG terminals</a>, and then <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/unpacking-shale-gas-lng-export-boom-1333374157" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">sent on LNG tankers</a> to the global market.</div>
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The name of the terminal: <a href="http://www.freeportlng.com/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Freeport LNG</a>.</div>
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Freeport LNG is 50 percent owned by <a href="http://www.freeportlng.com/ownership.asp" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ConocoPhillips</a> and located in Freeport, TX, an hour car ride south of Houston. The export facility is the second one approved by the DOE, with the first one—<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7850" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Sabine Pass terminal</a>, owned by <a href="http://www.cheniere.com/lng_industry/sabine_pass_liquefaction.shtml" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cheniere</a> and located in Sabine Pass, LA—<a href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/05/20/sabine-pass-gets-energy-department-approval-for-lng-export/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">approved in May 2011</a>. </div>
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DOE gave its rubber stamp of approval to Freeport LNG to export up to 1.4 billion cubic feet of LNG per day from its terminal. </div>
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The announcement comes in the aftermath of an April <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">DeSmogBlog</em> investigation revealing that recently confirmed <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2013/groups-voice-concerns-senate-confirms-moniz-secretary-energy/" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz</a>—a former member of the Board of Directors of ICF International—has a binder full of <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/04/09/ernest-moniz-keystone-xl-contractor-american-petroleum-institute-fracked-gas-exports" style="color: rgb(245, 130, 33) !important; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">conflicts of interest</a> in any decision the DOE makes to export the U.S. shale gas bounty.</div>
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<span style="color: #783f04;">Read More: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: center;">h<a href="ttp://ecowatch.com/2013/doe-approves-fracked-gas-lng-export-terminal/">ttp://ecowatch.com/2013/doe-approves-fracked-gas-lng-export-terminal/</a></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-42171168863877245132013-05-12T17:39:00.003-07:002013-05-12T17:39:47.849-07:00<h1 class="headline" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 29px; text-align: left;">
Radioactive fracking debris triggers worries at dump sites </h1>
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<em>Evan R. Sanders | Tribune-Review</em></div>
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Read more:<a href="http://triblive.com/business/headlines/3945499-74/gas-radiation-radioactivity#ixzz2T81nEnPx" style="color: #003399;">http://triblive.com/business/headlines/3945499-74/gas-radiation-radioactivity#ixzz2T81nEnPx</a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">By <a href="mailto:tpuko@tribweb.com?subject=RE:%20Radioactive%20fracking%20debris%20triggers%20worries%20at%20dump%20sites%20story%20on%20TribLIVE.com" style="color: #5b99e3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Timothy Puko</a></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><small style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Published:</strong> Saturday, May 11, 2013, 9:00 p.m.</small><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"></span><span style="color: grey; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Updated 20 hours ago</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" /><br />
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When a garbage truck from a shale gas well set off radiation detectors at a South Huntingdon landfill on April 19, it drew attention from township officials.</div>
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But they aren't the only ones watching what's become a growing issue all over Pennsylvania. The number of garbage trucks setting off radiation monitors had a fivefold increase between 2009 and 2012, drawing renewed attention from state officials who hadn't believed radiation would be a big problem from the state's drilling industry.</div>
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South Huntingdon is trying to block MAX Environmental Technologies Inc. from receiving DEP permission to accept a higher level radioactive waste, supervisor Melvin Cornell said.</div>
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“This stuff they compile as they dump it. It will grow and grow and grow,” Cornell said. “Hey, if there's nothing wrong, take it down, and make a playground with it where they live. That might sound harsh, but we don't want it here.”</div>
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Between 2009 and 2012, radiation alarms went off 1,325 times in 2012, with more than 1,000 of those alerts just from oil and gas waste, according to data from the Department of Environmental Protection.</div>
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The state's landfills have to one day be fit for people to live on after they close, so the state has to make sure they aren't allowing a dangerous build-up of radioactivity, officials said.</div>
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The spike in radiation alarms gave them pause for concern and is a big reason they started a year-long study of radioactivity in the shale gas industry, which the DEP announced in January.</div>
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“All the data we have indicates public health is protected. We want to make sure going forward, long term, things stay that way,” DEP spokesman Kevin Sunday said.</div>
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State regulators, industry supporters and some scientists say that treating shale waste properly eliminates big health risk. But there are critics who argue that bringing large quantities of even low-level radioactive particles to the surface can lead to a slow, incremental build up of particles that people breathe or eat throughout their lifetimes.</div>
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The state began requiring radiation monitors at landfills in 2002 because of medical waste. But oil and gas waste — which brings up naturally occurring radiation formerly locked a mile or so underground — has become an increasing concern.</div>
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The spike in radiation alarms roughly corresponds shale drilling activity. Radiation detectors went off 423 times in 2008 and 1,325 times in 2012, according to DEP data. Gas drillers punched 335 new shale wells in 2008 and 1,354 new shale wells in 2012.</div>
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The average radium content in Marcellus shale wastewater samples was more than double the content found in wastewater from other gas-producing formations, the Geological Survey found in 2011.</div>
<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Read more:</span> <a href="http://triblive.com/business/headlines/3945499-74/gas-radiation-radioactivity#ixzz2T81PB3tL"><span style="color: #003399;">http://triblive.com/business/headlines/3945499-74/gas-radiation-radioactivity#ixzz2T81PB3tL</span> </a><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=d-D-nM8emr4ALpacwqm_6l&u=triblive" style="color: #5b99e3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@triblive on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=d-D-nM8emr4ALpacwqm_6l&u=triblive" style="color: #5b99e3; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">triblive on Facebook</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3215693615347454463.post-11177035061969255102013-05-03T06:58:00.001-07:002013-05-03T06:58:20.785-07:00<span class="pub_date" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #111111; display: block; font-family: Baskerville, 'Goudy Old Style', Palatino, 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 1.5em; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;">May 3, 2013</span><h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #111111; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 3.25em; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0.9em; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a class="url entry-title" href="http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x1169348036/Middlefield-drilling-ban-upheld" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #223344; font-family: inherit; font-size: 33px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Middlefield drilling ban upheld</a></h3>
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<span class="author vcard" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="story_credit fn" style="border: 0px; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By Joe Mahoney</span></span><span class="source-org vcard story_source" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://thedailystar.com/" style="border: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Daily Star</a></span></div>
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The Otsego County town of Middlefield and the Tompkins County town of Dryden — along with the principle of home rule — scored major victories Thursday, with the state Appellate Division issuing twin rulings that uphold their trail-blazing bans on natural gas drilling.</div>
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The towns had also prevailed in the first round of the case, with state Supreme Court judges backing their right to enact home-rule legislation against drilling.</div>
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The cases could end up before New York’s highest court — the Court of Appeals.</div>
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On the losing side of the mid-level appeals court decisions are the natural gas industry and Jennifer Huntington, operator of Cooperstown Holstein Corp., who said the town of Middlefield’s zoning change in June 2011 put a stop to her plans to have a conventional gas well at her property.</div>
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In the Dryden decision, which was cited in the Middlefield case, the court wrote: “We hold that (current law) does not preempt, either expressly or impliedly, a municipality’s power to enact a local zoning ordinance banning all activities related to the exploration for, and the production or storage of, natural gas and petroleum within its borders.”</div>
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Huntington said she decided to file the lawsuit against Middlefield in order to get legal clarity over whether the town had the right to prevent local landowners from allowing gas wells to be put into operation on their parcels.</div>
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“This is how the democratic process works in the United States,” she said. “If you have a question or a concern with a rule or law, this is how you go about it. There were regulations already on the books. There was a disagreement in the interpretation of them. It was a difference of opinion.”</div>
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Kurkoski took issue with the decisions, saying: “The Appellate Division interpreted the oil and gas law by relying on a mining case decided by the Court of Appeals. The laws and the policy behind each law are vastly different. The mining laws specifically allow zoning but the oil and gas law does not. Most importantly, New York will never have an effective energy policy if our courts equate the state’s interests in promoting the production of sand and gravel with the production of energy.”</div>
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Middlefield Town Supervisor Dave Bliss told The Daily Star: “We’re pleased that the court has agreed with our position that a ban is not a regulation, and we had the authority to do what we did.”</div>
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<span style="color: #e69138;">Read More: </span><span style="font-size: 10px; line-height: 10px;"><a href="http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x1169348036/Middlefield-drilling-ban-upheld">http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x1169348036/Middlefield-drilling-ban-upheld</a></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com