FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: February 17, 2011
1. EVENT: Regina/Saskatoon – Feb. 25.11 - Wind Power in Saskatchewan - Provincial Overview
2. WATCH: RFK, Jr.: Oil Industry Trying to Silence “Gasland” Director
3. WATCH: Peter Kent, federal Minister of Environment matched with Janet, a senior executive from the tar sands industry
4. New green technology could offset SaskEnergy’s electrical use within four years
5. ENCANA UPDATE – 5 articles
6. Court wades through manure case, sides with Alberta farmer
7. Alberta Duvernay shale play awaits drilling
8. Canada to review PetroChina’s Encana gas bid
9. Area Landowners concerned over Bill 24
10. WIN! Inverness County council supports Nova Scotia-wide fracking ban
11. New White Paper Released on Role of Natural Gas in a Smart Energy Future
12. Federal Standing Committee on Natural Resources
13. Environmental Assessment News - New Proposed Terms of Reference
14. FRACKING IN THE USA – several articles
15. B.C. power export plan needs more work, study warns
16. (AB) Huge police database in works
17. Access to justice becoming a privilege of the rich, judge warns
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1. EVENT: Regina/Saskatoon – Feb. 25.11 - Wind Power in Saskatchewan - Provincial Overview
http://www.cagbc.org/source/Events/
Event.cfm?EVENT=SK11RE0225§ion=Educat
Canada Green Building Council
The sites will be linked by videoconference
February 25, 2011 - University of Regina
Education Building, Room 158 Regina
AND
University of Saskatchewan
Education Building Studio A (downstairs) Saskatoon
SaskPower's announcement 3 years ago of a net metering scheme created a new market in the province for farm-scale and home-scale wind power.
When is it appropriate to install this technology, what are the benefits and drawbacks, and how can it be integrated with environmentally-responsible design?
Tim Weis and Kelly Winder will speak to these questions.
Kevin Hudson will speak about Saskatoon Light and Power's plans for a single large turbine on the edge of the city.
The speakers are:
Kelly Winder - Research Engineer at the Saskatchewan Research Council
Tim Weis - Director of Renewable Energy and Efficiency at the Pembina
Institute
http://www.pembina.org/
Register:
http://www.picatic.com/ticket/event359978/
Event Contact htulloch@sk.cagbc.org
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2. WATCH: RFK, Jr.: Oil Industry Trying to Silence “Gasland” Director
http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2011/02/12/
rfk-jr-oil-industry-trying-to-silence-“gasland”-director/
February 12th, 2011
The new documentary film Gasland has been nominated for an Academy Award, and the oil and gas industries are working around the clock to prevent the film from winning an award. They want to keep the film out of the public eye because it exposes their dirtiest and most deceitful traits to the American public. But all of their lobbying and all of their money won’t keep filmmaker Josh Fox silent, and he joined Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. recently to discuss his Oscar-nominated film.
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3. WATCH: Peter Kent, federal Minister of Environment matched with Janet, a senior executive from the tar sands industry
http://www.polluterharmony.ca/testimonials.php
Kent’s proactive surrender to the oil industry surprised many, but not his Janet who proudly considers working on the tar sands “doing God’s work.” That’s why she is seen as the tar sands industry’s #1 spin doctor in Canada. Peter and Janet met through PolluterHarmony.ca and this is their story:
http://www.polluterharmony.ca/testimonials.php
Peter Kent may be feeling the love from the oil industry for his defence of the tar sands and his declaration that there would be no new environmental regulations that would hurt the bottom line of oil companies. Is his marriage of oil and state going to lead to happiness?
Now he needs to hear from you:
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/campaigns/tarsands/
Get-involved/pharmony/
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4. New green technology could offset SaskEnergy’s electrical use within four years
http://www.saskenergy.com/About_SaskEnergy/News/
news_releases/2011/WHR%20News%20Release.pdf
Press Release February 4, 2011
SaskEnergy pipeline subsidiary TransGas, together with partner companies Found Energy and Innovative Steam Technologies (IST) will use an innovative technology designed to capture the waste heat of compressor station engines and convert it to useable electricity. If successful, the corporation could be producing more renewable electricity than it consumes by 2015, thanks to this new green technology. The project will also help develop Waste Heat Recovery technology for applications with other energy industry markets in Western Canada.
TransGas uses compressors to move natural gas through its 14,000 kilometres of high pressure transmission pipeline across Saskatchewan, as well as to inject gas into its 27 underground storage caverns and two storage fields.
“SaskEnergy and TransGas have set a goal to become net zero in electricity consumption by 2015 and Waste Heat Recovery will be one of the key factors in pursuing this goal,” said Minister Responsible for SaskEnergy Dustin Duncan. “Recovering waste heat from compressor engines will reduce the corporation’s carbon footprint and our province’s reliance on traditional, electrical generation sources. Through this project, SaskEnergy is supporting Saskatchewan’s “Go Green” initiative by investing in an environmental solution to an every day business process.”
The $5.7M Waste Heat Recovery project at TransGas’ Rosetown and Coleville Compressor Stations will capture heat normally vented to the atmosphere through the compressor engines’ exhaust, and converts it to electricity utilizing a process called the Organic Rankine Cycle. The electricity will then be sold back to the SaskPower grid.
MORE:
http://www.saskenergy.com/About_SaskEnergy/
News/news_releases/2011/WHR%20News%20Release.pdf
================
5. ENCANA UPDATE – 5 article
Encana into red ink
http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article244194.ece
Canadian energy giant Encana today reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $42 million, a massive 82% drop on its net profit of $233 million in the same perod a year earlier.
News wires 10 February 2011 11:49 GMT
Encana, led by chief executive Randy Eresman, said operating income, which excludes one-time and unusual items like hedging gains and losses, fell to $68 million, or 9 cents a share, from $373 million, or 50 cents a share, a year ago.
Cash flow, an indicator of its ability to fund growth plans, was $917 million, or $1.25 a share, compared with $930 million, or $1.24 per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Quarterly production averaged 3.4 billion cubic feet equivalent per day.
For the company's full results release, click here . [ . . . ]
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Hythe blowout impossible to foresee, ERCB rules
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
Hythe+blowout+impossible+foresee+ERCB+rules/4267980/story.html
CNRL wildcat well hit high-pressure formation in undrilled area of northern Alberta
By Dave Cooper, edmontonjournal.com February 11, 2011 3:02 PM
EDMONTON - A blowout at a wildcat natural gas well near Hythe in 2010 could not have been predicted, the Energy Resources Conservation Board said Friday in an investigation report.
It added no off-lease readings of hydrogen sulphide or sulphur dioxide were recorded during the Feb. 24 incident.
The ERCB determined that the blowout was caused when Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. encountered an abnormally high pressure formation while drilling the well, which in turn led to the failure of a piece of drilling equipment called the casing bowl blind flange above ground. [ . . . .]
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ERCB releases investigation report on February 2010 blowout in
northwest Alberta
http://www.canadaviews.ca/2011/02/11/
ercb-releases-investigation-report-on-february-2010-blowout-in-northwest-alberta/
News Release February 11, 2011
Calgary... The Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) has released an investigation report regarding a blowout that occurred February 24, 2010 during the drilling of an exploratory natural gas well operated by Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL). The well was located approximately 22 kilometres northwest of Hythe, Alberta.
This news release, the investigation report, and Directive 036 are available on the ERCB Web site at www.ercb.ca.
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EnCana gives Bashaw heads up on local drilling
http://www.camrosecanadian.com/ArticleD ... ?e=2972380
Approval makes headway for future area developments
By Vince Burke Published: 10 February 2011 11:49 GMT |
Camrose Canadian
Bashaw Town council has given the thumbs up to EnCana Drillings 2011 operations in an area near the community.
The 12 operations near Bashaw include a number of sweet well operations, a mix of directional and vertical drilling, with some to the depth of around 600 to 650 meters.
One of the sites is also in an area designated for future town development.
"There is activity, drilling and well tie-ins in a section north of town, which is in our inter-municipal development plan; a future growth area," said Bashaw CAO Rosemary Wittevrongel. [ . . . ]
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Analysts hike price targets on Encana
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
investment-ideas/features/eye-on-equities/analysts-hike-price-targets-on-encana/article1903957/
Darcy Keith | Globe and Mail Update
Last updated Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 1:41PM EST
Analysts are aggressively hiking their price targets on Encana Corp. (ECA-N31.25-0.90-2.80%) following its blockbuster $5.4-billion deal with PetroChina this week for co-development of the Cutbank Ridge natural gas assets.
But that doesn’t mean they’re entirely enthused.
“While we applaud management for being able to attract a mega-sized deal, we view it as a one-time catalyst,” said Canaccord Genuity analyst Phil Skolnick. He expressed concerns over PetroChina’s ability to pay the entire bill over time, the still unknown tax consequences, and the possibility that the accelerated natural gas development of the project will put further pressure on near- and mid-term natural gas prices.
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6. Court wades through manure case, sides with Alberta farmer
http://www.canada.com/news/
Court+wades+through+manure+case+sides+with+Alberta+farmer/4268525/story.html#ixzz1DkYNbKXC
By Mike De Souza, Postmedia News February 11, 2011
OTTAWA — An Alberta farmer will receive more than $100,000 in compensation and legal fees from a pipeline company after a battle that lasted more than 10 years and began after the business refused to pay for a thin layer of manure.
The dispute began in 1998 over a project proposed by Alliance Pipeline, when the farmer, Vernon Joseph Smith, asked the company to restore his land, following an expropriation agreement.
When Alliance Pipeline failed to restore Smith's land in a timely manner, he eventually did the work himself by spreading manure over the area and sending the company a bill for about $10,000, which launched a lengthy series of negotiations, court battles and appeals that finally ended Friday at the Supreme Court of Canada.
"The seeds of this dispute were sown in a thin layer of manure spread by the appellant on a strip of his land that the respondent was obliged to reclaim," wrote Justice Morris Fish in the Supreme Court ruling.
Energy companies can apply for the power to expropriate land under the National Energy Board Act, and it is the board that oversees conditions.
But the top court said the company "failed to reclaim the land in a timely manner, as required by the (expropriation) agreement, and refused to fully compensate (Smith) for having done so in its stead."
Fish noted that Smith, who is now 82 years old, then turned to arbitration "for what was meant to assure an expeditious resolution of the dispute."
MORE:
http://www.canada.com/news/
Court+wades+through+manure+case+sides+with+Alberta+farmer/4268525/story.html#ixzz1DkYNbKXC
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7. Alberta Duvernay shale play awaits drilling
http://www.ogj.com/index/article-display/1078766981/
articles/oil-gas-journal/exploration-development-2/20100/february-2011/alberta-duvernay_shale.html
Feb 10, 2011 By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 10 -- West-central Alberta is the site of a spirited land play for rights to liquids-rich potential in the Devonian Duvernay shale.
Industry’s first Duvernay horizontal well, operated by Celtic Exploration Ltd. last fall in the Kaybob area 150 miles northwest of Edmonton, flowed at a rate of 2.1 MMcfd of gas with 56° gravity condensate from a 1,787-m lateral at 3,300 m true vertical depth. Partner Yoho Resources Inc. said the well was expected to yield 75 bbl/MMcf of total liquids including the free condensate.
Mechanical problems prevented seven of the 13 planned frac stages at the well in 15-33-060-20w5. Yoho sees midcase well costs of $8-9 million excluding tie-in with ample room for improvement in cost per frac stage, initial potential, and ultimate recovery.
Celtic, Yoho, and Trilogy Energy Corp. spudded a second horizontal well, and Yoho plans to earn up to 20 more sections at Kaybob by drilling two vertical wells, boosting its stake to nearly 49 (17 net) sections. The wells spudded in December 2010 and January 2011.
Yoho sees 80-105 bcf/sq mile of gas in place in shale 130-180 ft thick with 7.1% average effective porosity and 1-4% total organic carbon.
Encana Corp. and Chevron Corp. both revealed large positions in the Duvernay play this week. Encana has 2011 plans to further evaluate the play, which it said has demonstrated “significant liquids potential.” Chevron said it accumulated 200,000 acres in play at a reasonable entry price.
Other independents that hold Duvernay acreage include Mooncor Oil & Gas Corp., Galleon Energy Inc., Orleans Energy Ltd., and Delphi Energy Corp., which has a large position in the Sturgeon Lake area. Another is Trilogy, a 2005 spinout from Paramount Resources Corp. Trilogy is developing the Montney and other tight sand formations at Kaybob.
MORE:
http://www.ogj.com/index/article-display/1078766981/
articles/oil-gas-journal/exploration-development-2/20100/february-2011/alberta-duvernay_shale.html
===============
8. Canada to review PetroChina’s Encana gas bid
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/canada-to-review-petrochinas-encana-gas-bid/article1903505/print/
Published Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 9:33AM EST
Last updated Friday, Feb. 11, 2011 9:47AM EST
Ottawa— Reuters - Canada will review PetroChina’s proposed $5.4-billion purchase of half of a shale gas project from Encana Corp. ECA-T, Industry Minister Tony Clement said Friday.
The decision did not come as a surprise. Under the Investment Canada Act, Mr. Clement must review any proposed foreign investment of more than $299-million.
“I can confirm that this transaction is subject to review under the Investment Canada Act. The investor has informed me that an application will be filed soon,” Mr. Clement said in a statement.
“The review process is a thorough one, involving consultations with the provinces/territories affected as well as other federal departments,” he said.
MORE:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/canada-to-review-petrochinas-encana-gas-bid/article1903505/print/
================
9. Area Landowners concerned over Bill 24
http://www.threehillscapital.com/
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=880:area-landowners-concerned-over-bill-24&catid=97:news&Itemid=267
WEDNESDAY, 09 FEBRUARY 2011 14:03 AMY NAKASKA
When dealing with unknown territory, undetermined consequences, and inadequate research, the results of such can lead us to revert back to the memories of the mess that was the BP oil spill in 2010. The disaster created huge environmental, political, and economical expenses.
Farmers and landowners in the surrounding area are fearful for the wellbeing of their livelihood after what controversial new legislation has been passed, namely Bill 24: Carbon Capture and Storage Statutes Amendment Act.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a process that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) from a large emitter such as a coal fired power plant. The CO2 emissions are compressed, transported, and then stored in geological formations kilometers deep inside of the earth.
This has been done with enhanced oil recovery for decades, as a way of increasing the amount of crude oil that can be extracted from an oil field.
CCS is a whole new ball game. They intend to pipe CO2 underground into saline aquifers, coal seams, and oil and gas reservoirs that have been depleted by conventional drilling. The idea is the liquefied CO2 would remain sealed below the surface by the geological formations.
This has never been done on the scale the government is proposing for this area, and on the evening of Tuesday, February 1, members of the Alberta Surface Rights Group, and landowners, came out to the Trochu Community Center to show their concerns for Bill 24.
MORE:
http://www.threehillscapital.com/
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=880:area-landowners-concerned-over-bill-24&catid=97:news&Itemid=267
==================
10. WIN! Inverness County council supports Nova Scotia-wide fracking ban
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6394
The Cape Breton Post reports that, "Inverness County council is supporting a province-wide ban on the industrial use of...hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas from underground rock formations."
"The resolution was made at the request of the Inverness County Chapter of the Council of Canadians, which presented its concerns over a proposed oil and gas exploration in the Lake Ainslie area during a regular meeting on Monday (February 14), which was attended by about 45 concerned citizens. According to the group, any drilling in areas as sensitive as the Lake Ainslie, Margaree and Mull River watersheds will set a dangerous precedent." Lake Ainslie is the largest freshwater lake in Nova Scotia.
“'The potential short-term employment relating to this project does not (equal) what we stand to lose in the long run,' said chapter member Coralie Cameron. 'This industry is only economically viable for the company when large areas of land are used and exploited.' Cameron said a proposed drill could affect long-established industries such as fishing, tourism and farming."
"Fracking opponent (and Inverness County chapter activist) Frances Oommen said she was delighted with council’s decision and the number of people who showed up to voice their concerns. 'We’re happy that they have stood on their principles, they believed that this is not the right way to go,' said Oommen. 'I think it’s fine that they invite Petroworth to come ... we will be here to listen to what they say.' Oommen said others need to be educated about the possibility of projects elsewhere in the province. She noted that earlier this year the province’s Department of Energy requested exploration proposals inviting companies to bid to explore for coal gas methane in the Tompkinsville agreement block in the Sydney area."
"PetroWorth Resources has already applied to the province to drill an exploratory 1,200-metre well in an area on the western side of Lake Ainslie just south of MacIsaac’s Point. Drilling in the Lake Ainslie area has been put off until at least this spring."
By September 2010 the Inverness County chapter had sent a letter of concern about the impacts of fracking to Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter. In October 2010 chapter activist and Board member Anne Levesque estimated that about 600 people have signed their petition opposing the use of fracking anywhere in Nova Scotia.
Past campaign blog posts on this include:
NEWS: Inverness chapter concerned about proposed oil well near Lake Ainslie:
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4518;
NEWS: Levesque speaks out for Lake Ainslie:
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4749;
NEWS: Inverness chapter concerned about Petroworth open house:
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4933;
NEWS: Lake Anslie residents raise concerns about fracking at public meeting:
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4956.
The Cape Breton article is at:
http://www.capebretonpost.com/Business/2011-02-14/
article-2240658/Inverness-County-says-no-to-fracking-as-a-means-of-extracting-oil-and-gas-from-underground/1.
===============
11. New White Paper Released on Role of Natural Gas in a Smart Energy Future
http://www.cga.ca/documents/
NaturalGasinaSmartEnergyFuture1-26-11.pdf
January 2011
Today natural gas meets 30% of Canada’s energy needs – well over half of the Canadian population relies on natural gas at home and at work. According to a new white paper released by the Gas Technology Institute and Navigant Consulting, natural gas is the key to a smart energy future as an abundantly available, efficient, safe, reliable, affordable and low-carbon energy source for all segments of the economy.
“Natural Gas in a Smart Energy Future” concludes that a smart energy future in which natural gas is effectively integrated can deliver several advantages including: [ . . . ]
================
12. Federal Standing Committee on Natural Resources
http://www.bctwa.org/FrkBC-RNNR-EnergySecurity.pdf
ISSUE: Energy Security in Canada (including an investigation of the deep shale gas industry by way of discussion and witnesses) (438 pages)
The following is a pdf, word-searchable, compilation of the Natural Resources Committee’s 2010 to 2011 meeting Minutes and Evidence documents from its website, concerning the issue of deep shale gas exploration and development. Meetings are held in Ottawa’s Parliament centre. (Oct. 19, 2010 - Feb. 3, 2011)
====================
13. Environmental Assessment News - New Proposed Terms of Reference
A copy of the proposed Terms of Reference is available on the website at
http://environment.alberta.ca/02313.html.
The Proposed Terms of Reference for Laricina Energy Ltd.’s Germain Project Expansion Project are now available for public comment. Comments are due in to the Director by March 31, 2011.
In October 2010, Laricina received regulatory approval of the Germain Commercial Demonstration Project (Phase 1), which will have a capacity of 5,000 bbls/d of bitumen. The Germain Project (the Project) will integrate the Phase 1 Project and the Germain Project Expansion (Phases 2-4). The proposed production capacity for the Project is 155,000 bbls/d of bitumen over a 30 year period. The thermal recovery techniques being utilized for the development of the Project are Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) and Solvent-Cyclic Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SC-SAGD).
The location of the project is the west Athabasca Oil Sands region, approximately 46 km northeast of the community of Wabasca-Desmarais within Townships 83-85, Ranges 21-23 west of the 4th Meridian.
=================
14. FRACKING IN THE USA
WATCH: What's Spewing Into The Air We Breathe?
http://www.wtae.com/r/26821466/detail.html
What Are Marcellus Shale Drilling Operations Doing To Local Environment?
POSTED: 1:38 pm EST February 10, 2011
PITTSBURGH -- It's invisible to the naked eye, but caught on tape with a special infrared camera. A startling video shot by the government shows what nearby residents are breathing at a Marcellus Shale natural gas plant. Team 4 investigative reporter Jim Parsons said that the tape has never before been released to the public. What follows is a transcript of Parsons' report. --- It has been great for the local economy. But there is still a raging debate over what impact the Marcellus Shale gas drilling boom may be having on our health. Remember, the American Lung Association says the air particle pollution problem in our region already is one of the worst in the nation. Could this make it even worse? And what are regulators doing about it? The tape tells the tale. This is video of a Marcellus Shale gas compressor station in Greene County. Not much to see. But watch what happens when the camera switches over to infrared video. Now, suddenly, there is a lot to see: Plumes of unfiltered pollution wafting out of a tank and into the air. Team 4 is the first to obtain this tape, shot last summer by regulators at the state Department of Environmental protection. The DEP says it doesn't know exactly what is being emitted in this video, but it does know it isn't just steam.
TRANSCRIPT:
http://www.wtae.com/r/26821466/detail.html
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Fracking: EPA Plans To Examine Every Aspect Of Hydraulic Fracturing
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/
fracking-epa-plans-to-exa_n_821011.html
From ProPublica's Nicholas Kusnetz: February 10, 2011
The EPA has proposed examining every aspect of hydraulic fracturing, from water withdrawals to waste disposal, according to a draft plan the agency released Tuesday. If the study goes forward as planned, it would be the most comprehensive investigation of whether the drilling technique risks polluting drinking water near oil and gas wells across the nation.
The agency wants to look at the potential impacts on drinking water of each stage involved in hydraulic fracturing, where drillers mix water with chemicals and sand and inject the fluid into wells to release oil or natural gas. In addition to examining the actual injection, the study would look at withdrawals, the mixing of the chemicals, and wastewater management and disposal. The agency, under a mandate from Congress, will only look at the impact of these practices on drinking water.
The agency's scientific advisory board [1] will review the draft plan on March 7-8 and will allow for public comments then. The EPA will consider any recommendations from the board and then begin the study promptly, it said in a news release [2]. A preliminary report should be ready by the end of next year, the release said, with a full report expected in 2014.
A statement from the oil and gas industry group Energy in Depth gave a lukewarm assessment of the draft.
MORE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/
fracking-epa-plans-to-exa_n_821011.html
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Gingrich calls for eliminating EPA, expanding domestic energy production
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/
143279-gingrich-calls-for-elimnating-epa-expanding-domestic-energy-production
By Andrew Restuccia - 02/10/11 01:38 PM ET
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Thursday for abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency and passing energy legislation that expands domestic oil production and streamlines nuclear licensing.
In a wide-ranging speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, Gingrich called for replacing the EPA with an Environmental Solutions Agency that focuses on technology-driven solutions to addressing the country’s environmental problems.
Gingrich said the Obama EPA is “made up of self-selected bureaucrats” that are seeking to pass wide-ranging regulations that would harm the economy. Instead, he called for an agency that focused on “science, technology, markets and incentives.”
It’s not the first time that Gingrich has called for getting rid of the EPA, but it’s certainly the most high-profile speech he’s delivered on the subject. CPAC is watched closely by conservatives all over the country and Gingrich’s recommendations are certain to make waves.
- - - -SNIP - - -
Nor should the EPA should not put restrictions on a controversial gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, in which chemicals, water and sand are injected into the ground to get access to valuable natural gas reserves, he said.
Gingrich also said the nuclear regulatory process should be streamlined and lawmakers should focus on pushing small reactors that can be constructed quickly.
“There’s a whole new generation of very small nuclear power plants that are very, very safe,” he said.
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GOP Proposes $1.6 Billion Cut To EPA Budget, Defends $4 Billion In Oil Subsidies
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/
gop-proposes-1.6-billion-cut-to-epa-budget-defends-4-billion-in-oil-subsidi
by Marian Wang ProPublica, Feb. 10, 2011, 10:25 a.m.
Republicans unveiled a budget plan on Wednesday that proposed a $1.6 billion cut [1] to the Environmental Protection Agency, an agency whose authority they have sought to curtail, while business trade groups [2] have complained about the burden placed on them by agency regulations. Politico also reported that the GOP's proposal would hit the Energy Department hard [3], with a proposal to cut energy efficiency and renewable energy programs in half.
Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has said he favors gutting EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions with a "legislative fix" rather than simply denying it funds. (See our overview [4] of Upton's positions on energy.) He told the Wall Street Journal that his disagreement with the EPA is: "You don't subsidize different forms of power [5] -- you let the market run on its own."
Energy subsidies are not a new thing, and efforts to remove them for oil and gas companies have repeatedly failed in recent years. [ . . . ]
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Report details drilling damage to forest
http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201102071479
February 7, 2011
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A natural gas drilling operation in the Fernow Experimental Forest in Tucker County killed dozens of trees, damaged roads and eroded the land, according to a new U.S. Forest Service scientific report.
Read the report
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/
2011/02/16/is-the-marcellus-boom-a-good-idea/
The report provides one of the most detailed glimpses so far of the potential impacts from the boom in West Virginia's natural gas industry, and offers potential lessons for policymakers and regulators trying to grapple with the growth in drilling.
"It sort of opened our eyes to the issues," said Thomas M. Schuler, an agency forester and one of the report's authors. "This is an issue that is affecting West Virginia, Pennsylvania, parts of the northeast and other parts of the country."
The 28-page report, released last month, documents the development and impacts of a relatively small natural gas well within the experimental forest, which is part of the Monongahela National Forest.
Berry Energy began work on what was called the B-800 project in 2007. The project involved a drilling pad, associated roads and a pipeline, with the right-of-way construction alone resulting in the cutting of more than 700 trees.
The well itself involved using water and chemicals to "fracture" rocks deep underground and release natural gas. But the site was not drilling into the Marcellus Shale, and involves much less "fracking fluid" than a Marcellus well, officials said.
But the company's plan involved using hydrochloric acid as one of its drilling fluids, and a drilling accident and the land disposal of used fracking fluids damaged the forest.
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Former PA Official: Beware of Drilling's Pollution and "Shameful" Political Influence
http://cbf.typepad.com/bay_daily/2011/02/
as-maryland-considers-whether-to-allow-hydraulic-fracturing-for-natural-gas-it-should-avoid-the-environmental-damage-that-pe.html
February 9, 2011
As Maryland considers whether to allow hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, it should avoid the environmental damage that Pennsylvania has suffered and the “shameful” example of the drilling industry’s political influence in that state, a former top Pennsylvania official told a Maryland General Assembly committee today.
John Quigley, former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (photo above), told the Maryland House Environmental Matters Committee that natural gas also has environmental benefits, such as creating less air pollution and mercury contamination than coal.
But he cautioned Maryland lawmakers that there are “ample reasons” to be concerned about water pollution and other serious problems from drilling. The wastewater produced by drilling “is hundreds of times saltier than seawater,” Quigley said. “And it can come back with naturally occurring radioactive material.”
He added: “We have already experienced major problems with natural gas migration and contamination of drinking wells… We have had well blow-outs and fire… We have gas bubbling into the Susquehanna River, to everyone’s surprise.”
“A go-slow approach is justifiable,” Quigley advised Maryland officials. “New York is taking a pause” to study hydraulic fracturing before allowing large-scale drilling, he noted. “Take as much time as you can to understand these issues.”
MORE:
http://cbf.typepad.com/bay_daily/2011/02/
as-maryland-considers-whether-to-allow-hydraulic-fracturing-for-natural-gas-it-should-avoid-the-environmental-damage-that-pe.html
= = = = = =
Leak shuts down drilling operation at Mich. well
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-10/
leak-shuts-down-drilling-operation-at-mich-well.html
Feb 10, 2011 4:36 PM MT By The Associated Press
JOYFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A leak that forced the shutdown of operations at a more than 1,000-foot-deep natural gas well that was being drilled in Michigan's northwestern Lower Peninsula with a technique called hydraulic fracturing likely will lead to a review of some drilling regulations, the state said Thursday.
The leak at the well in Benzie County's Joyfield Township was detected late Monday or early Tuesday, and the leak was stopped and contained Tuesday, the state Department of Natural Resources and Environment said. The department said there was no imminent danger and an initial review found the spill was limited to a small area right around the well.
"The company had just installed a new well," said DNRE spokesman Brad Wurfel. "They turned it on and found liquid bubbling."
The department said it was the first time such a hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operation has experienced a leak in Michigan. About 12,000 wells in Michigan have been drilled using the technique since the 1960s, the state said.
The state said cement used to contain a steel sleeve where liquid is pumped apparently failed, causing the leak in the well that was being drilled through a rock bed called Antrim Shale. But Joe Quandt, a lawyer representing Presidium Antrim West LC, the company drilling the well, said Thursday afternoon the company still was investigating and it was too soon to say a cause. [ . . . . ]
= = = = =
A Dot on the Map, Until the Earth Started Shaking
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/us/
06earthquake.html?_r=1Mixx
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON Published: February 5, 2011
GUY, Ark. — Everybody around here is getting used to the earthquakes, and that does not sit well with Dirk DeTurck.
Stephen Thornton for The New York Times
Dirk DeTurck pointed to drilling equipment from his home. “I think people are getting comfortable” with earthquakes, he said.
He sent out 600 fliers and made, well, had to be around 100 phone calls, trying to attract people to his meeting on earthquake preparedness. And yet on a recent Tuesday night, he stood in the local school cafeteria and looked out at only a dozen or so people, including two women from the local extension homemakers club who had scheduled their own meeting on the topic a couple of weeks later.
“I think people are getting comfortable,” said Mr. DeTurck, a former Navy mechanic. “I mean, they have in California. They’ve become real comfortable with the shaking.”
Whether they have become comfortable is debatable, but the people of Guy, a town of 563 about an hour north of Little Rock, have had to learn to live with earthquakes.
Since the early fall, there have been thousands, none of them very large — a fraction have been felt, and the only documented damage is a cracked window in the snack bar at Woolly Hollow State Park. But in their sheer numbers, they have been relentless, creating a phenomenon that has come to be called the Guy earthquake swarm.
This was followed by the Guy media swarm, with reporters pouring in through the surrounding orchards and cow pastures to ask residents what the quakes feel like.
Mr. DeTurck and many others described a boom followed by a quick, alarming shift, a sensation one man compared to watching the camera dive off a cliff in an Imax movie. Some say they have felt dozens, others only four or five, and still others say they have only heard them.
They do, however, have similar suspicions about the cause.
Several years ago, the gas companies arrived, part of a sort of rush in Arkansas to drill for gas in a geological formation called the Fayetteville shale.
Local landowners signed leases and royalty agreements with the companies on the promise of a few hundred dollars or more a month. Drilling sites started showing up in the fields, and the trucks began rumbling through day and night. Residents began to wonder whether all of this was such a good idea.
“They took advantage of people’s ignorance,” said Greg Hooten, the superintendent of the local water utility, who now worries about the effect of the drilling on the groundwater. Nonetheless, Mr. Hooten had signed an agreement for drilling on his property. “Who’s going to stop the gas and oil companies?” he asked.
The companies are engaging in hydraulic fracturing, whereby water, sand and chemicals are injected at high pressures into underground formations to open pockets of gas. Much of the watery mix that is injected into wells comes back out as waste, and something has to be done with it.
Disposal wells are dug, and the wastewater is injected deep into the earth. Last summer a few of these injection wells appeared near the town, including the one across from Big Pop’s fruit stand, just past the school.
Then the ground started shaking.
MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/us/
06earthquake.html?_r=1Mixx
= = = = =
Geologist warns of fracking water
http://www.timesleader.com/news/
Geologist_warns_of_fracking_water_02-13-2011.html
MATT HUGHES mhughes@timesleader.com
Posted: February 13, 2011 Updated: Today at 2:30 AM
Keep planned treatment plant away from the Susquehanna River, urges George Turner.
Wyalusing may be more than an hour’s drive north of Wilkes-Barre, but a natural-gas-drilling wastewater treatment plant proposed in the municipality should concern anyone who lives near the Susquehanna River, a Wyoming County geologist said Saturday.
The Wyalusing Township Supervisors on Thursday held a public hearing to hear testimony on a zoning variance permit application filed by three companies planning to build an asphalt plant, a drilling mud plant and a wastewater treatment plant. State-certified professional geologist George Turner, of Eaton Township, attended the meeting and said he has concerns about the proximity of the three proposed plants to the Susquehanna River.
The hydraulic fracturing, or “frack” water treatment facility proposed by Ground/Water Treatment & Technology would be a closed-loop facility, in which treated water would be returned to gas drillers for reuse. Turner called the closed-loop system “exactly the way it should be done,” but said he still has concerns the plant might apply for a federal discharge permit to return treated water in the future. For that reason, the plant shouldn’t be built anywhere near the river, he said. [ . . . ]
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A Toxic Spew? (2008)
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/08/19/a-toxic-spew.html
August 19, 2008
Officials worry about impact of 'fracking' of oil and gas.
Cathy Behr says she won't forget the smell that nearly killed her. An emergency-room nurse in Durango, Colo.'s Mercy Regional Medical Center, Behr was working the April 17 day shift when Clinton Marshall arrived complaining of nausea and headaches. An employee at an energy-services company, Weatherford International, Marshall, according to Behr, said that he was caught in a "fracturing-fluid" spill. [Fracturing chemicals are routinely used on oil and gas wells where they are pumped deep into the ground to crack rock seams and increase production.] The chemical stench coming off Marshall's boots was buckling, says Behr. Mercy officials took no chances. They evacuated and locked down the ER, and its staff was instructed to don protective masks and gowns. But by the time those precautions were enacted, Behr had been nursing Marshall for 10 minutes--unprotected. "I honestly thought the response was a little overkill, but good practice," says Behr, 54, a 20-year veteran at Mercy.
A few days later, Behr's skin turned yellow. She began vomiting and retaining fluid. Her husband rushed her to Mercy where Behr was admitted to the ICU with a swollen liver, erratic blood counts and lungs filling with fluid. "I couldn't breath," she recalls. "I was drowning from the inside out." The diagnosis: chemical poisoning. The makers of the suspected chemical, Weatherford, tell NEWSWEEK that they aren't sure if their brand of fracking fluid can be blamed for her illness.
MORE:
http://www.newsweek.com/2008/08/19/a-toxic-spew.html
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Anschutz Exploration accused of contaminating water
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2011/02/14/
anschutz-exploration-accused-of.html
Denver Business Journal - by Cathy Proctor
Date: Last Modified: Monday, February 14, 2011, 5:40pm MST
A New York City law firm has filed suit against Anschutz Exploration Corp., alleging that the company and its subcontractors contaminated groundwater in the Horseheads, N.Y., area through their drilling operations.
The oil and gas company is a division of The Anschutz Corp. in Denver, owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz.
Napoli Bern Ripka & Associates LLP filed the suit with the Chemung County, N.Y., division of the New York Supreme Court system.
The firm’s complaint, on behalf of nine families, claims groundwater was contaminated by two natural gas wells the Anschutz oil and gas company drilled almost 10,000 feet deep, then turned horizontally, into New York’s Trenton Black River shale formation. The formation is about twice as deep as the better-known Marcellus shale formation, according to the firm.
The lawsuit alleges the company was negligent in drilling, constructing and operating the wells, and contaminating the water supplies of nine families. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as money to monitor the future health of the families, according to the firm’s announcement.
The suit is the first in New York revolving around alleged groundwater contamination caused by natural gas drilling, according to the law firm.
Jim Monaghan, a spokesman for The Anschutz Corp., said Monday the company hasn’t seen the lawsuit and declined to comment on it.
But he said Anschutz Exploration is aware of water problems where it’s drilled in New York and has cooperated with a state investigation of the cause.
MORE:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2011/02/14/
anschutz-exploration-accused-of.html
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Congressman urges DRBC to suspend hydrofracking rulemaking process
http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20110203-1.html
WASHINGTON – Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Congressman Rush Holt (D-NJ) urged the Delaware River Basin Commission to suspend its current natural gas development rulemaking process following the release of new information from House investigators about the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing fluid.
Hydrofracking is used as a means of extracting natural gas from shale formations like the Marcellus shale formation in Sullivan and Delaware counties in New York and extending into Pennsylvania and further west.
New regulations issued in December by the DRBC fail to account for potential risks posed by diesel fuel in fracking liquid, the lawmakers said. [ . . . ]
= = = = = =
Delaware River Basin Commission action put environment at risk, lawsuit alleges
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/
breaking-news/index.ssf/2011/02/delaware_river_basin_commissio_2.html
Published: Thursday, February 03, 2011, 12:30 AM Updated: Thursday, February 03, 2011, 10:30 AM By Express-Times staff
The Delaware River Basin Commission has engaged in activity that allowed exploratory natural gas wells to be drilled without review or approval, a lawsuit filed this week in Trenton alleges.
The Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability filed the suit.
The wells help gas companies determine whether hydrofracking, also called fracking, in a given area would be profitable. Even though the drilling of such wells is not fracking, their construction has an environmental impact, the federal suit claims. Fracking is one way gas companies access marcellus shale. [ . . . ]
Read Steve Novak's complete report:
Delaware Riverkeeper Network suing Delaware River Basin Commission over alleged lax natural gas drilling rules.
= = = = = =
Lawyers From New York May Sue Gas Drillers
http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/
551490/Lawyers-From-New-York-May-Sue-Gas-Drillers.html?nav=510
February 3, 2011 - By CASEY JUNKINS Staff Writer
Amid concerns about possible water and air pollution from Marcellus Shale activity, New York City environmental lawyer Julia LeMense may sue West Virginia's natural gas drillers.
However, Marcellus Shale Coalition President Kathryn Klaber - who maintains there is no evidence that drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," harms the environment - said LeMense is only "interested in making a quick buck."
In representing her law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg P.C., LeMense hosted a public meeting regarding possible legal action against Marcellus Shale drillers Wednesday at John Marshall High School. LeMense told the 100 or so attendees she was not there to serve as their attorney, but only to provide information. [ . . . ]
= = = = = =
Details few on diesel used in Pennsylvania fracking
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/
details-few-on-diesel-used-in-pa-fracking-1.1098916#axzz1CuYjRHOE
= = = = =
Colorado reviews whether drillers used diesel fuel
http://www.kjct8.com/news/26701064/detail.html
Unclear How Drinking Water Was Affected
POSTED: 5:47 pm MST February 1, 2011
DENVER -- The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is reviewing whether companies have injected fluids containing diesel fuel into the ground to help extract oil and gas in Colorado. On Monday, congressional Democrats, including Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, said they found that from 2005 to 2009, companies have injected more than 1.3 million gallons of hydraulic fracturing fluids containing diesel fuel underground in Colorado without first getting a certain permit. [ . . . ]
= = = = =
Natural Gas: It’s Not Easy Being Green
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/
natural-gas-its-not-easy-being-green/?partner=rss&emc=rss
= = = = = =
U.S. fracking firm may have broken environmental law: probe
http://www.wkbw.com/lifestyle/green?fee ... =115040994
Ayesha Rascoe Reuters Environmental Online Report Feb 01, 2011 09:40 EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several energy companies may have violated environmental rules by injecting diesel into the ground without permits as part of a controversial natural gas drilling technique, according to findings from Congressional probe released on Monday. [ . . . ]
= = = = = =
T. Boone Pickens on ‘The Daily Show’: Attacks OPEC, Defends Fracking
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/28/
daily-show-interviews-t-b_n_815576.html
= = = = =
North Dakota House supports oil fracking
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/306397/
= = = = =
State wants specifics on fracking's effects
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20110130/NEWS/101300326
ASSOCIATED PRESS By Steve Israel Published: 2:00 AM - 01/30/11
New York sure isn't gung-ho about gas drilling.
First, Gov. Andrew Cuomo picks the former head of the state's premier anti- drilling group to lead the agency that decides the fate of drilling in New York.
Now State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli wants one of the nation's largest gas companies, Cabot Oil and Gas, to say how it would deal with the possible dangers of the horizontal drilling method of hydraulic fracturing or "fracking." [ . . . ]
= = = = =
Undesirable element: Industry and regulators need to address the issues raised by diesel in fracking (February 3, 2011)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/edi ... 12406.html
= = = = = =
Legislators had better not mess up Marcellus (February 3, 2011)
http://dailymail.com/Opinion/Editorials/201102021262
= = = = = =
Hydrofracking: We’ll have what they’re having
http://www.greecepost.com/highlight/x286171168/
Guest-essay-When-it-comes-to-hydrofracking-we-ll-have-what-they-re-having
By Joseph Hoff Messenger Post Posted Feb 01, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
Last update Feb 01, 2011 @ 10:28 AM
Canandaigua, N.Y. — Our New York State neighbors to the east in the Skaneateles/Syracuse watershed have the benefit of a law (enacted in 2010) that requires any drilling interests to file an environmental impact statement that makes wildcat or questionable drilling practices (such as both slickwater hydrofracking and vertical drilling) for natural gas to conduct an intensive study designed to insure that no damage to the watershed would occur. The New York City watershed has the benefit of similar legislation.
Framers of the law explained that residents in those areas drink unfiltered water and, therefore, these regions should be exempt from the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which essentially gave a “free pass” to natural gas, coal and energy mining interests from provisions of the Pure Waters and Pure Air legislation.
As one of the 20,000 people who drink the unfiltered, pure waters of Keuka Lake, and as one of the more than 200,000 citizens who drink the waters from the Finger Lakes watershed basin, I have to say, “What are we — chopped liver?” How about insuring our health and welfare too? [ . . . ]
=============
15. B.C. power export plan needs more work, study warns
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/
power+export+plan+needs+more+work+study+warns/4264047/story.html
Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun February 11, 2011
British Columbia taxpayers could take a hit if the provincial government doesn't overhaul its plan to create an electricity export industry, according to a new study.
The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (http://www.pics.uvic.ca/), a leading B.C. academic research group, warns in a paper released Thursday that the government needs to be more cautious about the financial, social and environmental consequences of its recent Clean Energy Act.
Problems include a slowing of the United States economy, which is curtailing electricity demand; a structural decline in the trading price of electricity linked to growth in the North American supply of natural gas; and the desire of many U.S. states to foster regional power development rather than pay outsiders for premium-priced green energy.
================
16. (AB) Huge police database in works
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/
Huge+police+database+works/4273563/story.html
Civil libertarians say privacy at risk in computer project
By Karen Kleiss, Edmonton Journal February 13, 2011
The Alberta government is quietly building a $65-million police information database that will allow officers across the province to share details about proven and suspected criminal activity in real time.
The Alberta Law Officers' Network, or Talon, is meant to help police catch increasingly sophisticated criminals, but civil liberties groups and academics worry it unnecessarily invades citizens' privacy and will be open to abuse.
"The concept is that we will have a single source of the truth," said Ayaaz Janmohamed, executive director of the solicitor general's information technology branch and the man who is overseeing the project.
"It is going to create this information repository, which will allow for a master index of any person who comes into contact with any police agency in Alberta."
The project as a whole is known as the Alberta Police Integrated Information Initiative, or API3. Talon is an acronym used to describe the database. The program has been in the works for more than five years. The servers are now online, the top-secret office building that houses the servers is nearly complete and pilot projects are slated to begin in Calgary this fall.
Every police service in the province is expected to be online by 2013. [ . . . ]
===============
17. Access to justice becoming a privilege of the rich, judge warns
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/
access-to-justice-becoming-a-privilege-of-the-rich-judge-warns/article1903108/
KIRK MAKIN From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011 10:05PM EST
Last updated Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011 10:06PM EST
The middle class has been shut out of a justice system that caters primarily to the very rich and the very poor, the country's top judge has told a group of legal luminaries.
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin of the Supreme Court of Canada said on Tuesday that the middle class cannot hope to pay legal fees that average $338 per hour, leaving them little option but to represent themselves in court or go away empty-handed.
“Do we have adequate access to justice?” she asked a University of Toronto conference on the problem. “It seems to me that the answer is no. We have wonderful justice for corporations and for the wealthy. But the middle class and the poor may not be able to access our justice system.”
Chief Justice McLachlin said that a court proceeding can easily swallow up a litigant’s bank account or home equity. “How can there be public confidence in a system of justice that shuts people out; that does not give them access?” she asked. “That’s a very dangerous road to follow.”
MORE:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/
access-to-justice-becoming-a-privilege-of-the-rich-judge-warns/article1903108/
- - - -
More related to this story- All Links on URL above
Top judges giving up silence to embrace the people’s court
Supreme Court upholds compensation for breach of Charter rights
Court says free expression at stake in suppressed police report
FRACKING NEWS
45 posts
• Page 3 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: February 17, 2011
by Oscar » Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:24 pm
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING NEWS: February 27, 2011
by Oscar » Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:32 pm
FRACKING NEWS: February 27, 2011
1. VIDEO: Illustration of how a gas well is drilled and frac’ed.
2. Bobby's New Word
3. Natural Gas Industry Rhetoric Versus Reality
4. Keith Wilson, New Alberta Policy Chair at CAEPLA
5. WATCH: How Safe is Carbon Capture and Storage?
6. Alberta budget delays carbon capture funds
7. Cross family concerned about proposed CO2 storage project
8. Fracking Warnings Heard (sort of) by the Ontario Energy Board
9. Comox Valley chapter opposes fracking
10. Fracking takes a shellacking
11. Inverness chapter and Waycobah First Nationoppose fracking on Lake Ainslie watershed
12. Shale Gas Drilling Should Continue In Quebec Under New Regulatory Framework
13. Shale gas: The stance has changed significantly
14. B. C. TAP WATER ALLIANCE
15. Statement on the Right to Water and Sanitation – World Council of Churches
16. Why Natural Gas Companies Fear Josh Fox, Gasland, and the Oscars
17. The New York Times Covers Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Wastewater/Hold Onto Your Hats
18. Drilling Down - Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers / Visuals
19. Radioactive Natural Gas Fracking Could Create New Era of "Love Canals"
20. Fracking may violate Safe Drinking Water Act, report says
21. Documents: Natural Gas's Toxic Waste
22. VIDEO: Bradford County Home Loses 85% of Value
23. Buried Secrets - Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
24. Panel rules against homeowner who said fracking fouled well
25. Hydrofracked?
26. 'Fracking' threatens WA water resources
27. Schlumberger COO: Current Shale Methods Won't Work Overseas
28. Something new has been added it seems: EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING OF PETROLEUM BEARING FORMATIONS (3 articles)
================
1. VIDEO: Illustration of how a gas well is drilled and frac’ed.http://www.northernoil.com/drilling.php
================
2. Bobby's New Word
http://themeanneighbourkidblog.blogspot.com/
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Bobby's got a new word, fracking. My mom says not to say that word. But Bobby uses it all the time these days. Says it's not the same as another word kinda like it. But fracking is going to keep him warm in the winter. And Bobby says that my dad and me better let him come and frack here at my house. Says that if we don't that he can just go ahead and frack us from his own property...don't take our permission. Can he really do that? Some how I think that we been fracked already. Heck, Bobby says that he fracks anywhere and anyone he wants...even his own aunts and uncles. I think that that's called incest...but Bobby says that's not incest...it's just good business.
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3. Natural Gas Industry Rhetoric Versus Reality
http://www.desmogblog.com/
natural-gas-industry-rhetoric-versus-reality
25 February 2011 Brendan DeMelle
As the recent natural gas industry attacks on the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland demonstrate, the gas industry is mounting a powerful PR assault against journalists, academics and anyone else who speaks out against the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and other threats to public health and the environment from shale gas development. DeSmogBlog has analyzed some of the common talking points the industry and gas proponents use to try to convince the public and lawmakers that fracking is safe despite real concerns raised by residents living near gas drilling sites, whose experiences reveal a much more controversial situation.
DeSmogBlog extensively reviewed government, academic, industry and public health reports and interviewed the leading hydraulic fracturing experts who challenge the industry claims that hydraulic fracturing does not contaminate drinking water, that the industrial fracking fluids pose no human health risk, that states adequately regulate the industry and that natural gas has a lighter carbon footprint than other fossil fuels like oil and coal.
Below are ten of the most commonly repeated claims by the industry about the 'safety' of hydraulic fracturing and unconventional natural gas development, along with extensive evidence showing their claims are pure rhetoric, and not reality.
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
natural-gas-industry-rhetoric-versus-reality
====================
4. Keith Wilson, New Alberta Policy Chair at CAEPLA
http://www.albertasurfacerights.org/articles/?id=982
PRESS RELEASE
Policy Centre Mailing: #363-918 16th Ave. NW, Calgary, Alberta T2M 0K3 | PolicyCentre@caepla.org
Administration Mailing: #257-918 Albert Street, Regina, Sask. S4R 2P7 | Phone: 306.522.5000 | Admin@caepla.org
Ontario Region: Ontario@caepla.org |
www.landownerassociation.ca
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 24, 2011
Alberta Landowners Anticipate Long Struggle with the Alberta Government Land Bills 19, 36, 50, and 24 Take Away Landowner Rights Edmonton, Alberta:
Edmonton area lawyer Keith Wilson, who has been the keynote speaker at capacity-crowd, locally-organized landowner meetings across the province, says he has accepted a position with a major national landowner organization in order to better position Alberta landowners in their defense of property rights in the province. "The Alberta Government’s land bills—known as Bills 19, 24, 36, and 50—are without precedent in Canada, or even in the free societies of our western democracies," Wilson said. "The overall impact of the bills is to usurp the role of the courts, deprive landowners of due process of law, and deny landowners access to fair compensation when a property owner’s holdings are taken away." "I regret to say there is every indication that Alberta landowners seem to be in for a long and protracted struggle with this government on the issues of property rights, fairness and restoring the rule of law in Alberta," Wilson added. "As a result, I have accepted the position of Alberta Policy Chair with CAEPLA, which is a major national landowner association that can better marshal resources and help position landowners." "The Canadian Association of Energy and Pipeline Landowner Associations (CAEPLA—pronounced Kay-Pluh) has been taking a pro-active and constructive approach to working with government and the energy industry. Given my experience and legal training in these areas I am eager to take on the challenges of being the organization’s new Alberta Policy Chair and speaking on behalf of the organization in Alberta." In the past two years, CAEPLA has sponsored radio ads, TV advertising, billboards, and landowner talk radio programs. Its weekly landowner talk radio program in Alberta, CAEPLA CONNECTIONS, can be heard every Saturday morning on AM 1140. Mostly in western Canada, in the past two years CAEPLA has printed and distributed half a million pieces of literature (full colour magazines) about landowner rights and property rights issues. - 30 - For More Information: Keith Wilson—CAEPLA, Alberta Policy Chair— (780) 418-7226 / (780) 991-5050 Kevin Avram—CAEPLA, National Coordinator—(403)-612-7426 (Calgary)
BACKGROUNDER ON ALBERTA LAND BILLS
The term "Alberta Land Bills" refers to the four Alberta Land Bills passed into law by the current Alberta government. Each Bill is designed, in some fashion, to extinguish property rights and/or deny access to transparent processes and the courts. The Bills are commonly referred to as Bill 19, Bill 24, Bill 36, and Bill 50. The common theme to each of the Bills is that they concentrate power into the hands of Cabinet in Edmonton, limit rights to compensation, seek to remove the role of the courts, and diminish the adherence to the rule of law in Alberta.
The Bills give Cabinet members powers that they have never had before, in a way that is without precedent in western democracies. The Bills remove the rights of landowners to compensation when their land is taken or frozen and seek to limit the role of the courts in such matters.
MORE:
http://www.albertasurfacerights.org/articles/?id=982
===============
5. WATCH: How Safe Is Carbon Capture And Storage?
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/
Stories.aspx?pd=1953&FlashVars=Video/PTG_020211.flv
February 2, 2011
In Alberta some experts question if the technology is safe and worth the province's two billion dollar investment. Others insist CCS is reliable and Alberta's best option to cut emissions.
How safe is CCS? Is the technology proven? And who is liable if something goes wrong?
Joining us for this discussion is Don Macdonald, an Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Instructor at MacEwan University. He is also a former climate change policy advisor with Alberta Environment. Jim Carter chairs the Alberta Government's Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council following his time as President of Syncrude; and David Hughes, former Senior Geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada and one of six contributors to the book "Carbon Shift.”
================
6. Alberta budget delays carbon capture funds
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Alberta+budget+delays+carbon+capture+funds/4342386/story.html
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald February 25, 2011 6:52 AM
Cash for constructing the province's heavily promoted carbon capture and storage projects has been delayed once again in the new budget - however environmental monitoring for the oilsands has received a small bump.
Alberta Finance Minister Lloyd Snelgrove said Thursday that developing Alberta's energy resources in an environmentally responsible way is one of the government's five priorities for the upcoming year.
While the overall budget for Alberta's environment department will be cut by about three per cent, officials point to $17 million for enhanced monitoring, science and reporting - a 21 per cent increase for those items. This will aid in a planned revamp of oilsands monitoring later this year.
But capital funding for any of the four planned carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, which sequesters gas in underground geological formations, will amount to nothing in the current fiscal year. Funding is predicted to hit $70 million in 2011-12.
The Alberta government's July 2008 commitment to fund $2 billion in carbon capture projects is the cornerstone of its plan to reduce climate changing greenhouse gases. Although the province's total greenhouse gases are projected to grown until at least 2020, CCS is supposed to begin the job of cutting emissions within four years.
MORE:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Alberta+budget+delays+carbon+capture+funds/4342386/story.html
==================
7. Cross family concerned about proposed CO2 storage project
http://www.westernwheel.com/article/20110216/
WHE0801/302169963/0/whe
Foothills: U of C sets open house for March 15 at Priddis Community Hall
Feb 16, 2011 01:14 pm | By Bruce Campbell | Okotoks Western Wheel
A proposal for a carbon-capture monitoring project in the Priddis-Millarville area would have been against the wishes of a foothills philanthropist who gifted the proposed site to the University of Calgary.
Marshall Abbott, Sandy Cross’s stepson, said a proposal to use the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory site to pump 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the ground is not what Cross had in mind when he bequeathed the land to the university.
“Sandy’s main motivation was to move forward the efforts of the astronomy program at the U of C, not for industrial testing,” Abbott said. “That is where he would have the most trouble.”
He said his stepfather would be “rolling in his grave” if he knew of the university’s intentions.
In a presentation to the Foothills MD council last month University of Calgary (U of C) professor Dr. Don Lawton explained the proposal to put approximately 600 tonnes of CO2 wastewater about 700m underground at the Rothney site. That total is approximately the amount of wastewater produced by three average homes in a year.
Lawton said the CO2 capture site would not affect aquifers or residential water wells.
However, Abbott said there are other concerns.
“This provides a footprint and dangerous precedent,” Abbott said. “Once there is one kind of industrial usage, what’s going to stop that from being repeated with other research effort and ultimately industrial development?”
Cross donated a quarter-section (160 acres) to the university in 1971 and he was also a major contributor for the large telescope at the observatory.
MORE:
http://www.westernwheel.com/article/20110216/
WHE0801/302169963/0/whe
=================
8. Fracking Warnings Heard (sort of) by the Ontario Energy Board
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/index.php
February 25, 2011
The Ontario Energy Board recently released staff recommendations from a natural gas market consultation process the Council of Canadians participated in last fall. The report which informed the consultation process referred to hydraulic fracturing (otherwise known as fracking) as a ‘game changer,’ suggesting it could be an important source of future supply for Ontario’s market.
Given the significant environmental and social costs of fracking (see our fact sheet here), we decided to intervene and ring some warning bells for the Board. We worked with fracking expert Lisa Sumi of Earthworks on a written submission to the Board. Lisa also joined Council of Canadians board member and trade and public interest lawyer Steven Shrybman and me at the OEB consultation to present her findings.
Given the focus of the consultation, Lisa’s presentation honed in on the following “key uncertainty” that was not fully considered by the report prepared for the board:
Concerns have been raised about the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to produce shale gas. If regulation of hydraulic fracturing becomes more stringent, this could slow the growth of shale gas production.
Lisa raised compelling examples of the environmental and social impacts of fracking and the responding legislation moving forward in U.S. states, as clear reason to question unconventional natural gas as a source of future supply in Ontario.
You can read my blog about her presentation here
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/?p=320
and the report we submitted to the board here:
http://canadians.org/energy/documents/fracking/
report-fracturing-1010.pdf
================
9. Comox Valley chapter opposes fracking
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6539
February 23, 2011
The Comox Valley Echo reports that, "The Council of Canadians Comox Valley Chapter invites the public to a meeting to learn about 'fracking', a word coined to refer to hydraulic fracturing, a relatively new technology being used to extract natural gas by deep well drilling. ...Gwyn Frayne, CoC member, said 'This fracking term is new to many of us, but, because of the devastating effects on our environment, we need to learn about it. The CoC for years has been pressuring the federal government to declare water a human right and not a commodity. Using tons of water for fracking is absolutely wrong.'"
"Linda Safford, representing Comox Valley Water Watch, explains that 'Fracking fluid requires 3 million gallons of water per well, and 80,000 pounds of chemicals are injected into the earth's crust to frack each well. Upwards of 70% of the fracking fluids remain in the ground and is not biodegradable.'"
The article adds, "It is being practised extensively in the southwestern US; the technology is also being employed in Quebec and in northeastern BC." As noted in a campaign blog last October, major fracking activity is planned for the Horn River Formation, which is in north-eastern British Columbia extending to Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. The Tyee.ca reports, “The Horn River play is being heavily developed in concert with incentive programs offered by the province, and with more than 600 trillion cubic feet of gas in place, is considered one of the top gas reserves in North America.” Corporations in the Horn River Basin include Encana, Apache, EOG, Stone Mountain Resources, Exxon, Quicksilver Resources, Nexen and Devon Energy. Six areas in BC also hold coalbed methane natural gas potential: Peace country in the north east, Elk Valley in the southeast, Vancouver Island, the south central interior (around Merritt and Princeton), northwestern BC (around Telkwa and Iskut), and the Queen Charlotte Islands.
More at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4993 and
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4443.
Last September the Canadian Press reported that, “Briefing notes prepared last spring for Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis...warn the process of releasing natural gas from shale — called hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ — could draw heavily on freshwater resources and significantly increase Canada’s overall carbon-dioxide emissions. The documents also say projects in areas without infrastructure may require the construction of roads, drill pads and pipelines, which could create ‘extensive habitat fragmentation’ for wildlife.” In October the Canadian Press reported that, “(environment minister) Jim Prentice says environmental regulations are still a work in progress for Canada’s booming shale gas industry, even though drills have already pierced the ground. …Mr. Prentice says environmental policies are still being drawn up, even though shale gas production is already underway in Western Canada.” Four months later, there has been no additional news from the Harper government about these regulations.
"The film 'Gasland', produced by Josh Fox, will be shown on Thursday, February 24 at 7 P.M. at the BCGEU, 8th & Fitzgerald. Discussion will follow."
The Comox Valley Echo article is at
http://www.canada.com/What+fracking+wrong/
4328459/story.html.
You can read more about the Council of Canadians campaign against fracking at
http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/f ... index.html.
=================
10. Fracking takes a shellacking
http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Editorial/
2011-02-23/article-2274916/Fracking-takes-a-shellacking/1
Published on February 23, 2011 Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post
Ontario-based Petroworth Resources announced back in November that it was postponing plans to drill for oil in the Lake Ainslie area until sometime this spring or summer for various reasons.
The delay provided critics of the project with a six-month-or-so reprieve in which to get their message out and they’ve been taking advantage of it.
They’ve been writing letters to newspapers, passing out pamphlets at public gatherings such as farmers markets and screening the documentary movie "Gasland" (nominated for an Oscar, but criticized by some as junk science) made by Josh Fox, who, after being offered US$100,000 to have natural gas drilled for on his land, created the film, which portrays the fallout from the natural gas industry as an environmental nightmare.
The weeks since Petroworth announced its delay have also yielded up some bad press around the natural gas industry in North America, specifically with the process called slickwater hydraulic fracturing — commonly called fracking — in which large volumes of water and chemicals are forced under pressure down a well, breaking up the shale below, thus releasing natural gas.
In late January, an official with Quebec’s environment department said an uncontrolled gas leak at a shale gas well near St. Hyacinthe, Que. “could lead to contamination of underground water.”
Around the same time, Talisman Energy Inc. of Calgary suspended all its North American fracking operations for eight days following a “water-based fluid release” at a Pennsylvania well.
Potentially bad news for the residents involved, but more ammunition for the Inverness County Chapter of the Council of Canadians, which propelled Inverness County council on Feb. 14 to support a call for a provincewide ban on the industrial use of fracking.
Petroworth’s plan is to drill a 1,200-metre exploratory well on the western side of Lake Ainslie, but the company isn’t ruling out fracking in the future.
- - - - SNIP - - -
Michael Binnion, CEO of Calgary-based Questerre Energy Inc., recently criticized the debate about shale gas development in Quebec as circulating through social media sites.
“We (in industry) think it takes a four-year university degree and 20 years of experience to figure it out, and now we are dealing with people who think they can figure it out after 10 minutes on the Internet,” he said.
====================
11. Inverness chapter and Waycobah First Nationoppose fracking on Lake Ainslie watershed
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6470
February 18, 2011
The Halifax Chronticle Herald reports that, "PetroWorth has exploration and development rights (in) Inverness County, Cape Breton. (This) site is 154,994 hectares and lies within the Lake Ainslie watershed area, which feeds a number of other rivers including the historic Margaree River and its salmon spawning grounds." Lake Ainslie is the largest freshwater lake in Nova Scotia. "Local residents and members of the nearby Waycobah First Nation have expressed concerns (that fracking) will be used to extract the resource from the shale."
"The technology uses fluid, comprised mainly of water mixed with chemicals, sand and other materials, to put pressure on the rock so that it will fracture (and release shale gas). ...Protesters (say) the wastewater produced through the process is a potential environmental nightmare."
In the article, Daniel Gillis, a member of the Inverness chapter of the Council of Canadians, says, "We’ve been very concerned about the technology because in certain areas of the United States, there have been complaints about bad water and communities losing their groundwater .... We’re just strongly opposed to fracking. ... A lot of people just don’t want any drilling to take place at all because in the end it won’t be worth it. A few short-term jobs and who knows what problems will be left behind."
"Inverness County council was so impressed with a presentation earlier this week by those opposing the project (including the Council of Canadians chapter), it passed a resolution calling on the provincial government to ban fracking provincewide."
More on that at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6394.
"...(Inverness County) Warden Duart MacAulay (says) if 'there is a risk to a watershed area and this pristine area, would it be worth it?' (Nova Scotia) Natural Resources Minister Charlie Parker said he’s talked to MacAulay about council’s decision and his department will send information to council as requested. Parker said provincial decisions on fracking would come when applications are made."
Presently, "The provincial Environment Department is reviewing an application from PetroWorth to drill a conventional test well on the site. ....Although PetroWorth doesn’t plan on using fracking when it drills the test well, there is a possibility the technology could be used in the future. ...Provincial regulations would require the company to get provincial approval if it was going to be used."
Drilling is expected to begin in the spring.
Past campaign blogs on the threat of fracking in Inverness County are at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?s=lake+ainslie.
Today's news article is at
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1228620.html.
===================
12. Shale Gas Drilling Should Continue In Quebec Under New Regulatory Framework
http://www.energydigger.com/articles/2011-02-25/
shale-gas-drilling-should-continue-in-quebec-under-new-regulatory-framework.aspx
Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:00:00 CST
Daily Oil Bulletin
After heated debate over the past year about whether shale gas development should go ahead, Quebec Premier Jean Charest signaled this week that shale activity will continue in the province under a new regulatory framework.
[NOTE: Registration req'd to access the article]
================
13. Shale gas: The stance has changed significantly
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
Shale+stance+changed+significantly/4352843/story.html
Development; Report on industry about to be submitted
By MONIQUE BEAUDIN, The Gazette February 26, 2011
Angry protesters disrupted meetings organized by Quebec's Oil and Gas Association last fall.
- - - -SNIP - - -
Here's a look at what has happened with shale-gas development in Quebec since the BAPE began its work. (Emphasis Added. Ed.)
The sun was shining on St. Bruno on Aug. 29, when Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau and Environment Minister Pierre Arcand announced public hearings into shale gas development.
Heckled by placard-wielding protesters, the two ministers said they had asked the Bureau d'audiences publique sur l'environnement to come up with a framework for the "harmonious development" of the shale-gas industry, taking into account the industry, concerned citizens, the environment and other industries operating in the sector. Normandeau said Quebec would also sign an agreement with the industry in the fall, setting out best practices for it to follow, but that signing has been put off until after the BAPE report is submitted.
If the government had hoped to quell shale discontent, it was about to find out otherwise.
Within days, former BAPE commissioners said their colleagues hadn't been given enough time to review the issue, nor independent studies they could use to assess the industry.
Angry protesters disrupted public meetings organized by Quebec's Oil and Gas Association in September. Concerned for his safety, police had to escort André Caillé, the former Hydro-Québec CEO who was the public spokesperson for the shale-gas industry, from a meeting attended by more than 600 people in St. Hyacinthe. Caillé has since resigned, replaced by former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard.
More than 128,000 people signed an online petition calling on Premier Jean Charest to impose a moratorium on shale-gas development.
While wells have been drilled mainly in rural areas, even urban centres such as Montreal were drawn into the debate when Projet Montréal revealed that drilling rights to the entire island have already been granted. In the U.S., the cities of Buffalo and Pittsburgh have banned fracking or drilling, although the bans are largely symbolic since no drilling was planned for those areas.
Projet Montréal wasn't the only organization to take a closer look at shale gas over the past few months.
A study published by a British climate-change research centre last month concluded countries will be less likely to invest in renewable energy sources because of the abundance of shale gas deposits around the world.
An American study published in November predicted air quality around shale-gas drilling sites in Texas and Louisiana is likely to worsen by 2050.
And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it was revising the way it calculates emissions from natural-gas production, a move that could show shale and other natural gases to be only marginally less polluting than coal.
In Quebec, the provincial Institut national de la santé publique took a look at published research into shale gas drilling and its impact on air and water quality, as well as its social impact. The provincial agency concluded in a preliminary report published in November that too little research has been done to be able to say what risks come with the industry.
And then there were the leaks.
Questioned by the BAPE commissioners, the environment and natural resources ministries revealed that inspectors had found leaks at 19 out of 31 shale wells in Quebec. After months of publicly supporting the industry, the government's approach changed in mid-January.
In an about-face, Arcand said the industry was not in control of the situation, and announced increased well inspections.
mbeaudin@montrealgazette.com
SHALE GAS FACTS
What is it? Shale gas is a natural gas trapped inside shale rock.
Where is it? ? Quebec's main deposit is in the Utica shale south of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City. Thirty-one wells have been drilled so far.
How is it extracted? ?A well is drilled first vertically and then horizontally. Using a technique called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", sand and chemicals are mixed with thousands of litres of water and injected into the well at high pressure, creating small fissures that shatter the shale rock, allowing the gas to escape into the well.
Why is controversial? ?While the government says shale gas could bring in as much as $200 billion to Quebec and create new jobs, there are unanswered questions about the impact drilling will have on air and water quality, and whether replacing fossil fuels like petroleum with shale gas will reduce Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions.
=================
14. B. C. TAP WATER ALLIANCE
Caring for, Monitoring, and Protecting British Columbia’s Community Water Supply Sources
Email – info@bctwa.org
Website – www.bctwa.org
FRACKING in Quebec Information:
http://www.bctwa.org/Frk-Quebec.html
NEW REPORT: “Ants to the Picnic”:
Canaccord’s 2008 New Frontier Emphasis to Investors on the Development of Quebec’s Utica Shale Gas, and an account of what happened to the Larin Family in Saint Louis
http://www.bctwa.org/FrkQuebec-AntsToThePicnic.pdf
By Will Koop, February 23, 2011
Community relations: Québec does not have a history of large scale oil and gas extraction, and the mineral owners are not the surface owners; this could present some challenges. As we look at the more successful shale gas plays, we favour first movers. In general, these producers tend to pick up the best acreage for the least amount of money. As the play becomes more well known, competition for land and services intensifies, becoming more like “ants to the picnic” – a phrase coined by Newfield Exploration (NFX : NYSE).
MUCH MORE: FRACKING in BC Information:
http://www.bctwa.org/Fracking-BCInformation.html
=================
15. Statement on the Right to Water and Sanitation – World Council of Churches
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/
central-committee/geneva-2011/report-on-public-issues/statement-on-the-right-to-water-and-sanitation.html
A worldwide fellowship of 349 churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service - Document date: 22.02.2011
1. Water is life. The right to water is the right to life. Today, however, billions of people all over the world have no or insufficient access to clean water and safe sanitation. Conflicts over increasingly scarce water resources, not only between nations and competing economic sectors but also among and within communities, are already a reality. They can be expected to become more frequent and intense in the years to come. In this situation, those most affected and endangered are the poor and the marginalized, for whom the water crisis poses a dire threat to their health, livelihoods, and very existence. The indiscriminate use and abuse, exploitation and mismanagement of water resources are often aggravated or caused by the pursuit of a profit-oriented, capital growth-centred development paradigm. Discrimination and exclusion are root causes of impoverishment which includes the lack of access to safe water and sanitation that causes the death of two million people every year.
MORE:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/
central-committee/geneva-2011/report-on-public-issues/statement-on-the-right-to-water-and-sanitation.html
===================
FRACKING IN THE USA
16. Why Natural Gas Companies Fear Josh Fox, Gasland, and the Oscars
http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/
media-consortium-blog/2011/02/weekly-mulch-why-natural-gas-companies-fear-josh-fox-ga
By By Sarah Laskow Media Consortium Blogger
| February 26, 2011 by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
The natural gas industry is afraid that Josh Fox, director of the muckraking film Gasland, might win an Oscar on Sunday. Earlier this month, an organization called Energy in Depth, backed by the oil and gas industry, sent the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a letter in which it argued that Gasland, Fox’s exposé on the natural gas industry, should be removed from consideration for best documentary feature because it contained inaccurate information.
After dealing with the industry for the past couple of years, Fox is not surprised by this tactic. “What this points to is the culture of that industry, which is bullying, which is aggressive, which is outlandish in their tactics, which will stop at nothing,” he told AlterNet.
[ http://www.alternet.org/water/150002/
oscar-nominated_'gasland'_director_calls_latest_attack_on_his_film_'outlandish'_and_tells_why_the_industry_is_getting_desperate?page=1 ]
The film is still up for consideration, and the industry should be worried about the impact its nomination, let alone a victory, could have. Even if the film doesn’t win on Sunday, millions of viewers will see a clip of the film that documents the real threat of environmental devastation that comes along with natural gas drilling and, in particular, with hydrofracking.
Nothing natural about it
The Media Consortium’s Weekly Mulch has been tracking the fight over natural gas drilling. As noted back in September, Sandra Steingraber, in Orion Magazine, has called the rise of hydrofracking “the environmental issue of our time.” In a more recent dispatch for the magazine, Steingraber reports from an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on fracking, a technique for extracting otherwise hard-to-reach gas from the ground.
In upstate New York, where the hearing was held and where natural gas companies have been buying up drilling rights and properties for the past couple of years, residents are hugely concerned about this issue: four hundred people signed up to speak, for 120 seconds each, as Steingraber reports, over two days. One speaker in particular stuck
but to her, though: An older man rose to speak….And then he let ten seconds of silence fill the theater….After hours of ceaseless, rapid-fire speech, the sudden hush flowed through the overheated room like cool water. Someone giggled nervously. And then, finally, he spoke. That silence, he announced, represented the sounds of migratory birds. And tourists. And professors. And organic farmers. And thus with no words at all he reminded the audience of all the good members of our beloved community who would — if our land filled up with drill rigs, waste ponds, compressor stations, and diesel trucks — disappear, exit the cycle. As in, forever.
At Change.org, Austin Billings has another account of what natural gas drilling is putting at risk—the Bridger-Teton National Forest, miles of “spectacular hills and tall pine forests” that, Billings writes, “just kept going” as he drove through them. A company called Plains Exploration and Production Company is working to sink more than 130 natural gas wells in this area, Billings reports, a project that will strew the area with “pipelines, compressor stations, industrial water wells, truck staging areas, and other industrial features.”
MORE:
http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/
media-consortium-blog/2011/02/weekly-mulch-why-natural-gas-companies-fear-josh-fox-ga
=================
17. The New York Times Covers Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Wastewater/Hold Onto Your Hats
http://toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusSha ... /nyt-alert
The New York Times is about to cover the issue of Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing wastewater in unprecedented fashion.
The first story of a three-part series by Ian Urbina was just posted at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?ref=us.
The reporting will address many critical issues that were excluded from the scope of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement. It will release documents that you will find simply shocking. It should generate intense political driving force to revise the draft SGEIS "comprehensively" as required by Executive Order No. 41.
A 2008 drinking water crisis is documented that affected more than 850,000 residents along the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. When New York imposed its de facto Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing moratorium, many firms went to drill in Pennsylvania. Municipal treatment plants were accepting up to 40% of their influent as natural gas drilling wastewater even though they were not equipped to handle that type of waste. So much Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) pollution was discharged in the Monongahela River that the water became unpotable. A 70-mile stretch of the river was impacted.
In the coming days, Toxics Targeting will post documents related to this incident as well as key regulatory decisions related to the fatally flawed draft SGEIS.
You can view a video of me explaining some of these issues at:
http://toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusSha ... /nyt-alert
===================
18. Drilling Down - Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers / Visuals
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?ref=us
By IAN URBINA Published: February 26, 2011
QUOTE: “The Times also found never-reported studies by the E.P.A. and a confidential study by the drilling industry that all concluded that radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways.”
The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this century’s gold rush — for natural gas.
The gas has always been there, of course, trapped deep underground in countless tiny bubbles, like frozen spills of seltzer water between thin layers of shale rock. But drilling companies have only in recent years developed techniques to unlock the enormous reserves, thought to be enough to supply the country with gas for heating buildings, generating electricity and powering vehicles for up to a hundred years.
So energy companies are clamoring to drill. And they are getting rare support from their usual sparring partners. Environmentalists say using natural gas will help slow climate change because it burns more cleanly than coal and oil. Lawmakers hail the gas as a source of jobs. They also see it as a way to wean the United States from its dependency on other countries for oil.
But the relatively new drilling method — known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking — carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting huge amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressures to break up rock formations and release the gas.
With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.
While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.
- - - SNIP - - -
And prospects for drillers in Pennsylvania are looking brighter.
In December, the Republican governor-elect, Tom Corbett, who during his campaign took more gas industry contributions than all his competitors combined, said he would reopen state land to new drilling, reversing a decision made by his predecessor, Edward G. Rendell. The change clears the way for as many as 10,000 wells on public land, up from about 25 active wells today.
In arguing against a proposed gas-extraction tax on the industry, Mr. Corbett said regulation of the industry had been too aggressive.
“I will direct the Department of Environmental Protection to serve as a partner with Pennsylvania businesses, communities and local governments,” Mr. Corbett says on his Web site. “It should return to its core mission protecting the environment based on sound science.”
=================
19. Radioactive Natural Gas Fracking Could Create New Era of "Love Canals"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 26, 2011
Contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder, Rep. Ed Markey, 202-225-6065 ofc
202-494-4486 cell; Giselle Barry, Rep. Ed Markey, 202-225-2836 ofc
202-510-3240 cell
Following Reports in The New York Times on Potential Fracking Dangers,
Markey Queries EPA on Safety, Monitoring of Technology
WASHINGTON (February 26, 2011) - Responding to an investigative article published today by The New York Times on the high incidence of radioactive materials and other contaminants in the wastes produced from natural gas extraction, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, immediately questioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its oversight of these
extractive practices.
The Times article shows that the radioactively contaminated wastewater derived from the so-called "fracking" process to produce natural gas from shale rock and other formations is being sent to sewage plants that do not have the capacity to remove radioactive radium or other materials, and these hazardous waste materials are then dumped into rivers and streams where they enter our drinking water supplies. Exposure to highly radioactive radium, one of the materials discussed in the Times report, can lead to cancer and other harmful health effects.
"I do not believe that the price for energy extracted from deep beneath the earth's surface should include a risk to the health of those who live above it," wrote Rep. Markey to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "These discharges are also occurring with at least some
knowledge of the risks on the part of federal and state regulators and despite the clear dangers to public health and safety."
The letter can be found HERE:
http://markey.house.gov/docs/
epa_fracking_nyt_letter_02.26.11_.pdf
================
20. Fracking may violate Safe Drinking Water Act, report says
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/
video-fracking-may-violate-safe-drinking-water-act-report-says/7499/
February 18, 2011
We present an updated Watch List investigation into the controversial practice known as fracking — a process that energy companies use to force natural gas out of underground rock formations.
Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process that uses a mix of water and chemicals. Energy companies say the process is safe, but a new report prepared for a congressional committee charges that fracking may violate the Safe Drinking Water Act because of the use of diesel — millions of gallons of it — injected into fracking wells in 19 states.
We initially reported this story last summer with our colleagues at ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative journalism group. Correspondent John Larson gives us an update.
NRDC Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks Report:
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/files/tarsan ... yrisks.pdf
====================
21. Documents: Natural Gas's Toxic Waste
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/
natural-gas-documents-1-intro.html?ref=us
Over the past nine months, The Times reviewed more than 30,000 pages of documents obtained through open records requests of state and federal agencies and by visiting various regional offices that oversee drilling in Pennsylvania. Some of the documents were leaked by state or federal officials.
Here, the most significant documents are made available with annotations from The Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/
natural-gas-documents-1-intro.html?ref=us
================
22. VIDEO: Bradford County Home Loses 85% of Value
http://srs444.blogspot.com/2011/02/
bradford-county-home-loses-85-of-value.html
February 24, 2011
Folks, as you know from this post a few days ago, I was on Paradise Road in Bradford County this past weekend. Chesapeake's closest natural gas well is just a few hundred yards away from the home in the video below.
Scroll Down to video
Caution: This video may cause fits of blind rage.
http://srs444.blogspot.com/2011/02/
bradford-county-home-loses-85-of-value.html
If it doesn't, check to see if you have a pulse.
Of course, Chesapeake contends: "We are not responsible."
What do you think? What are you going to do?
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. - Thomas Jefferson
===================
23. Buried Secrets - Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
http://www.propublica.org/series/
buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
The promise of abundant natural gas is colliding with fears about water contamination. Numerous articles on Fracking on this website.
- - - - -
Climate Benefits of Natural Gas May Be Overstated
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-and-coal-pollution-gap-in-doubt
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - Jan. 25, 2011
by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Jan. 25, 2011, 8:34 a.m.
10:36 a.m.: This post has been corrected [1].
The United States is poised to bet its energy future on natural gas as a clean, plentiful fuel that can supplant coal and oil. But new research by the Environmental Protection Agency—and a growing understanding of the pollution associated with the full “life cycle” of gas production—is casting doubt on the assumption that gas offers a quick and easy solution to climate change.
Advocates for natural gas routinely assert that it produces 50 percent less greenhouse gases than coal and is a significant step toward a greener energy future. But those assumptions are based on emissions from the tailpipe or smokestack and don’t account for the methane and other pollution emitted when gas is extracted and piped to power plants and other customers.
New emissions estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency cast doubt on the assumption that gas offers a quick and easy solution to climate change.
MORE:
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-and-coal-pollution-gap-in-doubt
===============
24. Panel rules against homeowner who said fracking fouled well
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_17456764
Man loses drilling case
By Mark Jaffe The Denver Post Posted: 02/23/2011 01:00:00 AM MST
The controversial oil-industry technique known as fracking went on trial at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Tuesday — and fracking won.
Tracy Dahl, who owns a home in the North Fork Ranch subdivision in Las Animas County, was seeking a judgment from the commission against Pioneer Natural Resources for fouling his well. Dahl's case centered on the fact that his well filled with sediment last June 30 — the same day Pioneer fracked its Alibi well about 1,300 feet away.
Hydraulic fracturing, a 60-year-old production technique, has come under increasing scrutiny as it has been combined with new drilling methods that are opening new areas to oil and gas development.
Fracking forces a fluid — mainly water with sand and propellants — under pressure into a well to crack the rock and release extra oil and gas. About 95 percent of the wells in Colorado are fracked.
Dahl told the commission he had pumped gallons and gallons of water out of the well and still the water was silted. Tests have found traces of diesel and solvents. "The aquifer has been seriously impacted," Dahl told the commission as he sat before three jars of murky water.
Dahl's arguments, however, were rebutted by commission staff and Pioneer.
MORE:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_17456764
===============
25. Hydrofracked?
http://www.propublica.org/article/
hydrofracked-one-mans-mystery-leads-to-a-backlash-against-natural-gas-drill/single
One Man’s Mystery Leads to a Backlash Against Natural Gas Drilling
Louis Meeks’ well water contains methane gas, hydrocarbons, lead and copper, according to the EPA’s test results. When he drilled a new water well, it also showed contaminants. The drilling company EnCana is supplying Meeks with drinking water. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)
by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Feb. 25, 2011, 6 a.m.
This story was published as part of Amazon's Kindle Singles program, and is available for reading [1] on that device. ProPublica's first Kindle Single,"Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks: The Untold Story," is also available [2].
QUOTE: “Before Meeks retired he learned a thing or two about drilling. He knew that cementing a well was crucial to holding in the gas and contaminants and that sometimes — more often than people liked to say — it failed.”
There are few things a family needs to survive more than fresh drinking water. And Louis Meeks, a burly, jowled Vietnam War hero who had long ago planted his roots on these sparse eastern Wyoming grasslands, was drilling a new well in search of it.
The drill bit spun, whining against the alluvial mud and rock that folds beneath the Wind River Range foothills. It ploughed to 160 feet, but the water that spurted to the surface smelled foul, like a parking lot puddle drenched in motor oil. It was no better — yet — than the water Meeks needed to replace.
Meeks used to have abundant water on his small alfalfa ranch, a 40-acre plot speckled with apple and plum trees northeast of the Wind River Mountains and about five miles outside the town of Pavillion. For 35 years he drew it clear and sweet from a well just steps from the front door of the plain, eight-room ranch house that he owns with his wife, Donna. Neighbors would stop off the rural dirt road on their way to or from work in the gas fields to fill plastic jugs; the water was better than at their own homes.
But in the spring of 2005, Meeks’ water had turned fetid. His tap ran cloudy, and the water shimmered with rainbow swirls across a filmy top. The scent was sharp, like gasoline. And after 20 minutes — scarcely longer than you’d need to fill a bathtub — the pipes shuttered and popped and ran dry.
Meeks suspected that environmental factors were to blame.
MORE:
http://www.propublica.org/article/
hydrofracked-one-mans-mystery-leads-to-a-backlash-against-natural-gas-drill/single
================
26. 'Fracking' threatens Western Australia water resources
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/special-features/
fracking-threatens-wa-water-resources/story-e6frg19l-1226010221897
Narelle Towie From: PerthNow February 22, 2011 1:55PM
WATCH: Contaminating Chemicals
http://video.news.com.au/1638318154/
Contaminating-Chemicals
GROUNDWATER resources in the South-West, Mid-West and Kimberley are at risk of being polluted with a cocktails of chemicals from coal seam gas proponents keen to develop an industry here, the WA Greens have warned
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to fracture rock and release coal seam gas.
Mining companies, such as Western Gas and Power, have been granted exploration licences for Wellington Dam near Bunbury, Kaloorup Road near Busselton and Vasse, the Irwin River in the Mid-West and the Canning Basin in the Kimberley Greens spokesperson Alison Xamon MLC said she is extremely alarmed at what it would mean for our groundwater if this industry ever went ahead.
“Effectively, you are causing mini-earthquakes in order to open up pathways for fluids or gases to flow. There is a real risk, therefore, that not only do you contaminate the site that you have drilled but also, potentially, the surrounding groundwater as the fracking fluids flow through fissures into other areas,” Ms Xamon said.
“We have already seen bores contaminated with lethal hydrocarbons last year at the Cougar coal seam gas plant in Queensland.”
The Conservation Council of WA is calling for the state to be declared a CSG-free zone after disastrous impacts "fracking'' is having onw ater tables and communities in Queensland and New South Wales.
MORE:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/special-features/
fracking-threatens-wa-water-resources/story-e6frg19l-1226010221897
===================
27. Schlumberger COO: Current Shale Methods Won't Work Overseas
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/
stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201102231021dowjonesdjonline000356&title=schlumberger-coocurrent-shale-methods-wont-work-overseas
By Ryan Dezember, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES February 25, 2011
HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) Chief Operating Officer Paal Kibsgaard said Wednesday that refinements must be made in shale drilling before the underground oil-and-gas-filled rocks can be exploited beyond North America.
"We are convinced that the brute force approach established in North America will not be practical overseas, either from a financial or an operational standpoint," Kibsgaard, who is widely believed to be in line to become the next chief executive officer of the world's largest oilfield services company, said in a webcast of a speech made during the company's two-day analyst meeting at Schlumberger's Cambridge, Mass., research facility.
Schlumberger is among the companies that have helped develop North American shale exploration, which involves complex techniques like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. On Tuesday, Petrohawk Energy Corp. (HK) said that Schlumberger's new hydraulic fracturing technology, called HiWAY, boosted output from its Eagle Ford shale wells in south Texas by as much as 37% and lifted estimated ultimate recovery as much as 90% in some reservoirs.
Energy companies are now aiming to export the techniques they're using to produce vast amounts of natural gas and oil from North America to international markets. Producers have identified and are studying energy-bearing shale formations in countries including Poland, Argentina, China and France.
MORE:
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/
stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201102231021dowjonesdjonline000356&title=schlumberger-coocurrent-shale-methods-wont-work-overseas
==================
28. EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING OF PETROLEUM BEARING FORMATIONS
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3630281.html
United States Patent 3630281
www.Patent.InventionHome.com
This is a method for increasing the permeability of an underground formation adjacent a well bore by explosive fracturing. In one embodiment an explosive slurry, having selected fracturing fluid characteristics, is used to hydraulically fracture the formation and such explosive slurry is subsequently detonated. In another embodiment a sorbent solvent slug is injected down the tubing preceding the injection of the explosive slurry and a second such sorbent solvent immediately follows the explosive slurry. This avoids trapping of air or other gas and therefore prevents premature ignition or detonation of the explosive fracturing fluid.
= = = = = = =
In Fracture Explosive Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid and Its Rhelogical Study
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servlet/
onepetropreview?id=SPE-103807-MS&soc=SPE
DOI: 10.2118/103807-MS
Authors: Mingyue Cui and Wenwen Shan, RIPED, PetroChina; Liang Jin, Shell Intl. E&P; Yansheng Ding, Inst. of Mechanics, China Academy of Sciences; Yunhong Ding, RIPED, PetroChina; Li Chen, Inst. of Mechanics, China Academy of Sciences; and Ping Liu and Zhihe Xu, RIPED, PetroChina
Source: International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition in China, 5-7 December 2006, Beijing, China
Abstract
Low permeability reservoirs take a large portion of the newly discovered hydrocarbon reservoirs. Stimulating low and ultra low permeability reservoirs faces more technical challenges.
Unlike other stimulation techniques such as “well shooting”, “nuclear explosion”, and “high energy fracturing”, the concept of in fracture explosion (IFE) is to create a fracture hydraulically, convey solid explosives deep into the fracture and place them in the fracture. Then ignite the explosives in the fracture to generate crushed zones or shear fractures near the main fracture while keeping the well bore intact. In such a way, the well productivity is increased. For complex tight gas reservoirs, especially those that tend to develop multi fractures and shear fractures by conventional hydraulic fracturing making the placement of proppant difficult, this technology has irreplaceable advantage.
Fracturing fluid for in fracture explosion has two functions – to carry solid explosives while create hydraulic fractures, and to propagate ignition. This study has found such a fluid system that can meet both general requirements for hydraulic fracturing fluid and the realization of lighting, transmit fire, ignition, and propagate explosion under simulated reservoir conditions.
The fluid system was tested successfully in a narrow fracture simulator. Expected explosion realized in this simulation. The simulated fracture has a length of 2300 mm with variable width of 0-50 mm. The process of squeezing, igniting, and explosion of 300g TNT equivalent was tested.
This fluid system has the following properties:
Rheology at reservoir temperature can be adjusted according specific requirement. Viscosity ranges from 10 to 50 mPa.s. Wall building leak off coefficient is 3.6x10-4 m/min0.5 and spurt loss is 0.25 ml/cm2. Combined with a regular fracturing fluid as a lead (pad), such properties allow the fluid to satisfy the requirements of generating deep fractures and transport/place explosives in the fractures.
This paper will provide details of the study and discuss the potential applications for tight gas reservoir stimulation.
MORE:
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servlet/
onepetropreview?id=SPE-103807-MS&soc=SPE
= = = = = = = =
FRACTURING TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING CMM/CBM PRODUCTION
http://www.epa.gov/cmop/docs/fra-technologies.pdf
This report was prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by Advanced Resources International under Contract 68-W-00-094.
1.0 Introduction
While the majority of today’s CMM/CBM production is produced by oil and gas companies, many of the techniques presently used in the CBM industry originated in the coal mining industry in the early to mid-1970's. During this time, the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) was seeking to develop methods for reducing the levels of methane in the mine workings of deep (500-700 meters), longwall mines in Alabama and Virginia. The primary goal of this research was to improve mine safety.
MORE:
http://www.epa.gov/cmop/docs/fra-technologies.pdf
1. VIDEO: Illustration of how a gas well is drilled and frac’ed.
2. Bobby's New Word
3. Natural Gas Industry Rhetoric Versus Reality
4. Keith Wilson, New Alberta Policy Chair at CAEPLA
5. WATCH: How Safe is Carbon Capture and Storage?
6. Alberta budget delays carbon capture funds
7. Cross family concerned about proposed CO2 storage project
8. Fracking Warnings Heard (sort of) by the Ontario Energy Board
9. Comox Valley chapter opposes fracking
10. Fracking takes a shellacking
11. Inverness chapter and Waycobah First Nationoppose fracking on Lake Ainslie watershed
12. Shale Gas Drilling Should Continue In Quebec Under New Regulatory Framework
13. Shale gas: The stance has changed significantly
14. B. C. TAP WATER ALLIANCE
15. Statement on the Right to Water and Sanitation – World Council of Churches
16. Why Natural Gas Companies Fear Josh Fox, Gasland, and the Oscars
17. The New York Times Covers Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Wastewater/Hold Onto Your Hats
18. Drilling Down - Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers / Visuals
19. Radioactive Natural Gas Fracking Could Create New Era of "Love Canals"
20. Fracking may violate Safe Drinking Water Act, report says
21. Documents: Natural Gas's Toxic Waste
22. VIDEO: Bradford County Home Loses 85% of Value
23. Buried Secrets - Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
24. Panel rules against homeowner who said fracking fouled well
25. Hydrofracked?
26. 'Fracking' threatens WA water resources
27. Schlumberger COO: Current Shale Methods Won't Work Overseas
28. Something new has been added it seems: EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING OF PETROLEUM BEARING FORMATIONS (3 articles)
================
1. VIDEO: Illustration of how a gas well is drilled and frac’ed.http://www.northernoil.com/drilling.php
================
2. Bobby's New Word
http://themeanneighbourkidblog.blogspot.com/
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Bobby's got a new word, fracking. My mom says not to say that word. But Bobby uses it all the time these days. Says it's not the same as another word kinda like it. But fracking is going to keep him warm in the winter. And Bobby says that my dad and me better let him come and frack here at my house. Says that if we don't that he can just go ahead and frack us from his own property...don't take our permission. Can he really do that? Some how I think that we been fracked already. Heck, Bobby says that he fracks anywhere and anyone he wants...even his own aunts and uncles. I think that that's called incest...but Bobby says that's not incest...it's just good business.
=================
3. Natural Gas Industry Rhetoric Versus Reality
http://www.desmogblog.com/
natural-gas-industry-rhetoric-versus-reality
25 February 2011 Brendan DeMelle
As the recent natural gas industry attacks on the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland demonstrate, the gas industry is mounting a powerful PR assault against journalists, academics and anyone else who speaks out against the dangers of hydraulic fracturing and other threats to public health and the environment from shale gas development. DeSmogBlog has analyzed some of the common talking points the industry and gas proponents use to try to convince the public and lawmakers that fracking is safe despite real concerns raised by residents living near gas drilling sites, whose experiences reveal a much more controversial situation.
DeSmogBlog extensively reviewed government, academic, industry and public health reports and interviewed the leading hydraulic fracturing experts who challenge the industry claims that hydraulic fracturing does not contaminate drinking water, that the industrial fracking fluids pose no human health risk, that states adequately regulate the industry and that natural gas has a lighter carbon footprint than other fossil fuels like oil and coal.
Below are ten of the most commonly repeated claims by the industry about the 'safety' of hydraulic fracturing and unconventional natural gas development, along with extensive evidence showing their claims are pure rhetoric, and not reality.
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
natural-gas-industry-rhetoric-versus-reality
====================
4. Keith Wilson, New Alberta Policy Chair at CAEPLA
http://www.albertasurfacerights.org/articles/?id=982
PRESS RELEASE
Policy Centre Mailing: #363-918 16th Ave. NW, Calgary, Alberta T2M 0K3 | PolicyCentre@caepla.org
Administration Mailing: #257-918 Albert Street, Regina, Sask. S4R 2P7 | Phone: 306.522.5000 | Admin@caepla.org
Ontario Region: Ontario@caepla.org |
www.landownerassociation.ca
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 24, 2011
Alberta Landowners Anticipate Long Struggle with the Alberta Government Land Bills 19, 36, 50, and 24 Take Away Landowner Rights Edmonton, Alberta:
Edmonton area lawyer Keith Wilson, who has been the keynote speaker at capacity-crowd, locally-organized landowner meetings across the province, says he has accepted a position with a major national landowner organization in order to better position Alberta landowners in their defense of property rights in the province. "The Alberta Government’s land bills—known as Bills 19, 24, 36, and 50—are without precedent in Canada, or even in the free societies of our western democracies," Wilson said. "The overall impact of the bills is to usurp the role of the courts, deprive landowners of due process of law, and deny landowners access to fair compensation when a property owner’s holdings are taken away." "I regret to say there is every indication that Alberta landowners seem to be in for a long and protracted struggle with this government on the issues of property rights, fairness and restoring the rule of law in Alberta," Wilson added. "As a result, I have accepted the position of Alberta Policy Chair with CAEPLA, which is a major national landowner association that can better marshal resources and help position landowners." "The Canadian Association of Energy and Pipeline Landowner Associations (CAEPLA—pronounced Kay-Pluh) has been taking a pro-active and constructive approach to working with government and the energy industry. Given my experience and legal training in these areas I am eager to take on the challenges of being the organization’s new Alberta Policy Chair and speaking on behalf of the organization in Alberta." In the past two years, CAEPLA has sponsored radio ads, TV advertising, billboards, and landowner talk radio programs. Its weekly landowner talk radio program in Alberta, CAEPLA CONNECTIONS, can be heard every Saturday morning on AM 1140. Mostly in western Canada, in the past two years CAEPLA has printed and distributed half a million pieces of literature (full colour magazines) about landowner rights and property rights issues. - 30 - For More Information: Keith Wilson—CAEPLA, Alberta Policy Chair— (780) 418-7226 / (780) 991-5050 Kevin Avram—CAEPLA, National Coordinator—(403)-612-7426 (Calgary)
BACKGROUNDER ON ALBERTA LAND BILLS
The term "Alberta Land Bills" refers to the four Alberta Land Bills passed into law by the current Alberta government. Each Bill is designed, in some fashion, to extinguish property rights and/or deny access to transparent processes and the courts. The Bills are commonly referred to as Bill 19, Bill 24, Bill 36, and Bill 50. The common theme to each of the Bills is that they concentrate power into the hands of Cabinet in Edmonton, limit rights to compensation, seek to remove the role of the courts, and diminish the adherence to the rule of law in Alberta.
The Bills give Cabinet members powers that they have never had before, in a way that is without precedent in western democracies. The Bills remove the rights of landowners to compensation when their land is taken or frozen and seek to limit the role of the courts in such matters.
MORE:
http://www.albertasurfacerights.org/articles/?id=982
===============
5. WATCH: How Safe Is Carbon Capture And Storage?
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/
Stories.aspx?pd=1953&FlashVars=Video/PTG_020211.flv
February 2, 2011
In Alberta some experts question if the technology is safe and worth the province's two billion dollar investment. Others insist CCS is reliable and Alberta's best option to cut emissions.
How safe is CCS? Is the technology proven? And who is liable if something goes wrong?
Joining us for this discussion is Don Macdonald, an Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Instructor at MacEwan University. He is also a former climate change policy advisor with Alberta Environment. Jim Carter chairs the Alberta Government's Carbon Capture and Storage Development Council following his time as President of Syncrude; and David Hughes, former Senior Geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada and one of six contributors to the book "Carbon Shift.”
================
6. Alberta budget delays carbon capture funds
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Alberta+budget+delays+carbon+capture+funds/4342386/story.html
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald February 25, 2011 6:52 AM
Cash for constructing the province's heavily promoted carbon capture and storage projects has been delayed once again in the new budget - however environmental monitoring for the oilsands has received a small bump.
Alberta Finance Minister Lloyd Snelgrove said Thursday that developing Alberta's energy resources in an environmentally responsible way is one of the government's five priorities for the upcoming year.
While the overall budget for Alberta's environment department will be cut by about three per cent, officials point to $17 million for enhanced monitoring, science and reporting - a 21 per cent increase for those items. This will aid in a planned revamp of oilsands monitoring later this year.
But capital funding for any of the four planned carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, which sequesters gas in underground geological formations, will amount to nothing in the current fiscal year. Funding is predicted to hit $70 million in 2011-12.
The Alberta government's July 2008 commitment to fund $2 billion in carbon capture projects is the cornerstone of its plan to reduce climate changing greenhouse gases. Although the province's total greenhouse gases are projected to grown until at least 2020, CCS is supposed to begin the job of cutting emissions within four years.
MORE:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Alberta+budget+delays+carbon+capture+funds/4342386/story.html
==================
7. Cross family concerned about proposed CO2 storage project
http://www.westernwheel.com/article/20110216/
WHE0801/302169963/0/whe
Foothills: U of C sets open house for March 15 at Priddis Community Hall
Feb 16, 2011 01:14 pm | By Bruce Campbell | Okotoks Western Wheel
A proposal for a carbon-capture monitoring project in the Priddis-Millarville area would have been against the wishes of a foothills philanthropist who gifted the proposed site to the University of Calgary.
Marshall Abbott, Sandy Cross’s stepson, said a proposal to use the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory site to pump 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the ground is not what Cross had in mind when he bequeathed the land to the university.
“Sandy’s main motivation was to move forward the efforts of the astronomy program at the U of C, not for industrial testing,” Abbott said. “That is where he would have the most trouble.”
He said his stepfather would be “rolling in his grave” if he knew of the university’s intentions.
In a presentation to the Foothills MD council last month University of Calgary (U of C) professor Dr. Don Lawton explained the proposal to put approximately 600 tonnes of CO2 wastewater about 700m underground at the Rothney site. That total is approximately the amount of wastewater produced by three average homes in a year.
Lawton said the CO2 capture site would not affect aquifers or residential water wells.
However, Abbott said there are other concerns.
“This provides a footprint and dangerous precedent,” Abbott said. “Once there is one kind of industrial usage, what’s going to stop that from being repeated with other research effort and ultimately industrial development?”
Cross donated a quarter-section (160 acres) to the university in 1971 and he was also a major contributor for the large telescope at the observatory.
MORE:
http://www.westernwheel.com/article/20110216/
WHE0801/302169963/0/whe
=================
8. Fracking Warnings Heard (sort of) by the Ontario Energy Board
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/index.php
February 25, 2011
The Ontario Energy Board recently released staff recommendations from a natural gas market consultation process the Council of Canadians participated in last fall. The report which informed the consultation process referred to hydraulic fracturing (otherwise known as fracking) as a ‘game changer,’ suggesting it could be an important source of future supply for Ontario’s market.
Given the significant environmental and social costs of fracking (see our fact sheet here), we decided to intervene and ring some warning bells for the Board. We worked with fracking expert Lisa Sumi of Earthworks on a written submission to the Board. Lisa also joined Council of Canadians board member and trade and public interest lawyer Steven Shrybman and me at the OEB consultation to present her findings.
Given the focus of the consultation, Lisa’s presentation honed in on the following “key uncertainty” that was not fully considered by the report prepared for the board:
Concerns have been raised about the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to produce shale gas. If regulation of hydraulic fracturing becomes more stringent, this could slow the growth of shale gas production.
Lisa raised compelling examples of the environmental and social impacts of fracking and the responding legislation moving forward in U.S. states, as clear reason to question unconventional natural gas as a source of future supply in Ontario.
You can read my blog about her presentation here
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/?p=320
and the report we submitted to the board here:
http://canadians.org/energy/documents/fracking/
report-fracturing-1010.pdf
================
9. Comox Valley chapter opposes fracking
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6539
February 23, 2011
The Comox Valley Echo reports that, "The Council of Canadians Comox Valley Chapter invites the public to a meeting to learn about 'fracking', a word coined to refer to hydraulic fracturing, a relatively new technology being used to extract natural gas by deep well drilling. ...Gwyn Frayne, CoC member, said 'This fracking term is new to many of us, but, because of the devastating effects on our environment, we need to learn about it. The CoC for years has been pressuring the federal government to declare water a human right and not a commodity. Using tons of water for fracking is absolutely wrong.'"
"Linda Safford, representing Comox Valley Water Watch, explains that 'Fracking fluid requires 3 million gallons of water per well, and 80,000 pounds of chemicals are injected into the earth's crust to frack each well. Upwards of 70% of the fracking fluids remain in the ground and is not biodegradable.'"
The article adds, "It is being practised extensively in the southwestern US; the technology is also being employed in Quebec and in northeastern BC." As noted in a campaign blog last October, major fracking activity is planned for the Horn River Formation, which is in north-eastern British Columbia extending to Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. The Tyee.ca reports, “The Horn River play is being heavily developed in concert with incentive programs offered by the province, and with more than 600 trillion cubic feet of gas in place, is considered one of the top gas reserves in North America.” Corporations in the Horn River Basin include Encana, Apache, EOG, Stone Mountain Resources, Exxon, Quicksilver Resources, Nexen and Devon Energy. Six areas in BC also hold coalbed methane natural gas potential: Peace country in the north east, Elk Valley in the southeast, Vancouver Island, the south central interior (around Merritt and Princeton), northwestern BC (around Telkwa and Iskut), and the Queen Charlotte Islands.
More at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4993 and
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4443.
Last September the Canadian Press reported that, “Briefing notes prepared last spring for Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis...warn the process of releasing natural gas from shale — called hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ — could draw heavily on freshwater resources and significantly increase Canada’s overall carbon-dioxide emissions. The documents also say projects in areas without infrastructure may require the construction of roads, drill pads and pipelines, which could create ‘extensive habitat fragmentation’ for wildlife.” In October the Canadian Press reported that, “(environment minister) Jim Prentice says environmental regulations are still a work in progress for Canada’s booming shale gas industry, even though drills have already pierced the ground. …Mr. Prentice says environmental policies are still being drawn up, even though shale gas production is already underway in Western Canada.” Four months later, there has been no additional news from the Harper government about these regulations.
"The film 'Gasland', produced by Josh Fox, will be shown on Thursday, February 24 at 7 P.M. at the BCGEU, 8th & Fitzgerald. Discussion will follow."
The Comox Valley Echo article is at
http://www.canada.com/What+fracking+wrong/
4328459/story.html.
You can read more about the Council of Canadians campaign against fracking at
http://www.canadians.org/water/issues/f ... index.html.
=================
10. Fracking takes a shellacking
http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Editorial/
2011-02-23/article-2274916/Fracking-takes-a-shellacking/1
Published on February 23, 2011 Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post
Ontario-based Petroworth Resources announced back in November that it was postponing plans to drill for oil in the Lake Ainslie area until sometime this spring or summer for various reasons.
The delay provided critics of the project with a six-month-or-so reprieve in which to get their message out and they’ve been taking advantage of it.
They’ve been writing letters to newspapers, passing out pamphlets at public gatherings such as farmers markets and screening the documentary movie "Gasland" (nominated for an Oscar, but criticized by some as junk science) made by Josh Fox, who, after being offered US$100,000 to have natural gas drilled for on his land, created the film, which portrays the fallout from the natural gas industry as an environmental nightmare.
The weeks since Petroworth announced its delay have also yielded up some bad press around the natural gas industry in North America, specifically with the process called slickwater hydraulic fracturing — commonly called fracking — in which large volumes of water and chemicals are forced under pressure down a well, breaking up the shale below, thus releasing natural gas.
In late January, an official with Quebec’s environment department said an uncontrolled gas leak at a shale gas well near St. Hyacinthe, Que. “could lead to contamination of underground water.”
Around the same time, Talisman Energy Inc. of Calgary suspended all its North American fracking operations for eight days following a “water-based fluid release” at a Pennsylvania well.
Potentially bad news for the residents involved, but more ammunition for the Inverness County Chapter of the Council of Canadians, which propelled Inverness County council on Feb. 14 to support a call for a provincewide ban on the industrial use of fracking.
Petroworth’s plan is to drill a 1,200-metre exploratory well on the western side of Lake Ainslie, but the company isn’t ruling out fracking in the future.
- - - - SNIP - - -
Michael Binnion, CEO of Calgary-based Questerre Energy Inc., recently criticized the debate about shale gas development in Quebec as circulating through social media sites.
“We (in industry) think it takes a four-year university degree and 20 years of experience to figure it out, and now we are dealing with people who think they can figure it out after 10 minutes on the Internet,” he said.
====================
11. Inverness chapter and Waycobah First Nationoppose fracking on Lake Ainslie watershed
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6470
February 18, 2011
The Halifax Chronticle Herald reports that, "PetroWorth has exploration and development rights (in) Inverness County, Cape Breton. (This) site is 154,994 hectares and lies within the Lake Ainslie watershed area, which feeds a number of other rivers including the historic Margaree River and its salmon spawning grounds." Lake Ainslie is the largest freshwater lake in Nova Scotia. "Local residents and members of the nearby Waycobah First Nation have expressed concerns (that fracking) will be used to extract the resource from the shale."
"The technology uses fluid, comprised mainly of water mixed with chemicals, sand and other materials, to put pressure on the rock so that it will fracture (and release shale gas). ...Protesters (say) the wastewater produced through the process is a potential environmental nightmare."
In the article, Daniel Gillis, a member of the Inverness chapter of the Council of Canadians, says, "We’ve been very concerned about the technology because in certain areas of the United States, there have been complaints about bad water and communities losing their groundwater .... We’re just strongly opposed to fracking. ... A lot of people just don’t want any drilling to take place at all because in the end it won’t be worth it. A few short-term jobs and who knows what problems will be left behind."
"Inverness County council was so impressed with a presentation earlier this week by those opposing the project (including the Council of Canadians chapter), it passed a resolution calling on the provincial government to ban fracking provincewide."
More on that at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6394.
"...(Inverness County) Warden Duart MacAulay (says) if 'there is a risk to a watershed area and this pristine area, would it be worth it?' (Nova Scotia) Natural Resources Minister Charlie Parker said he’s talked to MacAulay about council’s decision and his department will send information to council as requested. Parker said provincial decisions on fracking would come when applications are made."
Presently, "The provincial Environment Department is reviewing an application from PetroWorth to drill a conventional test well on the site. ....Although PetroWorth doesn’t plan on using fracking when it drills the test well, there is a possibility the technology could be used in the future. ...Provincial regulations would require the company to get provincial approval if it was going to be used."
Drilling is expected to begin in the spring.
Past campaign blogs on the threat of fracking in Inverness County are at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?s=lake+ainslie.
Today's news article is at
http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1228620.html.
===================
12. Shale Gas Drilling Should Continue In Quebec Under New Regulatory Framework
http://www.energydigger.com/articles/2011-02-25/
shale-gas-drilling-should-continue-in-quebec-under-new-regulatory-framework.aspx
Fri, 25 Feb 2011 13:00:00 CST
Daily Oil Bulletin
After heated debate over the past year about whether shale gas development should go ahead, Quebec Premier Jean Charest signaled this week that shale activity will continue in the province under a new regulatory framework.
[NOTE: Registration req'd to access the article]
================
13. Shale gas: The stance has changed significantly
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
Shale+stance+changed+significantly/4352843/story.html
Development; Report on industry about to be submitted
By MONIQUE BEAUDIN, The Gazette February 26, 2011
Angry protesters disrupted meetings organized by Quebec's Oil and Gas Association last fall.
- - - -SNIP - - -
Here's a look at what has happened with shale-gas development in Quebec since the BAPE began its work. (Emphasis Added. Ed.)
The sun was shining on St. Bruno on Aug. 29, when Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau and Environment Minister Pierre Arcand announced public hearings into shale gas development.
Heckled by placard-wielding protesters, the two ministers said they had asked the Bureau d'audiences publique sur l'environnement to come up with a framework for the "harmonious development" of the shale-gas industry, taking into account the industry, concerned citizens, the environment and other industries operating in the sector. Normandeau said Quebec would also sign an agreement with the industry in the fall, setting out best practices for it to follow, but that signing has been put off until after the BAPE report is submitted.
If the government had hoped to quell shale discontent, it was about to find out otherwise.
Within days, former BAPE commissioners said their colleagues hadn't been given enough time to review the issue, nor independent studies they could use to assess the industry.
Angry protesters disrupted public meetings organized by Quebec's Oil and Gas Association in September. Concerned for his safety, police had to escort André Caillé, the former Hydro-Québec CEO who was the public spokesperson for the shale-gas industry, from a meeting attended by more than 600 people in St. Hyacinthe. Caillé has since resigned, replaced by former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard.
More than 128,000 people signed an online petition calling on Premier Jean Charest to impose a moratorium on shale-gas development.
While wells have been drilled mainly in rural areas, even urban centres such as Montreal were drawn into the debate when Projet Montréal revealed that drilling rights to the entire island have already been granted. In the U.S., the cities of Buffalo and Pittsburgh have banned fracking or drilling, although the bans are largely symbolic since no drilling was planned for those areas.
Projet Montréal wasn't the only organization to take a closer look at shale gas over the past few months.
A study published by a British climate-change research centre last month concluded countries will be less likely to invest in renewable energy sources because of the abundance of shale gas deposits around the world.
An American study published in November predicted air quality around shale-gas drilling sites in Texas and Louisiana is likely to worsen by 2050.
And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it was revising the way it calculates emissions from natural-gas production, a move that could show shale and other natural gases to be only marginally less polluting than coal.
In Quebec, the provincial Institut national de la santé publique took a look at published research into shale gas drilling and its impact on air and water quality, as well as its social impact. The provincial agency concluded in a preliminary report published in November that too little research has been done to be able to say what risks come with the industry.
And then there were the leaks.
Questioned by the BAPE commissioners, the environment and natural resources ministries revealed that inspectors had found leaks at 19 out of 31 shale wells in Quebec. After months of publicly supporting the industry, the government's approach changed in mid-January.
In an about-face, Arcand said the industry was not in control of the situation, and announced increased well inspections.
mbeaudin@montrealgazette.com
SHALE GAS FACTS
What is it? Shale gas is a natural gas trapped inside shale rock.
Where is it? ? Quebec's main deposit is in the Utica shale south of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City. Thirty-one wells have been drilled so far.
How is it extracted? ?A well is drilled first vertically and then horizontally. Using a technique called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking", sand and chemicals are mixed with thousands of litres of water and injected into the well at high pressure, creating small fissures that shatter the shale rock, allowing the gas to escape into the well.
Why is controversial? ?While the government says shale gas could bring in as much as $200 billion to Quebec and create new jobs, there are unanswered questions about the impact drilling will have on air and water quality, and whether replacing fossil fuels like petroleum with shale gas will reduce Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions.
=================
14. B. C. TAP WATER ALLIANCE
Caring for, Monitoring, and Protecting British Columbia’s Community Water Supply Sources
Email – info@bctwa.org
Website – www.bctwa.org
FRACKING in Quebec Information:
http://www.bctwa.org/Frk-Quebec.html
NEW REPORT: “Ants to the Picnic”:
Canaccord’s 2008 New Frontier Emphasis to Investors on the Development of Quebec’s Utica Shale Gas, and an account of what happened to the Larin Family in Saint Louis
http://www.bctwa.org/FrkQuebec-AntsToThePicnic.pdf
By Will Koop, February 23, 2011
Community relations: Québec does not have a history of large scale oil and gas extraction, and the mineral owners are not the surface owners; this could present some challenges. As we look at the more successful shale gas plays, we favour first movers. In general, these producers tend to pick up the best acreage for the least amount of money. As the play becomes more well known, competition for land and services intensifies, becoming more like “ants to the picnic” – a phrase coined by Newfield Exploration (NFX : NYSE).
MUCH MORE: FRACKING in BC Information:
http://www.bctwa.org/Fracking-BCInformation.html
=================
15. Statement on the Right to Water and Sanitation – World Council of Churches
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/
central-committee/geneva-2011/report-on-public-issues/statement-on-the-right-to-water-and-sanitation.html
A worldwide fellowship of 349 churches seeking unity, a common witness and Christian service - Document date: 22.02.2011
1. Water is life. The right to water is the right to life. Today, however, billions of people all over the world have no or insufficient access to clean water and safe sanitation. Conflicts over increasingly scarce water resources, not only between nations and competing economic sectors but also among and within communities, are already a reality. They can be expected to become more frequent and intense in the years to come. In this situation, those most affected and endangered are the poor and the marginalized, for whom the water crisis poses a dire threat to their health, livelihoods, and very existence. The indiscriminate use and abuse, exploitation and mismanagement of water resources are often aggravated or caused by the pursuit of a profit-oriented, capital growth-centred development paradigm. Discrimination and exclusion are root causes of impoverishment which includes the lack of access to safe water and sanitation that causes the death of two million people every year.
MORE:
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/
central-committee/geneva-2011/report-on-public-issues/statement-on-the-right-to-water-and-sanitation.html
===================
FRACKING IN THE USA
16. Why Natural Gas Companies Fear Josh Fox, Gasland, and the Oscars
http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/
media-consortium-blog/2011/02/weekly-mulch-why-natural-gas-companies-fear-josh-fox-ga
By By Sarah Laskow Media Consortium Blogger
| February 26, 2011 by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
The natural gas industry is afraid that Josh Fox, director of the muckraking film Gasland, might win an Oscar on Sunday. Earlier this month, an organization called Energy in Depth, backed by the oil and gas industry, sent the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a letter in which it argued that Gasland, Fox’s exposé on the natural gas industry, should be removed from consideration for best documentary feature because it contained inaccurate information.
After dealing with the industry for the past couple of years, Fox is not surprised by this tactic. “What this points to is the culture of that industry, which is bullying, which is aggressive, which is outlandish in their tactics, which will stop at nothing,” he told AlterNet.
[ http://www.alternet.org/water/150002/
oscar-nominated_'gasland'_director_calls_latest_attack_on_his_film_'outlandish'_and_tells_why_the_industry_is_getting_desperate?page=1 ]
The film is still up for consideration, and the industry should be worried about the impact its nomination, let alone a victory, could have. Even if the film doesn’t win on Sunday, millions of viewers will see a clip of the film that documents the real threat of environmental devastation that comes along with natural gas drilling and, in particular, with hydrofracking.
Nothing natural about it
The Media Consortium’s Weekly Mulch has been tracking the fight over natural gas drilling. As noted back in September, Sandra Steingraber, in Orion Magazine, has called the rise of hydrofracking “the environmental issue of our time.” In a more recent dispatch for the magazine, Steingraber reports from an Environmental Protection Agency hearing on fracking, a technique for extracting otherwise hard-to-reach gas from the ground.
In upstate New York, where the hearing was held and where natural gas companies have been buying up drilling rights and properties for the past couple of years, residents are hugely concerned about this issue: four hundred people signed up to speak, for 120 seconds each, as Steingraber reports, over two days. One speaker in particular stuck
but to her, though: An older man rose to speak….And then he let ten seconds of silence fill the theater….After hours of ceaseless, rapid-fire speech, the sudden hush flowed through the overheated room like cool water. Someone giggled nervously. And then, finally, he spoke. That silence, he announced, represented the sounds of migratory birds. And tourists. And professors. And organic farmers. And thus with no words at all he reminded the audience of all the good members of our beloved community who would — if our land filled up with drill rigs, waste ponds, compressor stations, and diesel trucks — disappear, exit the cycle. As in, forever.
At Change.org, Austin Billings has another account of what natural gas drilling is putting at risk—the Bridger-Teton National Forest, miles of “spectacular hills and tall pine forests” that, Billings writes, “just kept going” as he drove through them. A company called Plains Exploration and Production Company is working to sink more than 130 natural gas wells in this area, Billings reports, a project that will strew the area with “pipelines, compressor stations, industrial water wells, truck staging areas, and other industrial features.”
MORE:
http://www.rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/
media-consortium-blog/2011/02/weekly-mulch-why-natural-gas-companies-fear-josh-fox-ga
=================
17. The New York Times Covers Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Wastewater/Hold Onto Your Hats
http://toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusSha ... /nyt-alert
The New York Times is about to cover the issue of Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing wastewater in unprecedented fashion.
The first story of a three-part series by Ian Urbina was just posted at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?ref=us.
The reporting will address many critical issues that were excluded from the scope of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement. It will release documents that you will find simply shocking. It should generate intense political driving force to revise the draft SGEIS "comprehensively" as required by Executive Order No. 41.
A 2008 drinking water crisis is documented that affected more than 850,000 residents along the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. When New York imposed its de facto Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing moratorium, many firms went to drill in Pennsylvania. Municipal treatment plants were accepting up to 40% of their influent as natural gas drilling wastewater even though they were not equipped to handle that type of waste. So much Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) pollution was discharged in the Monongahela River that the water became unpotable. A 70-mile stretch of the river was impacted.
In the coming days, Toxics Targeting will post documents related to this incident as well as key regulatory decisions related to the fatally flawed draft SGEIS.
You can view a video of me explaining some of these issues at:
http://toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusSha ... /nyt-alert
===================
18. Drilling Down - Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers / Visuals
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?ref=us
By IAN URBINA Published: February 26, 2011
QUOTE: “The Times also found never-reported studies by the E.P.A. and a confidential study by the drilling industry that all concluded that radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways.”
The American landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of new wells and drilling rigs, as the country scrambles to tap into this century’s gold rush — for natural gas.
The gas has always been there, of course, trapped deep underground in countless tiny bubbles, like frozen spills of seltzer water between thin layers of shale rock. But drilling companies have only in recent years developed techniques to unlock the enormous reserves, thought to be enough to supply the country with gas for heating buildings, generating electricity and powering vehicles for up to a hundred years.
So energy companies are clamoring to drill. And they are getting rare support from their usual sparring partners. Environmentalists say using natural gas will help slow climate change because it burns more cleanly than coal and oil. Lawmakers hail the gas as a source of jobs. They also see it as a way to wean the United States from its dependency on other countries for oil.
But the relatively new drilling method — known as high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking — carries significant environmental risks. It involves injecting huge amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, at high pressures to break up rock formations and release the gas.
With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.
While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.
- - - SNIP - - -
And prospects for drillers in Pennsylvania are looking brighter.
In December, the Republican governor-elect, Tom Corbett, who during his campaign took more gas industry contributions than all his competitors combined, said he would reopen state land to new drilling, reversing a decision made by his predecessor, Edward G. Rendell. The change clears the way for as many as 10,000 wells on public land, up from about 25 active wells today.
In arguing against a proposed gas-extraction tax on the industry, Mr. Corbett said regulation of the industry had been too aggressive.
“I will direct the Department of Environmental Protection to serve as a partner with Pennsylvania businesses, communities and local governments,” Mr. Corbett says on his Web site. “It should return to its core mission protecting the environment based on sound science.”
=================
19. Radioactive Natural Gas Fracking Could Create New Era of "Love Canals"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 26, 2011
Contact: Eben Burnham-Snyder, Rep. Ed Markey, 202-225-6065 ofc
202-494-4486 cell; Giselle Barry, Rep. Ed Markey, 202-225-2836 ofc
202-510-3240 cell
Following Reports in The New York Times on Potential Fracking Dangers,
Markey Queries EPA on Safety, Monitoring of Technology
WASHINGTON (February 26, 2011) - Responding to an investigative article published today by The New York Times on the high incidence of radioactive materials and other contaminants in the wastes produced from natural gas extraction, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, immediately questioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its oversight of these
extractive practices.
The Times article shows that the radioactively contaminated wastewater derived from the so-called "fracking" process to produce natural gas from shale rock and other formations is being sent to sewage plants that do not have the capacity to remove radioactive radium or other materials, and these hazardous waste materials are then dumped into rivers and streams where they enter our drinking water supplies. Exposure to highly radioactive radium, one of the materials discussed in the Times report, can lead to cancer and other harmful health effects.
"I do not believe that the price for energy extracted from deep beneath the earth's surface should include a risk to the health of those who live above it," wrote Rep. Markey to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "These discharges are also occurring with at least some
knowledge of the risks on the part of federal and state regulators and despite the clear dangers to public health and safety."
The letter can be found HERE:
http://markey.house.gov/docs/
epa_fracking_nyt_letter_02.26.11_.pdf
================
20. Fracking may violate Safe Drinking Water Act, report says
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/environment/
video-fracking-may-violate-safe-drinking-water-act-report-says/7499/
February 18, 2011
We present an updated Watch List investigation into the controversial practice known as fracking — a process that energy companies use to force natural gas out of underground rock formations.
Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, a process that uses a mix of water and chemicals. Energy companies say the process is safe, but a new report prepared for a congressional committee charges that fracking may violate the Safe Drinking Water Act because of the use of diesel — millions of gallons of it — injected into fracking wells in 19 states.
We initially reported this story last summer with our colleagues at ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative journalism group. Correspondent John Larson gives us an update.
NRDC Tar Sands Pipelines Safety Risks Report:
http://www.nrdc.org/energy/files/tarsan ... yrisks.pdf
====================
21. Documents: Natural Gas's Toxic Waste
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/
natural-gas-documents-1-intro.html?ref=us
Over the past nine months, The Times reviewed more than 30,000 pages of documents obtained through open records requests of state and federal agencies and by visiting various regional offices that oversee drilling in Pennsylvania. Some of the documents were leaked by state or federal officials.
Here, the most significant documents are made available with annotations from The Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/
natural-gas-documents-1-intro.html?ref=us
================
22. VIDEO: Bradford County Home Loses 85% of Value
http://srs444.blogspot.com/2011/02/
bradford-county-home-loses-85-of-value.html
February 24, 2011
Folks, as you know from this post a few days ago, I was on Paradise Road in Bradford County this past weekend. Chesapeake's closest natural gas well is just a few hundred yards away from the home in the video below.
Scroll Down to video
Caution: This video may cause fits of blind rage.
http://srs444.blogspot.com/2011/02/
bradford-county-home-loses-85-of-value.html
If it doesn't, check to see if you have a pulse.
Of course, Chesapeake contends: "We are not responsible."
What do you think? What are you going to do?
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. - Thomas Jefferson
===================
23. Buried Secrets - Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
http://www.propublica.org/series/
buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
The promise of abundant natural gas is colliding with fears about water contamination. Numerous articles on Fracking on this website.
- - - - -
Climate Benefits of Natural Gas May Be Overstated
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-and-coal-pollution-gap-in-doubt
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica - Jan. 25, 2011
by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Jan. 25, 2011, 8:34 a.m.
10:36 a.m.: This post has been corrected [1].
The United States is poised to bet its energy future on natural gas as a clean, plentiful fuel that can supplant coal and oil. But new research by the Environmental Protection Agency—and a growing understanding of the pollution associated with the full “life cycle” of gas production—is casting doubt on the assumption that gas offers a quick and easy solution to climate change.
Advocates for natural gas routinely assert that it produces 50 percent less greenhouse gases than coal and is a significant step toward a greener energy future. But those assumptions are based on emissions from the tailpipe or smokestack and don’t account for the methane and other pollution emitted when gas is extracted and piped to power plants and other customers.
New emissions estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency cast doubt on the assumption that gas offers a quick and easy solution to climate change.
MORE:
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-and-coal-pollution-gap-in-doubt
===============
24. Panel rules against homeowner who said fracking fouled well
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_17456764
Man loses drilling case
By Mark Jaffe The Denver Post Posted: 02/23/2011 01:00:00 AM MST
The controversial oil-industry technique known as fracking went on trial at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Tuesday — and fracking won.
Tracy Dahl, who owns a home in the North Fork Ranch subdivision in Las Animas County, was seeking a judgment from the commission against Pioneer Natural Resources for fouling his well. Dahl's case centered on the fact that his well filled with sediment last June 30 — the same day Pioneer fracked its Alibi well about 1,300 feet away.
Hydraulic fracturing, a 60-year-old production technique, has come under increasing scrutiny as it has been combined with new drilling methods that are opening new areas to oil and gas development.
Fracking forces a fluid — mainly water with sand and propellants — under pressure into a well to crack the rock and release extra oil and gas. About 95 percent of the wells in Colorado are fracked.
Dahl told the commission he had pumped gallons and gallons of water out of the well and still the water was silted. Tests have found traces of diesel and solvents. "The aquifer has been seriously impacted," Dahl told the commission as he sat before three jars of murky water.
Dahl's arguments, however, were rebutted by commission staff and Pioneer.
MORE:
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_17456764
===============
25. Hydrofracked?
http://www.propublica.org/article/
hydrofracked-one-mans-mystery-leads-to-a-backlash-against-natural-gas-drill/single
One Man’s Mystery Leads to a Backlash Against Natural Gas Drilling
Louis Meeks’ well water contains methane gas, hydrocarbons, lead and copper, according to the EPA’s test results. When he drilled a new water well, it also showed contaminants. The drilling company EnCana is supplying Meeks with drinking water. (Abrahm Lustgarten/ProPublica)
by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Feb. 25, 2011, 6 a.m.
This story was published as part of Amazon's Kindle Singles program, and is available for reading [1] on that device. ProPublica's first Kindle Single,"Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks: The Untold Story," is also available [2].
QUOTE: “Before Meeks retired he learned a thing or two about drilling. He knew that cementing a well was crucial to holding in the gas and contaminants and that sometimes — more often than people liked to say — it failed.”
There are few things a family needs to survive more than fresh drinking water. And Louis Meeks, a burly, jowled Vietnam War hero who had long ago planted his roots on these sparse eastern Wyoming grasslands, was drilling a new well in search of it.
The drill bit spun, whining against the alluvial mud and rock that folds beneath the Wind River Range foothills. It ploughed to 160 feet, but the water that spurted to the surface smelled foul, like a parking lot puddle drenched in motor oil. It was no better — yet — than the water Meeks needed to replace.
Meeks used to have abundant water on his small alfalfa ranch, a 40-acre plot speckled with apple and plum trees northeast of the Wind River Mountains and about five miles outside the town of Pavillion. For 35 years he drew it clear and sweet from a well just steps from the front door of the plain, eight-room ranch house that he owns with his wife, Donna. Neighbors would stop off the rural dirt road on their way to or from work in the gas fields to fill plastic jugs; the water was better than at their own homes.
But in the spring of 2005, Meeks’ water had turned fetid. His tap ran cloudy, and the water shimmered with rainbow swirls across a filmy top. The scent was sharp, like gasoline. And after 20 minutes — scarcely longer than you’d need to fill a bathtub — the pipes shuttered and popped and ran dry.
Meeks suspected that environmental factors were to blame.
MORE:
http://www.propublica.org/article/
hydrofracked-one-mans-mystery-leads-to-a-backlash-against-natural-gas-drill/single
================
26. 'Fracking' threatens Western Australia water resources
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/special-features/
fracking-threatens-wa-water-resources/story-e6frg19l-1226010221897
Narelle Towie From: PerthNow February 22, 2011 1:55PM
WATCH: Contaminating Chemicals
http://video.news.com.au/1638318154/
Contaminating-Chemicals
GROUNDWATER resources in the South-West, Mid-West and Kimberley are at risk of being polluted with a cocktails of chemicals from coal seam gas proponents keen to develop an industry here, the WA Greens have warned
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to fracture rock and release coal seam gas.
Mining companies, such as Western Gas and Power, have been granted exploration licences for Wellington Dam near Bunbury, Kaloorup Road near Busselton and Vasse, the Irwin River in the Mid-West and the Canning Basin in the Kimberley Greens spokesperson Alison Xamon MLC said she is extremely alarmed at what it would mean for our groundwater if this industry ever went ahead.
“Effectively, you are causing mini-earthquakes in order to open up pathways for fluids or gases to flow. There is a real risk, therefore, that not only do you contaminate the site that you have drilled but also, potentially, the surrounding groundwater as the fracking fluids flow through fissures into other areas,” Ms Xamon said.
“We have already seen bores contaminated with lethal hydrocarbons last year at the Cougar coal seam gas plant in Queensland.”
The Conservation Council of WA is calling for the state to be declared a CSG-free zone after disastrous impacts "fracking'' is having onw ater tables and communities in Queensland and New South Wales.
MORE:
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/special-features/
fracking-threatens-wa-water-resources/story-e6frg19l-1226010221897
===================
27. Schlumberger COO: Current Shale Methods Won't Work Overseas
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/
stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201102231021dowjonesdjonline000356&title=schlumberger-coocurrent-shale-methods-wont-work-overseas
By Ryan Dezember, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES February 25, 2011
HOUSTON -(Dow Jones)- Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) Chief Operating Officer Paal Kibsgaard said Wednesday that refinements must be made in shale drilling before the underground oil-and-gas-filled rocks can be exploited beyond North America.
"We are convinced that the brute force approach established in North America will not be practical overseas, either from a financial or an operational standpoint," Kibsgaard, who is widely believed to be in line to become the next chief executive officer of the world's largest oilfield services company, said in a webcast of a speech made during the company's two-day analyst meeting at Schlumberger's Cambridge, Mass., research facility.
Schlumberger is among the companies that have helped develop North American shale exploration, which involves complex techniques like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. On Tuesday, Petrohawk Energy Corp. (HK) said that Schlumberger's new hydraulic fracturing technology, called HiWAY, boosted output from its Eagle Ford shale wells in south Texas by as much as 37% and lifted estimated ultimate recovery as much as 90% in some reservoirs.
Energy companies are now aiming to export the techniques they're using to produce vast amounts of natural gas and oil from North America to international markets. Producers have identified and are studying energy-bearing shale formations in countries including Poland, Argentina, China and France.
MORE:
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/
stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201102231021dowjonesdjonline000356&title=schlumberger-coocurrent-shale-methods-wont-work-overseas
==================
28. EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING OF PETROLEUM BEARING FORMATIONS
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3630281.html
United States Patent 3630281
www.Patent.InventionHome.com
This is a method for increasing the permeability of an underground formation adjacent a well bore by explosive fracturing. In one embodiment an explosive slurry, having selected fracturing fluid characteristics, is used to hydraulically fracture the formation and such explosive slurry is subsequently detonated. In another embodiment a sorbent solvent slug is injected down the tubing preceding the injection of the explosive slurry and a second such sorbent solvent immediately follows the explosive slurry. This avoids trapping of air or other gas and therefore prevents premature ignition or detonation of the explosive fracturing fluid.
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In Fracture Explosive Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid and Its Rhelogical Study
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servlet/
onepetropreview?id=SPE-103807-MS&soc=SPE
DOI: 10.2118/103807-MS
Authors: Mingyue Cui and Wenwen Shan, RIPED, PetroChina; Liang Jin, Shell Intl. E&P; Yansheng Ding, Inst. of Mechanics, China Academy of Sciences; Yunhong Ding, RIPED, PetroChina; Li Chen, Inst. of Mechanics, China Academy of Sciences; and Ping Liu and Zhihe Xu, RIPED, PetroChina
Source: International Oil & Gas Conference and Exhibition in China, 5-7 December 2006, Beijing, China
Abstract
Low permeability reservoirs take a large portion of the newly discovered hydrocarbon reservoirs. Stimulating low and ultra low permeability reservoirs faces more technical challenges.
Unlike other stimulation techniques such as “well shooting”, “nuclear explosion”, and “high energy fracturing”, the concept of in fracture explosion (IFE) is to create a fracture hydraulically, convey solid explosives deep into the fracture and place them in the fracture. Then ignite the explosives in the fracture to generate crushed zones or shear fractures near the main fracture while keeping the well bore intact. In such a way, the well productivity is increased. For complex tight gas reservoirs, especially those that tend to develop multi fractures and shear fractures by conventional hydraulic fracturing making the placement of proppant difficult, this technology has irreplaceable advantage.
Fracturing fluid for in fracture explosion has two functions – to carry solid explosives while create hydraulic fractures, and to propagate ignition. This study has found such a fluid system that can meet both general requirements for hydraulic fracturing fluid and the realization of lighting, transmit fire, ignition, and propagate explosion under simulated reservoir conditions.
The fluid system was tested successfully in a narrow fracture simulator. Expected explosion realized in this simulation. The simulated fracture has a length of 2300 mm with variable width of 0-50 mm. The process of squeezing, igniting, and explosion of 300g TNT equivalent was tested.
This fluid system has the following properties:
Rheology at reservoir temperature can be adjusted according specific requirement. Viscosity ranges from 10 to 50 mPa.s. Wall building leak off coefficient is 3.6x10-4 m/min0.5 and spurt loss is 0.25 ml/cm2. Combined with a regular fracturing fluid as a lead (pad), such properties allow the fluid to satisfy the requirements of generating deep fractures and transport/place explosives in the fractures.
This paper will provide details of the study and discuss the potential applications for tight gas reservoir stimulation.
MORE:
http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/servlet/
onepetropreview?id=SPE-103807-MS&soc=SPE
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FRACTURING TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING CMM/CBM PRODUCTION
http://www.epa.gov/cmop/docs/fra-technologies.pdf
This report was prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by Advanced Resources International under Contract 68-W-00-094.
1.0 Introduction
While the majority of today’s CMM/CBM production is produced by oil and gas companies, many of the techniques presently used in the CBM industry originated in the coal mining industry in the early to mid-1970's. During this time, the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) was seeking to develop methods for reducing the levels of methane in the mine workings of deep (500-700 meters), longwall mines in Alabama and Virginia. The primary goal of this research was to improve mine safety.
MORE:
http://www.epa.gov/cmop/docs/fra-technologies.pdf
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING NEWS: March 6, 2011
by Oscar » Sun Mar 06, 2011 4:59 pm
FRACKING NEWS: March 6, 2011
1. NEW BLOG: Fracking Canada
2. ERCB Report 2011-A: Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework—Jurisdictional Review (regards USA, AB, SK, BC)
3. Unconventional Oil & Gas in Western Canada/MAP/Graphics
4. Bakken oil play technology goes global
5. Description of testing technology on Unconventional Shale Gas Frac Flowback and Produced Water
6. SCEENR CALLS ON CANADIANS TO GET INVOLVED IN DEBATE ON CANADA’S ENERGY FUTURE
7. PetroWorth perplexed by opposition
8. WATCH: Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher Found Guilty of Sabotaging Oil and Gas Auction; Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
9. ProPublica's Guide to Fracking
10. WATCH: Natural Gas Industry Attacks Oscar-Nominated Film “Gasland” For Chronicling Devastating Impact of Hydraulic Fracking
11. WATCH: Leaked EPA Documents Expose Decades-Old Effort To Hide Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction
12. Community Health Survey Shows Shale Gas Threatens Human Health
13. (Two) 2 Faulkner Co. injection wells causing earthquakes?
14. Tell Scott Walker, Republican Senators & Koch brothers: Stop Fracking Water and Wisconsin Workers
15. Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster
16. FRACKING RADIATION
17. WATCH: Supreme Court Rejects Privacy Rights for Corporations in FOIA Cases
18. Mountain Lake Park, Maryland Adopts Community Rights Ordinance That Bans Drilling for Natural Gas
19. RESOURCE: Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund
20. New York Times investigative pieces on natural gas fracking
21. Republicans attack Obama's environmental protection from all sides
22. (Canada) Fresh Issue for Spring Election: Democracy
23. Join the Global Resistance - Independent media is battling against disinformation
=============
1. NEW BLOG: Fracking Canada
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/
...information concerning the practice of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') and its threat to the Canadian environment as well as the culture, mental health, and physical welfare of Canadians.
==============
2. ERCB Report 2011-A: Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework—Jurisdictional Review (regards USA, AB, SK, BC)
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/
PTARGS_0_0_302_0_0_43/http%3B/ercbContent/publishedcontent/publish/ercb_home/publications_catalogue/publications_available/reports/r2011_a.aspx
January 28, 2011
(NOTE***- - document covers many jurisdictions in USA, and Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia. Ed.)
Report 2011-A - Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework - Jurisdictional Review
The ERCB has initiated a corporate-wide Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework Project to develop and implement a new regulatory framework for the development of Alberta's CBM, shale gas, and tight gas by 2011.
The objective of the Jurisdictional Review was to learn how other jurisdictions were regulating unconventional gas development, what issues were encountered, and how these were managed within the regulatory framework.
This report summarizes the findings of the Jurisdictional Review Task Team and identifies opportunities to be considered for Alberta's unconventional gas regulatory framework.
Released: January 28, 2011
Available on the ERCB Web site
View PDF file for full text:
http://www.ercb.ca/docs/documents/reports/r2011-A.pdf
================
3. Unconventional Oil & Gas in Western Canada/MAP/Graphics
http://ridgelinecanada.com/w_uoil_gas/
"While hydraulic fracturing in particular has been the focus of much controversy, our analysis indicates that the most significant environmental risks associated with the development of shale gas are similar to those associated with conventional onshore gas, including gas migration and groundwater contamination due to faulty well construction, blowouts, and above-ground leaks and spill of wastewater and chemicals used during drilling and hydraulic fracturing." - Worldwatch Institute, July 2010
Western Canada’s Rapidly Emerging Unconventional Oil and Gas Industry
Ridgeline is targeting water treatment, environmental consulting and soil remediation in Western Canada’s rapidly emerging unconventional oil and gas industry[1]. Based on the enormous success of Alberta’s Pembina Cardium shale oil play, the Bakken and Lower Shaunavon shale oil plays in Saskatchewan, and British Columbia’s Horn River and Montney shale gas plays, unconventional resource development in the WCSB is expanding more rapidly than anticipated. Consistently positive results using water intensive extraction and production techniques including horizontal multi-stage fracturing, combined with strong economics, have increased demand for technologies and services to optimize resource recovery while reducing associated environmental impacts.
MORE:
http://ridgelinecanada.com/w_uoil_gas/
====================
4. Bakken oil play technology goes global
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/03/03/
bakken-oil-play-technology-goes-global/
Claudia Cattaneo March 3, 2011 – 5:10 pm
The world is watching and learning from the Bakken oil shale play, Houston-based Ryder Scott Petroleum Consultants said Thursday in its Reservoir Solutions newsletter.
Net importers of oil, including China, France and Poland, are studying the Bakken as a model for their own countries, which contain geologically similar deposits, the firm said.
Companies from countries as far away as Australia have interest in the Bakken, a mature oil reservoir that straddles North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan, brought back to life by drilling advancements developed in Canada and the United States.
The unconventional play has become a proving ground for advanced drilling-and-completions technology, including multi-stage hydraulic fracturing.
MORE:
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/03/03/
bakken-oil-play-technology-goes-global/
==================
5. Description of testing technology on Unconventional Shale Gas Frac Flowback and Produced Water
http://ridgelinecanada.com/w_sample/
Sample & Field TrialsIn 2010, the Company successfully completed a series of sample and field trials for the treatment of fracture (“frac”) flowback water in an unconventional gas basin located in north eastern British Columbia. Also during 2010, the Company completed sample trials for the treatment of frac flowback water from unconventional light oil operations in Saskatchewan’s Bakken formation and sample trails for the treatment of oil sands tailings in north eastern Alberta.
- - - SNIP - - -
Summary of Treatment Results
Through the experimental processes discussed above Ridgeline has demonstrated that, with the exception of zinc, all pollutants were successfully reduced to below government determined clean water thresholds for treated water. These tests where primarily done to determine if the technology could sucessfully “Hyrdro crack” the fluids. The tests were successful, however secondary and tertiary treatments were not applied which in Ridgeline opinion would have significantly knock down the zinc component.
===================
6. SCEENR CALLS ON CANADIANS TO GET INVOLVED IN DEBATE ON CANADA’S ENERGY FUTURE
http://www.canadianenergyfuture.ca/?p=1529
(OTTAWA) Jan 31, 2011 – The Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources (SCEENR) started tweeting in October 2010 and the feedback was extremely positive. As the first Canadian Parliamentary Committee on Twitter, we are working towards finding better ways to engage with Canadians about Canada’s energy future.
Starting in February 2011, SCEENR will be asking Canadians to submit questions they would like senators to ask witnesses during public hearings. Details about upcoming appearances by individuals or organizations presenting to the committee can be found on the committee study website in the meetings section or can be obtained by following the committee on Twitter: @SCEENR_SAYS.
Questions can be tweeted or emailed with the word Twitter in the subject line to:
SCEENR-CSEERN@sen.parl.gc.ca.
=================
7. PetroWorth perplexed by opposition
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/
search?q=cache:QuJ8N5hF17oJ:www.porthawkesburyreporter.com/stories.asp%3Fid%3D5113+petroworth+perplexed&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&source=www.google.com
Matt Draper February 10, 2011
TORONTO- The president of an oil and gas company with lands in the area said he’s disappointed with the outcomes of some recent local meetings.
Last year, PetroWorth, a junior oil and gas exploration company, announced it selected a drill target in its Lake Ainslie adjacent property. On February 10, PetroWorth president Neal Mednick and other representatives met with residents at the Waycobah community hall.
“It was a very disturbing experience,” said Mednick. “People seemed to be very upset over our proposed well. They don’t seem to believe anything that we’re telling them and it’s a very difficult issue to deal with.”
Mednick said the company is proposing to drill a 1,200 meter vertical well, noting there have been hundreds of thousands of similar wells set up across the world. He said the well will not pose a threat to the environment or any resident. There is, he said, the potential for jobs that could benefit the community.
One of the main concerns about the well is the potential for slick water hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas or “fracking.”
Mednick told attendees the company has no plans to frack the proposed well but said he was accused of lying.
- - - SNIP - - - -
Mednick also commented on a recent resolution by Inverness Municipal Council to support a province-wide ban on fracking. The resolution came following a presentation by the Inverness chapter of the Council of Canadians and comments from a number of residents.
“It really is amazing how easily ignorance can prevail and how difficult it is to educate people,” Mednick said.
“To my understanding, there is nobody on the Inverness council and certainly nobody advising them that has any reasonable grasp of what hydraulic fracking is all about. To make that kind of a decision just because they are being pressured by a number of extremists just seems to me to be irresponsible.”
=================
8. WATCH: Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher Found Guilty of Sabotaging Oil and Gas Auction; Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/
environmentalist_tim_dechristopher_found_guilty_of
A federal jury in Salt Lake City has convicted environmental activist Tim DeChristopher of two felony counts for disrupting the auction of more than 100,000 acres of federal land for oil and gas drilling. DeChristopher was charged in December 2008 with infiltrating a public auction and disrupting the Bush administration’s last-minute move to auction off oil and gas exploitation rights on vast swaths of federal land. DeChristopher joins us today to talk about the verdict. Watch/Listen/Read
====================
9. ProPublica's Guide to Fracking
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-drilling-debate-heats-up-read-our-guide
Posted: March 2, 2011 12:47 PM ProPublica
It's been a busy couple of weeks in the fracking and natural gas drilling debate, with the documentary film Gasland nominated for an Academy Award and a front-page story in Sunday's New York Times on the dangers posed by the technology.
The Times story underscored the findings of dozens of reports that ProPublica has published over the past three years, adding new details from previously undisclosed government documents about the amount of radioactive water produced by drilling.
The increasing public interest in the possible dangers of gas drilling comes as the world's energy companies are placing a multi-billion dollar bet on its potential. At the request of Vice President Dick Cheney, Congress exempted gas drilling from federal regulation in 2005. Since then, industry officials have successfully lobbied against calls in Washington to change the law, calls that have intensified in recent months with new attention on the issue.
For those who want to dive deeper into the complex science and regulatory issues of fracking, we offer a quick breakdown of the key issues.
It's a subject reporter Abrahm Lustgarten has been covering for ProPublica since July of 2008. In the years since then, Lustgarten and his ProPublica colleagues have criss-crossed the country, interviewing drillers, industry officials and residents from Wyoming to Colorado to Pennsylvania. To listen to a podcast from Lustgarten, click here . To read a detailed account of one man's fight against water contamination in Wyoming, click here. (Lustgarten received the 2009 George Polk Award for environmental reporting for his investigation of hydraulic fracturing as well as the 2009 Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing from the National Press Foundation.)
Below is a list of 15 of our most important stories, arranged by topic so you can quickly find the information you need.
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-drilling-debate-heats-up-read-our-guide
For a list of all the 100 or so stories we've written about gas drilling since 2008, you can also visit our gas drilling home page.
Buried Secrets Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat:http://www.propublica.org/series/
buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
==================
10. WATCH: Natural Gas Industry Attacks Oscar-Nominated Film “Gasland” For Chronicling Devastating Impact of Hydraulic Fracking
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/
natural_gas_industry_attacks_oscar_nominated
The environmental contamination and human health risk associated with the extraction of natural gas using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” was little known across the United States for years, until a documentary film brought the issue to the national stage. Josh Fox directed the film Gasland, which chronicles the devastation affecting communities where fracking is taking place, and the influence of the natural gas industry over regulation of the techniques and chemicals used in the process. The industry aggressively attacked the film, especially when it was nominated for an Academy Award this year.
= = = =
Anti-fracing film "Gasland" leaves Oscars empty-handed (Trailer is below. Ed.)
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/energy/
2011/02/gasland-oscar-result.html
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Lauren Lawley Head
Date: Monday, February 28, 2011, 8:18am EST
"Gasland," Josh Fox's documentary that slams the natural gas industry's use of fracing technology, failed to take home an Oscar at last night's Academy Awards.
Another business-oriented movie, Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job," took home the award for best documentary instead.
The nomination of "Gasland," much like the movie itself, drew sharp criticism from the industry. To see why, check out the movie trailer to the right of this post. Among the most recent to weigh in was former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger. Hanger, who has long been a critic of the film and the way in which Fox edited an interview with him that appeared in the movie, took to his blog Saturday to explain in detail why he feels the movie paints a distorted picture of the natural gas industry, particularly as it compares to its coal and oil counterparts.
"'Gasland' seeks to inflame public opinion to shutdown the natural gas industry and is effective," he wrote. "In pursuing this goal, 'Gasland' treats cavalierly facts both by omitting important ones and getting wrong others."
Toward the end of the post, however, Hanger says he believes Fox has good intentions.
"Mr. Fox is giving voice to real concerns and speaking for some people that really have been negatively impacted by drilling who should not be ignored," Hanger wrote. "He would be a more convincing and responsible voice if he were more careful."
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Oscar Buzz: Former DEP Sec. Hanger Rooting Against ‘Gasland’
http://www.politicspa.com/
buzz-former-dep-sec-hanger-rooting-against-%E2%80%98gasland%E2%80%99-at-oscars-tonight/21885/
By Keegan Gibson, Contributing Writer February 27, 2011
For those of you who hoped someday to see Oscar news on PoliticsPA, your day has come.
John Hanger, the immediate former Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said via a blog post that he is rooting against ‘Gasland,’ a documentary about the impact of Marcellus shale drilling in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country. AN interview with Hanger features prominently in the film.
“Despite Josh Fox having real roots in Pennsylvania, and though normally I root for all things Pennsylvanian, I am not pulling for Gasland to win an Oscar for Best Documentary,” Hanger says of the filmmaker.
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“In the last year, I have interacted with Josh Fox. While some of his critics would not agree, I believe he has good intentions.
“Mr. Fox is giving voice to real concerns and speaking for some people that really have been negatively impacted by drilling who should not be ignored. He would be a more convincing and responsible voice if he were more careful. Indeed we all should strive to be more careful.”
= = = = =
WATCH: GASLAND Trailer:
http://video.aol.ca/video-detail/gasland-trailer/
535521842/?icid=VIDLRVMOV09
=================
11. WATCH: Leaked EPA Documents Expose Decades-Old Effort To Hide Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/
leaked_epa_documents_expose_decades_old
Efforts by lawmakers and regulators to force the federal government to better police the natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" have been thwarted for the past 25 years, according to an expose in the New York Times. Studies by scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on fracking have been repeatedly narrowed in scope by superiors and important findings have been removed under pressure from the industry. The news comes as the EPA is conducting a broad study of the risks of natural gas drilling with preliminary results scheduled to be delivered next year. Joining us is Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, a firm that tracks environmental spills and releases across the country based in Ithaca, New York, where fracking is currently taking place.
===================
12. Community Health Survey Shows Shale Gas Threatens Human Health
http://earthworksaction.org/PR_DISH_Hea ... elease.cfm
Groups, Town of DISH urge Texas regulators to act immediately in behalf of impacted citizens
EARTHWORKS * Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project * Town of DISH
2009 Press Releases December 17, 2009
DISH, Texas, 12/17 -- Today, public interest groups and the Town of DISH released the final results of a health survey of area residents focused on the impacts of Barnett Shale gas infrastructure. The results show that more than half of surveyed maladies can be attributed to toxics first revealed in September in a DISH-commissioned study of area air quality. Based on the results, EARTHWORKS, the Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project and the Town of DISH are calling on state regulators to immediately perform an in-depth health investigation, implement continuous 24-hour emissions monitoring, and establish a same-day community odor and symptom tracking system.
"We need action immediately," said Calvin Tillman, DISH mayor. "I get odor complaints from residents almost everyday, and we now know that these odors and emissions are harmful to health."
After years of state inaction, the community-based health survey conducted by Earthworks and the Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project compiled information on residents' medical background, proximity to shale gas infrastructure, experience of odor events, and associated health symptoms. The report reveals that area residents are experiencing odor events as often as two times per day and associate the majority of these odors with shale gas infrastructure.
"What is most revealing is that the community is reporting health symptoms that overlap significantly with the known health effects of chemicals already detected," says Wilma Subra, of Earthworks and author of the survey. "We are seeing not only respiratory ailments and headaches, but brain disorders, pre-cancerous lesions and impairment of motor skills."
Earthworks launched the health survey in September when Wolf Eagle Environmental and the Town of DISH released air-sampling results showing neurotoxins and carcinogens exceeding the state regulatory limits.
MORE:
http://earthworksaction.org/PR_DISH_Hea ... elease.cfm
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Town of Dish files lawsuit against six gas companies
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/
DISH-Lawsuit-117172253.html
by CRAIG CIVALE WFAA Posted on March 1, 2011 at 12:15 PM Updated Tuesday, Mar 1 at 12:21 PM
DISH, Texas- One town's fight to prevent gas well drilling may now be heading to court.
The Denton County town of Dish is suing gas companies over health and property concerns it blames on drilling.
Dish's mayor announced he was leaving because of growing health concerns for his family. Now the town has filed a lawsuit against six gas or pipeline companies who leaders blame for polluting its air and water.
Dish is home to nearly 200 people, 60 gas wells and now a lawsuit to fight against the companies who put them in that area.
The suit claims drilling has created "significant public health concerns..." and "deprivation of the enjoyment of their property..." which continue to lose value.
"Frankly, we don't have a choice, we had to do this, we don't have an option," said Charles Tillman, Dish Mayor. [ . . . ]
= = = = = =
Mayor leaving Texas town over gas drilling worries
http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/116703924.html
Associated Press Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:05 PM Updated Wednesday, Feb 23 at 2:02 AM
DISH, Texas (AP) — The mayor of a tiny rural town at the heart of Texas' natural gas drilling controversy says he's leaving over concerns about his children's health problems.
Dish Mayor Calvin Tillman said he will keep fighting — although not as a politician — to make sure energy companies follow state and federal air quality regulations. Town commissioners can remove Tillman if he moves away from Dish before the May election, when his term expires.
- - - SNIP - - -
Dish residents have complained about noise, odors and health problems that include nosebleeds, pain and circulation loss.
Energy companies say they're operating in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.
==================
13. (Two) 2 Faulkner Co. injection wells causing earthquakes?
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/
story.aspx?storyid=146244&catid=2
Wayne Cross March 3, 2011
The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has called an emergency meeting to consider shutting down two injection wells in Faulkner County that have been linked to earthquakes in the region
LITTLE ROCK (KTHV)-- The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has called an emergency meeting to consider shutting down two injection wells in Faulkner County that have been linked to earthquakes in the region.
Commission officials said Wednesday there was enough evidence to request an emergency cease order to stop activities of two injection wells, one outside Guy owned by Chesapeake Operating Inc. and the other near Greenbrier owned by Clarita Operating LLC. The special meeting has been called for Friday.
Geologists have been studying quakes in the Greenbrier-Guy area for months to determine if there was a connection between the seismic activity and activities of gas-drilling companies in the Fayetteville Shale formation. Attention has focused on injection wells used to pump into the ground the wastewater from drilling of gas wells.
Arkansas residents in the Greenbrier, Guy area were rattled Sunday night when a 4.7 earthquake struck the area.
Chesapeake Energy's Danny Games released the below statement Wednesday afternoon.
"We understand the concerns of citizens who reside in northern Faulkner County and respect the Commission staff's desire to address perceived issues associated with the seismic activity. However, we remain very confident that an objective review of the facts and science do not support the proposed action. We have dedicated extensive resources and have consulted with several very qualified geophysicists and seismologists to better understand the science, including the natural seismicity of the area that long pre-dates our operations. We will evaluate our options and continue to provide the best information possible to the staff and Commission."
MORE:
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/
story.aspx?storyid=146244&catid=2
================
14. Tell Scott Walker, Republican Senators & Koch brothers: Stop Fracking Water and Wisconsin Workers
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/
sendsm.aspx?id=wi_capitol_occupation
By New Earth Rising, a project of Ecological Internet March 2, 2011
ACTION ALERTS (2) UPDATE, URGENT, PLEASE SHARE WIDELY!
EI currently has two emergency alerts running that remain highly topical and allow us, the global family, to impact specific battles for ecology, worker and freedom rights. The first is the amazing occupation of the Wisconsin state capitol for 17 days by up to 125K people, the extent of the Cheddar Rebellion which is being willfully ignored by corporate media. The second email protest below regarding fracking and water destruction is particularly appropriate given that the conservative Koch Brothers and natural gas frackers are funding the GOPs and WI Governor Scott Walker's union busting, denial of collective bargaining human right, elimination of key environmental programs including recycling mandate, and plundering of WI education to eliminate capital gains and other taxes to the rich. Stand with Wisconsin workers, teachers and many others in resisting abject tyranny!
EI's New Earth Rising project believes in the urgency of a global movement to achieve ecology, worker, freedom, equity, justice and sustainability rights for all. PLEASE FORWARD via email and social network widely. Emerging protests are the beginning of something positive for workers living decent lives.
When you end the first alert below, you are automatically forwarded to the second, after which go to EI's New Earth Rising affinity campaign for global freedom on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NewEarthRising and on twitter at http://www.facebook.com/2NewEarthRising
TAKE ACTION FOR WISCONSIN WORKERS HERE NOW:
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/
sendsm.aspx?id=wi_capitol_occupation
Stand with brave protesters for human rights in Wisconsin; and as the deadline nears to clear the capitol, demand that peaceful protesters and capitol occupiers are not be met with violence or arrested. Demand that Darth Walker begin negotiating immediately or resign. And that the Koch brothers stop buying state governments and destroying water with natural gas fracking. Forward and share widely at this important moment in the New Earth Rising, as the media is not telling the story.
TAKE ACTION HERE AGAINST KOCH FRACKING WATER AND WORKERS:
http://www.ecoearth.org/shared/alerts/
sendsm.aspx?id=no_fracking_way
Natural gas is being touted as a solution to America's growing and already clearly unsustainable energy needs, yet its production through hydraulic fracturing (fracking) severely threatens the nation's water, land, air and health. Let the U.S. President and Koch Brothers know the global family and biosphere need bold leadership right now to stop toxic natural gas fracking and solve other global ecology issues. Given the preciousness of water in a climate changing world, it is critical to global ecological sustainability that this land pulverizing, toxic water destroying process be banned. We must not allow every last ecosystem to be destroyed before we transition from unsustainable energy use to truly renewable energy.
DISCUSS THIS ALERT:
http://www.facebook.com/NewEarthRising---
Please support Ecological Internet's campaigns to protect and restore old
forests at
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/donate/
================
15. Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/
101221-next-water-pollution-disasters-/
From mining messes to hydraulic fracturing contamination
Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News Published December 21, 2010
This story is part of a special National Geographic News series on global water issues.
When an estimated 184 million gallons (697 million liters) of industrial waste spilled into Hungary’s Marcal River in early October, arsenic and mercury threatened to taint water supplies and degrade rivers, both at the site and for hundreds of miles downstream. In some ways, Hungary’s toxic mud disaster was a wake-up call, shining a spotlight on potential water pollution hotspots around the globe. (Read more about the Hungary spill.)
[ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/
101012-toxic-spill-hungary-danube-river-water/ ]
Where might disaster strike next?
- - - SNIP - - -
Gas and Oil Extraction
The drive to drill for critical new sources of oil and gas is in motion around the world, but nowhere is it more frenetic at the moment than in the Marcellus region, which sits above a 389-million-year-old rock formation cutting a 95,000 square-mile (246,000 square-kilometer) arc across West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.
The site is home to a natural gas reserve of between 50 trillion and 500 trillion cubic feet, potentially second in size only to the Pars field of Iran and Qatar, and lies in the energy-hungry eastern United States.
Development of the natural gas reserves in the region is in its infancy. The benefits of extracting all that gas include an enormous boost to local economies and an important domestic source of energy that could provide power for decades. But the future of freshwater is high among environmental concerns associated with The Great Shale Gas Rush. And the University of Pittsburgh’s Conrad Dan Volz believes it stars with simply setting up the wells.
“People don’t think about it very often but there are serious erosion and sedimentation issues that go along with clearing three- to five-acre well pads. And in Pennsylvania alone they are talking about 100,000 wells or more over the next 20 to 30 years, in addition to the clearing of spaces for compressor stations, pipelines, and other infrastructure.”
Drilling also exposes sulfide-rich rock cuttings, Volz said, which once on the surface can react with air and water to produce a sulfuric solution somewhat akin to acid mine draining.
These aquatic impacts must be considered even when drilling proceeds according to plan. But, as oil spills in the Gulf and elsewhere have made quite clear, drilling does not always proceed according to plan.
“Every well has a potential to leak gas or oil over time,” Volz said, despite efforts to protect water supplies and prevent loss of gas by lining wells with steel and concrete casings. “Conduits for gas and liquid to escape and go into water aquifers appear over time everywhere oil and gas exploration occurs.”
Some residents and communities in shale regions have already experienced contaminated water, though it’s difficult to trace exactly where in the process such contaminations occurred.
Much scrutiny has been focused on the process that has recently made this mother lode of gas accessible—hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” The technique blasts a cocktail of chemically laden water and sand into a well to create a mini-earthquake that fractures the shale and releases gas.
(Related: "Forcing Gas Out of Rock with Water.")
Fracking uses a lot of water, about 4 million gallons (15 million liters) of water for each frack. Some 20 to 50 percent of the watery fluid comes back out as ultra-salty brine that’s potentially laden with heavy metals. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has documented at least 130 spills since 2008.
The rest of the fluid stays deep in the shale layer at depths of 4,000 to 8,500 feet (1,220 to 2,590 meters). Industry officials say it’s harmless there and has never been proven to migrate back toward the surface, to the far shallower levels where drinking water wells are located—typically just several hundred feet below ground.
But the EPA seems less certain that the process is benign. The agency is currently conducting a peer-reviewed scientific study to investigate any possible relationships between the fracking process and drinking water.
“EPA agrees with Congress that there are serious concerns for citizens and their representatives about hydraulic fracturing’s potential impact on drinking water, human health, and the environment, which demands further study,” the agency notes on its website.
MORE:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
2010/12/101221-next-water-pollution-disasters-/
===================
16. FRACKING RADIATION
Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?hp
As drilling for natural gas started to climb sharply about 10 years ago, energy companies faced mounting criticism over an extraction process that involves pumping millions of gallons of water into the ground for each well and can leave significant amounts of hazardous contaminants in the water that comes back to the surface.
= = = = = = =
RADIATION DANGER FOUND IN OILFIELDS ACROSS THE NATION
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/03/us/
radiation-danger-found-in-oilfields-across-the-nation.html?pagewanted=1
By KEITH SCHNEIDER, Special to The New York Times
Published: December 03, 1990
MORGAN CITY, La. — Radium from the earth's crust has been brought to the surface in decades of oil drilling, causing widespread radioactive contamination of the nation's oilfields.
The problem is only now being examined by the oil industry and the Federal Government, which has no regulations to deal with oilfield radiation.
A naturally occurring radioactive material, radium has been found in every oil-producing region in the country, from Alaska to Florida, causing low levels of radiation in pumps, pipes and storage tanks. The radium leaches from mineral deposits into water that comes to the surface with oil.
= = = = =
WATCH: Untreated Radioactive Wastewater from Hydrofracking Dumped in Rivers, Streams
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/2/headlines/
untreated_radioactive_wastewater_from_hydrofracking_dumped_in_rivers_streams
Newly disclosed figures show wastewater produced from the natural gas drilling practice of hydrofracking has contained radioactivity and other contaminants at levels far exceeding federal limits. According to the New York Times, internal government documents show at least 15 wells produced wastewater with more than 1,000 times the amount of radioactive elements considered acceptable. The wastewater is sometimes brought to sewage plants ill-equipped to properly treat it and then disposed into rivers supplying drinking water. At least 12 sewage plants in three states discharged partly treated wastewater and waste into rivers and streams. The documents also show government regulators and industry officials knew of the problems with the wastewater disposal and treatment but took no action. On Tuesday, protesters rallied following a New York City Council hearing on plans to open the parts of New York state watershed to drilling. This is Joe Levine of the group N.Y. H20.
Joe Levine: "They know it’s contaminating, and they’re doing it anyway. The 18,000 wells is a projection. There could likely be very many more than 18,000 wells. They haven’t been approved. They would be allowed to proceed if these regulations are completed and put out. So once they complete these regulations, gas drilling will be able to commence in the Delaware River Basin."
= = = = =
Reps. Maloney, Hinchey and Nadler call for hearings on effects of hydraulic fracturing of natural gas
http://nadler.house.gov/
index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1619&Itemid=132
“Hydrofracking” said to release radioactivity above levels that sewage treatment plants can safely handle, according to newly revealed industry and EPA reports
WEDNESDAY, 02 MARCH 2011
WASHINGTON, DC – Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today sent letters requesting hearings to assess potential concerns with hydraulic fracturing of natural gas before relevant House Committees. They issued the following joint statement about the letters:
“We hope that both Committees will hold hearings to determine whether our drinking water is safe. If federal and state regulations have not kept pace with this growing industry, we need to know before it creates a public health concern. As Representatives from New York, we are especially concerned given that some of the wastewater from hydrofracking is being transported to public sewage plants in our state. By holding hearings, Congress, the industry, and the public would have a better understanding of wastewater treatment and what further Congressional action is needed.”
Over the past weekend, The New York Times published the article ‘Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers’ describing potential environmental and health concerns resulting from so-called “hydrofracking.” These concerns include the inadequacy of sewage treatment plants which might handle the millions of gallons of wastewater that arise from the hydrofracking process, including the plants’ inability to remove potentially higher levels of radioactivity than previously known to result from the drilling method. Potential contamination of widely used sources of drinking water could also result. ##
Text of the letters follows below and may also be viewed here:
http://nadler.house.gov/
index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1619&Itemid=132
(Links: (T&I) and here (E&C) as PDFs. – not active Ed.)
New York Times, February 27, 2011: "Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?ref=us
New York Tim
es, March 2, 2011: "Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?hp ##
= = = = =
Exxon Must Pay $1.2 Million for Workers’ Radiation Exposure
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=newsarchive&sid=alM4ocsiA9PA
By Bob Van Voris and Leslie Snadowsky - March 6, 2010 00:01 EST
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. energy company, must pay $1.2 million to 16 Louisiana workers who claimed they were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation when they were cleaning used oil drilling pipes, a jury said.
A state court jury in Gretna, Louisiana, yesterday awarded the men amounts ranging from $10,000 to $175,000 each, finding that they face an increased risk of cancer as a result of their exposure to naturally occurring radioactive material in the used pipes between 1977 and 1992.
“It was not what I was hoping for,” said one of the men, David Perry, who was awarded $10,000.
The owners of the property where the men worked won a $1 billion punitive jury verdict against Exxon in 2001 for radioactive contamination from the pipe-cleaning operation. The punitive judgment was reduced to $112 million and paid, with interest, after Exxon’s appeals failed.
The claims are among thousands pending against Exxon and other oil companies over allegations that they put employees and residents near pipe-cleaning operations at risk from radiation- related diseases, particularly cancer.
- - - SNIP - - -
Exxon denied it did anything wrong and argued that as none of the plaintiffs claimed radiation-related health problems, they couldn’t recover damages. The company claimed the radiation levels at the Harvey site weren’t high enough to cause illness.
The case is Lester v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 630-402, District Court, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana (Gretna).
To contact the reporters on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net; Leslie Snadowsky in Gretna, Louisiana state court at bugsynola@aol.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
= = = = = =
Dangerously 'hot' water in Hudson Oaks - News 8 Investigates:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/
radioactive-Water-70661997.html
by BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV wfaa.com Posted on November 20, 2009 at 10:00 PM Updated Monday, Nov 23 at 7:51 PM
Related: (Links are on URL above. Ed.)
Hudson Oaks safe drinking water violation report
Hudson Oaks 2008 water quality report (PDF)
More stories about Barnett Shale drilling
State issues violation notice over Aledo's radioactive water levels
Radioactive water identified in Wise County town
Report: Unsafe tap water can still be legal
News 8 reports spur change for air quality in Barnett Shale
HUDSON OAKS — Crystal clear, clean-tasting well water from the City of Hudson Oaks is enjoyed by both the people who live and work here, and also by the people who come here to shop or eat.
Much of that water is coming out of city water supply tank No. 7, which is fed by a 230-foot well.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality tests this and all public water wells regularly for contaminants as well as for radioactive elements, among them, gross alpha-particles.
According to state records, on January 31, 2007, the gross alpha reading on well No. 7 was normal: 10.6. The EPA maximum limit for safety is 15.
But six months later, the gross alpha-particle reading suddenly jumped to 40 -- nearly three times the acceptable limit.
By September 2008, the number went even higher, to 58 -- a toxicity level nearly 400 percent higher than the acceptable limit.
The drinking water for the entire City of Hudson Oaks was harboring dangerous levels of radioactive particles until March of this year. That's when state officials notified Hudson Oaks city officials of their findings.
"Once we found out about it, we started the process of just taking that well off line," said Patrick Lawler, Director of Operations for Hudson Oaks.
The reason, according to a newsletter published by the city: "Some people who drink water containing alpha emitters in excess of the MCL [maximum contaminant level] over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer."
So why don't Hudson Oaks residents appear to be concerned?
Parker County resident Kathy Chruscielski says she thinks she knows. "Because the notice is buried in this report," she said, holding the annual drinking water newsletter sent out by Hudson Oaks.
Chruscielski independently monitors water quality data in the Barnett Shale, and she almost missed it.
"From what I have seen -- particularly the alpha particles -- you don't want to ingest those, and they are bone-seeking carcinogens with a 1,600 year half-life that accumulates in the tissue," Chruscielski said. "I am not comfortable with that."
MORE:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/
radioactive-Water-70661997.html
= = = = =
Is New York’s Marcellus Shale Too Hot to Handle?
http://www.propublica.org/article/
is-the-marcellus-shale-too-hot-to-handle-1109
by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Nov. 9, 2009, 5:10 a.m.
As New York gears up for a massive expansion of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, state officials have made a potentially troubling discovery about the wastewater created by the process: It's radioactive. And they have yet to say how they'll deal with it.
The information comes from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, which analyzed 13 samples of wastewater brought thousands of feet to the surface from drilling and found that they contain levels of radium-226, a derivative of uranium, as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink.
The findings, if backed up with more tests, have several implications: The energy industry would likely face stiffer regulations and expenses, and have more trouble finding treatment plants to accept its waste -- if any would at all. Companies would need to license their waste handlers and test their workers for radioactive exposure, and possibly ship waste across the country. And the state would have to sort out how its laws for radioactive waste might apply to drilling and how the waste could impact water supplies and the environment.
What is less clear is how the wastewater may affect the health of New Yorkers, since the danger depends on how much radiation people are exposed to and how they are exposed to it. Radium is known to cause bone, liver and breast cancers, and the EPA publishes exposure guidelines for it, but there is still disagreement over exactly how dangerous low-level doses can be to workers who handle it, or to the public.
MORE:
http://www.propublica.org/article/
is-the-marcellus-shale-too-hot-to-handle-1109
= = = = = = =
Radioactive water identified in Wise County town
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/
Chico-Hot-Water-78444897.html
by BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV wfaa.com Posted on December 4, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Updated Sunday, Dec 6 at 10:19 AM
Related: (Links are URL above. Ed.)
City of Chico
Radioactive water identified in Wise County town
News 8 Investigates: Dangerously 'hot' water in Hudson Oaks
State issues violation notice over Aledo's radioactive water levels
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Web site
Report: Unsafe tap water can still be legal
Dallas neighbors wary of natural gas drilling plans
CHICO, Texas — Another North Texas town, another public water well contaminated with radioactivity.
The addition of Chico, in northwestern Wise County, makes four towns or communities that have been forced to shut down a water supply recently due to unsafe levels of radioactive particles.
It began with News 8's discovery of three public water wells in Parker County that have — in the past few months or days — been identified as contaminated.
The problem involves unacceptable levels of cancer-causing radionuclides in Hudson Oaks and in two water supplies in nearby Aledo.
MORE:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/
Chico-Hot-Water-78444897.html
==================
17. WATCH: Supreme Court Rejects Privacy Rights for Corporations in FOIA Cases
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/2/headlines/
supreme_court_rejects_privacy_rights_for_corporations_in_foia_cases
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled corporations have no right to "personal privacy" when it comes to government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. The unanimous decision bears on the telecom giant AT&T’s effort to prevent the release of government documents in a case with the Federal Communications Commission dating back to 2004. AT&T had argued it should be exempted from the Freedom of Information Act request because corporations are defined as "persons" under U.S. law.
==================
18. Mountain Lake Park, Maryland Adopts Community Rights Ordinance That Bans Drilling for Natural Gas
http://www.celdf.org/
celdf-press-release-mountain-lake-park-maryland-adopts-community-rights-ordinance-that-bans-drilling-for-natural-gas-
“The people have rights. Corporations can’t be licensed to take them away” – Mayor Leo Martin
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Pennsylvania Community Rights Network
P.O. Box 2016 Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17201
www.celdf.org
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 3, 2011
CONTACT: Ben Price, (717) 254-3233 benprice@celdf.org
(Thursday, March 3, 2011) Mountain Lake Park in Garrett County, Maryland tonight joined Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in adopting unanimously a Community Bill of Rights that also “removes legal powers from gas extraction corporations within the Town.”
Ordinance No. 2011-01 was introduced to Council by Mayor Leo Martin for a First Reading of the bill, titled Mountain Lake Park’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance, on January 6th of this year, and a public hearing on the measure was held February 3rd.
At the heart of the Ordinance is this statement of law: “It shall be unlawful for any corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas within the Town of Mountain Lake Park, with the exception of gas wells installed and operating at the time of enactment of this Ordinance.”
The bill also recognizes the right of the people to “a form of governance where they live which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate entities and their directors and managers shall not enjoy special privileges or powers under the law which make community majorities subordinate to them.”
Following adoption of the ordinance, Mayor Martin commented: "Our town government is responsible for the health, safety, and rights our citizens. When the county, state, and federal governments fail in their duties it is our duty to take action.”
Also included in the ordinance is a local Bill of Rights that asserts legal protections for the right to water; the rights of natural communities and eco-systems; the right to local self-government, and the right of the people to enforce and protect these rights by banning corporate activities that would violate them, through the police powers of their municipal government.
The bill was modeled after the Ordinance adopted on November 16th of last year by the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. “If Pittsburgh can do it, we can do it,” said the Mayor, as he introduced the Ordinance in January, and he indicated that other Maryland municipalities should take a similar stand.
The gas extraction technique known as “fracking” has been cited as a threat to surface and ground water throughout the region, and has been blamed for fatal explosions, the contamination of drinking water, local streams, the air and soil. Collateral damage includes lost property value, ingestion of toxins by livestock, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and threatened loss of organic certification for farmers in the affected communities.
Ben Price, Projects Director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, applauded the Mayor for taking a stand on behalf of community rights. “The State says Maryland residents don’t have the right to decide whether or not they get fracked and that only the corporate-lobbied members of the legislature have the wisdom to decide how much harm should be legalized through state-issued permits. We don’t have a gas drilling problem. We have a democracy problem. Its symptoms are the State’s refusal to recognize the right to local, community self-government, and the issuance of permits to drilling corporations against the consent of the governed.”
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, headquartered in Chambersburg, has been working with people in Pennsylvania since 1995 to assert their fundamental rights to democratic local self-governance, and to enact laws which end destructive and rights-denying corporate action aided and abetted by state and federal governments.
~ 30 ~
=================
19. RESOURCE: Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund
http://celdf.live2.radicaldesigns.org/index.php
(LINKS are on URL abover. Ed.)
CELDF facebook page: CELDF - Facebook
Pennsylvania Community Rights Network facebook page: PCRN - Facebook
Northwestern chapter of PCRN Blog: NWPACRN
==================
20. New York Times investigative pieces on natural gas fracking
Pressure Limits Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas
Amid pressure, regulators are divided over the scope of their powers, leading to limited enforcement and narrowed research.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/us/
04gas.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Federal Officials Say They'll Examine Fracking Practices
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/
federal-officials-say-theyll-examine-fracking-practices/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Documents: The Debate Over the Hydrofracking Study
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/04/us/
20110304_natural-gas-documents-intro.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Graphic: Lax Rules for the Natural Gas Industry
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/03/us/
20110303-natural-gas-timeline.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
The Drilling Down Series
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/us/series/
drilling_down/index.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
===================
21. Republicans attack Obama's environmental protection from all sides
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/04/
republicans-attack-obamas-environmental-protection
Environmental protection in US under attack from extremist Tea Partiers backed by big business
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent guardian.co.uk,
Friday 4 March 2011 20.05 GMT
It started on a sultry day in Houston when hundreds of protesters, mostly oil company employees, were bussed to a concert hall in their lunch hour to rally against a historic first step by Congress to reduce the pollution that causes climate change.
The event marked the start of a backlash by wealthy industry owners and conservative activists against Barack Obama's green agenda. Now it has snowballed into what green campaigners say is the greatest assault on environmental protection that America has ever seen.
MORE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/04/
republicans-attack-obamas-environmental-protection
==================
22. (Canada) Fresh Issue for Spring Election: Democracy
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/02/28/
fresh-issue-for-spring-election-democracy/
Posted: 28 Feb 2011 11:36 AM PST
The odds now seem to favour a spring election, as Stephen Harper headed out across the country with his cabinet ministers to announce over $300 million in goodies. In anticipating yet another campaign, it is worth remembering that without the NDP, Canadian politics (outside Quebec) would look an awful lot like the U.S.: two political parties, economically and socially right-wing, both with a recent history of dismantling the activist state and gutting its revenue base through huge tax cuts. All the while pretending to compete for our hearts and minds.
To be sure, the Conservatives — who should rightfully be called the Republican Party — are by several degrees worse than the Liberal Party. Stephen Harper runs a ruthless autocracy with contempt for every aspect of democratic governance from watch dog organizations to parliamentary committees to access to information, and topped off with a relentless assault on the political culture through the defunding of civil society.
It now turns out that the Harper government may be much more corrupt than even the existing record shows. The Canadian Press did an FOI on the Integrity Commissioner’s office formerly headed up by the now discredited Christiane Ouimet. The documents revealed 42 of the 228 cases under scrutiny involved alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars, approximately 50 involved charges of “gross mismanagement” and an incredible 60 complaints involved contraventions of Acts of Parliament. Not a single complaint resulted in any action.
MORE:
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/02/28/
fresh-issue-for-spring-election-democracy/
===================
23. Join the Global Resistance - Independent media is battling against disinformation
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23058
Global Research, February 10, 2011
There can be no denying it: these are exciting times and changes are unfolding at unprecedented rates. Few can claim not to have some knowledge of the widespread protests that have been rocking Tunisia and Egypt this past month, and indeed the word "revolution" is on many people's lips.
We are witnessing large-scale unrest, entire populations who refuse to be exploited and continue living in poverty at the hands of a small ruling elite, manipulated by foreign interests, who prosper while their nations flounder.
Does this pattern sound familiar? This, in fact, describes the undercurrents of populations not just in faraway countries; the spirit of resistance is bubbling up in our own backyards and across neighbouring borders.
Here at Global Research, our correspondents and volunteers are devoting a great deal of time and energy into covering and analyzing the news as it happens. We are exceedingly grateful for their efforts and excited to convey their research through our websites, to ensure it reaches as many readers as possible.
We know that many of you have been forwarding our articles, posting them to blogs, linking up through Facebook and Twitter and using various means at your disposal to share this timely and critical information, and we sincerely thank you for that and encourage you to increase your efforts. Change is coming and it is crucial that we stay "in the know", now more than ever.
At the same time, we remind our readers that in order to maintain our websites and projects at Global Research, we rely 100% on the financial support of our readers. All that we do is entirely thanks to you.
We remind you that our mandate is to deliver articles and videos as broadly as possible, which is why you will never have to pay to access the information.
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And if you are already a member or have donated in the past, we kindly ask that you consider making another donation at this time. Every amount, great or small, contributes directly to our operations and ensures that we can be on top of important issues as they unfold.
We thank you for your readership and encourage you to visit our Shopcart, Donation page and Membership page and find out how you can help Global Research continue to be the reliable source of completely independent news that you have come to rely on.
With appreciation and best wishes,
- The Global Research Team
P.S. Did you know that America's foreign policy and unrest in the Middle East are directly related to the global economic collapse? Pick up our latest full-length book, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century, and explore these timely themes in-depth. (More info available through Facebook)
Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers.
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index.php?context=section§ionName=donate
1. NEW BLOG: Fracking Canada
2. ERCB Report 2011-A: Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework—Jurisdictional Review (regards USA, AB, SK, BC)
3. Unconventional Oil & Gas in Western Canada/MAP/Graphics
4. Bakken oil play technology goes global
5. Description of testing technology on Unconventional Shale Gas Frac Flowback and Produced Water
6. SCEENR CALLS ON CANADIANS TO GET INVOLVED IN DEBATE ON CANADA’S ENERGY FUTURE
7. PetroWorth perplexed by opposition
8. WATCH: Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher Found Guilty of Sabotaging Oil and Gas Auction; Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
9. ProPublica's Guide to Fracking
10. WATCH: Natural Gas Industry Attacks Oscar-Nominated Film “Gasland” For Chronicling Devastating Impact of Hydraulic Fracking
11. WATCH: Leaked EPA Documents Expose Decades-Old Effort To Hide Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction
12. Community Health Survey Shows Shale Gas Threatens Human Health
13. (Two) 2 Faulkner Co. injection wells causing earthquakes?
14. Tell Scott Walker, Republican Senators & Koch brothers: Stop Fracking Water and Wisconsin Workers
15. Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster
16. FRACKING RADIATION
17. WATCH: Supreme Court Rejects Privacy Rights for Corporations in FOIA Cases
18. Mountain Lake Park, Maryland Adopts Community Rights Ordinance That Bans Drilling for Natural Gas
19. RESOURCE: Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund
20. New York Times investigative pieces on natural gas fracking
21. Republicans attack Obama's environmental protection from all sides
22. (Canada) Fresh Issue for Spring Election: Democracy
23. Join the Global Resistance - Independent media is battling against disinformation
=============
1. NEW BLOG: Fracking Canada
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/
...information concerning the practice of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') and its threat to the Canadian environment as well as the culture, mental health, and physical welfare of Canadians.
==============
2. ERCB Report 2011-A: Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework—Jurisdictional Review (regards USA, AB, SK, BC)
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/
PTARGS_0_0_302_0_0_43/http%3B/ercbContent/publishedcontent/publish/ercb_home/publications_catalogue/publications_available/reports/r2011_a.aspx
January 28, 2011
(NOTE***- - document covers many jurisdictions in USA, and Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia. Ed.)
Report 2011-A - Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework - Jurisdictional Review
The ERCB has initiated a corporate-wide Unconventional Gas Regulatory Framework Project to develop and implement a new regulatory framework for the development of Alberta's CBM, shale gas, and tight gas by 2011.
The objective of the Jurisdictional Review was to learn how other jurisdictions were regulating unconventional gas development, what issues were encountered, and how these were managed within the regulatory framework.
This report summarizes the findings of the Jurisdictional Review Task Team and identifies opportunities to be considered for Alberta's unconventional gas regulatory framework.
Released: January 28, 2011
Available on the ERCB Web site
View PDF file for full text:
http://www.ercb.ca/docs/documents/reports/r2011-A.pdf
================
3. Unconventional Oil & Gas in Western Canada/MAP/Graphics
http://ridgelinecanada.com/w_uoil_gas/
"While hydraulic fracturing in particular has been the focus of much controversy, our analysis indicates that the most significant environmental risks associated with the development of shale gas are similar to those associated with conventional onshore gas, including gas migration and groundwater contamination due to faulty well construction, blowouts, and above-ground leaks and spill of wastewater and chemicals used during drilling and hydraulic fracturing." - Worldwatch Institute, July 2010
Western Canada’s Rapidly Emerging Unconventional Oil and Gas Industry
Ridgeline is targeting water treatment, environmental consulting and soil remediation in Western Canada’s rapidly emerging unconventional oil and gas industry[1]. Based on the enormous success of Alberta’s Pembina Cardium shale oil play, the Bakken and Lower Shaunavon shale oil plays in Saskatchewan, and British Columbia’s Horn River and Montney shale gas plays, unconventional resource development in the WCSB is expanding more rapidly than anticipated. Consistently positive results using water intensive extraction and production techniques including horizontal multi-stage fracturing, combined with strong economics, have increased demand for technologies and services to optimize resource recovery while reducing associated environmental impacts.
MORE:
http://ridgelinecanada.com/w_uoil_gas/
====================
4. Bakken oil play technology goes global
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/03/03/
bakken-oil-play-technology-goes-global/
Claudia Cattaneo March 3, 2011 – 5:10 pm
The world is watching and learning from the Bakken oil shale play, Houston-based Ryder Scott Petroleum Consultants said Thursday in its Reservoir Solutions newsletter.
Net importers of oil, including China, France and Poland, are studying the Bakken as a model for their own countries, which contain geologically similar deposits, the firm said.
Companies from countries as far away as Australia have interest in the Bakken, a mature oil reservoir that straddles North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan, brought back to life by drilling advancements developed in Canada and the United States.
The unconventional play has become a proving ground for advanced drilling-and-completions technology, including multi-stage hydraulic fracturing.
MORE:
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/03/03/
bakken-oil-play-technology-goes-global/
==================
5. Description of testing technology on Unconventional Shale Gas Frac Flowback and Produced Water
http://ridgelinecanada.com/w_sample/
Sample & Field TrialsIn 2010, the Company successfully completed a series of sample and field trials for the treatment of fracture (“frac”) flowback water in an unconventional gas basin located in north eastern British Columbia. Also during 2010, the Company completed sample trials for the treatment of frac flowback water from unconventional light oil operations in Saskatchewan’s Bakken formation and sample trails for the treatment of oil sands tailings in north eastern Alberta.
- - - SNIP - - -
Summary of Treatment Results
Through the experimental processes discussed above Ridgeline has demonstrated that, with the exception of zinc, all pollutants were successfully reduced to below government determined clean water thresholds for treated water. These tests where primarily done to determine if the technology could sucessfully “Hyrdro crack” the fluids. The tests were successful, however secondary and tertiary treatments were not applied which in Ridgeline opinion would have significantly knock down the zinc component.
===================
6. SCEENR CALLS ON CANADIANS TO GET INVOLVED IN DEBATE ON CANADA’S ENERGY FUTURE
http://www.canadianenergyfuture.ca/?p=1529
(OTTAWA) Jan 31, 2011 – The Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources (SCEENR) started tweeting in October 2010 and the feedback was extremely positive. As the first Canadian Parliamentary Committee on Twitter, we are working towards finding better ways to engage with Canadians about Canada’s energy future.
Starting in February 2011, SCEENR will be asking Canadians to submit questions they would like senators to ask witnesses during public hearings. Details about upcoming appearances by individuals or organizations presenting to the committee can be found on the committee study website in the meetings section or can be obtained by following the committee on Twitter: @SCEENR_SAYS.
Questions can be tweeted or emailed with the word Twitter in the subject line to:
SCEENR-CSEERN@sen.parl.gc.ca.
=================
7. PetroWorth perplexed by opposition
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/
search?q=cache:QuJ8N5hF17oJ:www.porthawkesburyreporter.com/stories.asp%3Fid%3D5113+petroworth+perplexed&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&source=www.google.com
Matt Draper February 10, 2011
TORONTO- The president of an oil and gas company with lands in the area said he’s disappointed with the outcomes of some recent local meetings.
Last year, PetroWorth, a junior oil and gas exploration company, announced it selected a drill target in its Lake Ainslie adjacent property. On February 10, PetroWorth president Neal Mednick and other representatives met with residents at the Waycobah community hall.
“It was a very disturbing experience,” said Mednick. “People seemed to be very upset over our proposed well. They don’t seem to believe anything that we’re telling them and it’s a very difficult issue to deal with.”
Mednick said the company is proposing to drill a 1,200 meter vertical well, noting there have been hundreds of thousands of similar wells set up across the world. He said the well will not pose a threat to the environment or any resident. There is, he said, the potential for jobs that could benefit the community.
One of the main concerns about the well is the potential for slick water hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas or “fracking.”
Mednick told attendees the company has no plans to frack the proposed well but said he was accused of lying.
- - - SNIP - - - -
Mednick also commented on a recent resolution by Inverness Municipal Council to support a province-wide ban on fracking. The resolution came following a presentation by the Inverness chapter of the Council of Canadians and comments from a number of residents.
“It really is amazing how easily ignorance can prevail and how difficult it is to educate people,” Mednick said.
“To my understanding, there is nobody on the Inverness council and certainly nobody advising them that has any reasonable grasp of what hydraulic fracking is all about. To make that kind of a decision just because they are being pressured by a number of extremists just seems to me to be irresponsible.”
=================
8. WATCH: Environmentalist Tim DeChristopher Found Guilty of Sabotaging Oil and Gas Auction; Faces up to 10 Years in Jail
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/
environmentalist_tim_dechristopher_found_guilty_of
A federal jury in Salt Lake City has convicted environmental activist Tim DeChristopher of two felony counts for disrupting the auction of more than 100,000 acres of federal land for oil and gas drilling. DeChristopher was charged in December 2008 with infiltrating a public auction and disrupting the Bush administration’s last-minute move to auction off oil and gas exploitation rights on vast swaths of federal land. DeChristopher joins us today to talk about the verdict. Watch/Listen/Read
====================
9. ProPublica's Guide to Fracking
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-drilling-debate-heats-up-read-our-guide
Posted: March 2, 2011 12:47 PM ProPublica
It's been a busy couple of weeks in the fracking and natural gas drilling debate, with the documentary film Gasland nominated for an Academy Award and a front-page story in Sunday's New York Times on the dangers posed by the technology.
The Times story underscored the findings of dozens of reports that ProPublica has published over the past three years, adding new details from previously undisclosed government documents about the amount of radioactive water produced by drilling.
The increasing public interest in the possible dangers of gas drilling comes as the world's energy companies are placing a multi-billion dollar bet on its potential. At the request of Vice President Dick Cheney, Congress exempted gas drilling from federal regulation in 2005. Since then, industry officials have successfully lobbied against calls in Washington to change the law, calls that have intensified in recent months with new attention on the issue.
For those who want to dive deeper into the complex science and regulatory issues of fracking, we offer a quick breakdown of the key issues.
It's a subject reporter Abrahm Lustgarten has been covering for ProPublica since July of 2008. In the years since then, Lustgarten and his ProPublica colleagues have criss-crossed the country, interviewing drillers, industry officials and residents from Wyoming to Colorado to Pennsylvania. To listen to a podcast from Lustgarten, click here . To read a detailed account of one man's fight against water contamination in Wyoming, click here. (Lustgarten received the 2009 George Polk Award for environmental reporting for his investigation of hydraulic fracturing as well as the 2009 Stokes Award for Best Energy Writing from the National Press Foundation.)
Below is a list of 15 of our most important stories, arranged by topic so you can quickly find the information you need.
http://www.propublica.org/article/
natural-gas-drilling-debate-heats-up-read-our-guide
For a list of all the 100 or so stories we've written about gas drilling since 2008, you can also visit our gas drilling home page.
Buried Secrets Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat:http://www.propublica.org/series/
buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
==================
10. WATCH: Natural Gas Industry Attacks Oscar-Nominated Film “Gasland” For Chronicling Devastating Impact of Hydraulic Fracking
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/
natural_gas_industry_attacks_oscar_nominated
The environmental contamination and human health risk associated with the extraction of natural gas using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” was little known across the United States for years, until a documentary film brought the issue to the national stage. Josh Fox directed the film Gasland, which chronicles the devastation affecting communities where fracking is taking place, and the influence of the natural gas industry over regulation of the techniques and chemicals used in the process. The industry aggressively attacked the film, especially when it was nominated for an Academy Award this year.
= = = =
Anti-fracing film "Gasland" leaves Oscars empty-handed (Trailer is below. Ed.)
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/blog/energy/
2011/02/gasland-oscar-result.html
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Lauren Lawley Head
Date: Monday, February 28, 2011, 8:18am EST
"Gasland," Josh Fox's documentary that slams the natural gas industry's use of fracing technology, failed to take home an Oscar at last night's Academy Awards.
Another business-oriented movie, Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job," took home the award for best documentary instead.
The nomination of "Gasland," much like the movie itself, drew sharp criticism from the industry. To see why, check out the movie trailer to the right of this post. Among the most recent to weigh in was former Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger. Hanger, who has long been a critic of the film and the way in which Fox edited an interview with him that appeared in the movie, took to his blog Saturday to explain in detail why he feels the movie paints a distorted picture of the natural gas industry, particularly as it compares to its coal and oil counterparts.
"'Gasland' seeks to inflame public opinion to shutdown the natural gas industry and is effective," he wrote. "In pursuing this goal, 'Gasland' treats cavalierly facts both by omitting important ones and getting wrong others."
Toward the end of the post, however, Hanger says he believes Fox has good intentions.
"Mr. Fox is giving voice to real concerns and speaking for some people that really have been negatively impacted by drilling who should not be ignored," Hanger wrote. "He would be a more convincing and responsible voice if he were more careful."
= = = =
Oscar Buzz: Former DEP Sec. Hanger Rooting Against ‘Gasland’
http://www.politicspa.com/
buzz-former-dep-sec-hanger-rooting-against-%E2%80%98gasland%E2%80%99-at-oscars-tonight/21885/
By Keegan Gibson, Contributing Writer February 27, 2011
For those of you who hoped someday to see Oscar news on PoliticsPA, your day has come.
John Hanger, the immediate former Secretary of the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), said via a blog post that he is rooting against ‘Gasland,’ a documentary about the impact of Marcellus shale drilling in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country. AN interview with Hanger features prominently in the film.
“Despite Josh Fox having real roots in Pennsylvania, and though normally I root for all things Pennsylvanian, I am not pulling for Gasland to win an Oscar for Best Documentary,” Hanger says of the filmmaker.
- - - SNIP - - -
“In the last year, I have interacted with Josh Fox. While some of his critics would not agree, I believe he has good intentions.
“Mr. Fox is giving voice to real concerns and speaking for some people that really have been negatively impacted by drilling who should not be ignored. He would be a more convincing and responsible voice if he were more careful. Indeed we all should strive to be more careful.”
= = = = =
WATCH: GASLAND Trailer:
http://video.aol.ca/video-detail/gasland-trailer/
535521842/?icid=VIDLRVMOV09
=================
11. WATCH: Leaked EPA Documents Expose Decades-Old Effort To Hide Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/4/
leaked_epa_documents_expose_decades_old
Efforts by lawmakers and regulators to force the federal government to better police the natural gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" have been thwarted for the past 25 years, according to an expose in the New York Times. Studies by scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on fracking have been repeatedly narrowed in scope by superiors and important findings have been removed under pressure from the industry. The news comes as the EPA is conducting a broad study of the risks of natural gas drilling with preliminary results scheduled to be delivered next year. Joining us is Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, a firm that tracks environmental spills and releases across the country based in Ithaca, New York, where fracking is currently taking place.
===================
12. Community Health Survey Shows Shale Gas Threatens Human Health
http://earthworksaction.org/PR_DISH_Hea ... elease.cfm
Groups, Town of DISH urge Texas regulators to act immediately in behalf of impacted citizens
EARTHWORKS * Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project * Town of DISH
2009 Press Releases December 17, 2009
DISH, Texas, 12/17 -- Today, public interest groups and the Town of DISH released the final results of a health survey of area residents focused on the impacts of Barnett Shale gas infrastructure. The results show that more than half of surveyed maladies can be attributed to toxics first revealed in September in a DISH-commissioned study of area air quality. Based on the results, EARTHWORKS, the Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project and the Town of DISH are calling on state regulators to immediately perform an in-depth health investigation, implement continuous 24-hour emissions monitoring, and establish a same-day community odor and symptom tracking system.
"We need action immediately," said Calvin Tillman, DISH mayor. "I get odor complaints from residents almost everyday, and we now know that these odors and emissions are harmful to health."
After years of state inaction, the community-based health survey conducted by Earthworks and the Texas Oil & Gas Accountability Project compiled information on residents' medical background, proximity to shale gas infrastructure, experience of odor events, and associated health symptoms. The report reveals that area residents are experiencing odor events as often as two times per day and associate the majority of these odors with shale gas infrastructure.
"What is most revealing is that the community is reporting health symptoms that overlap significantly with the known health effects of chemicals already detected," says Wilma Subra, of Earthworks and author of the survey. "We are seeing not only respiratory ailments and headaches, but brain disorders, pre-cancerous lesions and impairment of motor skills."
Earthworks launched the health survey in September when Wolf Eagle Environmental and the Town of DISH released air-sampling results showing neurotoxins and carcinogens exceeding the state regulatory limits.
MORE:
http://earthworksaction.org/PR_DISH_Hea ... elease.cfm
= = = = = =
Town of Dish files lawsuit against six gas companies
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/
DISH-Lawsuit-117172253.html
by CRAIG CIVALE WFAA Posted on March 1, 2011 at 12:15 PM Updated Tuesday, Mar 1 at 12:21 PM
DISH, Texas- One town's fight to prevent gas well drilling may now be heading to court.
The Denton County town of Dish is suing gas companies over health and property concerns it blames on drilling.
Dish's mayor announced he was leaving because of growing health concerns for his family. Now the town has filed a lawsuit against six gas or pipeline companies who leaders blame for polluting its air and water.
Dish is home to nearly 200 people, 60 gas wells and now a lawsuit to fight against the companies who put them in that area.
The suit claims drilling has created "significant public health concerns..." and "deprivation of the enjoyment of their property..." which continue to lose value.
"Frankly, we don't have a choice, we had to do this, we don't have an option," said Charles Tillman, Dish Mayor. [ . . . ]
= = = = = =
Mayor leaving Texas town over gas drilling worries
http://www.wfaa.com/news/national/116703924.html
Associated Press Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:05 PM Updated Wednesday, Feb 23 at 2:02 AM
DISH, Texas (AP) — The mayor of a tiny rural town at the heart of Texas' natural gas drilling controversy says he's leaving over concerns about his children's health problems.
Dish Mayor Calvin Tillman said he will keep fighting — although not as a politician — to make sure energy companies follow state and federal air quality regulations. Town commissioners can remove Tillman if he moves away from Dish before the May election, when his term expires.
- - - SNIP - - -
Dish residents have complained about noise, odors and health problems that include nosebleeds, pain and circulation loss.
Energy companies say they're operating in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.
==================
13. (Two) 2 Faulkner Co. injection wells causing earthquakes?
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/
story.aspx?storyid=146244&catid=2
Wayne Cross March 3, 2011
The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has called an emergency meeting to consider shutting down two injection wells in Faulkner County that have been linked to earthquakes in the region
LITTLE ROCK (KTHV)-- The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission has called an emergency meeting to consider shutting down two injection wells in Faulkner County that have been linked to earthquakes in the region.
Commission officials said Wednesday there was enough evidence to request an emergency cease order to stop activities of two injection wells, one outside Guy owned by Chesapeake Operating Inc. and the other near Greenbrier owned by Clarita Operating LLC. The special meeting has been called for Friday.
Geologists have been studying quakes in the Greenbrier-Guy area for months to determine if there was a connection between the seismic activity and activities of gas-drilling companies in the Fayetteville Shale formation. Attention has focused on injection wells used to pump into the ground the wastewater from drilling of gas wells.
Arkansas residents in the Greenbrier, Guy area were rattled Sunday night when a 4.7 earthquake struck the area.
Chesapeake Energy's Danny Games released the below statement Wednesday afternoon.
"We understand the concerns of citizens who reside in northern Faulkner County and respect the Commission staff's desire to address perceived issues associated with the seismic activity. However, we remain very confident that an objective review of the facts and science do not support the proposed action. We have dedicated extensive resources and have consulted with several very qualified geophysicists and seismologists to better understand the science, including the natural seismicity of the area that long pre-dates our operations. We will evaluate our options and continue to provide the best information possible to the staff and Commission."
MORE:
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/
story.aspx?storyid=146244&catid=2
================
14. Tell Scott Walker, Republican Senators & Koch brothers: Stop Fracking Water and Wisconsin Workers
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/
sendsm.aspx?id=wi_capitol_occupation
By New Earth Rising, a project of Ecological Internet March 2, 2011
ACTION ALERTS (2) UPDATE, URGENT, PLEASE SHARE WIDELY!
EI currently has two emergency alerts running that remain highly topical and allow us, the global family, to impact specific battles for ecology, worker and freedom rights. The first is the amazing occupation of the Wisconsin state capitol for 17 days by up to 125K people, the extent of the Cheddar Rebellion which is being willfully ignored by corporate media. The second email protest below regarding fracking and water destruction is particularly appropriate given that the conservative Koch Brothers and natural gas frackers are funding the GOPs and WI Governor Scott Walker's union busting, denial of collective bargaining human right, elimination of key environmental programs including recycling mandate, and plundering of WI education to eliminate capital gains and other taxes to the rich. Stand with Wisconsin workers, teachers and many others in resisting abject tyranny!
EI's New Earth Rising project believes in the urgency of a global movement to achieve ecology, worker, freedom, equity, justice and sustainability rights for all. PLEASE FORWARD via email and social network widely. Emerging protests are the beginning of something positive for workers living decent lives.
When you end the first alert below, you are automatically forwarded to the second, after which go to EI's New Earth Rising affinity campaign for global freedom on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NewEarthRising and on twitter at http://www.facebook.com/2NewEarthRising
TAKE ACTION FOR WISCONSIN WORKERS HERE NOW:
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/alerts/
sendsm.aspx?id=wi_capitol_occupation
Stand with brave protesters for human rights in Wisconsin; and as the deadline nears to clear the capitol, demand that peaceful protesters and capitol occupiers are not be met with violence or arrested. Demand that Darth Walker begin negotiating immediately or resign. And that the Koch brothers stop buying state governments and destroying water with natural gas fracking. Forward and share widely at this important moment in the New Earth Rising, as the media is not telling the story.
TAKE ACTION HERE AGAINST KOCH FRACKING WATER AND WORKERS:
http://www.ecoearth.org/shared/alerts/
sendsm.aspx?id=no_fracking_way
Natural gas is being touted as a solution to America's growing and already clearly unsustainable energy needs, yet its production through hydraulic fracturing (fracking) severely threatens the nation's water, land, air and health. Let the U.S. President and Koch Brothers know the global family and biosphere need bold leadership right now to stop toxic natural gas fracking and solve other global ecology issues. Given the preciousness of water in a climate changing world, it is critical to global ecological sustainability that this land pulverizing, toxic water destroying process be banned. We must not allow every last ecosystem to be destroyed before we transition from unsustainable energy use to truly renewable energy.
DISCUSS THIS ALERT:
http://www.facebook.com/NewEarthRising---
Please support Ecological Internet's campaigns to protect and restore old
forests at
http://www.rainforestportal.org/shared/donate/
================
15. Predicting the World’s Next Water Pollution Disaster
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/
101221-next-water-pollution-disasters-/
From mining messes to hydraulic fracturing contamination
Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News Published December 21, 2010
This story is part of a special National Geographic News series on global water issues.
When an estimated 184 million gallons (697 million liters) of industrial waste spilled into Hungary’s Marcal River in early October, arsenic and mercury threatened to taint water supplies and degrade rivers, both at the site and for hundreds of miles downstream. In some ways, Hungary’s toxic mud disaster was a wake-up call, shining a spotlight on potential water pollution hotspots around the globe. (Read more about the Hungary spill.)
[ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/
101012-toxic-spill-hungary-danube-river-water/ ]
Where might disaster strike next?
- - - SNIP - - -
Gas and Oil Extraction
The drive to drill for critical new sources of oil and gas is in motion around the world, but nowhere is it more frenetic at the moment than in the Marcellus region, which sits above a 389-million-year-old rock formation cutting a 95,000 square-mile (246,000 square-kilometer) arc across West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.
The site is home to a natural gas reserve of between 50 trillion and 500 trillion cubic feet, potentially second in size only to the Pars field of Iran and Qatar, and lies in the energy-hungry eastern United States.
Development of the natural gas reserves in the region is in its infancy. The benefits of extracting all that gas include an enormous boost to local economies and an important domestic source of energy that could provide power for decades. But the future of freshwater is high among environmental concerns associated with The Great Shale Gas Rush. And the University of Pittsburgh’s Conrad Dan Volz believes it stars with simply setting up the wells.
“People don’t think about it very often but there are serious erosion and sedimentation issues that go along with clearing three- to five-acre well pads. And in Pennsylvania alone they are talking about 100,000 wells or more over the next 20 to 30 years, in addition to the clearing of spaces for compressor stations, pipelines, and other infrastructure.”
Drilling also exposes sulfide-rich rock cuttings, Volz said, which once on the surface can react with air and water to produce a sulfuric solution somewhat akin to acid mine draining.
These aquatic impacts must be considered even when drilling proceeds according to plan. But, as oil spills in the Gulf and elsewhere have made quite clear, drilling does not always proceed according to plan.
“Every well has a potential to leak gas or oil over time,” Volz said, despite efforts to protect water supplies and prevent loss of gas by lining wells with steel and concrete casings. “Conduits for gas and liquid to escape and go into water aquifers appear over time everywhere oil and gas exploration occurs.”
Some residents and communities in shale regions have already experienced contaminated water, though it’s difficult to trace exactly where in the process such contaminations occurred.
Much scrutiny has been focused on the process that has recently made this mother lode of gas accessible—hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” The technique blasts a cocktail of chemically laden water and sand into a well to create a mini-earthquake that fractures the shale and releases gas.
(Related: "Forcing Gas Out of Rock with Water.")
Fracking uses a lot of water, about 4 million gallons (15 million liters) of water for each frack. Some 20 to 50 percent of the watery fluid comes back out as ultra-salty brine that’s potentially laden with heavy metals. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has documented at least 130 spills since 2008.
The rest of the fluid stays deep in the shale layer at depths of 4,000 to 8,500 feet (1,220 to 2,590 meters). Industry officials say it’s harmless there and has never been proven to migrate back toward the surface, to the far shallower levels where drinking water wells are located—typically just several hundred feet below ground.
But the EPA seems less certain that the process is benign. The agency is currently conducting a peer-reviewed scientific study to investigate any possible relationships between the fracking process and drinking water.
“EPA agrees with Congress that there are serious concerns for citizens and their representatives about hydraulic fracturing’s potential impact on drinking water, human health, and the environment, which demands further study,” the agency notes on its website.
MORE:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
2010/12/101221-next-water-pollution-disasters-/
===================
16. FRACKING RADIATION
Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?hp
As drilling for natural gas started to climb sharply about 10 years ago, energy companies faced mounting criticism over an extraction process that involves pumping millions of gallons of water into the ground for each well and can leave significant amounts of hazardous contaminants in the water that comes back to the surface.
= = = = = = =
RADIATION DANGER FOUND IN OILFIELDS ACROSS THE NATION
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/03/us/
radiation-danger-found-in-oilfields-across-the-nation.html?pagewanted=1
By KEITH SCHNEIDER, Special to The New York Times
Published: December 03, 1990
MORGAN CITY, La. — Radium from the earth's crust has been brought to the surface in decades of oil drilling, causing widespread radioactive contamination of the nation's oilfields.
The problem is only now being examined by the oil industry and the Federal Government, which has no regulations to deal with oilfield radiation.
A naturally occurring radioactive material, radium has been found in every oil-producing region in the country, from Alaska to Florida, causing low levels of radiation in pumps, pipes and storage tanks. The radium leaches from mineral deposits into water that comes to the surface with oil.
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WATCH: Untreated Radioactive Wastewater from Hydrofracking Dumped in Rivers, Streams
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/2/headlines/
untreated_radioactive_wastewater_from_hydrofracking_dumped_in_rivers_streams
Newly disclosed figures show wastewater produced from the natural gas drilling practice of hydrofracking has contained radioactivity and other contaminants at levels far exceeding federal limits. According to the New York Times, internal government documents show at least 15 wells produced wastewater with more than 1,000 times the amount of radioactive elements considered acceptable. The wastewater is sometimes brought to sewage plants ill-equipped to properly treat it and then disposed into rivers supplying drinking water. At least 12 sewage plants in three states discharged partly treated wastewater and waste into rivers and streams. The documents also show government regulators and industry officials knew of the problems with the wastewater disposal and treatment but took no action. On Tuesday, protesters rallied following a New York City Council hearing on plans to open the parts of New York state watershed to drilling. This is Joe Levine of the group N.Y. H20.
Joe Levine: "They know it’s contaminating, and they’re doing it anyway. The 18,000 wells is a projection. There could likely be very many more than 18,000 wells. They haven’t been approved. They would be allowed to proceed if these regulations are completed and put out. So once they complete these regulations, gas drilling will be able to commence in the Delaware River Basin."
= = = = =
Reps. Maloney, Hinchey and Nadler call for hearings on effects of hydraulic fracturing of natural gas
http://nadler.house.gov/
index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1619&Itemid=132
“Hydrofracking” said to release radioactivity above levels that sewage treatment plants can safely handle, according to newly revealed industry and EPA reports
WEDNESDAY, 02 MARCH 2011
WASHINGTON, DC – Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today sent letters requesting hearings to assess potential concerns with hydraulic fracturing of natural gas before relevant House Committees. They issued the following joint statement about the letters:
“We hope that both Committees will hold hearings to determine whether our drinking water is safe. If federal and state regulations have not kept pace with this growing industry, we need to know before it creates a public health concern. As Representatives from New York, we are especially concerned given that some of the wastewater from hydrofracking is being transported to public sewage plants in our state. By holding hearings, Congress, the industry, and the public would have a better understanding of wastewater treatment and what further Congressional action is needed.”
Over the past weekend, The New York Times published the article ‘Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers’ describing potential environmental and health concerns resulting from so-called “hydrofracking.” These concerns include the inadequacy of sewage treatment plants which might handle the millions of gallons of wastewater that arise from the hydrofracking process, including the plants’ inability to remove potentially higher levels of radioactivity than previously known to result from the drilling method. Potential contamination of widely used sources of drinking water could also result. ##
Text of the letters follows below and may also be viewed here:
http://nadler.house.gov/
index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1619&Itemid=132
(Links: (T&I) and here (E&C) as PDFs. – not active Ed.)
New York Times, February 27, 2011: "Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?ref=us
New York Tim
es, March 2, 2011: "Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process"
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?hp ##
= = = = =
Exxon Must Pay $1.2 Million for Workers’ Radiation Exposure
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=newsarchive&sid=alM4ocsiA9PA
By Bob Van Voris and Leslie Snadowsky - March 6, 2010 00:01 EST
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. energy company, must pay $1.2 million to 16 Louisiana workers who claimed they were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation when they were cleaning used oil drilling pipes, a jury said.
A state court jury in Gretna, Louisiana, yesterday awarded the men amounts ranging from $10,000 to $175,000 each, finding that they face an increased risk of cancer as a result of their exposure to naturally occurring radioactive material in the used pipes between 1977 and 1992.
“It was not what I was hoping for,” said one of the men, David Perry, who was awarded $10,000.
The owners of the property where the men worked won a $1 billion punitive jury verdict against Exxon in 2001 for radioactive contamination from the pipe-cleaning operation. The punitive judgment was reduced to $112 million and paid, with interest, after Exxon’s appeals failed.
The claims are among thousands pending against Exxon and other oil companies over allegations that they put employees and residents near pipe-cleaning operations at risk from radiation- related diseases, particularly cancer.
- - - SNIP - - -
Exxon denied it did anything wrong and argued that as none of the plaintiffs claimed radiation-related health problems, they couldn’t recover damages. The company claimed the radiation levels at the Harvey site weren’t high enough to cause illness.
The case is Lester v. Exxon Mobil Corp., 630-402, District Court, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana (Gretna).
To contact the reporters on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net; Leslie Snadowsky in Gretna, Louisiana state court at bugsynola@aol.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
= = = = = =
Dangerously 'hot' water in Hudson Oaks - News 8 Investigates:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/
radioactive-Water-70661997.html
by BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV wfaa.com Posted on November 20, 2009 at 10:00 PM Updated Monday, Nov 23 at 7:51 PM
Related: (Links are on URL above. Ed.)
Hudson Oaks safe drinking water violation report
Hudson Oaks 2008 water quality report (PDF)
More stories about Barnett Shale drilling
State issues violation notice over Aledo's radioactive water levels
Radioactive water identified in Wise County town
Report: Unsafe tap water can still be legal
News 8 reports spur change for air quality in Barnett Shale
HUDSON OAKS — Crystal clear, clean-tasting well water from the City of Hudson Oaks is enjoyed by both the people who live and work here, and also by the people who come here to shop or eat.
Much of that water is coming out of city water supply tank No. 7, which is fed by a 230-foot well.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality tests this and all public water wells regularly for contaminants as well as for radioactive elements, among them, gross alpha-particles.
According to state records, on January 31, 2007, the gross alpha reading on well No. 7 was normal: 10.6. The EPA maximum limit for safety is 15.
But six months later, the gross alpha-particle reading suddenly jumped to 40 -- nearly three times the acceptable limit.
By September 2008, the number went even higher, to 58 -- a toxicity level nearly 400 percent higher than the acceptable limit.
The drinking water for the entire City of Hudson Oaks was harboring dangerous levels of radioactive particles until March of this year. That's when state officials notified Hudson Oaks city officials of their findings.
"Once we found out about it, we started the process of just taking that well off line," said Patrick Lawler, Director of Operations for Hudson Oaks.
The reason, according to a newsletter published by the city: "Some people who drink water containing alpha emitters in excess of the MCL [maximum contaminant level] over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer."
So why don't Hudson Oaks residents appear to be concerned?
Parker County resident Kathy Chruscielski says she thinks she knows. "Because the notice is buried in this report," she said, holding the annual drinking water newsletter sent out by Hudson Oaks.
Chruscielski independently monitors water quality data in the Barnett Shale, and she almost missed it.
"From what I have seen -- particularly the alpha particles -- you don't want to ingest those, and they are bone-seeking carcinogens with a 1,600 year half-life that accumulates in the tissue," Chruscielski said. "I am not comfortable with that."
MORE:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/
radioactive-Water-70661997.html
= = = = =
Is New York’s Marcellus Shale Too Hot to Handle?
http://www.propublica.org/article/
is-the-marcellus-shale-too-hot-to-handle-1109
by Abrahm Lustgarten ProPublica, Nov. 9, 2009, 5:10 a.m.
As New York gears up for a massive expansion of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, state officials have made a potentially troubling discovery about the wastewater created by the process: It's radioactive. And they have yet to say how they'll deal with it.
The information comes from New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, which analyzed 13 samples of wastewater brought thousands of feet to the surface from drilling and found that they contain levels of radium-226, a derivative of uranium, as high as 267 times the limit safe for discharge into the environment and thousands of times the limit safe for people to drink.
The findings, if backed up with more tests, have several implications: The energy industry would likely face stiffer regulations and expenses, and have more trouble finding treatment plants to accept its waste -- if any would at all. Companies would need to license their waste handlers and test their workers for radioactive exposure, and possibly ship waste across the country. And the state would have to sort out how its laws for radioactive waste might apply to drilling and how the waste could impact water supplies and the environment.
What is less clear is how the wastewater may affect the health of New Yorkers, since the danger depends on how much radiation people are exposed to and how they are exposed to it. Radium is known to cause bone, liver and breast cancers, and the EPA publishes exposure guidelines for it, but there is still disagreement over exactly how dangerous low-level doses can be to workers who handle it, or to the public.
MORE:
http://www.propublica.org/article/
is-the-marcellus-shale-too-hot-to-handle-1109
= = = = = = =
Radioactive water identified in Wise County town
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/
Chico-Hot-Water-78444897.html
by BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV wfaa.com Posted on December 4, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Updated Sunday, Dec 6 at 10:19 AM
Related: (Links are URL above. Ed.)
City of Chico
Radioactive water identified in Wise County town
News 8 Investigates: Dangerously 'hot' water in Hudson Oaks
State issues violation notice over Aledo's radioactive water levels
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Web site
Report: Unsafe tap water can still be legal
Dallas neighbors wary of natural gas drilling plans
CHICO, Texas — Another North Texas town, another public water well contaminated with radioactivity.
The addition of Chico, in northwestern Wise County, makes four towns or communities that have been forced to shut down a water supply recently due to unsafe levels of radioactive particles.
It began with News 8's discovery of three public water wells in Parker County that have — in the past few months or days — been identified as contaminated.
The problem involves unacceptable levels of cancer-causing radionuclides in Hudson Oaks and in two water supplies in nearby Aledo.
MORE:
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/
Chico-Hot-Water-78444897.html
==================
17. WATCH: Supreme Court Rejects Privacy Rights for Corporations in FOIA Cases
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/2/headlines/
supreme_court_rejects_privacy_rights_for_corporations_in_foia_cases
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled corporations have no right to "personal privacy" when it comes to government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. The unanimous decision bears on the telecom giant AT&T’s effort to prevent the release of government documents in a case with the Federal Communications Commission dating back to 2004. AT&T had argued it should be exempted from the Freedom of Information Act request because corporations are defined as "persons" under U.S. law.
==================
18. Mountain Lake Park, Maryland Adopts Community Rights Ordinance That Bans Drilling for Natural Gas
http://www.celdf.org/
celdf-press-release-mountain-lake-park-maryland-adopts-community-rights-ordinance-that-bans-drilling-for-natural-gas-
“The people have rights. Corporations can’t be licensed to take them away” – Mayor Leo Martin
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Pennsylvania Community Rights Network
P.O. Box 2016 Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 17201
www.celdf.org
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 3, 2011
CONTACT: Ben Price, (717) 254-3233 benprice@celdf.org
(Thursday, March 3, 2011) Mountain Lake Park in Garrett County, Maryland tonight joined Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in adopting unanimously a Community Bill of Rights that also “removes legal powers from gas extraction corporations within the Town.”
Ordinance No. 2011-01 was introduced to Council by Mayor Leo Martin for a First Reading of the bill, titled Mountain Lake Park’s Community Protection from Natural Gas Extraction Ordinance, on January 6th of this year, and a public hearing on the measure was held February 3rd.
At the heart of the Ordinance is this statement of law: “It shall be unlawful for any corporation to engage in the extraction of natural gas within the Town of Mountain Lake Park, with the exception of gas wells installed and operating at the time of enactment of this Ordinance.”
The bill also recognizes the right of the people to “a form of governance where they live which recognizes that all power is inherent in the people, that all free governments are founded on the people’s authority and consent, and that corporate entities and their directors and managers shall not enjoy special privileges or powers under the law which make community majorities subordinate to them.”
Following adoption of the ordinance, Mayor Martin commented: "Our town government is responsible for the health, safety, and rights our citizens. When the county, state, and federal governments fail in their duties it is our duty to take action.”
Also included in the ordinance is a local Bill of Rights that asserts legal protections for the right to water; the rights of natural communities and eco-systems; the right to local self-government, and the right of the people to enforce and protect these rights by banning corporate activities that would violate them, through the police powers of their municipal government.
The bill was modeled after the Ordinance adopted on November 16th of last year by the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and drafted by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. “If Pittsburgh can do it, we can do it,” said the Mayor, as he introduced the Ordinance in January, and he indicated that other Maryland municipalities should take a similar stand.
The gas extraction technique known as “fracking” has been cited as a threat to surface and ground water throughout the region, and has been blamed for fatal explosions, the contamination of drinking water, local streams, the air and soil. Collateral damage includes lost property value, ingestion of toxins by livestock, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and threatened loss of organic certification for farmers in the affected communities.
Ben Price, Projects Director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, applauded the Mayor for taking a stand on behalf of community rights. “The State says Maryland residents don’t have the right to decide whether or not they get fracked and that only the corporate-lobbied members of the legislature have the wisdom to decide how much harm should be legalized through state-issued permits. We don’t have a gas drilling problem. We have a democracy problem. Its symptoms are the State’s refusal to recognize the right to local, community self-government, and the issuance of permits to drilling corporations against the consent of the governed.”
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, headquartered in Chambersburg, has been working with people in Pennsylvania since 1995 to assert their fundamental rights to democratic local self-governance, and to enact laws which end destructive and rights-denying corporate action aided and abetted by state and federal governments.
~ 30 ~
=================
19. RESOURCE: Community Environmental Legal Defence Fund
http://celdf.live2.radicaldesigns.org/index.php
(LINKS are on URL abover. Ed.)
CELDF facebook page: CELDF - Facebook
Pennsylvania Community Rights Network facebook page: PCRN - Facebook
Northwestern chapter of PCRN Blog: NWPACRN
==================
20. New York Times investigative pieces on natural gas fracking
Pressure Limits Efforts to Police Drilling for Gas
Amid pressure, regulators are divided over the scope of their powers, leading to limited enforcement and narrowed research.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/04/us/
04gas.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Federal Officials Say They'll Examine Fracking Practices
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/
federal-officials-say-theyll-examine-fracking-practices/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Documents: The Debate Over the Hydrofracking Study
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/04/us/
20110304_natural-gas-documents-intro.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
Graphic: Lax Rules for the Natural Gas Industry
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/03/us/
20110303-natural-gas-timeline.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
The Drilling Down Series
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/us/series/
drilling_down/index.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2
===================
21. Republicans attack Obama's environmental protection from all sides
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/04/
republicans-attack-obamas-environmental-protection
Environmental protection in US under attack from extremist Tea Partiers backed by big business
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent guardian.co.uk,
Friday 4 March 2011 20.05 GMT
It started on a sultry day in Houston when hundreds of protesters, mostly oil company employees, were bussed to a concert hall in their lunch hour to rally against a historic first step by Congress to reduce the pollution that causes climate change.
The event marked the start of a backlash by wealthy industry owners and conservative activists against Barack Obama's green agenda. Now it has snowballed into what green campaigners say is the greatest assault on environmental protection that America has ever seen.
MORE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/04/
republicans-attack-obamas-environmental-protection
==================
22. (Canada) Fresh Issue for Spring Election: Democracy
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/02/28/
fresh-issue-for-spring-election-democracy/
Posted: 28 Feb 2011 11:36 AM PST
The odds now seem to favour a spring election, as Stephen Harper headed out across the country with his cabinet ministers to announce over $300 million in goodies. In anticipating yet another campaign, it is worth remembering that without the NDP, Canadian politics (outside Quebec) would look an awful lot like the U.S.: two political parties, economically and socially right-wing, both with a recent history of dismantling the activist state and gutting its revenue base through huge tax cuts. All the while pretending to compete for our hearts and minds.
To be sure, the Conservatives — who should rightfully be called the Republican Party — are by several degrees worse than the Liberal Party. Stephen Harper runs a ruthless autocracy with contempt for every aspect of democratic governance from watch dog organizations to parliamentary committees to access to information, and topped off with a relentless assault on the political culture through the defunding of civil society.
It now turns out that the Harper government may be much more corrupt than even the existing record shows. The Canadian Press did an FOI on the Integrity Commissioner’s office formerly headed up by the now discredited Christiane Ouimet. The documents revealed 42 of the 228 cases under scrutiny involved alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars, approximately 50 involved charges of “gross mismanagement” and an incredible 60 complaints involved contraventions of Acts of Parliament. Not a single complaint resulted in any action.
MORE:
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/02/28/
fresh-issue-for-spring-election-democracy/
===================
23. Join the Global Resistance - Independent media is battling against disinformation
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23058
Global Research, February 10, 2011
There can be no denying it: these are exciting times and changes are unfolding at unprecedented rates. Few can claim not to have some knowledge of the widespread protests that have been rocking Tunisia and Egypt this past month, and indeed the word "revolution" is on many people's lips.
We are witnessing large-scale unrest, entire populations who refuse to be exploited and continue living in poverty at the hands of a small ruling elite, manipulated by foreign interests, who prosper while their nations flounder.
Does this pattern sound familiar? This, in fact, describes the undercurrents of populations not just in faraway countries; the spirit of resistance is bubbling up in our own backyards and across neighbouring borders.
Here at Global Research, our correspondents and volunteers are devoting a great deal of time and energy into covering and analyzing the news as it happens. We are exceedingly grateful for their efforts and excited to convey their research through our websites, to ensure it reaches as many readers as possible.
We know that many of you have been forwarding our articles, posting them to blogs, linking up through Facebook and Twitter and using various means at your disposal to share this timely and critical information, and we sincerely thank you for that and encourage you to increase your efforts. Change is coming and it is crucial that we stay "in the know", now more than ever.
At the same time, we remind our readers that in order to maintain our websites and projects at Global Research, we rely 100% on the financial support of our readers. All that we do is entirely thanks to you.
We remind you that our mandate is to deliver articles and videos as broadly as possible, which is why you will never have to pay to access the information.
To do this, however, we rely entirely on your donations, memberships and book purchases.
If you have already purchased our books, how about picking up copies for friends and colleagues? You can make purchases directly through our Shopcart or through Amazon.
And if you are already a member or have donated in the past, we kindly ask that you consider making another donation at this time. Every amount, great or small, contributes directly to our operations and ensures that we can be on top of important issues as they unfold.
We thank you for your readership and encourage you to visit our Shopcart, Donation page and Membership page and find out how you can help Global Research continue to be the reliable source of completely independent news that you have come to rely on.
With appreciation and best wishes,
- The Global Research Team
P.S. Did you know that America's foreign policy and unrest in the Middle East are directly related to the global economic collapse? Pick up our latest full-length book, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century, and explore these timely themes in-depth. (More info available through Facebook)
Global Research relies on the financial support of its readers.
Please support Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
index.php?context=section§ionName=donate
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING NEWS: March 10, 2011
by Oscar » Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:49 pm
FRACKING NEWS: March 10, 2011
"In the dark of the moon,
In the flying snow, in the dead of winter,
War spreading, families dying, the world in danger
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover." ~Wendell Berry
1. UPCOMING FRAC EVENTS NEW BRUNSWICK
2. EVENT: Calgary – March 18, 2011 - Groundwater Concerns in Alberta – Update
3. Fracking in Quebec (6 articles/Map/Graphics)
4. Company to search N.B. for oil and shale gas
5. Fracking Fluids Part I: A controversy coming to an energy investment near you
6. Lochend-area drilling activity concerns residents
7. ERCB APPROVES SHELL WATERTON GAS WELL BUT DENIES PIPELINE APPLICATIONS
8. Ciris agrees to fines, water testing for chemical injections in Wyoming
9. Unpacking health hazards in fracking's chemical cocktail
10. Conference: Pittsburgh – April 13 & 14 - Shale Gas Water Management Marcellus Initiative 2011
11. The perpetual politics of petroleum
12. Record US natural gas output likely to continue
13. Save the Poudre Wants Analysis and Public Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals used in Oil/Gas Wells on top of Proposed NISP Reservoir
14. James Howard Kunstler: The old American dream is a nightmare
15. Enbridge expected to face criminal charges over Michigan spill
16. How Smart Is 'Power Smart,' BC Hydro's Try at Saving Energy?
17. Oilsands Quest Files Form 10-Q Quarterly Report
18. Renowned Scientist/Activist, Vandana Shiva Held at Canadian Border
19. Erin Brockovich Returns To Hinkley Testing Chromium-Polluted Water
(Chromium 6 in posts-fracking water – see reference below. Ed.)
20. HARDING: IS CANADA’S DEMOCRACY AND OUR CHANCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY SLIPPING AWAY?
21. PARIS: The New Solitudes
22. On the road to the Harper government's tipping point
====================
1. UPCOMING FRAC EVENTS NEW BRUNSWICK
March 12: Planning session for a future Community Forum on Shale Gas, Corn Hill. 10am-3pm, Von Waldow’s Farm, 3084 Route 890, Corn Hill.
March 14-18; March 28-April1: Mining Commissioner Hearing with the residents of Penobsquis, Sussex. 9am Daily, All Seasons Inn, 1015 Main St.
March 16: CCNB Shale Gas Alert presentation, Sussex. Stephanie Merrill will talk about her recent trip to Arkansas. 7:00pm, Sussex Public Library, 46 Magnolia Ave.
March 24: Gasland Screening in Elgin.7:00, Elgin Fire Hall
March 25: Gasland Screening in Fredericton. 7:00, Conserver House, 180 St. John St. Fredericton
=================
2. EVENT: Calgary – March 18, 2011 - Groundwater Concerns in Alberta – Update
www.clra.ca
CALGARY LUNCH & LEARN SERIES 2010-2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Calgary Chamber of Commerce
corner of Centre Street & 6th Avenue SW
REGISTRATION FORM
(if this link does not work, go to www.clra.ca)
Groundwater Concerns in Alberta – Update
Marc Dubord, M.Sc., P.Geol. Environmental Advisor, Cenovus Energy Inc.
Groundwater has been the topic of increased interest from both a stakeholder and regulatory perspective. Over the last 5 years, concerns due to CBM development, oilsands development (primarily, but not limited to, thermal projects), and horizontal stimulations (including shale gas) have come to the forefront. This presentation summarizes groundwater concerns over the last five years and some of the available information and ongoing programs to address those concerns.
Marc Dubord received a B.Sc. (Honors), Geology, U of A, 1982 , M.Sc., Earth Sciences, U of Waterloo, 1986 & M.Sc., Hydrogeology, U of Waterloo, 1992 . He has been with Cenovus Energy Inc (nee EnCana) for 6 years, and 12 years consulting in Canada, California, U.K.
Marc says "When my Dad told me to stay in school, I think I might of overdid it….."
Marc brings detail forward with a hint of humor and surprise making his presentations effective and memorable.
Menu: Salad, baked Salmon, Chocolate dessert. [comment: LOOK~! You get bribed as you are fed propaganda! Alberta prosperity for all!]
If you require a different meal, please indicate this on your registration form.
The deadline for registration is noon on March 15th.
Linda Jones, Secretary-Treasurer
CLRA/ACRSD
phone or fax: 403 289-9435
email: clra@telusplanet.net
website: www.clra.ca
Mailing Address:
Box 61047, Kensington PO
Calgary Alberta T2N 4S6
=================
3. Fracking in Quebec ( 6 articles/Map/Graphics)
Quebec BAPE Shale Gas Study Verdict Is In: Drill Baby Drill, But No Fracking For Now
http://www.desmogblog.com/
bape-shale-gas-study-verdict-drill-baby-drill-no-fracking-now
8 March 11
After keeping Québec’s much anticipated Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE) shale gas development study under wraps for more than a week, Pierre Arcand, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks just released the BAPE’s findings to the public. Regrettably, shale gas in the province is receiving a green light or in French “un feu vert” (a green fire translated literally). Ironically, this is exactly what the BAPE’s recommendation will lead to as shale gas expansion means that many of the province’s environmental goals will go up in smoke. For now, the controversial drilling method of hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) will be halted until a strategic environmental impact assessment can be conducted.
All in all, the BAPE’s recommendation to proceed is a major blow to environmental and health advocates calling on the Québec Liberal government to heed the many public safety and environmental risks which surround shale gas drilling and fracking.
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
bape-shale-gas-study-verdict-drill-baby-drill-no-fracking-now
= = = =
Map of Exploration Activity in Quebec:
http://www.mrnf.gouv.qc.ca/publications/energie/
exploration/Permis_quebec2008.pdf
= = = = =
What Would Jesus Drill? Quebec Christian Organizations Oppose Shale Gas Exploration
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/1123
MEAGAN WOHLBERG — MARCH 8, 2011
Christian organizations in Quebec joined the growing mobilization calling for a moratorium on shale gas exploration last week.
The Réseau oecuménique Justice et Paix, along with the Bishop’s office of the Montreal Anglican Diocese, are denouncing what they say is the government’s “ungodly” pursuit of economic gain at the expense of public and environmental safety.
“It is our ethical conviction that the right of people to their well-being and to the health of their territory should take precedence over privileges granted to industry by the state,” the 28 member organizations of ROJeP stated in a press release. “To show contempt to the land is to despise the people that inhabit this land.”
The Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement recently published an environmental impact report on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” but Quebec’s Minister of Sustainable Development Pierre Arcand has yet to publicly release the results of the inquiry, which began late last summer.
A parallel report issued by a citizens group calling themselves Maîtres chez nous 21e siècle was released to Minister Arcand last Monday. Based on 200 documents, the 123-page online report calls for a stop to fracking in Quebec, noting that shale gas is not economically viable and does not meet standards for clean, sustainable development.
Among the 200 documents reviewed within the Maîtres chez nous report was a cost analysis from l’Institut de recherche et d’information socio-economiques, which estimated more than $50-million per year in losses for the province of Quebec from the shale gas industry.
MORE:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/1123
= = = = =
Quebec shale-gas players plunge on exploration halt
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Quebec+shale+players+plunge+exploration+halt/4410205/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
BY JOHN MORRISSY, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 9, 2011 9:50 AM
Environment Minister Pierre Arcand releases the BAPE report into the development of the shale-gas industry in Quebec during press briefing in Montreal on Tuesday.
OTTAWA – Shares in junior energy firms involved in Quebec’s shale-gas development were hit hard in early trading Wednesday after the provincial government put a halt to exploration work following the release of a report Tuesday recommending it do so.
Questerre Energy Corporation was off 22.78 per cent, or by 35 cents, to $1.23, while Junex Inc. was down 20 cents, or by 16 per cent, to $1.05 and Gastem Inc. was down by five and half cents, or 21.15 per cent, to $0.205.
On Tuesday, the Quebec government said it is putting the brakes on shale-gas drilling and exploration in the province, following the release of a special committee report saying such work should be delayed until the government can do a strategic environmental evaluation.
Calgary-based Questerre holds more than one million gross acres in prospective areas in the St. Lawrence Lowlands in Quebec, according to a Bloomberg report. The company last year raised $128 million in equity to finance the development of its Utica shale find in the area.
No hydraulic fracturing – in which a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is injected into the ground at high pressure – should be allowed while the study is being carried out, unless it is for research purposes, said the four commissioners who prepared the report for the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE).
The subject has become a matter of intense public debate in recent years as drillers began work on shale-gas deposits in the St. Lawrence lowlands.
MORE:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Quebec+shale+players+plunge+exploration+halt/4410205/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
= = = = = =
What the Frak? (2010) See: GRAPHIC on website
Drilling for shale gas in Quebec’s St. Lawrence Valley has been put on hold.
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/353
RAY CORKUM — SEPTEMBER 28, 2010
On Oct. 4, Quebec’s environmental assessment board will host a public hearing and information session to discuss its investigation of hydraulic fracturing—the proposed method of gas extraction in the St. Lawrence Valley.
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fraking,” is a procedure that uses water, silica and chemical compounds piped several thousand meters below the earth’s surface, creating cracks in shale rock. This allows natural gas to be released and extracted.
The Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement is currently assessing the potential risks of further shale gas drilling in the Utica shale strata that run under Quebec.
In late August, the provincial government announced its intentions to open the St. Lawrence Valley to further fracking.
Environmental groups have since criticized the decision, claiming the project’s potential economic benefits are far outweighed by environmental dangers and concerns about public health.
The chemicals used in the procedure are a matter of contention. Several are known to be highly toxic—including benzene, which can be found in diesel fuel and is known to cause anemia and leukemia in humans. Other chemicals remain corporate secrets protected by intellectual property agreements.
Government bodies often require that companies divulge the contents of their fraking mix, but are sworn not to release the information to the public.
Several groups, including Equiterre and Greenpeace Quebec, have called for a moratorium on all exploration until the potential effects on ground water and soil can be studied. Stephen Guilbeault, the cofounder of Equiterre, stressed the need for an inquiry led by people outside the oil and gas industry.
MORE:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/353
= = = = =
The Frac Job (2010) – Let’s Get Our Frac On
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/390
CLAY HEMMERICH & JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI — OCTOBER 5, 2010 |
Volume 31, Issue 25 |
Download PDF:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/pdf/Link31_25.pdf
It’s not far-fetched to say that the massive Utica shale gas deposit found in the lowlands of Quebec is the best thing that ever happened to La Belle Province, given its fragile economic state.
According to an official government document released on Mar. 31, 2010, Quebec had accumulated over $160 billion in debt while enjoying such perks as some of the lowest tuition rates and some of the best health care in the country.
- - - SNIP - - -
I commend the province of Quebec for demanding exploration companies to be more accountable for the environment, but the reality is that the province that’s most strapped for cash in Canada has just won the geological lotto and it’s afraid to cash in its ticket.
The answer to tuition increases, governmental perk, and more personal freedom lies beneath the reservoir and inside of that shale rock.
In order to maintain the standard of living Quebec boasts, fuel must be provided. It might as well be Quebec’s own fuel.
Clay Hemmerich
= = = = = =
Stop all the Fracking (2010)
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/390
CLAY HEMMERICH & JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI — OCTOBER 5, 2010 |
Volume 31, Issue 25 |
Download PDF:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/pdf/Link31_25.pdf
Go and stick a match beside your tap water.
What is going to happen? Probably nothing.
Now imagine being able to light your tap water on fire. For some residents of Colorado and Pennsylvania, tap water that bursts into a half-metre long flame is something they have had to learn to deal with.
Some residents of Quebec might soon share the same fate.
Despite the assurances of gas industry executives, gas wells dug into Quebec’s shale using high-volume horizontal slickwater fracturing, or fracking, carry a heavy risk.
It takes some explanation of how fracking works to understand the insanity of what is being proposed.
MORE:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/390
=================
4. Company to search N.B. for oil and shale gas
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/n ... le/1386634
Published Tuesday March 8th, 2011
SWN Resources Canada GM says company wants to be open about their work and has 'nothing to hide'
By Craig Babstock Times & Transcript Staff
"There isn't any question we shy away from and if we don't know the answer, we'll go find the answer for you," says the general manager of SWN Resources Canada's New Brunswick division. "We have nothing to hide."
Oil and natural gas exploration can be a contentious topic, with some residents concerned about possible effects on the environment, drinking water, property values and other issues. Alexander is prepared to tackle all those topics and encourages people to come out to the company's open house meetings to satisfy any questions or concerns they might have.
MORE:
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/n ... le/1386634
===============
5. Fracking Fluids Part I: A controversy coming to an energy investment near you
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News/2010/3/Pages/
Fracking-Fluids-Part-I-A-controversy-coming-to-an-energy-investment-near-you.aspx
Keith Schaefer, oilandgas-investments.com
Keith Schaefer is publisher of
www.oilandgas-investments.com.
Published 3/8/2010
The controversy surrounding fracking fluids is getting louder. Websites and media savvy organizations are getting more press on this issue, using a very simple and powerful pitch – are the chemicals used in fracking fluids in oil and gas wells contaminating our drinking water?
North American investors have not been directly hit by this issue yet, meaning that a company’s stock hasn’t plummeted because they had to stop drilling over these concerns – yet.
“Fracking” is sending a specially designed fluid down an oil or gas well at ultra-high pressure. The fluid, usually water – but can contain some chemicals with very long names – gets blown out into the reservoir rock, creating cracks and channels to allow the oil & gas to get to the well.
- - - SNIP - - -
I asked a friend of mine at a Canadian fracking company – who for obvious reasons wants to stay anonymous – to explain this issue for me in simple terms. He says sometimes there are some “nasty” chemicals used in fracking, but he estimated that 70% of frack jobs use ingredients you buy at a grocery store.
In my next story – Fracking Fluids Part II, he will share his “secret” recipe, outlining how he makes homemade frac sand from ingredients at the grocery store.
“I make a frac gel using household items – MacGyver style,” he told me. “I am literally using items my wife buys regularly and can in a few moments generate a stable frac gel that the kids can hold and play with. For less than 20 bucks you can whip this together and cover frack gels for ~70+% of all work done in fracturing.”
Stay tuned; MacGyver will tell all in Part II.
=================
6. Lochend-area drilling activity concerns residents
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/03/
lochend-area-drilling-activity-concerns-residents/
March 8, 2011 By: Enrique Massot
After a 30-year career as an engineer in the global oil and gas industry, Dan Thomas was ready to build his retirement home away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
However, little did he know he was going to have unexpected company 300 metres from his property line just as construction of his home started.
“On the day the excavator came, an oil and gas drilling derrick popped up,” he said.
Thomas said he would have never started building his new home had he known what was about to happen near his acreage, in the Lochend area in northwest Rocky View.
“I would not have started my house because of the uncertainty it created,” he said. “We had waited 15 years to build.”
Between 10 and 15 junior oil and gas companies are currently operating on lands near Lochend Road and Highway 567, in Rocky View’s northwestern quadrant.
Thomas had received no notification about the impending start of drilling.
“Not a clue,” he said.
Oil companies are flocking to the area to tap into the Cardium formations there. New extraction methods allow them to tap into reservoirs of oil tightly trapped by drilling horizontally and fracturing rock by pumping down gases or fluids, allowing oil to flow back to the pipe.
As of September 2010, 13 wells were drilled in the area with several more on the books.
Thomas wants to be sure the aquifer from where residents pump their drinking water is not affected by the fracking operations.
Fracking issues came to light in the 2010 documentary Gasland that questions the safety of fracking.
According to gaslandthemovie.com, “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing is a means of extraction employed in deep natural gas or oil well drilling.
Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and undisclosed proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well. But there have been some concerns about groundwater and well contamination.
“We want a guarantee that no damages to the fresh water aquifer, that feeds our wells, will occur,” said Thomas.
To ensure that, Thomas said, testing needs to be conducted on local wells, as well as surface water.
Those tests, he added, should be conducted by private labs paid by the oil companies.
The tests should be carried out before any drilling activity starts, in order to have information that can be compared with tests done during and after drilling.
In October, concerned area residents organized a meeting to talk about the increased activity.
“The number one requirement request that came from that meeting was for the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) to co-ordinate a meeting between the companies and the public,” said Thomas.
However, nothing has happened to date, he added.
MORE:
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/03/
lochend-area-drilling-activity-concerns-residents/
Additional Info:
BC Tap Water Alliance - Will Koop:
http://www.bctwa.org/FrackingBC.html
Fracking in Quebec - Will Koop:
http://www.bctwa.org/Frk-Quebec.html
Fracking Canada:
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/
=================
7. ERCB APPROVES SHELL WATERTON GAS WELL BUT DENIES PIPELINE APPLICATIONS
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/
PTARGS_0_0_303_263_0_43/http%3B/ercbContent/publishedcontent/publish/ercb_home/news/news_releases/2011/nr2010_08.aspx
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 9, 2011
Calgary, Alberta (March 9, 2011) The Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) has issued Decision 2011-007, which approves, with conditions, Shell Canada applications to drill a sour gas well in the Waterton area and amend its licence to add a fuel-gas compressor. The ERCB has denied applications for a fuel gas pipeline, a production pipeline, and a gas battery.
The hearing panel determined that it is in the public interest to drill the well, noting that it will provide valuable data about the nature of the resource in this area. In addition, the well will require a small amount of new disturbance as it utilizes some existing infrastructure.
The ERCB imposed four conditions on the approvals, directing Shell to conduct an emergency response planning exercise, monitor traffic and control dust on a nearby road, and submit plans for any well testing to the ERCB for approval. The ERCB also noted 14 commitments made by Shell during the course of the hearing, and made 12 recommendations to the company.
The ERCB has denied applications for a gas battery, a fuel gas pipeline, and a production pipeline. The panel was not prepared to grant these applications given the information provided at the hearing pertaining to the need for Shell to improve its operating practices in the area.
The ERCB held a hearing in Pincher Creek from October 19 to November 1, 2010 to consider Shell’s applications. ERCB hearings are formal, quasi-judicial proceedings during which evidence is given and cross-examination and argument takes place. Hearings allow public testing of all technical, environmental, socioeconomic, and other relevant evidence. - 30 -
This news release and Decision 2011-007 are available on the ERCB Web site at
www.ercb.ca.
For more information, please contact:
Bob Curran, ERCB Communications
Phone: 403-297-3392
Email: bob.curran@ercb.ca
================
8. Ciris agrees to fines, water testing for chemical injections in Wyoming
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/
article_df21a9c6-8733-50f0-b020-537e786a3fe7.html
By JEREMY FUGLEBERG Star-Tribune energy reporter trib.com |
Posted: Wednesday, March 9, 2011 1:00 am |
A firm with a process to speed up methane gas production by feeding underground microbes has admitted to injecting that chemical “feed” underground without proper permitting.
Denver-based Ciris Energy has agreed to pay a $1,500 fine and conduct water testing at Powder River Basin well sites where it injected chemicals that feed underground microbes that produce methane gas.
Tuesday’s settlement with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) came after Ciris agreed to pay a $25,922 fine to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality for the injections.
- - - SNIP - - - -
The chemicals injected by Ciris into the wells included ammonium chloride, acetate, sodium phosphate, sodium bromide, potassium chloride, cobalt chloride and nickel chloride. Some of those ingredients are known to cause cancer, said Jill Morrison, a representative of the group.
“While Ciris claims that microbes consume all these chemicals, we do not know whether this is true or certain,” she said.
In the letter to the Wyoming DEQ, Ciris President Robert Downey assured that the injections would have a minimal effect on groundwater.
“All of these materials are fully consumed by the indigenous methanogenic consortia, leaving only modest amounts of sodium and chloride ions in the formation water,” he wrote.
Many members of the Powder River Basin Resource Council live in the Powder River Basin and get their drinking water from groundwater.
“We do hope there will be ongoing monitoring and full disclosure to the public,” council member Shannon Anderson said.
The injections were reported to the Wyoming DEQ in October by an anonymous caller who said Ciris was injecting “hazardous material” into the wells without a permit, according to a letter from the Wyoming DEQ to Ciris.
Representatives from Ciris and Denver-based Luca Technologies — which uses a process that also accelerates methane gas production by microbes — recently pushed for legislation that would set up a permitting process for their methods.
The legislation was approved and signed by Gov. Matt Mead, who also sits on the WOGCC.
Boomgaarden told the commission the new legislation clarifies the rule-making process needed to OK the underground procedures.
=================
9. Unpacking health hazards in fracking's chemical cocktail
http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.3/
unpacking-health-hazards-in-frackings-chemical-cocktail
Infographic/Photo Essay - February 21, 2011 by Sierra Crane-Murdoch
Meet the Master Well Formula -- the chemical cocktail that Encana Corp. will use to hydraulically fracture every natural gas well it drills in Wyoming's Jonah Field. Drillers mix 11,800 gallons of this solution with over a million gallons of water and a heavy dose of sand, inject it underground to release gas deposits, and collect the fuel as it spouts to the surface. Thirty to 70 percent of the solution re-emerges with "produced" water and is trucked off to evaporation pits. The rest lingers underground.
Chemical lists like this one weren't publicly available until September 2010, when Wyoming adopted an unprecedented rule requiring companies to publicly disclose them amid rising concern about fracking's potential health effects. But a loophole in the law still allows companies to hide recipes by applying for "trade secret status" -- something the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has granted for about 70 fracking products. The public may know more than before, but not quite enough to understand the full range of hazards.
================
10. Conference: Pittsburgh – April 13 & 14 - Shale Gas Water
Management Marcellus Initiative 2011
http://www.shale-gas-water-management-2011.com/
April 2011 13th - 14th April 2011
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Driving Forward Advancements In Water Sourcing, Management And Re-UseTo Maximize Profitable Shale Gas Production
The Shale Gas Water Management Marcellus Initiative 2011 is the second Shale Gas Water Summit following the fantastic response the Global Shale Gas Water Management Initiative 2010 in Dallas which attracted over 300 delegates from almost every operator involved in American shale gas.
It is also the fifth summit in the Global Shale Series following Global Shale Gas Poland 2010, Tight Oil From Shale Plays World Congress 2011 and Global Shale Gas Asia 2011.
Register Now To Save:
2 Day Conference ($1699)
Presentation Materials Only
$499.00
www.shale-gas-water-management-2011.com,
call 1-800-721-3915
Email info@american-business-conferences.com
================
11. The perpetual politics of petroleum
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50904.html
By: Dan Berman March 9, 2011 04:41 AM EST
The boom-bust cycle of oil politics is booming this week on Capitol Hill, where the only thing more predictable than politicians’ policy solutions are their claims that the other side is ignoring the issue.
With gas prices surging to about $4 a gallon in some places, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are recycling ... the same talking points they used the last time there was such pain at the pump.
Call for “all of the above?” Check. Demand the White House open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Check. Find some old quotes from the other guy about high oil prices? Check.
Rising oil prices are a serious issue, especially with the economy just beginning to recover. And the U.S. Energy Information Administration says prices at the pump will continue to rise because the recent increases in oil prices haven’t been fully passed on to consumers. Gasoline could average about $3.70 per gallon — or higher, depending on the region — in the peak April-September driving season, EIA says.
But Washington’s reaction demonstrates the limits of any policy response — as well as the reality that the issue can be more useful as a political tool.
Here’s what Washington could do to address the high prices — and why it probably won’t.
“All of the above”
MORE:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50904.html
===================
12. Record US natural gas output likely to continue
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 08840.html
March 2, 2011
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The U.S. is inundated in natural gas, and the glut may not ease any time soon.
Domestic production last year hit its highest level in almost 40 years, and 2011 will likely see another year of strong production. That means another year of subdued electricity prices and pressure on drillers' bottom lines as well as a powerful incentive for companies and other consumers to switch to the heating fuel.
Production of natural gas in the U.S. grew for a fifth consecutive year in 2010, and was the highest since 1973, the Energy Information Administration said Monday. Rising output from newly profitable shale rock formations across the U.S. has surpassed many industry observers' expectations, and the U.S. produced 21.57 trillion cubic feet of consumer-grade natural gas during the year, just short of the 1973 record of 21.73 tcf.
With no way to export large quantities of gas and a drilling boom fueled by easy availability of credit and widespread international interest in U.S. gas assets, the glut is seen continuing through 2011.
"Rising production will once again overwhelm demand, leading to yet another year of low prices," Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Revielle said in a research note.
MORE:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 08840.html
==================
13. Save the Poudre Wants Analysis and Public Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals used in Oil/Gas Wells on top of Proposed NISP Reservoir
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 9, 2011
Contact: Gary Wockner, Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper,
970-218-8310
http://SaveThePoudre.org
Fort Collins, CO -- As oil and gas wells continue marching across Weld County, Colorado, they are also marching across the site for the proposed Galeton reservoir which is a water storage facility for the proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP). Additionally, of the 11 wells currently drilled and producing on top of the Galeton reservoir footprint as of March 7, 2011, 8 were drilled using "hydraulic fracturing" (fracking) with unknown chemical pollutants (click for map of wells).
On March 8, 2011, Save the Poudre sent a letter to the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for a thorough environmental analysis to be completed within NISP's Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) that includes publicizing the chemical components in the fracking fluid used to drill the wells on top of the proposed reservoir. That letter is here: (Click for letter) The NISP SDEIS is supposed to be released to the public near the end of 2011.
"The existence of fracked oil and gas wells on top of, and near, the proposed Galeton reservoir may pose significant human and environmental health risks that need to be thoroughly analyzed in the NISP SDEIS," said Gary Wockner of Save the Poudre. "NISP has triggered the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act -- these federal laws require full disclosure of all environmental impacts, including the environmental impacts of fracking under the proposed Galeton reservoir."
An example of the fracking description available for one of the wells that was drilled on top of the proposed reservoir reads:
Well 05-123-31052: Frac'd Codell w/101835 gals Silverstim, Acid, and Slick Water with 201220 lbs Ottawa sand.
(Source:
http://cogcc.state.co.us/)
In a February 17, 2011 email exchange with Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper, Chandler Peter from the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed that no environmental or cost analyses of the oil and gas wells has yet been figured into NISP. Save the Poudre's letter to the Corps, COGCC, and EPA outlines the extent of analysis needed to meet federal requirements.
NISP is already over 5 years late and at least $150 million over budget. In January of 2011, the Supplemental DEIS was postponed for the third time.
Save The Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper opposes NISP and has proposed a "Healthy Rivers Alternative" to the project. This Alternative would be cheaper, better for farms, better for the river, and could be implemented faster than NISP.
The summary of the Alternative is here:
http://poudreriver.home.comcast.net/~poudreriver/
Healthy_Rivers_Alternative.pdf
--end—
=================
14. James Howard Kunstler: The old American dream is a nightmare
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-09-james-howard-kunstler-we-need-a-new-american-dream
by Kerry Trueman 9 Mar 2011 10:40 AM
The Great Depression gave rise to hobos and Hoovervilles. The Roaring Nineties brought us what New York Times columnist David Brooks termed " bobos in paradise."
Now our current round of layoffs and foreclosures has unceremoniously transferred millions of folks from the "affluent" to the "afflicted" category, exiling them from Brooks's mythical exurban Eden.
But instead of setting up tents, these newly poor live in a perpetual state of nestlessness, couch-surfing, or flitting from one basement rec room to the next. And rather than revisiting Hooverville, they've given our national landscape the barely-lived in, already abandoned suburban ghost towns I call Kunstlervilles, in honor of my favorite peak oil prophet, James Howard Kunstler.
Less scrappy than crappy, the derelict condos and subdivisions of Kunstlerville were built for buyers who never materialized -- erected with marginally better building materials than a Hooverville, but doomed to house pigeons before a decorator ever had the chance to breeze in and decree, "Put a bird on it!"
Kunstler has long warned of the horrendous hangover we're going to wake up with after our "cheap oil fiesta," but he's not gloating as global instability and climate destabilization become the new not-so-normal. Unlike some dystopians, he's motivated less by the desire to say "I told you so" than by the hope that we might still manage to reinvent the American dream on a scale that better suits our current circumstances.
I caught up with Kunstler recently when a conference took me to his hometown of Saratoga Springs, and afterward followed up via email. (Our conversation has been edited for space and style.)
MORE:
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-09-james-howard-kunstler-we-need-a-new-american-dream
==================
15. Enbridge expected to face criminal charges over Michigan spill
http://washingtonindependent.com/106116/
enbridge-expected-to-face-criminal-charges-over-michigan-spill
Washington Independent, March 9, 2011
The former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental crimes section said Friday that the oil and gas company Enbridge will likely face criminal charges over its 2010 Michigan pipeline rupture.
On July 26, an Enbridge oil pipeline that runs between Griffith, Ind., and Sarnia, Ontario ruptured in Marshall, Mich., spilling an estimated 819,000 gallons of sticky Canadian tar sands crude into a tributary to the Kalamazoo River.
“I would expect the federal government to bring criminal negligence charges against Enbridge under the Clean Water Act, which are the same charges they are likely to seek for the Gulf oil spill.” said David Uhlmann, who led DOJ‘s environmental crimes section for seven years and now teaches at the University of Michigan.
In order to prove negligence in such a case, the government only needs to prove that the company failed to use reasonable care, he said.
“Negligence is not going to be hard to prove given the lack of maintenance and the extent of damage from the spill.”
Pipeline tests by the company showed corrosion problems on the Michigan pipeline more than a year before the spill and company officials were arguing with regulators for more time to fix the problem as the leak occurred.
The company has a record of safety violations. In August, federal officials announced more than $2.4 million in civil fines against Enbridge for other maintenance and safety problems in Minnesota, Louisiana and Oklahoma dating back to 2006.
MORE:
http://washingtonindependent.com/106116/
enbridge-expected-to-face-criminal-charges-over-michigan-spill
=================
16. How Smart Is 'Power Smart,' BC Hydro's Try at Saving Energy?
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/03/09/HowSmartIsPowerSmart/
Not very smart, says economist Mark Jaccard. But are we brave enough for California's far more successful approach?
By Christopher Pollon Wednesday, March 09, 2011
I recently joined BC Hydro's Team Power Smart, joining the nearly 300,000 British Columbians who have signed up to date. Months of saturation marketing -- through TV, the Hydro Power Smart Olympic Village and pitches from ambassadors at scores of public events -- finally compelled me to take a closer look.
====================
17. Oilsands Quest Files Form 10-Q Quarterly Report
http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/ ... c9280.html
CUSIP No. 678046 10 3
NYSE Amex: BQI
CALGARY, March 9 /CNW/ - Oilsands Quest Inc. (NYSE Amex: BQI) ("Oilsands Quest", "OQI" or "the Company") has filed its Form 10-Q Quarterly Report for the quarter ended January 31, 2010 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The full document is available online at www.sec.gov and www.sedar.com; the Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) is presented below.
MORE:
http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/ ... c9280.html
= = = = =
More info on Saskatchewan tarsands development by this corporation:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=449
===================
18. Renowned Scientist/Activist, Vandana Shiva Held at Canadian Border
http://mostlywater.org/
renowned_scientistactivist_vandana_shiva_held_canadian_border_0
By C.L. Cook (Canadian Free Press); March 9, 2011 - No One Is Illegal-Vancouver
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=3409
Vandana Shiva was scheduled to speak tonight in Calgary, Alberta, spiritual home of far right Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper. But, like other activists and writers trying to enter Canada lately, things didn’t go smoothly for her. Shiva is also scheduled to receive tomorrow [the] University of Calgary’s Consortium for Peace Studies award. (Please see below for details). Swerve Calgary reports Shiva is being held tonight at the Canada/U.S. border due to “an issue with her visa.”
Vandana Shiva now joins a lengthening list of dissident writers, reporters, and activists harried by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).
In 2009, then British MP George Galloway was not allowed entry into Canada due to his alleged support for Palestinian groups listed by the CBSA as terrorist organizations. Galloway took the case to court, where Stephen Harper’s government was rebuked.
Last year, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! found herself cooling her heels at the border when Canadian agents refused to believe she was not going to Vancouver to report critically on the Olympic games. Goodman recounted the bizarre incident to the crowd awaiting her speaking engagement in the Olympic city.
No such luck for Calgarians who had hoped to hear Shiva speak tonight.
The CBSA is overseen by minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturism Jason Kenney, a controversial figure for callous remarks regarding refugees, and more recently embroiled in a fund raising scandal.
[A date not kept: India’s famed environmental activist knows all about taking a stand. She’ll be in town on March 9 to discuss democracy, empowerment of women, development, social justice and the environment. Vandana Shiva speaks Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m. At Murray Fraser Hall, University of Calgary. $12 – $15.
www.netcommunity.ucalgary.ca/shiva.]
[On March 10th, the University of Calgary’s Consortium for Peace Studies will award Dr. Vandana Shiva, a world-renowned environmental activist from New Dehli, The Calgary Peace Prize. The awards ceremony and banquet will be held at the Calgary Golf & Country Club. Tickets are available via the U of C’s secure Net Community: TICKETS]
================
19. Erin Brockovich Returns To Hinkley Testing Chromium-Polluted Water (Chromium 6 in posts-fracking water – see reference below. Ed.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/
erin-brockovich-returns-to-hinkley_n_833423.html
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ 03/ 9/11 03:33 AM
HINKLEY, Calif. -- At the end of "Erin Brockovich," a housewife sick from toxic chromium weeps with joy as she's handed her portion of a historic $333 million settlement between residents of this small desert town and the utility that poisoned their drinking water.
In real life, that woman is Roberta Walker. She still lives in Hinkley, using her share to buy a new home in what she thought would be a safe four-mile distance from the toxic plume of chromium.
Earlier this year, she and other residents learned that the pollution, which Pacific Gas & Electric was required to clean up, was once again moving and had seeped into their groundwater.
Now, Brockovich has returned to the town that made her famous and is once again rallying residents, sampling the water and at a water board meeting on Wednesday is expected to announce that the contamination may be worse than the utility says.
For Walker and others involved in the original case, these developments are like stepping back in time and are a haunting reminder that a landmark lawsuit and a blockbuster movie are no guarantee of safety.
"We didn't bring a giant to its knees, all we did was wake it up," Walker said. "This is not happening again – I can't believe it."
Walker was instrumental in developing the original case that was filed in 1993.
MORE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/
erin-brockovich-returns-to-hinkley_n_833423.html
= = = = = =
Frack Attack (Chromium 6 in post-fracking water)
http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/
fracking-natural-gas-affects-water-quality
Forcing natural gas out of shale and old wells means pumping chemicals into the earth - sometimes mixing with aquifers and coming out the neighbours' taps. Fracking - Natural Gas Affects Water Quality
From Watershed Sentinel, March/April 2010 by Joyce Nelson
QUOTE:
Chromium-6 in the Water
Being an activist on behalf of her community is not the only connection Ernst has with Brockovich. Through expensive Freedom of Information requests, Ernst obtained post-fracking water well monitoring data that showed the Alberta Environment people had found hexavalent chromium in Rosebud's (Alberta) well water. "The government hasn't told this to people" in the hamlet, says Ernst.
=======================
20. HARDING: IS CANADA’S DEMOCRACY AND OUR CHANCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY SLIPPING AWAY?
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=510
BY Jim Harding Published in R-Town News on March 4, 2011
First in Tunisia, then Egypt and now Libya, youth are risking their lives to topple oil-rich authoritarian leaders, many who obtained their military might with western backing. Meanwhile, as we sit at our TVs watching with some astonishment as these protests become popular revolutions, our own country is steadily moving towards more authoritarian rule.
Has the quality of our democracy been slipping away as Canada itself becomes an “energy superpower”? Is there anything about Canada that makes us immune to this happening? When you look at what has occurred in five short years of Harper’s rule, it seems time to blow the warning whistle.
The growing list of how Harper’s tightly-controlled rule is moving us away from democracy is discussed in “The New Solitudes” by Erna Paris in the March 2011 The Walrus. I suggest you read it carefully if you care about the future of our country. Paris lists many concrete examples of how our democracy is being whittled away, and you begin to see a pattern to Harper’s ongoing assaults on Canadian society. Here are just a few examples.
MORE:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=510
=================
21. PARIS: The New Solitudes
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/
2011.03-politics-the-new-solitudes/
Canada was once defined by the schism between English and French. Today, our divide is increasingly ideological. Can it be bridged?
By Erna Paris Illustration by Barry Blitt Politics From the March 2011 magazine
It was November 26, 2009, and I happened to be in Ottawa with a few hours to spare; so, on a citizen’s whim, I decided to drop in on Question Period in Canada’s House of Commons. I was a small girl the first time I sat in the historic visitors’ gallery that looms over the rows of members’ seats on both sides of the political divide. My father was determined that his children witness what he thought were essential places and events, and the House was high on his parental to-do list. I was properly impressed by the sight of grown-ups debating across the parliamentary aisle, waving sheaves of papers at one another and occasionally jabbing the air with their index fingers. I was too young to understand what they were talking about, but Dad’s lesson sank in, and I’ve been attending Question Period intermittently ever since.
In retrospect, I’m glad I visited the House that day, although I didn’t feel that way afterward. I thought I knew enough about our dysfunctional Parliament, but I wasn’t prepared for the dismay I felt as I watched Canada’s elected members challenge one another over one of the most critical issues to confront the country in a generation. The debate centred on the scandalous detainee transfer affair, which had once again exploded into public view. Richard Colvin, formerly a high-ranking diplomat in Afghanistan, had revealed that for seventeen months, starting in May 2006, he had informed his superiors in Ottawa that prisoners detained by the Canadian military, then transferred to Afghan security forces, were being tortured. His reports were consistently ignored, he charged. Worse still, he was ordered to stop putting his intelligence gathering into writing. [ . . . ]
===================
22. On the road to the Harper government's tipping point
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/
on-the-road-to-the-harper-governments-tipping-point/article1933110/
LAWRENCE MARTIN | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Mar. 08, 2011 5:00AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 08, 2011 9:03AM EST
It’s not the parts that count but the sum of the parts. Which invites the question: Is anyone doing the math?
Just recently, four senior Conservatives (including two senators) were charged with willfully exceeding spending limits in the 2006 campaign that brought the Tories to power. The “in and out” financing scheme came at the same time that Stephen Harper was promising a new era of transparency and accountability. [ . . . ]
"In the dark of the moon,
In the flying snow, in the dead of winter,
War spreading, families dying, the world in danger
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover." ~Wendell Berry
1. UPCOMING FRAC EVENTS NEW BRUNSWICK
2. EVENT: Calgary – March 18, 2011 - Groundwater Concerns in Alberta – Update
3. Fracking in Quebec (6 articles/Map/Graphics)
4. Company to search N.B. for oil and shale gas
5. Fracking Fluids Part I: A controversy coming to an energy investment near you
6. Lochend-area drilling activity concerns residents
7. ERCB APPROVES SHELL WATERTON GAS WELL BUT DENIES PIPELINE APPLICATIONS
8. Ciris agrees to fines, water testing for chemical injections in Wyoming
9. Unpacking health hazards in fracking's chemical cocktail
10. Conference: Pittsburgh – April 13 & 14 - Shale Gas Water Management Marcellus Initiative 2011
11. The perpetual politics of petroleum
12. Record US natural gas output likely to continue
13. Save the Poudre Wants Analysis and Public Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals used in Oil/Gas Wells on top of Proposed NISP Reservoir
14. James Howard Kunstler: The old American dream is a nightmare
15. Enbridge expected to face criminal charges over Michigan spill
16. How Smart Is 'Power Smart,' BC Hydro's Try at Saving Energy?
17. Oilsands Quest Files Form 10-Q Quarterly Report
18. Renowned Scientist/Activist, Vandana Shiva Held at Canadian Border
19. Erin Brockovich Returns To Hinkley Testing Chromium-Polluted Water
(Chromium 6 in posts-fracking water – see reference below. Ed.)
20. HARDING: IS CANADA’S DEMOCRACY AND OUR CHANCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY SLIPPING AWAY?
21. PARIS: The New Solitudes
22. On the road to the Harper government's tipping point
====================
1. UPCOMING FRAC EVENTS NEW BRUNSWICK
March 12: Planning session for a future Community Forum on Shale Gas, Corn Hill. 10am-3pm, Von Waldow’s Farm, 3084 Route 890, Corn Hill.
March 14-18; March 28-April1: Mining Commissioner Hearing with the residents of Penobsquis, Sussex. 9am Daily, All Seasons Inn, 1015 Main St.
March 16: CCNB Shale Gas Alert presentation, Sussex. Stephanie Merrill will talk about her recent trip to Arkansas. 7:00pm, Sussex Public Library, 46 Magnolia Ave.
March 24: Gasland Screening in Elgin.7:00, Elgin Fire Hall
March 25: Gasland Screening in Fredericton. 7:00, Conserver House, 180 St. John St. Fredericton
=================
2. EVENT: Calgary – March 18, 2011 - Groundwater Concerns in Alberta – Update
www.clra.ca
CALGARY LUNCH & LEARN SERIES 2010-2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Calgary Chamber of Commerce
corner of Centre Street & 6th Avenue SW
REGISTRATION FORM
(if this link does not work, go to www.clra.ca)
Groundwater Concerns in Alberta – Update
Marc Dubord, M.Sc., P.Geol. Environmental Advisor, Cenovus Energy Inc.
Groundwater has been the topic of increased interest from both a stakeholder and regulatory perspective. Over the last 5 years, concerns due to CBM development, oilsands development (primarily, but not limited to, thermal projects), and horizontal stimulations (including shale gas) have come to the forefront. This presentation summarizes groundwater concerns over the last five years and some of the available information and ongoing programs to address those concerns.
Marc Dubord received a B.Sc. (Honors), Geology, U of A, 1982 , M.Sc., Earth Sciences, U of Waterloo, 1986 & M.Sc., Hydrogeology, U of Waterloo, 1992 . He has been with Cenovus Energy Inc (nee EnCana) for 6 years, and 12 years consulting in Canada, California, U.K.
Marc says "When my Dad told me to stay in school, I think I might of overdid it….."
Marc brings detail forward with a hint of humor and surprise making his presentations effective and memorable.
Menu: Salad, baked Salmon, Chocolate dessert. [comment: LOOK~! You get bribed as you are fed propaganda! Alberta prosperity for all!]
If you require a different meal, please indicate this on your registration form.
The deadline for registration is noon on March 15th.
Linda Jones, Secretary-Treasurer
CLRA/ACRSD
phone or fax: 403 289-9435
email: clra@telusplanet.net
website: www.clra.ca
Mailing Address:
Box 61047, Kensington PO
Calgary Alberta T2N 4S6
=================
3. Fracking in Quebec ( 6 articles/Map/Graphics)
Quebec BAPE Shale Gas Study Verdict Is In: Drill Baby Drill, But No Fracking For Now
http://www.desmogblog.com/
bape-shale-gas-study-verdict-drill-baby-drill-no-fracking-now
8 March 11
After keeping Québec’s much anticipated Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE) shale gas development study under wraps for more than a week, Pierre Arcand, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks just released the BAPE’s findings to the public. Regrettably, shale gas in the province is receiving a green light or in French “un feu vert” (a green fire translated literally). Ironically, this is exactly what the BAPE’s recommendation will lead to as shale gas expansion means that many of the province’s environmental goals will go up in smoke. For now, the controversial drilling method of hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) will be halted until a strategic environmental impact assessment can be conducted.
All in all, the BAPE’s recommendation to proceed is a major blow to environmental and health advocates calling on the Québec Liberal government to heed the many public safety and environmental risks which surround shale gas drilling and fracking.
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
bape-shale-gas-study-verdict-drill-baby-drill-no-fracking-now
= = = =
Map of Exploration Activity in Quebec:
http://www.mrnf.gouv.qc.ca/publications/energie/
exploration/Permis_quebec2008.pdf
= = = = =
What Would Jesus Drill? Quebec Christian Organizations Oppose Shale Gas Exploration
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/1123
MEAGAN WOHLBERG — MARCH 8, 2011
Christian organizations in Quebec joined the growing mobilization calling for a moratorium on shale gas exploration last week.
The Réseau oecuménique Justice et Paix, along with the Bishop’s office of the Montreal Anglican Diocese, are denouncing what they say is the government’s “ungodly” pursuit of economic gain at the expense of public and environmental safety.
“It is our ethical conviction that the right of people to their well-being and to the health of their territory should take precedence over privileges granted to industry by the state,” the 28 member organizations of ROJeP stated in a press release. “To show contempt to the land is to despise the people that inhabit this land.”
The Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement recently published an environmental impact report on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” but Quebec’s Minister of Sustainable Development Pierre Arcand has yet to publicly release the results of the inquiry, which began late last summer.
A parallel report issued by a citizens group calling themselves Maîtres chez nous 21e siècle was released to Minister Arcand last Monday. Based on 200 documents, the 123-page online report calls for a stop to fracking in Quebec, noting that shale gas is not economically viable and does not meet standards for clean, sustainable development.
Among the 200 documents reviewed within the Maîtres chez nous report was a cost analysis from l’Institut de recherche et d’information socio-economiques, which estimated more than $50-million per year in losses for the province of Quebec from the shale gas industry.
MORE:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/1123
= = = = =
Quebec shale-gas players plunge on exploration halt
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Quebec+shale+players+plunge+exploration+halt/4410205/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
BY JOHN MORRISSY, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 9, 2011 9:50 AM
Environment Minister Pierre Arcand releases the BAPE report into the development of the shale-gas industry in Quebec during press briefing in Montreal on Tuesday.
OTTAWA – Shares in junior energy firms involved in Quebec’s shale-gas development were hit hard in early trading Wednesday after the provincial government put a halt to exploration work following the release of a report Tuesday recommending it do so.
Questerre Energy Corporation was off 22.78 per cent, or by 35 cents, to $1.23, while Junex Inc. was down 20 cents, or by 16 per cent, to $1.05 and Gastem Inc. was down by five and half cents, or 21.15 per cent, to $0.205.
On Tuesday, the Quebec government said it is putting the brakes on shale-gas drilling and exploration in the province, following the release of a special committee report saying such work should be delayed until the government can do a strategic environmental evaluation.
Calgary-based Questerre holds more than one million gross acres in prospective areas in the St. Lawrence Lowlands in Quebec, according to a Bloomberg report. The company last year raised $128 million in equity to finance the development of its Utica shale find in the area.
No hydraulic fracturing – in which a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is injected into the ground at high pressure – should be allowed while the study is being carried out, unless it is for research purposes, said the four commissioners who prepared the report for the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE).
The subject has become a matter of intense public debate in recent years as drillers began work on shale-gas deposits in the St. Lawrence lowlands.
MORE:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Quebec+shale+players+plunge+exploration+halt/4410205/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
= = = = = =
What the Frak? (2010) See: GRAPHIC on website
Drilling for shale gas in Quebec’s St. Lawrence Valley has been put on hold.
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/353
RAY CORKUM — SEPTEMBER 28, 2010
On Oct. 4, Quebec’s environmental assessment board will host a public hearing and information session to discuss its investigation of hydraulic fracturing—the proposed method of gas extraction in the St. Lawrence Valley.
Hydraulic fracturing, or “fraking,” is a procedure that uses water, silica and chemical compounds piped several thousand meters below the earth’s surface, creating cracks in shale rock. This allows natural gas to be released and extracted.
The Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement is currently assessing the potential risks of further shale gas drilling in the Utica shale strata that run under Quebec.
In late August, the provincial government announced its intentions to open the St. Lawrence Valley to further fracking.
Environmental groups have since criticized the decision, claiming the project’s potential economic benefits are far outweighed by environmental dangers and concerns about public health.
The chemicals used in the procedure are a matter of contention. Several are known to be highly toxic—including benzene, which can be found in diesel fuel and is known to cause anemia and leukemia in humans. Other chemicals remain corporate secrets protected by intellectual property agreements.
Government bodies often require that companies divulge the contents of their fraking mix, but are sworn not to release the information to the public.
Several groups, including Equiterre and Greenpeace Quebec, have called for a moratorium on all exploration until the potential effects on ground water and soil can be studied. Stephen Guilbeault, the cofounder of Equiterre, stressed the need for an inquiry led by people outside the oil and gas industry.
MORE:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/353
= = = = =
The Frac Job (2010) – Let’s Get Our Frac On
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/390
CLAY HEMMERICH & JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI — OCTOBER 5, 2010 |
Volume 31, Issue 25 |
Download PDF:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/pdf/Link31_25.pdf
It’s not far-fetched to say that the massive Utica shale gas deposit found in the lowlands of Quebec is the best thing that ever happened to La Belle Province, given its fragile economic state.
According to an official government document released on Mar. 31, 2010, Quebec had accumulated over $160 billion in debt while enjoying such perks as some of the lowest tuition rates and some of the best health care in the country.
- - - SNIP - - -
I commend the province of Quebec for demanding exploration companies to be more accountable for the environment, but the reality is that the province that’s most strapped for cash in Canada has just won the geological lotto and it’s afraid to cash in its ticket.
The answer to tuition increases, governmental perk, and more personal freedom lies beneath the reservoir and inside of that shale rock.
In order to maintain the standard of living Quebec boasts, fuel must be provided. It might as well be Quebec’s own fuel.
Clay Hemmerich
= = = = = =
Stop all the Fracking (2010)
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/390
CLAY HEMMERICH & JUSTIN GIOVANNETTI — OCTOBER 5, 2010 |
Volume 31, Issue 25 |
Download PDF:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/pdf/Link31_25.pdf
Go and stick a match beside your tap water.
What is going to happen? Probably nothing.
Now imagine being able to light your tap water on fire. For some residents of Colorado and Pennsylvania, tap water that bursts into a half-metre long flame is something they have had to learn to deal with.
Some residents of Quebec might soon share the same fate.
Despite the assurances of gas industry executives, gas wells dug into Quebec’s shale using high-volume horizontal slickwater fracturing, or fracking, carry a heavy risk.
It takes some explanation of how fracking works to understand the insanity of what is being proposed.
MORE:
http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/390
=================
4. Company to search N.B. for oil and shale gas
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/n ... le/1386634
Published Tuesday March 8th, 2011
SWN Resources Canada GM says company wants to be open about their work and has 'nothing to hide'
By Craig Babstock Times & Transcript Staff
"There isn't any question we shy away from and if we don't know the answer, we'll go find the answer for you," says the general manager of SWN Resources Canada's New Brunswick division. "We have nothing to hide."
Oil and natural gas exploration can be a contentious topic, with some residents concerned about possible effects on the environment, drinking water, property values and other issues. Alexander is prepared to tackle all those topics and encourages people to come out to the company's open house meetings to satisfy any questions or concerns they might have.
MORE:
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/n ... le/1386634
===============
5. Fracking Fluids Part I: A controversy coming to an energy investment near you
http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News/2010/3/Pages/
Fracking-Fluids-Part-I-A-controversy-coming-to-an-energy-investment-near-you.aspx
Keith Schaefer, oilandgas-investments.com
Keith Schaefer is publisher of
www.oilandgas-investments.com.
Published 3/8/2010
The controversy surrounding fracking fluids is getting louder. Websites and media savvy organizations are getting more press on this issue, using a very simple and powerful pitch – are the chemicals used in fracking fluids in oil and gas wells contaminating our drinking water?
North American investors have not been directly hit by this issue yet, meaning that a company’s stock hasn’t plummeted because they had to stop drilling over these concerns – yet.
“Fracking” is sending a specially designed fluid down an oil or gas well at ultra-high pressure. The fluid, usually water – but can contain some chemicals with very long names – gets blown out into the reservoir rock, creating cracks and channels to allow the oil & gas to get to the well.
- - - SNIP - - -
I asked a friend of mine at a Canadian fracking company – who for obvious reasons wants to stay anonymous – to explain this issue for me in simple terms. He says sometimes there are some “nasty” chemicals used in fracking, but he estimated that 70% of frack jobs use ingredients you buy at a grocery store.
In my next story – Fracking Fluids Part II, he will share his “secret” recipe, outlining how he makes homemade frac sand from ingredients at the grocery store.
“I make a frac gel using household items – MacGyver style,” he told me. “I am literally using items my wife buys regularly and can in a few moments generate a stable frac gel that the kids can hold and play with. For less than 20 bucks you can whip this together and cover frack gels for ~70+% of all work done in fracturing.”
Stay tuned; MacGyver will tell all in Part II.
=================
6. Lochend-area drilling activity concerns residents
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/03/
lochend-area-drilling-activity-concerns-residents/
March 8, 2011 By: Enrique Massot
After a 30-year career as an engineer in the global oil and gas industry, Dan Thomas was ready to build his retirement home away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
However, little did he know he was going to have unexpected company 300 metres from his property line just as construction of his home started.
“On the day the excavator came, an oil and gas drilling derrick popped up,” he said.
Thomas said he would have never started building his new home had he known what was about to happen near his acreage, in the Lochend area in northwest Rocky View.
“I would not have started my house because of the uncertainty it created,” he said. “We had waited 15 years to build.”
Between 10 and 15 junior oil and gas companies are currently operating on lands near Lochend Road and Highway 567, in Rocky View’s northwestern quadrant.
Thomas had received no notification about the impending start of drilling.
“Not a clue,” he said.
Oil companies are flocking to the area to tap into the Cardium formations there. New extraction methods allow them to tap into reservoirs of oil tightly trapped by drilling horizontally and fracturing rock by pumping down gases or fluids, allowing oil to flow back to the pipe.
As of September 2010, 13 wells were drilled in the area with several more on the books.
Thomas wants to be sure the aquifer from where residents pump their drinking water is not affected by the fracking operations.
Fracking issues came to light in the 2010 documentary Gasland that questions the safety of fracking.
According to gaslandthemovie.com, “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing is a means of extraction employed in deep natural gas or oil well drilling.
Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and undisclosed proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well. But there have been some concerns about groundwater and well contamination.
“We want a guarantee that no damages to the fresh water aquifer, that feeds our wells, will occur,” said Thomas.
To ensure that, Thomas said, testing needs to be conducted on local wells, as well as surface water.
Those tests, he added, should be conducted by private labs paid by the oil companies.
The tests should be carried out before any drilling activity starts, in order to have information that can be compared with tests done during and after drilling.
In October, concerned area residents organized a meeting to talk about the increased activity.
“The number one requirement request that came from that meeting was for the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) to co-ordinate a meeting between the companies and the public,” said Thomas.
However, nothing has happened to date, he added.
MORE:
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/03/
lochend-area-drilling-activity-concerns-residents/
Additional Info:
BC Tap Water Alliance - Will Koop:
http://www.bctwa.org/FrackingBC.html
Fracking in Quebec - Will Koop:
http://www.bctwa.org/Frk-Quebec.html
Fracking Canada:
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/
=================
7. ERCB APPROVES SHELL WATERTON GAS WELL BUT DENIES PIPELINE APPLICATIONS
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/
PTARGS_0_0_303_263_0_43/http%3B/ercbContent/publishedcontent/publish/ercb_home/news/news_releases/2011/nr2010_08.aspx
NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 9, 2011
Calgary, Alberta (March 9, 2011) The Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) has issued Decision 2011-007, which approves, with conditions, Shell Canada applications to drill a sour gas well in the Waterton area and amend its licence to add a fuel-gas compressor. The ERCB has denied applications for a fuel gas pipeline, a production pipeline, and a gas battery.
The hearing panel determined that it is in the public interest to drill the well, noting that it will provide valuable data about the nature of the resource in this area. In addition, the well will require a small amount of new disturbance as it utilizes some existing infrastructure.
The ERCB imposed four conditions on the approvals, directing Shell to conduct an emergency response planning exercise, monitor traffic and control dust on a nearby road, and submit plans for any well testing to the ERCB for approval. The ERCB also noted 14 commitments made by Shell during the course of the hearing, and made 12 recommendations to the company.
The ERCB has denied applications for a gas battery, a fuel gas pipeline, and a production pipeline. The panel was not prepared to grant these applications given the information provided at the hearing pertaining to the need for Shell to improve its operating practices in the area.
The ERCB held a hearing in Pincher Creek from October 19 to November 1, 2010 to consider Shell’s applications. ERCB hearings are formal, quasi-judicial proceedings during which evidence is given and cross-examination and argument takes place. Hearings allow public testing of all technical, environmental, socioeconomic, and other relevant evidence. - 30 -
This news release and Decision 2011-007 are available on the ERCB Web site at
www.ercb.ca.
For more information, please contact:
Bob Curran, ERCB Communications
Phone: 403-297-3392
Email: bob.curran@ercb.ca
================
8. Ciris agrees to fines, water testing for chemical injections in Wyoming
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/
article_df21a9c6-8733-50f0-b020-537e786a3fe7.html
By JEREMY FUGLEBERG Star-Tribune energy reporter trib.com |
Posted: Wednesday, March 9, 2011 1:00 am |
A firm with a process to speed up methane gas production by feeding underground microbes has admitted to injecting that chemical “feed” underground without proper permitting.
Denver-based Ciris Energy has agreed to pay a $1,500 fine and conduct water testing at Powder River Basin well sites where it injected chemicals that feed underground microbes that produce methane gas.
Tuesday’s settlement with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) came after Ciris agreed to pay a $25,922 fine to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality for the injections.
- - - SNIP - - - -
The chemicals injected by Ciris into the wells included ammonium chloride, acetate, sodium phosphate, sodium bromide, potassium chloride, cobalt chloride and nickel chloride. Some of those ingredients are known to cause cancer, said Jill Morrison, a representative of the group.
“While Ciris claims that microbes consume all these chemicals, we do not know whether this is true or certain,” she said.
In the letter to the Wyoming DEQ, Ciris President Robert Downey assured that the injections would have a minimal effect on groundwater.
“All of these materials are fully consumed by the indigenous methanogenic consortia, leaving only modest amounts of sodium and chloride ions in the formation water,” he wrote.
Many members of the Powder River Basin Resource Council live in the Powder River Basin and get their drinking water from groundwater.
“We do hope there will be ongoing monitoring and full disclosure to the public,” council member Shannon Anderson said.
The injections were reported to the Wyoming DEQ in October by an anonymous caller who said Ciris was injecting “hazardous material” into the wells without a permit, according to a letter from the Wyoming DEQ to Ciris.
Representatives from Ciris and Denver-based Luca Technologies — which uses a process that also accelerates methane gas production by microbes — recently pushed for legislation that would set up a permitting process for their methods.
The legislation was approved and signed by Gov. Matt Mead, who also sits on the WOGCC.
Boomgaarden told the commission the new legislation clarifies the rule-making process needed to OK the underground procedures.
=================
9. Unpacking health hazards in fracking's chemical cocktail
http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.3/
unpacking-health-hazards-in-frackings-chemical-cocktail
Infographic/Photo Essay - February 21, 2011 by Sierra Crane-Murdoch
Meet the Master Well Formula -- the chemical cocktail that Encana Corp. will use to hydraulically fracture every natural gas well it drills in Wyoming's Jonah Field. Drillers mix 11,800 gallons of this solution with over a million gallons of water and a heavy dose of sand, inject it underground to release gas deposits, and collect the fuel as it spouts to the surface. Thirty to 70 percent of the solution re-emerges with "produced" water and is trucked off to evaporation pits. The rest lingers underground.
Chemical lists like this one weren't publicly available until September 2010, when Wyoming adopted an unprecedented rule requiring companies to publicly disclose them amid rising concern about fracking's potential health effects. But a loophole in the law still allows companies to hide recipes by applying for "trade secret status" -- something the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has granted for about 70 fracking products. The public may know more than before, but not quite enough to understand the full range of hazards.
================
10. Conference: Pittsburgh – April 13 & 14 - Shale Gas Water
Management Marcellus Initiative 2011
http://www.shale-gas-water-management-2011.com/
April 2011 13th - 14th April 2011
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Driving Forward Advancements In Water Sourcing, Management And Re-UseTo Maximize Profitable Shale Gas Production
The Shale Gas Water Management Marcellus Initiative 2011 is the second Shale Gas Water Summit following the fantastic response the Global Shale Gas Water Management Initiative 2010 in Dallas which attracted over 300 delegates from almost every operator involved in American shale gas.
It is also the fifth summit in the Global Shale Series following Global Shale Gas Poland 2010, Tight Oil From Shale Plays World Congress 2011 and Global Shale Gas Asia 2011.
Register Now To Save:
2 Day Conference ($1699)
Presentation Materials Only
$499.00
www.shale-gas-water-management-2011.com,
call 1-800-721-3915
Email info@american-business-conferences.com
================
11. The perpetual politics of petroleum
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50904.html
By: Dan Berman March 9, 2011 04:41 AM EST
The boom-bust cycle of oil politics is booming this week on Capitol Hill, where the only thing more predictable than politicians’ policy solutions are their claims that the other side is ignoring the issue.
With gas prices surging to about $4 a gallon in some places, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are recycling ... the same talking points they used the last time there was such pain at the pump.
Call for “all of the above?” Check. Demand the White House open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Check. Find some old quotes from the other guy about high oil prices? Check.
Rising oil prices are a serious issue, especially with the economy just beginning to recover. And the U.S. Energy Information Administration says prices at the pump will continue to rise because the recent increases in oil prices haven’t been fully passed on to consumers. Gasoline could average about $3.70 per gallon — or higher, depending on the region — in the peak April-September driving season, EIA says.
But Washington’s reaction demonstrates the limits of any policy response — as well as the reality that the issue can be more useful as a political tool.
Here’s what Washington could do to address the high prices — and why it probably won’t.
“All of the above”
MORE:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50904.html
===================
12. Record US natural gas output likely to continue
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 08840.html
March 2, 2011
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The U.S. is inundated in natural gas, and the glut may not ease any time soon.
Domestic production last year hit its highest level in almost 40 years, and 2011 will likely see another year of strong production. That means another year of subdued electricity prices and pressure on drillers' bottom lines as well as a powerful incentive for companies and other consumers to switch to the heating fuel.
Production of natural gas in the U.S. grew for a fifth consecutive year in 2010, and was the highest since 1973, the Energy Information Administration said Monday. Rising output from newly profitable shale rock formations across the U.S. has surpassed many industry observers' expectations, and the U.S. produced 21.57 trillion cubic feet of consumer-grade natural gas during the year, just short of the 1973 record of 21.73 tcf.
With no way to export large quantities of gas and a drilling boom fueled by easy availability of credit and widespread international interest in U.S. gas assets, the glut is seen continuing through 2011.
"Rising production will once again overwhelm demand, leading to yet another year of low prices," Credit Suisse analyst Stefan Revielle said in a research note.
MORE:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 08840.html
==================
13. Save the Poudre Wants Analysis and Public Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals used in Oil/Gas Wells on top of Proposed NISP Reservoir
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 9, 2011
Contact: Gary Wockner, Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper,
970-218-8310
http://SaveThePoudre.org
Fort Collins, CO -- As oil and gas wells continue marching across Weld County, Colorado, they are also marching across the site for the proposed Galeton reservoir which is a water storage facility for the proposed Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP). Additionally, of the 11 wells currently drilled and producing on top of the Galeton reservoir footprint as of March 7, 2011, 8 were drilled using "hydraulic fracturing" (fracking) with unknown chemical pollutants (click for map of wells).
On March 8, 2011, Save the Poudre sent a letter to the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency asking for a thorough environmental analysis to be completed within NISP's Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) that includes publicizing the chemical components in the fracking fluid used to drill the wells on top of the proposed reservoir. That letter is here: (Click for letter) The NISP SDEIS is supposed to be released to the public near the end of 2011.
"The existence of fracked oil and gas wells on top of, and near, the proposed Galeton reservoir may pose significant human and environmental health risks that need to be thoroughly analyzed in the NISP SDEIS," said Gary Wockner of Save the Poudre. "NISP has triggered the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act -- these federal laws require full disclosure of all environmental impacts, including the environmental impacts of fracking under the proposed Galeton reservoir."
An example of the fracking description available for one of the wells that was drilled on top of the proposed reservoir reads:
Well 05-123-31052: Frac'd Codell w/101835 gals Silverstim, Acid, and Slick Water with 201220 lbs Ottawa sand.
(Source:
http://cogcc.state.co.us/)
In a February 17, 2011 email exchange with Save the Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper, Chandler Peter from the Army Corps of Engineers confirmed that no environmental or cost analyses of the oil and gas wells has yet been figured into NISP. Save the Poudre's letter to the Corps, COGCC, and EPA outlines the extent of analysis needed to meet federal requirements.
NISP is already over 5 years late and at least $150 million over budget. In January of 2011, the Supplemental DEIS was postponed for the third time.
Save The Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper opposes NISP and has proposed a "Healthy Rivers Alternative" to the project. This Alternative would be cheaper, better for farms, better for the river, and could be implemented faster than NISP.
The summary of the Alternative is here:
http://poudreriver.home.comcast.net/~poudreriver/
Healthy_Rivers_Alternative.pdf
--end—
=================
14. James Howard Kunstler: The old American dream is a nightmare
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-09-james-howard-kunstler-we-need-a-new-american-dream
by Kerry Trueman 9 Mar 2011 10:40 AM
The Great Depression gave rise to hobos and Hoovervilles. The Roaring Nineties brought us what New York Times columnist David Brooks termed " bobos in paradise."
Now our current round of layoffs and foreclosures has unceremoniously transferred millions of folks from the "affluent" to the "afflicted" category, exiling them from Brooks's mythical exurban Eden.
But instead of setting up tents, these newly poor live in a perpetual state of nestlessness, couch-surfing, or flitting from one basement rec room to the next. And rather than revisiting Hooverville, they've given our national landscape the barely-lived in, already abandoned suburban ghost towns I call Kunstlervilles, in honor of my favorite peak oil prophet, James Howard Kunstler.
Less scrappy than crappy, the derelict condos and subdivisions of Kunstlerville were built for buyers who never materialized -- erected with marginally better building materials than a Hooverville, but doomed to house pigeons before a decorator ever had the chance to breeze in and decree, "Put a bird on it!"
Kunstler has long warned of the horrendous hangover we're going to wake up with after our "cheap oil fiesta," but he's not gloating as global instability and climate destabilization become the new not-so-normal. Unlike some dystopians, he's motivated less by the desire to say "I told you so" than by the hope that we might still manage to reinvent the American dream on a scale that better suits our current circumstances.
I caught up with Kunstler recently when a conference took me to his hometown of Saratoga Springs, and afterward followed up via email. (Our conversation has been edited for space and style.)
MORE:
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-09-james-howard-kunstler-we-need-a-new-american-dream
==================
15. Enbridge expected to face criminal charges over Michigan spill
http://washingtonindependent.com/106116/
enbridge-expected-to-face-criminal-charges-over-michigan-spill
Washington Independent, March 9, 2011
The former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s environmental crimes section said Friday that the oil and gas company Enbridge will likely face criminal charges over its 2010 Michigan pipeline rupture.
On July 26, an Enbridge oil pipeline that runs between Griffith, Ind., and Sarnia, Ontario ruptured in Marshall, Mich., spilling an estimated 819,000 gallons of sticky Canadian tar sands crude into a tributary to the Kalamazoo River.
“I would expect the federal government to bring criminal negligence charges against Enbridge under the Clean Water Act, which are the same charges they are likely to seek for the Gulf oil spill.” said David Uhlmann, who led DOJ‘s environmental crimes section for seven years and now teaches at the University of Michigan.
In order to prove negligence in such a case, the government only needs to prove that the company failed to use reasonable care, he said.
“Negligence is not going to be hard to prove given the lack of maintenance and the extent of damage from the spill.”
Pipeline tests by the company showed corrosion problems on the Michigan pipeline more than a year before the spill and company officials were arguing with regulators for more time to fix the problem as the leak occurred.
The company has a record of safety violations. In August, federal officials announced more than $2.4 million in civil fines against Enbridge for other maintenance and safety problems in Minnesota, Louisiana and Oklahoma dating back to 2006.
MORE:
http://washingtonindependent.com/106116/
enbridge-expected-to-face-criminal-charges-over-michigan-spill
=================
16. How Smart Is 'Power Smart,' BC Hydro's Try at Saving Energy?
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/03/09/HowSmartIsPowerSmart/
Not very smart, says economist Mark Jaccard. But are we brave enough for California's far more successful approach?
By Christopher Pollon Wednesday, March 09, 2011
I recently joined BC Hydro's Team Power Smart, joining the nearly 300,000 British Columbians who have signed up to date. Months of saturation marketing -- through TV, the Hydro Power Smart Olympic Village and pitches from ambassadors at scores of public events -- finally compelled me to take a closer look.
====================
17. Oilsands Quest Files Form 10-Q Quarterly Report
http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/ ... c9280.html
CUSIP No. 678046 10 3
NYSE Amex: BQI
CALGARY, March 9 /CNW/ - Oilsands Quest Inc. (NYSE Amex: BQI) ("Oilsands Quest", "OQI" or "the Company") has filed its Form 10-Q Quarterly Report for the quarter ended January 31, 2010 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The full document is available online at www.sec.gov and www.sedar.com; the Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) is presented below.
MORE:
http://newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/ ... c9280.html
= = = = =
More info on Saskatchewan tarsands development by this corporation:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=449
===================
18. Renowned Scientist/Activist, Vandana Shiva Held at Canadian Border
http://mostlywater.org/
renowned_scientistactivist_vandana_shiva_held_canadian_border_0
By C.L. Cook (Canadian Free Press); March 9, 2011 - No One Is Illegal-Vancouver
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=3409
Vandana Shiva was scheduled to speak tonight in Calgary, Alberta, spiritual home of far right Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper. But, like other activists and writers trying to enter Canada lately, things didn’t go smoothly for her. Shiva is also scheduled to receive tomorrow [the] University of Calgary’s Consortium for Peace Studies award. (Please see below for details). Swerve Calgary reports Shiva is being held tonight at the Canada/U.S. border due to “an issue with her visa.”
Vandana Shiva now joins a lengthening list of dissident writers, reporters, and activists harried by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).
In 2009, then British MP George Galloway was not allowed entry into Canada due to his alleged support for Palestinian groups listed by the CBSA as terrorist organizations. Galloway took the case to court, where Stephen Harper’s government was rebuked.
Last year, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! found herself cooling her heels at the border when Canadian agents refused to believe she was not going to Vancouver to report critically on the Olympic games. Goodman recounted the bizarre incident to the crowd awaiting her speaking engagement in the Olympic city.
No such luck for Calgarians who had hoped to hear Shiva speak tonight.
The CBSA is overseen by minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturism Jason Kenney, a controversial figure for callous remarks regarding refugees, and more recently embroiled in a fund raising scandal.
[A date not kept: India’s famed environmental activist knows all about taking a stand. She’ll be in town on March 9 to discuss democracy, empowerment of women, development, social justice and the environment. Vandana Shiva speaks Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m. At Murray Fraser Hall, University of Calgary. $12 – $15.
www.netcommunity.ucalgary.ca/shiva.]
[On March 10th, the University of Calgary’s Consortium for Peace Studies will award Dr. Vandana Shiva, a world-renowned environmental activist from New Dehli, The Calgary Peace Prize. The awards ceremony and banquet will be held at the Calgary Golf & Country Club. Tickets are available via the U of C’s secure Net Community: TICKETS]
================
19. Erin Brockovich Returns To Hinkley Testing Chromium-Polluted Water (Chromium 6 in posts-fracking water – see reference below. Ed.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/
erin-brockovich-returns-to-hinkley_n_833423.html
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ 03/ 9/11 03:33 AM
HINKLEY, Calif. -- At the end of "Erin Brockovich," a housewife sick from toxic chromium weeps with joy as she's handed her portion of a historic $333 million settlement between residents of this small desert town and the utility that poisoned their drinking water.
In real life, that woman is Roberta Walker. She still lives in Hinkley, using her share to buy a new home in what she thought would be a safe four-mile distance from the toxic plume of chromium.
Earlier this year, she and other residents learned that the pollution, which Pacific Gas & Electric was required to clean up, was once again moving and had seeped into their groundwater.
Now, Brockovich has returned to the town that made her famous and is once again rallying residents, sampling the water and at a water board meeting on Wednesday is expected to announce that the contamination may be worse than the utility says.
For Walker and others involved in the original case, these developments are like stepping back in time and are a haunting reminder that a landmark lawsuit and a blockbuster movie are no guarantee of safety.
"We didn't bring a giant to its knees, all we did was wake it up," Walker said. "This is not happening again – I can't believe it."
Walker was instrumental in developing the original case that was filed in 1993.
MORE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/
erin-brockovich-returns-to-hinkley_n_833423.html
= = = = = =
Frack Attack (Chromium 6 in post-fracking water)
http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/
fracking-natural-gas-affects-water-quality
Forcing natural gas out of shale and old wells means pumping chemicals into the earth - sometimes mixing with aquifers and coming out the neighbours' taps. Fracking - Natural Gas Affects Water Quality
From Watershed Sentinel, March/April 2010 by Joyce Nelson
QUOTE:
Chromium-6 in the Water
Being an activist on behalf of her community is not the only connection Ernst has with Brockovich. Through expensive Freedom of Information requests, Ernst obtained post-fracking water well monitoring data that showed the Alberta Environment people had found hexavalent chromium in Rosebud's (Alberta) well water. "The government hasn't told this to people" in the hamlet, says Ernst.
=======================
20. HARDING: IS CANADA’S DEMOCRACY AND OUR CHANCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY SLIPPING AWAY?
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=510
BY Jim Harding Published in R-Town News on March 4, 2011
First in Tunisia, then Egypt and now Libya, youth are risking their lives to topple oil-rich authoritarian leaders, many who obtained their military might with western backing. Meanwhile, as we sit at our TVs watching with some astonishment as these protests become popular revolutions, our own country is steadily moving towards more authoritarian rule.
Has the quality of our democracy been slipping away as Canada itself becomes an “energy superpower”? Is there anything about Canada that makes us immune to this happening? When you look at what has occurred in five short years of Harper’s rule, it seems time to blow the warning whistle.
The growing list of how Harper’s tightly-controlled rule is moving us away from democracy is discussed in “The New Solitudes” by Erna Paris in the March 2011 The Walrus. I suggest you read it carefully if you care about the future of our country. Paris lists many concrete examples of how our democracy is being whittled away, and you begin to see a pattern to Harper’s ongoing assaults on Canadian society. Here are just a few examples.
MORE:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=510
=================
21. PARIS: The New Solitudes
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/articles/
2011.03-politics-the-new-solitudes/
Canada was once defined by the schism between English and French. Today, our divide is increasingly ideological. Can it be bridged?
By Erna Paris Illustration by Barry Blitt Politics From the March 2011 magazine
It was November 26, 2009, and I happened to be in Ottawa with a few hours to spare; so, on a citizen’s whim, I decided to drop in on Question Period in Canada’s House of Commons. I was a small girl the first time I sat in the historic visitors’ gallery that looms over the rows of members’ seats on both sides of the political divide. My father was determined that his children witness what he thought were essential places and events, and the House was high on his parental to-do list. I was properly impressed by the sight of grown-ups debating across the parliamentary aisle, waving sheaves of papers at one another and occasionally jabbing the air with their index fingers. I was too young to understand what they were talking about, but Dad’s lesson sank in, and I’ve been attending Question Period intermittently ever since.
In retrospect, I’m glad I visited the House that day, although I didn’t feel that way afterward. I thought I knew enough about our dysfunctional Parliament, but I wasn’t prepared for the dismay I felt as I watched Canada’s elected members challenge one another over one of the most critical issues to confront the country in a generation. The debate centred on the scandalous detainee transfer affair, which had once again exploded into public view. Richard Colvin, formerly a high-ranking diplomat in Afghanistan, had revealed that for seventeen months, starting in May 2006, he had informed his superiors in Ottawa that prisoners detained by the Canadian military, then transferred to Afghan security forces, were being tortured. His reports were consistently ignored, he charged. Worse still, he was ordered to stop putting his intelligence gathering into writing. [ . . . ]
===================
22. On the road to the Harper government's tipping point
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/
on-the-road-to-the-harper-governments-tipping-point/article1933110/
LAWRENCE MARTIN | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Mar. 08, 2011 5:00AM EST
Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 08, 2011 9:03AM EST
It’s not the parts that count but the sum of the parts. Which invites the question: Is anyone doing the math?
Just recently, four senior Conservatives (including two senators) were charged with willfully exceeding spending limits in the 2006 campaign that brought the Tories to power. The “in and out” financing scheme came at the same time that Stephen Harper was promising a new era of transparency and accountability. [ . . . ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: March 16, 2011
by Oscar » Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:19 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: March 16, 2011
1. EVENT: Public Info Meeting and AGM at Innisfail, Mar. 23/11
2. EVENT: 2011 SEN Saskatoon – Apr. 1 – 3 - Environmental Film Festival
3. LETTER: “Anonymous” - Twilight Zone or the new Micro-Parallel Universe Theory?
4. Our Water Secretly Sucked Away by Shale Gas Industry
5. Tim DeChristopher stands tall despite guilty verdict
6. BOYD KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT WORLD HEAVY OIL CONGRESS
7. No N.B. hydro-fracking moratorium: Northrup
8. Quebec report on natural gas urges halt to some drilling
9. WATCH: My Fear is that Climate Change is the Biggest Crisis of All”: Naomi Klein Warns Global Warming Could Be Exploited by Capitalism and Militarism
10. LETTER: SHIELDS: Royalties Are Revenue in Alberta!!
11. LETTER: SHIELDS: Another Alberta Joke!!
12. Oil pipeline delayed for more environmental review
13. LETTER: SHIELDS: Cheering From the Sidelines . . .
14. In America's Capital, a Fierce Fight over Oil Sands
15. Mackenzie pipeline wins federal cabinet approval after years of delay
16. PA Governor Gives Energy Executive Supreme Authority Over Environmental Permitting
17. Former Bush EPA Official Says Fracking Exemption Went Too Far; Congress Should Revisit
18. Insurrection and Military Intervention: The US-NATO Attempted Coup d'Etat in Libya? - Part I of a two-part article
19. Two big victories in the fight against asbestos
20. Liberals will push for election over Tories' disrespect for democracy
21. WATCH: World's Largest Solar Cooking System - 100,000 Come For Dinner
===============
1. EVENT: Public Info Meeting and AGM at Innisfail, Mar. 23/11
Once again it is time for our annual general meeting, on Wednesday March 23, 2011, 7:30 pm, at the Innisfail Legion Hall.
We will have a really good speaker " Regan Boychuk, from the public policy research department of the U of A, Parkland Institute" speaking on the royalty framework and subsidies to energy companies. Regan is the author of "Misplaced Generosity: Extraordinary Profits in Alberta's Oil and Gas Industry". We think you will be amazed at just how little of our resources are flowing back to the people of Alberta.
Our group has made great strides this year with the amalgamation of Red Raven, the United Landowners of Alberta and Pine Lake Surface Rights Action Group. This was why we legally changed our name to Alberta Surface Rights Group.
In addition we created a new website, published our first newsletter, initiated a phone out and bulk email messaging services, and have started, in depth contacts, with other landowner groups in Ontario and BC and Alberta. In addition we have continued to lobby government, attended several industry/government technology and policy events, and hosted timely landowner information meetings.
Unfortunately much of our time and effort has been spent trying to counteract the government land grab bills and hopefully we have made some progress.
In the future we hope to be able to spend more time on our core purposes, of educating and informing landowners about things that affect them at the grassroots level......contracts for surface leases, pipeline and transmission line right of ways, schedule A addendums, and annual rental reviews. Compensation issues (and information) on all of the above and what you should be requiring in water well tests, nuisance problems, and how to effectively use the hearing process at both the ERCB and the Surface Rights Board.
We are contemplating holding several small workshops to get that info out there and your input is very welcome. Suggestions for any other things you would like to see us working towards are also very welcome and if you have an interest on being elected to the board please feel free to contact us at albertasurfacerights@gmail.com
Doug Malsbury, Secretary, Alberta Surface Rights Group Society
http://www.albertasurfacerights.org/articles/?id=1007
===============
2. EVENT: 2011 SEN Saskatoon – Apr. 1 – 3 - Environmental Film Festival - ”See the Change, Bee the Change”
Details at www.econet.sk.ca
At the ROXY Theatre
Friday April 1
7:00 pm Environmental Activist Awards honouring Allyson Brady, Robert
Regnier and Michael Finley
8:15 pm In the Wake of the Flood (48 min)
9 pm Green Un-Gala at Paved Arts Centre
Saturday April 2
12 pm Strong Coffee (48 min)
2 – 4 pm SHORTS: Downstream; Avatar Sands; Green Porno; The Story of
Bottled Water
4 pm Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (54 min); Homeland (57 min)
7 pm Pisim Project (47 min) Q & A with Filmmaker Marcel Petit
9 pm The Age of Stupid (90 min)
Sunday April 3
12 pm Vanishing of the Bees (90 min) followed by workshop
on Bee Keeping by Barry Brown, U. of S.
2 pm Into Eternity (75 min) Michael Poellet of the Inter Church Uranium
Committee will lead a Q & A session on Nuclear Waste Repositories
4 – 6 pm A Sense of Wonder (55 min); For the Next Seven Generations
Thanks to our Sponsors: SaskEnergy, SIAST, Stantec, Briarpatch, SCIC, SFL,
Riversdale BID, Riversdale Community Assoc., Sask. Beekeepers Assoc., SEN,
U. of S. Office of Sustainability, Saskatoon Curbside Recycling, UNAC, PAVED,
Saskatoon Food Coalition, ESSA, Caffe Sola, Maestar, MPet Productions.
--
SASKATCHEWAN ECO NETWORK
535 8th Street East
Saskatoon SK S7H 0P9
Phone: 306-652-1275
info@econet.sk.ca
http://www.econet.sk.ca
=============
3. LETTER: “Anonymous” - Twilight Zone or the new Micro-Parallel Universe Theory?
March 16, 2011
Either way... I'm at a loss... meaning my life. I have noticed some disturbing things in this beautiful town in south central Saskatchewan. Each one of these things can be easily "spin-doctored" and discredited to the point of confusion. But as a whole, you have to admit, these things are definitely pointing to something. Let me explain.
I was a happy and productive person in 2007. Very fatigued by late 2008. On disability, feeling humiliated and in shock by early 2009... and I used to be pretty. But it is not just me. Some here have aged 10 years in 2. Many have ballooned to an unhealthy weight overnight, against their best efforts. All are either sick, dying, or pumped to-the-nines on big pharma... children, animals, flora & fauna, meat & potatoes, included. On a rare night you can smell this sickly chemical odor that could drop an elephant. I swear I can hear the earth rumbling. Random but ever increasing burning eyes (one is now permanently red and the whites are wrinkled). Headaches, numbness, painfully sore lungs, and instant malaise. The heavy metal tests I had done showed high levels of arsenic, antimony, lead, and cadmium to name a few.... I am now doing a heavy metal detox but it may be too late. The back yard is slowly sinking, birds disappear for hours and sometimes days. Deformed plants, dead bees, dead bats, giant angry wasps, and a 2- headed bug are all the things I have experienced in the last two years.
Now here is where the parallel universe comes in. The 2 headed bug was pacing back and forth. Exhausting itself not knowing which way to go. It was going to starve to death, not realizing it was connected! Sounds kinda like what is going on here. Something is definitely very wrong. The doctors don't seem to be too concerned and no else wants to hear it. Who could blame them, there is money to be made! Who cares about a lowly chick and her wacko theories......... surely then this be-eth the Twilight Zone.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
= = = = =
FRACKIN’ with PetroBakken
http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/brochures/
Jan_10/PetroBakken/file.pdf
JANUARY 2010 • The Canadian Business Journal 33
www.petrobakken.com
How PetroBakken took a chance with an upstart technology and unlocked the Bakken By Anna Guy
The Bakken formation in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada, is fast becoming a major hotspot for onshore oil. Lesser known than the celebrated oilsands, the Bakken formation is a 350 million-year-old underground layer of rock that spans Montana and North Dakota to the south, and southeast Saskatchewan to the north. Discovered in the 1950’s, its vast reserves of petroleum were only recently accessible through technology.
As early as 1974, it was postulated that the Bakken could contain vast amounts of oil, but it was a 1995 field assessment for the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) that said there may be as many as 503 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation. Compare this with the 125 billion barrels at the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia and 7.8 billion barrels at Alberta’s Pembina Cardium, and the significance of the Bakken becomes clearer.
“We see a great expansion of our oil industry in areas that we have previously had limited production,” says Dancsok.
“The Bakken is the key which may unlock the entire province.”
MORE:
http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/brochures/
Jan_10/PetroBakken/file.pdf
==============
4. Our Water Secretly Sucked Away by Shale Gas Industry
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/15/Ou ... uckedAway/
Beyond public scrutiny, vast amounts of BC's water are being dealt to 'fracking' operations.
By Ben Parfitt, Today, TheTyee.ca
On Feb. 15 of this year, Calgary-based Canbriam Energy Inc. quietly applied to the B.C. government for the rights to pull billions of litres of water out of Williston Reservoir, the ultimate source of much of our province's hydroelectricity.
The application was the second submitted in less than a year. In 2010, Talisman Energy, another Calgary-based company, got the ball rolling with a similar proposal. If Talisman and Canbriam get their way, they could soon withdraw a combined 7.3 billion litres of water annually out of the reservoir -- an amount equivalent to draining 2,920 Olympic swimming pools each and every year.
That's a lot of water, yet a fraction of what natural gas companies are projected to need for their "fracking" operations -- the name commonly used to described the pressure-pumping of immense amounts of water below ground to fracture shale rock, thereby releasing its trapped gas.
The dearth of information on the Talisman and Canbriam proposals might not be of such a concern if it were the exception to the rule. But in numerous instances important decisions on water allocations are being made without the public even being told that applications have been filed, let alone being provided an opportunity to review and comment on the proposals.
MORE:
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/15/Ou ... uckedAway/
- - - - -
Related Articles
A Fracking Disaster in the Making: Report
http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/10/15/FrackingDisaster/
Blasting shale rock with toxic fluid can release riches in natural gas, but threatens critical water supplies.
How to Attack a 'Fracking' Film
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2010/06/23/FrackingFilm/
Documentary 'Gasland' shows flaming tap water caused by gas drillers 'fracking.' Industry speed dials its PR flaks.
If the $30 Billion We Give Oil Sands Went to Green Energy
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/11/26/
30BillionToGreen/http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/11/26/30BillionToGreen/
What could Canada achieve then? Here's the jaw-dropping answer.
================
5. Tim DeChristopher stands tall despite guilty verdict
http://www.desmogblog.com/
tim-dechristopher-stands-tall-despite-guilty-verdict
by Laurel Whitney March 11
“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience
A collective gasp was heard late afternoon yesterday as Tim DeChristopher was found guilty after only 5 hours of jury deliberation. Officially charged with one count of False Statement and one count of violating the Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act, suddenly everyone was left thinking- did they convict the real criminal?
Much of the last two days of trial had focused on DeChristopher's intent when bidding for BLM land leases. Prosecutor John Hubert argued that DeChristopher intentionally "disrupted, derailed, and sabotaged" the auction. However, defense attorney Ron Yengich painted a different picture:
"He wanted to raise a red flag," he said. "He wanted to make a statement. That’s what he wanted to do. His desire was not to thwart the auction. ... He wanted people to think about the consequences that the auction was bringing to bear on other people. But it was never his intention to harm anyone."
Maybe if Tim had run into the auction using his paddle to feverishly whack participants to prevent them from bidding, then that could be seen harmful.
But let’s put this into context:
Did Tim cause the deaths of 29 people in a mining accident fueled by poor practices and improper equipment maintenance?
Did Tim cause the deaths of 11 people when an offshore oil rig exploded because of numerous safety violations and regulatory oversights causing millions of barrels of oil to spew into the Gulf for months and effectively decimate local economies and ecosystems?
Or how about the other oil spill last summer that leaked over 800,000 gallons into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, that remains contaminated over 6 months later?
Did he contaminate acres of Amazon rainforest and years later refuse to clean it up and pay the fines?
Or did he cause a toxic gas leak at a pesticide plant that not only killed 20,000 people but continues to contaminate the water and cripplingly sicken citizens over 25 years after the original event?
No, in fact Tim only picked up a paddle. And now he’s the one facing prison. The worst any of the above companies suffered was a blow to their images.
Be it what it may, this trial has catalyzed the climate movement once again, serving as a call for civil disobedience to stand up to those who would rather have us submit in fear. Ultimately, Tim decided to stand up to injustice when he saw it and is now calling to others to do the same. From his speech outside the courthouse, "Everything that went on inside that building tried to convince me that I was alone, and that I was weak. They tried to convince me that I was like a little finger, out there on my own, that can easily be broken. And all of you out here were the reminder, for all of us, that I was... connected to a hand, with many fingers, that could unite as one fist. And that fist could not be broken by the power in there... All those authorities in there wanted me think like a finger. But our children are calling to us, to think like a fist."
Likewise, the cries of heroism have reverberated around the blogosphere and beyond. Bill McKibben penned in his piece on Grist.org,
“If the feds think this prosecution/persecution will deter us from working for a livable planet, they couldn't be more wrong. Tim was brave and alone. We will be brave in quantity.”
Just as Thoreau sat in jail to protest injustices of his day, Tim will now do the same, and bring a spotlight on what we must stand for. The stakes for the planet are high; therefore the stakes for the risks we must take to save it will be high too.
================
6. BOYD KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT WORLD HEAVY OIL CONGRESS
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=2fd03ad9-9d51-41cf-8dcc-cd69b22c5333
News Release - March 16, 2011
Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd will be profiling the successes of Saskatchewan's dynamic oil and gas industry this week at one of the premier business and technical events on the planet for heavy oil.
The World Heavy Oil Congress, currently underway in Edmonton, has attracted more than 800 delegates from 30 countries. Boyd is one of the keynote speakers at the congress and will address participants at its Thursday luncheon.
"My presentation on heavy oil is titled ‘Real Growth, Real Opportunity and Real Rewards' and that certainly describes what awaits investors in the industry here," Boyd said. "Our light crude oil plays and our massive heavy oil resources offer plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs, and our positive business climate provides the perfect backdrop for those opportunities to be realized."
More than half of Saskatchewan's conventional crude oil production comes from heavy oil. The province's initial heavy oil in place is estimated at over 20 billion barrels, but only a small percentage of that is currently commercially recoverable using present technology.
"Our companies and researchers have been doing ground-breaking work in enhanced oil recovery, and the new and evolving technologies we are pioneering here will ensure we capture as much of our rich heavy oil resource as possible," Boyd said.
The Ministry of Energy and Resources and Enterprise Saskatchewan are major sponsors of the World Heavy Oil Congress, which is held in different countries every 18 months. Saskatchewan's delegation is holding various business meetings during the event as well as participating in the congress's trade show.
The province's oil and gas industry had approximately $10.5 billion in sales in 2010 and invested $3.3 billion in exploration and development activity. The oil and gas industry provides direct and indirect employment for more than 29,000 people. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis, Energy and Resources, Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
==================
7. No N.B. hydro-fracking moratorium: Northrup
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/
2011/03/11/nb-northrup-hydrofracking-741.html
Posted: Mar 11, 2011 8:43 AM AT Last Updated: Mar 11, 2011 10:56 AM AT
The New Brunswick government will not put a moratorium on shale gas development in the province, Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup said on Friday. [ . . . ]
- - - - - -
N.B. hydro-fracking will go ahead: company
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/
2011/03/09/nb-hydrofracking-exploration.html
=================
8. Quebec report on natural gas urges halt to some drilling
http://www.therecord.com/news/business/article/
498047--quebec-report-on-natural-gas-urges-halt-to-some-drilling
The Canadian Press Tue Mar 8 2011
MONTREAL — A highly anticipated Quebec report has recommended that the province halt a controversial natural-gas drilling practice, pending further study.
Within minutes of releasing the report Tuesday, the Quebec government announced it would respect its findings.
The province’s environment minister said the practice known as “fracking” will only proceed, for now, under the rubric of the environmental study and not for industrial purposes.
Environment Minister Pierre Arcand also announced that any future exploration will only be conducted after public consultations are held.
“We will not make any compromises on health, safety, or respect for the environment,” Arcand said.
He called it the most important report in the 33-year history of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement, commonly known as the BAPE.
The report by the environmental impact-assessment bureau said the shale-gas industry should stop hydraulic fracturing until more is known about its environmental risks.
MORE:
http://www.therecord.com/news/business/article/
498047--quebec-report-on-natural-gas-urges-halt-to-some-drilling
==================
9. WATCH: My Fear is that Climate Change is the Biggest Crisis of All”: Naomi Klein Warns Global Warming Could Be Exploited by Capitalism and Militarism
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/9/
my_fear_is_that_climate_change
Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein has been reporting on global warming and the climate justice movement for years. “My fear is that climate change is the biggest crisis of all,” Klein says. “If we don’t come up with a positive vision of how climate change can make our economies and our world more just, more livable, cleaner, fairer, then this crisis will be exploited to militarize our economies, to create fortress continents. And we’re really facing a choice. What we really need now is for the people fighting for economic justice and environmental justice to come together.” [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Climate Change, Naomi Klein, Author Interviews, BP Oil Spill
==================
10. LETTER: SHIELDS: Royalties Are Revenue in Alberta!!
From: lagran
To: David Swann ; brian mason ; calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Cc: goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Jerry Bellikka ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca ; Alberta Activism
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 9:05 AM
Subject: Royalties Are Revenue in Alberta!!
They are in Alberta, Sir. And with respect to loss, in cases where negligence allows wells to blow-out destroying millions in equipment and burning publicly owned resources, the Alberta ERCB refuse to disclose those losses in their investigations into these incidents!! Alberta opposition parties fail to realize who their enemy in Alberta really is, CAPP and the industry owned ERCB will keep the Conservative government or some concoction like this Conservative government in power as long as that is made possible for them!! Albertan's don't need another party ready to act as head waiter to the energy industry. What's needed is a power in government able to force industry to serve the Alberta public!! Politician's who have taken on the ERCB to help Alberta's public, have a faithful following even in west-central Alberta, there just is not enough politicians ready to learn about the real enemy!! Losses in incidents are very real, yet this present government will allow abrasive bitumen slurry to shipped thousands of mile for upgrading rather than upgrading at source to cut pipeline use and wear!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe Alberta
- - - -
Royalties are not 'revenue'
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Royalties+revenue/
4421591/story.html
Edmonton Journal March 11, 2011 3:02 AM
Re: "Fires and spills cut province's oil windfall; A third of a billion dollars to be lost this fiscal year due to infrastructure woes," The Journal, March 7.
Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert laments that, "Any time there's a loss of production affecting oil revenue is a concern."
Notwithstanding that this not even a complete sentence, there are several factual inaccuracies in this statement
First, nothing is "lost" if production falls -rather this is a timing issue. Second, the Alberta government has to stop referring to royalties as "revenue," free to spend on their next whim or fancy or vote-purchase.
Our province's extraction of oil and gas, and the resultant royalties, are the consequence of converting a long-term asset (resources) into another asset (cash).
This is like a homeowner taking out a mortgage and exchanging equity in their house for cash. This is not a revenue transaction. This is no small matter, because future Albertans would expect to realize some benefit from this conversion of assets, i.e. the Heritage Savings Trust Fund that has barely grown since former premier Peter Lougheed's promise.
The province should only classify as revenue that portion of royalties that come as the result of these resources being further processed in Alberta.
Everything else is an asset that should only be saved and spent under a strict plan that takes into account future generations of Albertans.
Peter Piekema,
Edmonton
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
==================
11. LETTER: SHIELDS: Another Alberta Joke!!
From: lagran
To: David Swann ; brian mason ; calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca
Cc: Jerry Bellikka ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:28 AM
Subject: Another Alberta Joke!!
I would feel much better if I thought the ERCB were in anyway trying to become better with their horrid record with respect to FOIP complaints. I strongly suspect the real reason for the removal of personal information has more to do with keeping the names of rig personnel secret when well bow-outs and that like happens!! The ERCB investigation on the Acclaim 2-26-52-26w4 well blow-out, and reports of crew members on site at the time of the accident must have taught the ERCB to become even more secretive with respect to allowing Albertan's a chance at finding the truth.
The Acclaim 2-26-52-26-w4 ERCB report tries to convince Albertans that a down hole explosion lead to the well blow out, rather than the "Bull-Head" squeeze attempted to kill the well overcoming the threshold pressure of the wells casing tolerance!! This very very strange response from the ERCB with respect to well blow out investigations have left all well blowout reports from the ERCB suspect, and completely lacking in cost information, badly needed to correct public losses!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, AB
- - - - -
Removal of Personal Information Contained in Well Drilling and Completions Daily Operations Report
http://www.ercb.ca/docs/documents/bulletins/
bulletin-2010-43.pdf (Dec 2010)
All personal information is to be removed from the report prior to submission to the ERCB Core Research Centre. The Well Drilling Completions Data Submission cover sheet provides a space for the Authorized Representative of the Licensee to confirm that all personal information has been removed. Please refer to ERCB Bulletin 2010-43 for more information. [ . . . ]
================
12. Oil pipeline delayed for more environmental review
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7473881.html
2011 The Associated Press March 15, 2011, 9:01PM
OMAHA, Neb.- A proposed pipeline designed to carry Canadian tar sands oil to refineries along the Gulf Coast will be delayed further while the U.S. government conducts an additional environmental review.
The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that it planned to conduct the additional review environmental groups had demanded. A presidential permit from the State Department is required because the pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canadian border.
Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. first submitted its Keystone XL project for State Department review in late 2008. The project is designed to carry crude oil from tar sands near Hardisty, Alberta, to the Gulf Coast via Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. TransCanada has also proposed connecting the pipeline to the Bakken oil field in Montana and North Dakota.
TransCanada officials had previously predicted that a decision on the project would come by the end of 2010. The State Department's decision to issue a supplemental environmental report triggers a longer review process, so the Keystone XL project will be delayed further.
TransCanada's President and Chief Executive Russ Girling said he's glad the review of the Keystone XL project is moving forward and he predicted that it would ultimately be approved.
- - - -SNIP - - - -
Environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, have raised concerns that the pipeline could foul underground and surface water supplies, increase air pollution around refineries and harm wildlife. They also have speculated about what they consider inadequate pipeline safety and emergency spill responses.
==================
13. LETTER: SHIELDS: Cheering From the Sidelines . . .
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P. ; iggy
Cc: David Swann ; brian mason ; goodale ; flaherty ; calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca ; bill boyd ; Jerry Bellikka ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 8:57 AM
Subject: Cheering From the Sidelines--
While private industry meets to decide the fate of our publicly owned resources on international markets, both our provincial and federal Tory government members cheer them on from the sidelines!! The NAFTA--Free Trade mentality in Canada is very evident, at this meeting of heavy oil producers! Lawrence Eagles, a global researcher with J.P.Morgan even envisions our bitumen [after upgrading] at the Gulf Coast, being exported to Europe!! Imagine!!
The U.S. are now using Canadian natural gas to be able to export LNG to Europe, if that could also be accomplished with bitumen, Americans can thank Mulroney's Free-Trade Agreement, for being the milk-cow that just keeps giving!! Overselling any product especially to one-only customer will always lead to low prices, is the lesson natural gas exports through NAFTA should have taught the low-brow Canadian traders.
If indeed raw bitumen is stored with a two-year supply in Crushing Okla. restrictions on bitumen exports should be brought in and force upgrading facilities at source to reduce the need for pipeline space, and prevent the need of pipelines to import diluents to move the slurry!! Bitumen is very abrasive and corrosive and presents a danger to pipelines. For this reason alone bitumen that must be upgraded at some point in it's transformation to usefulness, should be upgraded at source!!
I have always blamed free-trade for stealing Canada's abilities to set prices for our exported resources right here in Canada. Natural gas has been shipped through NAFTA to U.S. destinations without regard to the amounts being placed in storage during off-season prices, for sales during heating season. Deregulation along with Free-Trade soon had the price of natural gas set much different from it's heat value in relation to crude oil in North America. Other world exporters were not as generous as Canada to their neighbours, although Canada's actions did indeed hurt the world price for natural gas! Are we now embarked on a mission to do exactly the same thing with crude oil?
Allowing industry to set the rules for the production and export of our energy resources has been very good for those in the business of developing the public resources as a visit to SEDAR will confirm. However the Canadian public as owner of the resource has been force to accept a continuing lesser part of the resource pie due to weak provincial and federal governments dominated by industry and their advocates. A comparative of Alberta with Norway with respect to public benefit from energy development is shocking but very true. Our weak provincial government is completely dominated by CAPP the industries main advocate. Who remembers the sight of our poor wee-mouse in Alberta appearing before the Calgary energy crowd to pour water into the royalty wine advanced by a blue ribbon Alberta panel?
What is to become of bitumen production in the future will be decided not in Alberta or Canada, but in United States! By allowing bitumen exports through the Keystone pipeline system, Harper turned the future of bitumen production over to the Americans. These Americans will manage imports to bring their bitumen costs in line to a predetermined amount, slightly above production costs as they have done with natural gas. Harper flew right over the world heavy oil gathering in Edmonton to land in Vancouver, to pick his nose on the west coast!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
= = = = = =
Oilsands fuel U.S. ‘bottleneck’
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Oilsands+fuel+bottleneck/4446298/story.html
Glut in storage depressing prices, local congress told
By Dave Cooper, edmontonjournal.com March 15, 2011
EDMONTON — While the Middle East turmoil is pushing up oil prices, Alberta heavy-oil producers are facing a “classic bottleneck,” with pipelines running at capacity and storage tanks in Cushing, Okla., almost full.
“This is causing a significant dampening of prices and it will take a couple of years” to sort out, the head of J.P. Morgan global oil research told the World Heavy Oil Congress on Tuesday.
“The upgrader investment (in the U.S.) is in place; it is just a question of getting the oil to market,” Lawrence Eagles said.
This projected improvement assumes pipelines, including TransCanada’s Keystone XL project, will be built, he adds. But Keystone has been delayed as U.S. officials seek more scientific reports on issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and pipeline integrity.
Still, Eagles thinks Americans are placing increasing importance on energy security.
“And what better energy security can they have than a very stable, secure supply just north? For Canada, pipelines to the Gulf will supply a very strong market.”
Still, the country must develop other markets, he said.
MORE:
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Oilsands+fuel+bottleneck/4446298/story.html
==================
14. In America's Capital, a Fierce Fight over Oil Sands
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/03/14/
OilSandsFight/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=140311
Today begins The Tyee's major series reported from Washington on the intense, high stakes political struggle fueled by Alberta crude.
By Geoff Dembicki, Today, TheTyee.ca
In the hallways and offices of America's capital city, a war is being quietly waged out of view of most Canadians and Americans.
The outcome will decide North America's energy future and its impact on the planet's climate.
The tactics are all the high pressure persuasion and hard-ball politicking that tens of millions of dollars can buy -- many of those dollars contributed by Canadian taxpayers.
The war pits America's largest environmental groups against some of the world's wealthiest corporations and their "allies" in the Canadian and Albertan governments.
The battle line divides two viscerally opposed camps: Those arguing that North America's deepening dependence on Alberta's oil sands industry represents a pragmatic solution to looming energy crises, and those who say relying on oil sands crude marks an irreversible step closer to climate change catastrophe.
The prize, at end of the day, will be votes cast by politicians.
Will Washington's legislators pass laws that have the effect of opening the oil sands spigots wider, assuring that Alberta's bitumen crude increasingly, and permanently, flows into the U.S. market?
Or will they legislate against high carbon emissions fuel sources as a measure to reduce climate change? That could severely constrict the flow of oil sands' output into the U.S., dashing the profit dreams of corporations -- and some Canadian officials -- who have already bet hugely on providing bitumen-derived crude for American consumption.
MORE:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/03/14/
OilSandsFight/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=140311
(Links at URL above)
Oil Sands Opponents Will Lose, Economist Suggests
Heated U.S. debate to be swayed by security, says BMO's Sweet.
US Tea Party's Deep Ties to Oil Sands Giant
Owners of Koch Industries, a major processor of Alberta crude, spent millions to foment and support a movement against Obama's climate change policies.
What Those Who Killed the Tar Sands Report Don't Want You to Know
Why did a parliamentary committee suddenly destroy drafts of a final report on tar sands pollution? Here's what they knew.
=============
15. Mackenzie pipeline wins federal cabinet approval after years of delay
http://www.thestar.com/business/companies/article/
952612--mackenzie-pipeline-wins-federal-cabinet-approval-after-years-of-delay
By: Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press Posted: 03/10/2011 2:32 PM
- - -
QUOTE: “The proposed pipeline would stretch from near the coast of the Beaufort Sea in the Northwest Territories to northern Alberta, where it would link up with TransCanada Corp.'s (TSX:TRP) vast pipeline system.”
- - -
CALGARY - The long-delayed Mackenzie natural gas pipeline has received the final green light from the National Energy Board, though the future of the $16.2-billion project is still far from certain. [ . . . ]
================
16. PA Governor Gives Energy Executive Supreme Authority Over Environmental Permitting
http://www.propublica.org/article/
corbett-pa-energy-exec-authority-environment
by Abrahm Lustgarten , Nicholas Kusnetz and Joaquin Sapien
ProPublica, March 9, 10:50 p.m.
Pennsylvania’s governor has appointed an energy industry executive to oversee the state’s job creation effort and wants to give him unusual authority to streamline state permits, including for gas drilling.
==================
17. Former Bush EPA Official Says Fracking Exemption Went Too Far; Congress Should Revisit
http://www.propublica.org/article/
former-bush-epa-official-says-fracking-exemption-went-too-far
by Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, March 9, 12:21 p.m.
Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency in the George W. Bush administration, ponders criticism leveled at a 2004 study on hydraulic fracturing and suggests that it's now time for Congress and the EPA to take another look at the practice.
=================
18. Insurrection and Military Intervention: The US-NATO Attempted Coup d'Etat in Libya? - Part I of a two-part article
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23548
- - - -
Part II "Operation Libya" and the Battle for Oil
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23605
- - - -
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, March 7, 2011
The US and NATO are supporting an armed insurrection in Eastern Libya, with a view to justifying a "humanitarian intervention".
This is not a non-violent protest movement as in Egypt and Tunisia. Conditions in Libya are fundamentally different. The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers. Of significance:, the insurrection in Benghazi immediately hoisted the red, black and green banner with the crescent and star: the flag of the monarchy of King Idris, which symbolized the rule of the former colonial powers. (See Manlio Dinucci, Libya-When historical memory is erased, Global Research, Febraury 28, 2011)
US and NATO military advisers and special forces are already on the ground. The operation was planned to coincide with the protest movement in neighbouring Arab countries. Public opinion was led to believe that the protest movement had spread spontaneously from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya.
The Obama administration in consultation with its allies is assisting an armed rebellion, namely an attempted coup d'Etat:
"The Obama administration stands ready to offer "any type of assistance" to Libyans seeking to oust Moammar Gadhafi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [February 27] "we've been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and as the revolution moves westward there as well," Clinton said. "I think it's way too soon to tell how this is going to play out, but we're going to be ready and prepared to offer any kind of assistance that anyone wishes to have from the United States." Efforts are under way to form a provisional government in the eastern part of the country where the rebellion began at midmonth.
The U.S., Clinton said, is threatening more measures against Gadhafi's government, but did not say what they were or when they might be announced.
The U.S. should "recognize some provisional government that they are trying to set already up..." [McCain]
Lieberman spoke in similar terms, urging "tangible support, (a) no-fly zone, recognition of the revolutionary government, the citizens' government and support for them with both humanitarian assistance and I would provide them with arms."
(Clinton: US ready to aid to Libyan opposition - Associated, Press, February 27, 2011, emphasis added)
MORE:
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23548
=====================
19. Two big victories in the fight against asbestos
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/03/10/
two-big-victories-in-the-fight-against-asbestos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MurrayDobbin+%28Murray+Dobbin%27s+Blog%29
by Murray Dobbin
Posted: 10 Mar 2011 03:29 PM PST
This past week has seen two very significant victories in the long battle against Canadian exports of asbestos. There is only one mine in Canada – in Quebec – that still exports the deadly substance but trying to halt the trade has proved extremely difficult, despite the fact that asbestos kills 107,000 people a year world-wide. As an industrial killer in Canada, more people die from its effects than all the industrial killers combined.
Yet despite these figures and despite the lobbying of virtually every relevant health organization in Canada and Quebec, the governments of Quebec and Canada have continued to actively support the single mine and its 400 employees, and promote sales abroad, especially in India. To add to the odds against stopping the export of asbestos, the union movement in Quebec has been doggedly supportive of the industry – and the two past presidents of the Quebec Federation of Labour have become President of the asbestos lobby group, the Chrysotile Institute (CI). The CI also receives funding from both the Quebec and federal governments – with Ottawa contributing at least $250,000 a year for over a decade.
But this week there were two huge breakthroughs.
MORE:
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/03/10/
two-big-victories-in-the-fight-against-asbestos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MurrayDobbin+%28Murray+Dobbin%27s+Blog%29
=================
20. Liberals will push for election over Tories' disrespect for democracy
http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/
story.html?id=4417860
BY ANDREW MAYEDA, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 10, 2011 3:47 PM
Liberals will push for election over Tories' disrespect for democracy
Andrew Mayeda, Postmedia News
Published: Thursday, March 10, 2011
OTTAWA - The federal Liberals say they're ready to fight an election over the Harper government's lack of respect for democracy, despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's argument that Canadians are more concerned about the fragile economic recovery.
The prime minister on Thursday downplayed twin rulings by the House of Commons Speaker that could lead to the government being found in contempt of Parliament.
"You win some, you lose some," he said. [ . . . ]
=====================
21. WATCH: World's Largest Solar Cooking System - 100,000 Come For Dinner
http://www.nextworldtv.com/videos/energy/
worlds-largest-solar-cooking-system.html
This video was produced by CNN.
The world's largest solar cooking system is in India, at the Shirdi temple where 100,000 people make a pilgrimage each year.
73 solar dishes are on the rooftop, generating enough power to cook gigantic industrial sized vats of food.
No gas, no firewood, no kerosene, no fossil fuels - and they save almost $7,000 per month in cooking oil. Truly a miracle!
--Bibi Farber
1. EVENT: Public Info Meeting and AGM at Innisfail, Mar. 23/11
2. EVENT: 2011 SEN Saskatoon – Apr. 1 – 3 - Environmental Film Festival
3. LETTER: “Anonymous” - Twilight Zone or the new Micro-Parallel Universe Theory?
4. Our Water Secretly Sucked Away by Shale Gas Industry
5. Tim DeChristopher stands tall despite guilty verdict
6. BOYD KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT WORLD HEAVY OIL CONGRESS
7. No N.B. hydro-fracking moratorium: Northrup
8. Quebec report on natural gas urges halt to some drilling
9. WATCH: My Fear is that Climate Change is the Biggest Crisis of All”: Naomi Klein Warns Global Warming Could Be Exploited by Capitalism and Militarism
10. LETTER: SHIELDS: Royalties Are Revenue in Alberta!!
11. LETTER: SHIELDS: Another Alberta Joke!!
12. Oil pipeline delayed for more environmental review
13. LETTER: SHIELDS: Cheering From the Sidelines . . .
14. In America's Capital, a Fierce Fight over Oil Sands
15. Mackenzie pipeline wins federal cabinet approval after years of delay
16. PA Governor Gives Energy Executive Supreme Authority Over Environmental Permitting
17. Former Bush EPA Official Says Fracking Exemption Went Too Far; Congress Should Revisit
18. Insurrection and Military Intervention: The US-NATO Attempted Coup d'Etat in Libya? - Part I of a two-part article
19. Two big victories in the fight against asbestos
20. Liberals will push for election over Tories' disrespect for democracy
21. WATCH: World's Largest Solar Cooking System - 100,000 Come For Dinner
===============
1. EVENT: Public Info Meeting and AGM at Innisfail, Mar. 23/11
Once again it is time for our annual general meeting, on Wednesday March 23, 2011, 7:30 pm, at the Innisfail Legion Hall.
We will have a really good speaker " Regan Boychuk, from the public policy research department of the U of A, Parkland Institute" speaking on the royalty framework and subsidies to energy companies. Regan is the author of "Misplaced Generosity: Extraordinary Profits in Alberta's Oil and Gas Industry". We think you will be amazed at just how little of our resources are flowing back to the people of Alberta.
Our group has made great strides this year with the amalgamation of Red Raven, the United Landowners of Alberta and Pine Lake Surface Rights Action Group. This was why we legally changed our name to Alberta Surface Rights Group.
In addition we created a new website, published our first newsletter, initiated a phone out and bulk email messaging services, and have started, in depth contacts, with other landowner groups in Ontario and BC and Alberta. In addition we have continued to lobby government, attended several industry/government technology and policy events, and hosted timely landowner information meetings.
Unfortunately much of our time and effort has been spent trying to counteract the government land grab bills and hopefully we have made some progress.
In the future we hope to be able to spend more time on our core purposes, of educating and informing landowners about things that affect them at the grassroots level......contracts for surface leases, pipeline and transmission line right of ways, schedule A addendums, and annual rental reviews. Compensation issues (and information) on all of the above and what you should be requiring in water well tests, nuisance problems, and how to effectively use the hearing process at both the ERCB and the Surface Rights Board.
We are contemplating holding several small workshops to get that info out there and your input is very welcome. Suggestions for any other things you would like to see us working towards are also very welcome and if you have an interest on being elected to the board please feel free to contact us at albertasurfacerights@gmail.com
Doug Malsbury, Secretary, Alberta Surface Rights Group Society
http://www.albertasurfacerights.org/articles/?id=1007
===============
2. EVENT: 2011 SEN Saskatoon – Apr. 1 – 3 - Environmental Film Festival - ”See the Change, Bee the Change”
Details at www.econet.sk.ca
At the ROXY Theatre
Friday April 1
7:00 pm Environmental Activist Awards honouring Allyson Brady, Robert
Regnier and Michael Finley
8:15 pm In the Wake of the Flood (48 min)
9 pm Green Un-Gala at Paved Arts Centre
Saturday April 2
12 pm Strong Coffee (48 min)
2 – 4 pm SHORTS: Downstream; Avatar Sands; Green Porno; The Story of
Bottled Water
4 pm Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (54 min); Homeland (57 min)
7 pm Pisim Project (47 min) Q & A with Filmmaker Marcel Petit
9 pm The Age of Stupid (90 min)
Sunday April 3
12 pm Vanishing of the Bees (90 min) followed by workshop
on Bee Keeping by Barry Brown, U. of S.
2 pm Into Eternity (75 min) Michael Poellet of the Inter Church Uranium
Committee will lead a Q & A session on Nuclear Waste Repositories
4 – 6 pm A Sense of Wonder (55 min); For the Next Seven Generations
Thanks to our Sponsors: SaskEnergy, SIAST, Stantec, Briarpatch, SCIC, SFL,
Riversdale BID, Riversdale Community Assoc., Sask. Beekeepers Assoc., SEN,
U. of S. Office of Sustainability, Saskatoon Curbside Recycling, UNAC, PAVED,
Saskatoon Food Coalition, ESSA, Caffe Sola, Maestar, MPet Productions.
--
SASKATCHEWAN ECO NETWORK
535 8th Street East
Saskatoon SK S7H 0P9
Phone: 306-652-1275
info@econet.sk.ca
http://www.econet.sk.ca
=============
3. LETTER: “Anonymous” - Twilight Zone or the new Micro-Parallel Universe Theory?
March 16, 2011
Either way... I'm at a loss... meaning my life. I have noticed some disturbing things in this beautiful town in south central Saskatchewan. Each one of these things can be easily "spin-doctored" and discredited to the point of confusion. But as a whole, you have to admit, these things are definitely pointing to something. Let me explain.
I was a happy and productive person in 2007. Very fatigued by late 2008. On disability, feeling humiliated and in shock by early 2009... and I used to be pretty. But it is not just me. Some here have aged 10 years in 2. Many have ballooned to an unhealthy weight overnight, against their best efforts. All are either sick, dying, or pumped to-the-nines on big pharma... children, animals, flora & fauna, meat & potatoes, included. On a rare night you can smell this sickly chemical odor that could drop an elephant. I swear I can hear the earth rumbling. Random but ever increasing burning eyes (one is now permanently red and the whites are wrinkled). Headaches, numbness, painfully sore lungs, and instant malaise. The heavy metal tests I had done showed high levels of arsenic, antimony, lead, and cadmium to name a few.... I am now doing a heavy metal detox but it may be too late. The back yard is slowly sinking, birds disappear for hours and sometimes days. Deformed plants, dead bees, dead bats, giant angry wasps, and a 2- headed bug are all the things I have experienced in the last two years.
Now here is where the parallel universe comes in. The 2 headed bug was pacing back and forth. Exhausting itself not knowing which way to go. It was going to starve to death, not realizing it was connected! Sounds kinda like what is going on here. Something is definitely very wrong. The doctors don't seem to be too concerned and no else wants to hear it. Who could blame them, there is money to be made! Who cares about a lowly chick and her wacko theories......... surely then this be-eth the Twilight Zone.
Sincerely,
Anonymous
= = = = =
FRACKIN’ with PetroBakken
http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/brochures/
Jan_10/PetroBakken/file.pdf
JANUARY 2010 • The Canadian Business Journal 33
www.petrobakken.com
How PetroBakken took a chance with an upstart technology and unlocked the Bakken By Anna Guy
The Bakken formation in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada, is fast becoming a major hotspot for onshore oil. Lesser known than the celebrated oilsands, the Bakken formation is a 350 million-year-old underground layer of rock that spans Montana and North Dakota to the south, and southeast Saskatchewan to the north. Discovered in the 1950’s, its vast reserves of petroleum were only recently accessible through technology.
As early as 1974, it was postulated that the Bakken could contain vast amounts of oil, but it was a 1995 field assessment for the U.S.
Geological Survey (USGS) that said there may be as many as 503 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation. Compare this with the 125 billion barrels at the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia and 7.8 billion barrels at Alberta’s Pembina Cardium, and the significance of the Bakken becomes clearer.
“We see a great expansion of our oil industry in areas that we have previously had limited production,” says Dancsok.
“The Bakken is the key which may unlock the entire province.”
MORE:
http://www.canadianbusinessjournal.ca/brochures/
Jan_10/PetroBakken/file.pdf
==============
4. Our Water Secretly Sucked Away by Shale Gas Industry
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/15/Ou ... uckedAway/
Beyond public scrutiny, vast amounts of BC's water are being dealt to 'fracking' operations.
By Ben Parfitt, Today, TheTyee.ca
On Feb. 15 of this year, Calgary-based Canbriam Energy Inc. quietly applied to the B.C. government for the rights to pull billions of litres of water out of Williston Reservoir, the ultimate source of much of our province's hydroelectricity.
The application was the second submitted in less than a year. In 2010, Talisman Energy, another Calgary-based company, got the ball rolling with a similar proposal. If Talisman and Canbriam get their way, they could soon withdraw a combined 7.3 billion litres of water annually out of the reservoir -- an amount equivalent to draining 2,920 Olympic swimming pools each and every year.
That's a lot of water, yet a fraction of what natural gas companies are projected to need for their "fracking" operations -- the name commonly used to described the pressure-pumping of immense amounts of water below ground to fracture shale rock, thereby releasing its trapped gas.
The dearth of information on the Talisman and Canbriam proposals might not be of such a concern if it were the exception to the rule. But in numerous instances important decisions on water allocations are being made without the public even being told that applications have been filed, let alone being provided an opportunity to review and comment on the proposals.
MORE:
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/15/Ou ... uckedAway/
- - - - -
Related Articles
A Fracking Disaster in the Making: Report
http://thetyee.ca/News/2010/10/15/FrackingDisaster/
Blasting shale rock with toxic fluid can release riches in natural gas, but threatens critical water supplies.
How to Attack a 'Fracking' Film
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2010/06/23/FrackingFilm/
Documentary 'Gasland' shows flaming tap water caused by gas drillers 'fracking.' Industry speed dials its PR flaks.
If the $30 Billion We Give Oil Sands Went to Green Energy
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/11/26/
30BillionToGreen/http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/11/26/30BillionToGreen/
What could Canada achieve then? Here's the jaw-dropping answer.
================
5. Tim DeChristopher stands tall despite guilty verdict
http://www.desmogblog.com/
tim-dechristopher-stands-tall-despite-guilty-verdict
by Laurel Whitney March 11
“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience
A collective gasp was heard late afternoon yesterday as Tim DeChristopher was found guilty after only 5 hours of jury deliberation. Officially charged with one count of False Statement and one count of violating the Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act, suddenly everyone was left thinking- did they convict the real criminal?
Much of the last two days of trial had focused on DeChristopher's intent when bidding for BLM land leases. Prosecutor John Hubert argued that DeChristopher intentionally "disrupted, derailed, and sabotaged" the auction. However, defense attorney Ron Yengich painted a different picture:
"He wanted to raise a red flag," he said. "He wanted to make a statement. That’s what he wanted to do. His desire was not to thwart the auction. ... He wanted people to think about the consequences that the auction was bringing to bear on other people. But it was never his intention to harm anyone."
Maybe if Tim had run into the auction using his paddle to feverishly whack participants to prevent them from bidding, then that could be seen harmful.
But let’s put this into context:
Did Tim cause the deaths of 29 people in a mining accident fueled by poor practices and improper equipment maintenance?
Did Tim cause the deaths of 11 people when an offshore oil rig exploded because of numerous safety violations and regulatory oversights causing millions of barrels of oil to spew into the Gulf for months and effectively decimate local economies and ecosystems?
Or how about the other oil spill last summer that leaked over 800,000 gallons into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, that remains contaminated over 6 months later?
Did he contaminate acres of Amazon rainforest and years later refuse to clean it up and pay the fines?
Or did he cause a toxic gas leak at a pesticide plant that not only killed 20,000 people but continues to contaminate the water and cripplingly sicken citizens over 25 years after the original event?
No, in fact Tim only picked up a paddle. And now he’s the one facing prison. The worst any of the above companies suffered was a blow to their images.
Be it what it may, this trial has catalyzed the climate movement once again, serving as a call for civil disobedience to stand up to those who would rather have us submit in fear. Ultimately, Tim decided to stand up to injustice when he saw it and is now calling to others to do the same. From his speech outside the courthouse, "Everything that went on inside that building tried to convince me that I was alone, and that I was weak. They tried to convince me that I was like a little finger, out there on my own, that can easily be broken. And all of you out here were the reminder, for all of us, that I was... connected to a hand, with many fingers, that could unite as one fist. And that fist could not be broken by the power in there... All those authorities in there wanted me think like a finger. But our children are calling to us, to think like a fist."
Likewise, the cries of heroism have reverberated around the blogosphere and beyond. Bill McKibben penned in his piece on Grist.org,
“If the feds think this prosecution/persecution will deter us from working for a livable planet, they couldn't be more wrong. Tim was brave and alone. We will be brave in quantity.”
Just as Thoreau sat in jail to protest injustices of his day, Tim will now do the same, and bring a spotlight on what we must stand for. The stakes for the planet are high; therefore the stakes for the risks we must take to save it will be high too.
================
6. BOYD KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT WORLD HEAVY OIL CONGRESS
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=2fd03ad9-9d51-41cf-8dcc-cd69b22c5333
News Release - March 16, 2011
Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd will be profiling the successes of Saskatchewan's dynamic oil and gas industry this week at one of the premier business and technical events on the planet for heavy oil.
The World Heavy Oil Congress, currently underway in Edmonton, has attracted more than 800 delegates from 30 countries. Boyd is one of the keynote speakers at the congress and will address participants at its Thursday luncheon.
"My presentation on heavy oil is titled ‘Real Growth, Real Opportunity and Real Rewards' and that certainly describes what awaits investors in the industry here," Boyd said. "Our light crude oil plays and our massive heavy oil resources offer plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs, and our positive business climate provides the perfect backdrop for those opportunities to be realized."
More than half of Saskatchewan's conventional crude oil production comes from heavy oil. The province's initial heavy oil in place is estimated at over 20 billion barrels, but only a small percentage of that is currently commercially recoverable using present technology.
"Our companies and researchers have been doing ground-breaking work in enhanced oil recovery, and the new and evolving technologies we are pioneering here will ensure we capture as much of our rich heavy oil resource as possible," Boyd said.
The Ministry of Energy and Resources and Enterprise Saskatchewan are major sponsors of the World Heavy Oil Congress, which is held in different countries every 18 months. Saskatchewan's delegation is holding various business meetings during the event as well as participating in the congress's trade show.
The province's oil and gas industry had approximately $10.5 billion in sales in 2010 and invested $3.3 billion in exploration and development activity. The oil and gas industry provides direct and indirect employment for more than 29,000 people. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis, Energy and Resources, Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
==================
7. No N.B. hydro-fracking moratorium: Northrup
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/
2011/03/11/nb-northrup-hydrofracking-741.html
Posted: Mar 11, 2011 8:43 AM AT Last Updated: Mar 11, 2011 10:56 AM AT
The New Brunswick government will not put a moratorium on shale gas development in the province, Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup said on Friday. [ . . . ]
- - - - - -
N.B. hydro-fracking will go ahead: company
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/
2011/03/09/nb-hydrofracking-exploration.html
=================
8. Quebec report on natural gas urges halt to some drilling
http://www.therecord.com/news/business/article/
498047--quebec-report-on-natural-gas-urges-halt-to-some-drilling
The Canadian Press Tue Mar 8 2011
MONTREAL — A highly anticipated Quebec report has recommended that the province halt a controversial natural-gas drilling practice, pending further study.
Within minutes of releasing the report Tuesday, the Quebec government announced it would respect its findings.
The province’s environment minister said the practice known as “fracking” will only proceed, for now, under the rubric of the environmental study and not for industrial purposes.
Environment Minister Pierre Arcand also announced that any future exploration will only be conducted after public consultations are held.
“We will not make any compromises on health, safety, or respect for the environment,” Arcand said.
He called it the most important report in the 33-year history of the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement, commonly known as the BAPE.
The report by the environmental impact-assessment bureau said the shale-gas industry should stop hydraulic fracturing until more is known about its environmental risks.
MORE:
http://www.therecord.com/news/business/article/
498047--quebec-report-on-natural-gas-urges-halt-to-some-drilling
==================
9. WATCH: My Fear is that Climate Change is the Biggest Crisis of All”: Naomi Klein Warns Global Warming Could Be Exploited by Capitalism and Militarism
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/9/
my_fear_is_that_climate_change
Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein has been reporting on global warming and the climate justice movement for years. “My fear is that climate change is the biggest crisis of all,” Klein says. “If we don’t come up with a positive vision of how climate change can make our economies and our world more just, more livable, cleaner, fairer, then this crisis will be exploited to militarize our economies, to create fortress continents. And we’re really facing a choice. What we really need now is for the people fighting for economic justice and environmental justice to come together.” [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Climate Change, Naomi Klein, Author Interviews, BP Oil Spill
==================
10. LETTER: SHIELDS: Royalties Are Revenue in Alberta!!
From: lagran
To: David Swann ; brian mason ; calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Cc: goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Jerry Bellikka ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca ; Alberta Activism
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 9:05 AM
Subject: Royalties Are Revenue in Alberta!!
They are in Alberta, Sir. And with respect to loss, in cases where negligence allows wells to blow-out destroying millions in equipment and burning publicly owned resources, the Alberta ERCB refuse to disclose those losses in their investigations into these incidents!! Alberta opposition parties fail to realize who their enemy in Alberta really is, CAPP and the industry owned ERCB will keep the Conservative government or some concoction like this Conservative government in power as long as that is made possible for them!! Albertan's don't need another party ready to act as head waiter to the energy industry. What's needed is a power in government able to force industry to serve the Alberta public!! Politician's who have taken on the ERCB to help Alberta's public, have a faithful following even in west-central Alberta, there just is not enough politicians ready to learn about the real enemy!! Losses in incidents are very real, yet this present government will allow abrasive bitumen slurry to shipped thousands of mile for upgrading rather than upgrading at source to cut pipeline use and wear!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe Alberta
- - - -
Royalties are not 'revenue'
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Royalties+revenue/
4421591/story.html
Edmonton Journal March 11, 2011 3:02 AM
Re: "Fires and spills cut province's oil windfall; A third of a billion dollars to be lost this fiscal year due to infrastructure woes," The Journal, March 7.
Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert laments that, "Any time there's a loss of production affecting oil revenue is a concern."
Notwithstanding that this not even a complete sentence, there are several factual inaccuracies in this statement
First, nothing is "lost" if production falls -rather this is a timing issue. Second, the Alberta government has to stop referring to royalties as "revenue," free to spend on their next whim or fancy or vote-purchase.
Our province's extraction of oil and gas, and the resultant royalties, are the consequence of converting a long-term asset (resources) into another asset (cash).
This is like a homeowner taking out a mortgage and exchanging equity in their house for cash. This is not a revenue transaction. This is no small matter, because future Albertans would expect to realize some benefit from this conversion of assets, i.e. the Heritage Savings Trust Fund that has barely grown since former premier Peter Lougheed's promise.
The province should only classify as revenue that portion of royalties that come as the result of these resources being further processed in Alberta.
Everything else is an asset that should only be saved and spent under a strict plan that takes into account future generations of Albertans.
Peter Piekema,
Edmonton
© Copyright (c) The Edmonton Journal
==================
11. LETTER: SHIELDS: Another Alberta Joke!!
From: lagran
To: David Swann ; brian mason ; calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca
Cc: Jerry Bellikka ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 8:28 AM
Subject: Another Alberta Joke!!
I would feel much better if I thought the ERCB were in anyway trying to become better with their horrid record with respect to FOIP complaints. I strongly suspect the real reason for the removal of personal information has more to do with keeping the names of rig personnel secret when well bow-outs and that like happens!! The ERCB investigation on the Acclaim 2-26-52-26w4 well blow-out, and reports of crew members on site at the time of the accident must have taught the ERCB to become even more secretive with respect to allowing Albertan's a chance at finding the truth.
The Acclaim 2-26-52-26-w4 ERCB report tries to convince Albertans that a down hole explosion lead to the well blow out, rather than the "Bull-Head" squeeze attempted to kill the well overcoming the threshold pressure of the wells casing tolerance!! This very very strange response from the ERCB with respect to well blow out investigations have left all well blowout reports from the ERCB suspect, and completely lacking in cost information, badly needed to correct public losses!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, AB
- - - - -
Removal of Personal Information Contained in Well Drilling and Completions Daily Operations Report
http://www.ercb.ca/docs/documents/bulletins/
bulletin-2010-43.pdf (Dec 2010)
All personal information is to be removed from the report prior to submission to the ERCB Core Research Centre. The Well Drilling Completions Data Submission cover sheet provides a space for the Authorized Representative of the Licensee to confirm that all personal information has been removed. Please refer to ERCB Bulletin 2010-43 for more information. [ . . . ]
================
12. Oil pipeline delayed for more environmental review
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7473881.html
2011 The Associated Press March 15, 2011, 9:01PM
OMAHA, Neb.- A proposed pipeline designed to carry Canadian tar sands oil to refineries along the Gulf Coast will be delayed further while the U.S. government conducts an additional environmental review.
The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday that it planned to conduct the additional review environmental groups had demanded. A presidential permit from the State Department is required because the pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canadian border.
Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. first submitted its Keystone XL project for State Department review in late 2008. The project is designed to carry crude oil from tar sands near Hardisty, Alberta, to the Gulf Coast via Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. TransCanada has also proposed connecting the pipeline to the Bakken oil field in Montana and North Dakota.
TransCanada officials had previously predicted that a decision on the project would come by the end of 2010. The State Department's decision to issue a supplemental environmental report triggers a longer review process, so the Keystone XL project will be delayed further.
TransCanada's President and Chief Executive Russ Girling said he's glad the review of the Keystone XL project is moving forward and he predicted that it would ultimately be approved.
- - - -SNIP - - - -
Environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth, have raised concerns that the pipeline could foul underground and surface water supplies, increase air pollution around refineries and harm wildlife. They also have speculated about what they consider inadequate pipeline safety and emergency spill responses.
==================
13. LETTER: SHIELDS: Cheering From the Sidelines . . .
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P. ; iggy
Cc: David Swann ; brian mason ; goodale ; flaherty ; calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca ; bill boyd ; Jerry Bellikka ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 8:57 AM
Subject: Cheering From the Sidelines--
While private industry meets to decide the fate of our publicly owned resources on international markets, both our provincial and federal Tory government members cheer them on from the sidelines!! The NAFTA--Free Trade mentality in Canada is very evident, at this meeting of heavy oil producers! Lawrence Eagles, a global researcher with J.P.Morgan even envisions our bitumen [after upgrading] at the Gulf Coast, being exported to Europe!! Imagine!!
The U.S. are now using Canadian natural gas to be able to export LNG to Europe, if that could also be accomplished with bitumen, Americans can thank Mulroney's Free-Trade Agreement, for being the milk-cow that just keeps giving!! Overselling any product especially to one-only customer will always lead to low prices, is the lesson natural gas exports through NAFTA should have taught the low-brow Canadian traders.
If indeed raw bitumen is stored with a two-year supply in Crushing Okla. restrictions on bitumen exports should be brought in and force upgrading facilities at source to reduce the need for pipeline space, and prevent the need of pipelines to import diluents to move the slurry!! Bitumen is very abrasive and corrosive and presents a danger to pipelines. For this reason alone bitumen that must be upgraded at some point in it's transformation to usefulness, should be upgraded at source!!
I have always blamed free-trade for stealing Canada's abilities to set prices for our exported resources right here in Canada. Natural gas has been shipped through NAFTA to U.S. destinations without regard to the amounts being placed in storage during off-season prices, for sales during heating season. Deregulation along with Free-Trade soon had the price of natural gas set much different from it's heat value in relation to crude oil in North America. Other world exporters were not as generous as Canada to their neighbours, although Canada's actions did indeed hurt the world price for natural gas! Are we now embarked on a mission to do exactly the same thing with crude oil?
Allowing industry to set the rules for the production and export of our energy resources has been very good for those in the business of developing the public resources as a visit to SEDAR will confirm. However the Canadian public as owner of the resource has been force to accept a continuing lesser part of the resource pie due to weak provincial and federal governments dominated by industry and their advocates. A comparative of Alberta with Norway with respect to public benefit from energy development is shocking but very true. Our weak provincial government is completely dominated by CAPP the industries main advocate. Who remembers the sight of our poor wee-mouse in Alberta appearing before the Calgary energy crowd to pour water into the royalty wine advanced by a blue ribbon Alberta panel?
What is to become of bitumen production in the future will be decided not in Alberta or Canada, but in United States! By allowing bitumen exports through the Keystone pipeline system, Harper turned the future of bitumen production over to the Americans. These Americans will manage imports to bring their bitumen costs in line to a predetermined amount, slightly above production costs as they have done with natural gas. Harper flew right over the world heavy oil gathering in Edmonton to land in Vancouver, to pick his nose on the west coast!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
= = = = = =
Oilsands fuel U.S. ‘bottleneck’
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Oilsands+fuel+bottleneck/4446298/story.html
Glut in storage depressing prices, local congress told
By Dave Cooper, edmontonjournal.com March 15, 2011
EDMONTON — While the Middle East turmoil is pushing up oil prices, Alberta heavy-oil producers are facing a “classic bottleneck,” with pipelines running at capacity and storage tanks in Cushing, Okla., almost full.
“This is causing a significant dampening of prices and it will take a couple of years” to sort out, the head of J.P. Morgan global oil research told the World Heavy Oil Congress on Tuesday.
“The upgrader investment (in the U.S.) is in place; it is just a question of getting the oil to market,” Lawrence Eagles said.
This projected improvement assumes pipelines, including TransCanada’s Keystone XL project, will be built, he adds. But Keystone has been delayed as U.S. officials seek more scientific reports on issues such as greenhouse gas emissions and pipeline integrity.
Still, Eagles thinks Americans are placing increasing importance on energy security.
“And what better energy security can they have than a very stable, secure supply just north? For Canada, pipelines to the Gulf will supply a very strong market.”
Still, the country must develop other markets, he said.
MORE:
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Oilsands+fuel+bottleneck/4446298/story.html
==================
14. In America's Capital, a Fierce Fight over Oil Sands
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/03/14/
OilSandsFight/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=140311
Today begins The Tyee's major series reported from Washington on the intense, high stakes political struggle fueled by Alberta crude.
By Geoff Dembicki, Today, TheTyee.ca
In the hallways and offices of America's capital city, a war is being quietly waged out of view of most Canadians and Americans.
The outcome will decide North America's energy future and its impact on the planet's climate.
The tactics are all the high pressure persuasion and hard-ball politicking that tens of millions of dollars can buy -- many of those dollars contributed by Canadian taxpayers.
The war pits America's largest environmental groups against some of the world's wealthiest corporations and their "allies" in the Canadian and Albertan governments.
The battle line divides two viscerally opposed camps: Those arguing that North America's deepening dependence on Alberta's oil sands industry represents a pragmatic solution to looming energy crises, and those who say relying on oil sands crude marks an irreversible step closer to climate change catastrophe.
The prize, at end of the day, will be votes cast by politicians.
Will Washington's legislators pass laws that have the effect of opening the oil sands spigots wider, assuring that Alberta's bitumen crude increasingly, and permanently, flows into the U.S. market?
Or will they legislate against high carbon emissions fuel sources as a measure to reduce climate change? That could severely constrict the flow of oil sands' output into the U.S., dashing the profit dreams of corporations -- and some Canadian officials -- who have already bet hugely on providing bitumen-derived crude for American consumption.
MORE:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/03/14/
OilSandsFight/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=140311
(Links at URL above)
Oil Sands Opponents Will Lose, Economist Suggests
Heated U.S. debate to be swayed by security, says BMO's Sweet.
US Tea Party's Deep Ties to Oil Sands Giant
Owners of Koch Industries, a major processor of Alberta crude, spent millions to foment and support a movement against Obama's climate change policies.
What Those Who Killed the Tar Sands Report Don't Want You to Know
Why did a parliamentary committee suddenly destroy drafts of a final report on tar sands pollution? Here's what they knew.
=============
15. Mackenzie pipeline wins federal cabinet approval after years of delay
http://www.thestar.com/business/companies/article/
952612--mackenzie-pipeline-wins-federal-cabinet-approval-after-years-of-delay
By: Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press Posted: 03/10/2011 2:32 PM
- - -
QUOTE: “The proposed pipeline would stretch from near the coast of the Beaufort Sea in the Northwest Territories to northern Alberta, where it would link up with TransCanada Corp.'s (TSX:TRP) vast pipeline system.”
- - -
CALGARY - The long-delayed Mackenzie natural gas pipeline has received the final green light from the National Energy Board, though the future of the $16.2-billion project is still far from certain. [ . . . ]
================
16. PA Governor Gives Energy Executive Supreme Authority Over Environmental Permitting
http://www.propublica.org/article/
corbett-pa-energy-exec-authority-environment
by Abrahm Lustgarten , Nicholas Kusnetz and Joaquin Sapien
ProPublica, March 9, 10:50 p.m.
Pennsylvania’s governor has appointed an energy industry executive to oversee the state’s job creation effort and wants to give him unusual authority to streamline state permits, including for gas drilling.
==================
17. Former Bush EPA Official Says Fracking Exemption Went Too Far; Congress Should Revisit
http://www.propublica.org/article/
former-bush-epa-official-says-fracking-exemption-went-too-far
by Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, March 9, 12:21 p.m.
Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency in the George W. Bush administration, ponders criticism leveled at a 2004 study on hydraulic fracturing and suggests that it's now time for Congress and the EPA to take another look at the practice.
=================
18. Insurrection and Military Intervention: The US-NATO Attempted Coup d'Etat in Libya? - Part I of a two-part article
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23548
- - - -
Part II "Operation Libya" and the Battle for Oil
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23605
- - - -
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, March 7, 2011
The US and NATO are supporting an armed insurrection in Eastern Libya, with a view to justifying a "humanitarian intervention".
This is not a non-violent protest movement as in Egypt and Tunisia. Conditions in Libya are fundamentally different. The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers. Of significance:, the insurrection in Benghazi immediately hoisted the red, black and green banner with the crescent and star: the flag of the monarchy of King Idris, which symbolized the rule of the former colonial powers. (See Manlio Dinucci, Libya-When historical memory is erased, Global Research, Febraury 28, 2011)
US and NATO military advisers and special forces are already on the ground. The operation was planned to coincide with the protest movement in neighbouring Arab countries. Public opinion was led to believe that the protest movement had spread spontaneously from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya.
The Obama administration in consultation with its allies is assisting an armed rebellion, namely an attempted coup d'Etat:
"The Obama administration stands ready to offer "any type of assistance" to Libyans seeking to oust Moammar Gadhafi, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [February 27] "we've been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and as the revolution moves westward there as well," Clinton said. "I think it's way too soon to tell how this is going to play out, but we're going to be ready and prepared to offer any kind of assistance that anyone wishes to have from the United States." Efforts are under way to form a provisional government in the eastern part of the country where the rebellion began at midmonth.
The U.S., Clinton said, is threatening more measures against Gadhafi's government, but did not say what they were or when they might be announced.
The U.S. should "recognize some provisional government that they are trying to set already up..." [McCain]
Lieberman spoke in similar terms, urging "tangible support, (a) no-fly zone, recognition of the revolutionary government, the citizens' government and support for them with both humanitarian assistance and I would provide them with arms."
(Clinton: US ready to aid to Libyan opposition - Associated, Press, February 27, 2011, emphasis added)
MORE:
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23548
=====================
19. Two big victories in the fight against asbestos
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/03/10/
two-big-victories-in-the-fight-against-asbestos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MurrayDobbin+%28Murray+Dobbin%27s+Blog%29
by Murray Dobbin
Posted: 10 Mar 2011 03:29 PM PST
This past week has seen two very significant victories in the long battle against Canadian exports of asbestos. There is only one mine in Canada – in Quebec – that still exports the deadly substance but trying to halt the trade has proved extremely difficult, despite the fact that asbestos kills 107,000 people a year world-wide. As an industrial killer in Canada, more people die from its effects than all the industrial killers combined.
Yet despite these figures and despite the lobbying of virtually every relevant health organization in Canada and Quebec, the governments of Quebec and Canada have continued to actively support the single mine and its 400 employees, and promote sales abroad, especially in India. To add to the odds against stopping the export of asbestos, the union movement in Quebec has been doggedly supportive of the industry – and the two past presidents of the Quebec Federation of Labour have become President of the asbestos lobby group, the Chrysotile Institute (CI). The CI also receives funding from both the Quebec and federal governments – with Ottawa contributing at least $250,000 a year for over a decade.
But this week there were two huge breakthroughs.
MORE:
http://murraydobbin.ca/2011/03/10/
two-big-victories-in-the-fight-against-asbestos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MurrayDobbin+%28Murray+Dobbin%27s+Blog%29
=================
20. Liberals will push for election over Tories' disrespect for democracy
http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/
story.html?id=4417860
BY ANDREW MAYEDA, POSTMEDIA NEWS MARCH 10, 2011 3:47 PM
Liberals will push for election over Tories' disrespect for democracy
Andrew Mayeda, Postmedia News
Published: Thursday, March 10, 2011
OTTAWA - The federal Liberals say they're ready to fight an election over the Harper government's lack of respect for democracy, despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper's argument that Canadians are more concerned about the fragile economic recovery.
The prime minister on Thursday downplayed twin rulings by the House of Commons Speaker that could lead to the government being found in contempt of Parliament.
"You win some, you lose some," he said. [ . . . ]
=====================
21. WATCH: World's Largest Solar Cooking System - 100,000 Come For Dinner
http://www.nextworldtv.com/videos/energy/
worlds-largest-solar-cooking-system.html
This video was produced by CNN.
The world's largest solar cooking system is in India, at the Shirdi temple where 100,000 people make a pilgrimage each year.
73 solar dishes are on the rooftop, generating enough power to cook gigantic industrial sized vats of food.
No gas, no firewood, no kerosene, no fossil fuels - and they save almost $7,000 per month in cooking oil. Truly a miracle!
--Bibi Farber
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: March 24, 2011
by Oscar » Thu Mar 24, 2011 5:22 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: March 24, 2011
1. Happy birthday, Pops: A tribute to David Suzuki (with a great PHOTO)
2. EVENT: Lecture - Regina - March 29 - Wind Power: Myths and Realities
3. EVENT: Drumheller - April 5 - "GASLAND" - the movie
4. WATCH: Ben Parfitt on Fracking in BC Pt. 1 & 2
5. NIKIFORUK: The Gwyn Morgan Files: EnCana's Grip on BC (3 articles)
6. Canada: Shale Gas – Update On Developments In Quebec
7. Encana forecasts 'liquidity' in gas
8. Tackling Corporate Power, One Town at a Time
9. Gas Industry Working Overtime to Smother Revived FRAC Act Efforts To Rein In Hydraulic Fracturing
10. Five reasons every wonk in DC is humping the leg of natural gas right about now
11. Stewardship of Alberta's oilsands must remain free of controversy/Carson
12. Edmonton filmmaker addresses precious water resources/Video: White Water, Black Gold - Trailer
13. B.C. pipeline opponents target moneylenders
14. Canada lobbying EU parliamentarians on the tar sands
15. WATCH: Golden chapter protests Selkirk Power Ventego/ Cupola Creek power project
16. WATCH: Solar hydrogen home Michael Strizki
17. SASKATCHEWAN COMPLETES FIRST COMPREHENSIVE TRADE MISSION TO INDIA AND BANGLADESH
18. Budget 2011 meets (lowed) expectations
19. Peak Water Has Already Come and Gone
20. Fighting Spirit - Beaver Lake Cree
21. Our silent spring
22. In New Brunswick, Gateway freeway expansion cancelled despite signed contract
23. WATCH: 300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds
24. WATCH: Wadah Khanfar: A historic moment in the Arab world | Video on TED.com
=========
1. Happy birthday, Pops: A tribute to David Suzuki (with a great PHOTO)
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/
Happy+birthday+Pops+tribute+David+Suzuki/4494896/story.html
Daughter writes, 'He's one heck of a role model' for Canadians
By Sarika Cullis-suzuki, Vancouver Sun March 24, 2011 5:32 AM
It's a strange sight, watching a group of macho college students tell your dad they love him and attack him with high-fives.
It never gets old, walking down the street with David Suzuki.
Another thing that doesn't seem to get old: The man in question. That's why it's startling news to hear he's turning 75.
It's not his packed schedule that's astounding, or the diversity of projects he's involved in (I just found out he's started French classes on the side). It's his ceaseless energy. [ . . . ]
============
2. EVENT: Lecture - Regina - March 29 - Wind Power: Myths and Realities
Wind Power: Myths and Realities
A Lecture by Tim Weis of the Pembina Institute
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
7 pm, Shumiatcher Theatre at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina
Come out and learn more about wind power as a viable renewable energy source in Saskatchewan.
Sponsored by Clean Green Regina and Regina EcoLiving Inc. For more information visit www.cleangreensask.ca. Contact us at cleangreenregina@yahoo.ca.
=================
3. EVENT: Drumheller - April 5 - "GASLAND" - the movie
2011 Oscar Nomination for Best Documentary Film
An award-winning film about the crisis in the USA that is threatening Canada
Tuesday, April 5
Doors open at 6:30 pm
COST: $6.00
AV room - 224 Centre Street, Drumheller, AB
Sponsored by Council of Canadians.
=================
4. WATCH: Ben Parfitt on Fracking in BC Pt. 1 & 2
Part 1: Fracking in BC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhEsIMsMV_Y
Part 2 - Recommendations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa2Ud1CiJ5U.
On March 16th the Vancouver chapter of the Council of Canadians held a speaker's session on the practice of Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) for gas in BC
Bill Parfitt, a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and author of the Munk Report (Fracture Lines: Will Canada's Water be Protected in the Rush to Develop Shale Gas?) Spoke about Fracking in BC and made 13 recommendations to the local Gas Industry.
Parfitt recently wrote in the Tyee.ca that, “If (the Calgary-based companies) Talisman and Canbriam get their way, they could soon withdraw a combined 7.3 billion litres of water annually out of the (Williston Lake) reservoir (in the Northern Interior of British Columbia for their fracking operations)…”
More on his comments on fracking and water at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6868.
==================
5. NIKIFORUK: The Gwyn Morgan Files: EnCana's Grip on BC (3 articles)
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/18/GwynMorgan2/
How Christy Clark's advisor steered his Alberta petro giant to become the most powerful corporation in this province.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, Today, TheTyee.ca
- - - - -
QUOTES: ”Morgan: praised Gordon Campbell's petro-friendly 'policy environment.' “
“In central Alberta's farm belt between Calgary and Edmonton, EnCana drilled thousands of shallow wells for methane trapped in coal seams and upset dozens of landowner groups. But whenever a major fracking problem or water contamination incident hit the news, the company quickly made donations to local recreation centres or scholarship funds.” See below....
= = = = = =
Gratitude from Gleichen
http://www.strathmorestandard.com/Artic ... ?e=3038685
Sara Wilson Standard Reporter March 22, 2011
With nearly 100 residents packing the seats, the official opening of Gleichen's arena took place on the night of Friday, March 18, followed by a showcase of the best skating talent in the area.
On hand to celebrate the ribbon cutting and official opening was Strathmore-Brooks MLA Arno Doerksen.
"It's an honour to be here today. I used to play minor hockey here as a kid and it's a privilege to be back here today," Doerksen said. "Congratulations to everyone involved that helped make this happen."
In addition to the $145,000 contribution made by the Alberta Government, the ceremony last Friday night was aimed at the local volunteers and businesses that helped raise funds for the arena.
Master of ceremonies, Gord Stewart sang the praises for the largest contributors including Encana, whose rural initiatives help to raise $75,000 for the renovations.
Luigi Vescarelli, community relations advisor for Encana was on had to help cut the opening ribbon.
"I know how important this kind of support is to rural communities, it's about keeping the community together," Vescarelli said.
"Part of Encana's over all business strategy is a commitment to strengthen and ensure the sustainability of rural communities like Gleichen. Our community investment dollars go right back into the rural communities where the activities are taking place. We're giving more and more to rural communities. To all of you in Gleichen, keep up the good work."
In addition to donations from the Alberta Government and Encana, enterprises such as Farm Credit Canada, The Gleichen Lions Club, Volker Stevin, Gleichen's Ag society, Gleichen Minor Hockey and Wheatland County were represented by individuals excited to officially open the arena.
MORE:
http://www.strathmorestandard.com/Artic ... ?e=3038685
= = = = = =
Natural gas the next ‘green hope’
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
commentary/gwyn-morgan/natural-gas-the-next-green-hope/article1948906/
GWYN MORGAN | Columnist profile From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Mar. 20, 2011 8:00PM EDT
(Gwyn Morgan is the retired founding CEO of Encana Corp.)
- - - - -
QUOTE: “Our country has abundant natural gas, our industry has world-class technology, our environment will benefit. It’s time to join the natural gas vehicle revolution.”
- - - - - -
My March 7 column pointing out how much sense it makes, from a supply security and ethical superiority standpoint, for the United States to import oil from Canada’s oil sands rather than from unstable Middle Eastern and tyrant-led North African countries, drew this reader response: “Canada should be encouraging both countries to detox and pursue the very energy alternatives casually dismissed by Morgan.” [ . . . ]
MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY (All Links are at URL above)
The ethics of oil in a time of turmoil
Synthetic fuel sees new life
Oil companies show faith in natural gas
===============
6. Canada: Shale Gas – Update On Developments In Quebec
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/
article.asp?articleid=126362&email_access=on
17 March 2011 Article by Katia Opalka
Copyright 2011, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Energy/Environment, March 2011
Introduction
Industry has been waiting for Quebec to unveil its Hydrocarbons Act, a much-anticipated set of rules for oil and gas exploration and development in the province (see our September 2010 Blakes Bulletin: Shale Gas: Anticipated Changes to Quebec's Regulatory Framework).
[ http://www.blakes.com/english/
view_bulletin.asp?ID=4214 ]
In the fall of 2010, the government put off disclosing the new rules until the spring, pending the outcome of a review of environmental issues related to shale gas exploration and development by the province's environmental public hearings board, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE or the Board). To view the formal report generated by BAPE – available in French only – click here. The BAPE tabled its report with the government on February 28, 2011 and the report was made public on March 8, 2011. The BAPE's central recommendation, to which the government has agreed, is to push back adoption of new rules for shale gas exploration and development pending completion of a strategic environmental assessment, expected to begin in June 2011 and take up to two years. In the meantime, it appears that developers can continue to apply for permits, licences and authorizations required under the Mining Act, An Act respecting the preservation of agricultural land and agricultural activities and the Environment Quality Act to carry on exploration activities, though closer scrutiny of permit applications is expected and it is not clear whether, and under what circumstances, hydraulic fracturing will be permitted.
================
7. Encana forecasts 'liquidity' in gas
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Encana+forecasts+liquidity/4262981/story.html
LNG exports a hedge against low gas prices for Alberta producer
BY SHAUN POLCZER, CALGARY HERALD; POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 11, 2011
Encana Corp. said Thursday it is eyeing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports as a way of sidestepping what it sees as long-term -- and possibly permanent -- structural shifts in the North American natural gas market.
And while it wasn't explicitly considered as a part of Wednesday's $5.4-billion tie-up with PetroChina, the possibility of large-scale gas exports from Canada to Asia likely played a role in the thinking of both companies to seal the deal, Encana CEO Randy Eresman said.
"It wasn't part of the discussions at all, although I fully understand and appreciate the desire of Petro-China to link up with LNG in North America," he told analysts in a conference call.
"We've thought about the need for LNG export capacity in North America. ... More specifically, we think there's an opportunity with Asian players who demand more natural gas in their energy portfolios."
Currently, there are no LNG export terminals in North America although the proposed Kitimat, B.C., project is expected to ship 700 million cubic feet a day starting in 2015. Encana is in a joint venture with Kogas, the Korean state gas company, to supply about 40 per cent of the facility's rated capacity.
But Eresman's comments seemed to indicate Encana is looking beyond Kitimat and suggested it could take 10 to 20 years to ramp up large-scale export volumes.
MORE:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Encana+forecasts+liquidity/4262981/story.html
==================
8. Tackling Corporate Power, One Town at a Time
http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/
tackling-corporate-power-one-town-at-a-time
Thursday 17 March 2011 by Mari Margil
What’s a town to do when state regulatory agencies don’t keep corporate drilling out?
As more information about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," (a technique used during natural gas drilling) emerges, more and more cities and municipalities are organizing to keep drilling and fracking out of their own communities, but are surprised to find that they do not have the legal authority to say “no” to these corporate activities.
Last week, Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, with fewer than 2,500 residents, became the latest community to do something about this, adopting the state’s first ordinance banning corporations from natural gas drilling.
Drafted with the help of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, the ordinance comes on the heels of the City of Pittsburgh’s ordinance banning drilling by corporations, adopted in November. Both ordinances also eliminate the authority of corporations to wield their constitutional rights to override the municipality's wishes. Such constitutional rights and powers are often used by corporations to overturn local and state laws adopted to protect the environment and public health.
Also See: Fracking Debate Heats Up as New Jersey Seeks Ban
[ http://www.truth-out.org/
fracking-debate-heats-up-new-jersey-seeks-ban68494 ]
More and more communities are organizing to fight drilling and fracking, but are surprised to find that they do not have the legal authority to say “no” to these corporate activities.
=====================
9. Gas Industry Working Overtime to Smother Revived FRAC Act Efforts To Rein In Hydraulic Fracturing
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-works-overtime-smother-federal-regulation-revived-frac-act
21 March 11
Last week, US Senators Robert Casey (D-PA) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reintroduced legislation to the Senate that would close the oversight gap that the gas industry has taken full advantage of since 2005.
The “Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act,”:
[ http://degette.house.gov/
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1056:degette-hinchey-and-polis-introduce-frac-act-to-ensure-safe-drilling&catid=76:press-releases-&Itemid=227 ]
commonly known as the FRAC Act, would close the Halliburton Loophole:
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opini ... .html?_r=1 ]
in Dick Cheney’s infamous 2005 Energy Policy Act:
[ http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/regula ... t2005.html ]
which exempted hydraulic fracturing from the auspices of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Hydraulic fracturing is used in 90% of all unconventional natural gas wells in the U.S. and involves the injection of millions of gallons of water, sand and dangerous chemicals into the ground. The bill would also require that the natural gas industry publicly disclose the chemicals they use to drill for unconventional gas.
These chemicals, including potent cancer-causing agents,
[ http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/files/
Oct2011HERA10-48forweb3-3-11.pdf ]
are protected as industry trade secrets.
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-works-overtime-smother-federal-regulation-revived-frac-act
==================
10. Five reasons every wonk in DC is humping the leg of natural gas right about now
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-22-five-reasons-every-wonk-in-dc-is-humping-the-leg-of-natural-gas-
THIS FAUSTIAN IS A BARGAIN!
BY Christopher Mims 22 MAR 2011 10:58 AM
The Times wants you to know that our energy crisis is over, because there's at least one abundant fossil fuel still standing between civilization and the abyss of energy poverty. In a piece remarkable for its complete failure to mention renewables, a bunch of old-economy energy analysts describe a 21st century that looks only vaguely different than our recent past.
1. So much for nuclear power. Now that Fukushima is right on the cusp of becoming a verb, ("The insurance company cut me a check ‘cause it's completely Fukushima'd, so, hello Carribean vacation!") you cannot throw a rock in any statehouse or newsroom on the planet without hitting someone who wants you to know that the supposed "nuclear renaissance" is now about as likely as a Two and a Half Men reunion.
2. So much for oil. Deepwater drilling is going to come back, sure, but it's going to labor under increased scrutiny. Also there is that small detail that oil is mostly just going to get more expensive from here on out.
3. Japan is going to make up for the shortfall in electricity production from nuclear power plants by buying more liquefied natural gas -- lots more.
MORE:
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-22-five-reasons-every-wonk-in-dc-is-humping-the-leg-of-natural-gas-
Read more:
"Natural Gas Now Viewed as Safer Bet" The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/business/
global/22gas.html?src=busln
=====================
11. Stewardship of Alberta's oilsands must remain free of controversy/Carson
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Stewardship+Alberta+oilsands+must+remain+free+controversy/4481595/story.html
BY PAULA SIMONS, EDMONTON JOURNAL MARCH 22, 2011
- - -
QUOTE: “Is it appropriate to appoint a man whose fiancée has a financial interest in a company that sells water treatment systems to First Nations, to a panel examining the impact of oilsands operations on water quality in aboriginal communities?”
- - - - -
EDMONTON - Let's start with two questions.
How did Bruce Carson, 66, come to be appointed as the executive director of the Canada School of Energy and Environment, a federally-funded think-tank that links academics from the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge?
How did Carson come to be named, only this January, to the Alberta government's "expert panel," which is supposed to create a world-class environmental monitoring system for Alberta's oilsands?
Carson, after all, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in the 1980s for theft and fraud in relation to the misappropriation of funds from both his law firm and his clients. (The thinktank website boasts of Carson's two legal degrees, without mentioning that he was disbarred by the Upper Canada Law Society in 1980.) More to the point, perhaps, Carson is a former senior policy adviser to Stephen Harper, and a federal Conservative campaign strategist who has been instrumental in structuring the federal government's pro oilsands PR strategy, and in serving as an adviser to CAPP, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
He was appointed to the federally-created, federally-funded think-tank in 2008 while he was actually working in Harper's office, and he continued to do campaign strategy work and policy consultation for the Conservative party and the Harper government even after he was named the school's executive director. It's a degree of political consanguinity that undermines the credibility and academic integrity of the think-tank, which is supposed to be positioning Alberta as a world leader in "green" energy development.
MORE:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Stewardship+Alberta+oilsands+must+remain+free+controversy/4481595/story.html
= = = =
Carson takes leave of absence from oil sands advisory panel
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/
Carson+takes+leave+absence+from+oilsands+advisory+panel/4467402/story.html
BY LAURA STONE, CALGARY HERALD MARCH 18, 2011 4:02 PM
Bruce Carson has taken a leave of absence but did not resign from a provincial government advisory panel for Alberta’s oil sands in light of an RCMP investigation into the business dealings of the former senior advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“Mr. Carson contacted Alberta Environment and said he would be comfortable with any decisions the minister made in regards to Mr. Carson’s participation on our panel,” said ministry spokeswoman Erin Carrier.
Environment Minister Rob Renner on Thursday “took (Carson) up on his offer of a leave of absence on the Alberta advisory panel. As events unfold, Mr. Carson’s further participation no the panel will be re-evaluated,” she said.
Allegations relate to Carson’s lobbying of the Department of Indian Affairs on behalf of an Ottawa-based company to secure lucrative water contracts in First Nations communities, with a 20 per cent pay off to his former-escort fiance, as first reported by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
Alberta’s NDP environment critic Rachel Notley said Friday Carson should have never been appointed to the oilsands monitoring panel. [ . . . ]
===================
12. Edmonton filmmaker addresses precious water resources/Video: White Water, Black Gold - Trailer
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Edmonton+filmmaker+addresses+precious+water+resources/4484848/story.html
Documentary digs into effects of oil industry in Alberta
BY HANNEKE BROOYMANS, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM MARCH 22, 2011 1:02 PM
EDMONTON - David Lavallee spent 15 years guiding hikes in the Columbia Icefields but didn’t give much thought to what happened to the water that melted off the glaciers.
Then one day he was standing on the Athabasca glacier with glaciologist Shawn Marshall. Marshall talked about how the river ran to the tarsands where a huge amount of the water was used by the industry and ended up in toxic tailings ponds, which were growing exponentially.
“I was like, ‘hmm, interesting. How come I don’t know anything about this?’ I was born and raised in Edmonton. I’d always heard about the oilsands as a kid, but they were just this small project up there. Now all of a sudden they just completely took off and now we’re the caretakers of the second biggest deposit of oil on the planet.”
Lavallee was interested and concerned enough to do something. Unlike most people, he decided that “something” was creating a documentary, called White Water, Black Gold. It will be screened in Edmonton on Thursday. [ . . .]
- - - - - -
WATCH: White Water, Black Gold - Trailer
http://www.indiegogo.com/White-Water-Black-Gold
A Nation's Water in Peril
Created by David Lavallee
=================
13. B.C. pipeline opponents target moneylenders
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/
2011/03/22/bc-enbridge-pipeline-first-nations-protest.html
CBC News Mar 22, 2011
First Nations and environmental groups are targeting potential financial backers in their latest attempt to stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline project that would deliver oil from Alberta to tankers on the B.C. coast.
A few dozen protesters waved placards, banged drums and chanted outside a Bank of Montreal shareholders meeting at a Vancouver hotel on Tuesday.
Maxim Winther, with the Rainforest Action Network, said they're concerned about BMO's environmental policies and its relationship with Enbridge Inc., the company planning to build the pipeline through B.C.
"We're looking to identify the sources of funding that Enbridge will be going to in the future when they seek funding for this project," Winther said.
They want banks to implement policies that recognize First Nations' rights around development, Winther said.
"It is their land, after all, that this pipeline is going through," he said. "So if Enbridge had any respect for that, or if the Bank of Montreal had any respect, they would drop this project right away."
Geraldine Thomas-Flurer, with the five-nation Yinka Dene Alliance, said her group wants the bank to live up to the highest human rights and environmental standards in making financial decisions.
Thomas-Flurer was allowed to make a presentation to shareholders during the Vancouver meeting and said the group was very receptive.
"Everyone who makes decisions was there to listen to us," she said. "We came away with [the belief] that they were going to look at their existing policies and they're going to take into consideration our concerns."
Thomas-Flurer said talking to the financiers is just one more step in the plan to prevent the pipeline development.
"We're going to use any means possible to stop them."
MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/
story/2011/03/22/bc-enbridge-pipeline-first-nations-protest.html
================
14. Canada lobbying EU parliamentarians on the tar sands
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7057#more-7057
March 21, 2011
[ This evening’s Globe and Mail article is at
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-sands-emissions-rules-stalled-despite-vows-to-eu/article1950567/?from=sec453. ]
The Globe and Mail reports, “Canada’s ambassador to the European Union privately promised EU politicians a year ago that the (Harper) government would bring in regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands, newly released documents indicate. But Ottawa has yet to act on that commitment. Meetings between Ambassador Ross Hornby and European parliamentarians were part of a campaign to derail the EU’s proposed clean-fuel standards that would penalize the oil sands as ‘dirty fuel’.”
“In concert with the oil industry and province of Alberta, the federal government has launched an ‘engagement strategy’ aimed at burnishing the image of the oil sands in the U.S. and Europe. While Europe does not import oil sands crude, it is home to several major companies that invest in the Alberta projects, including France’s Total SA, Norway’s Statoil ASA, Britain’s BP PLC and the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell PLC, all of whom are facing increased public criticism of their activities there.”
“The Harper government was also lobbying to prevent the European Parliament from adopting fuel standards that would single out the oil sands projects as particularly heavy emitters, according to documents obtained under Access to Information by the environmental group Climate Action Network Canada. …The European Commission is still debating whether to impose the ‘proposed clean-fuel directive’.”
“Trade Minister Peter Van Loan conceded the federal government has opposed the regulation, but rejected charges that Ottawa has injected the issue into Canada-EU free trade negotiations.”
MORE:
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7057#more-7057
====================
15. WATCH: Golden chapter protests Selkirk Power Ventego/ Cupola Creek power project
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7022
March 19, 2011
VIDEO:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/
thegoldenstar/news/118109659.html.
The Council of Canadians Golden chapter has been opposing Selkirk Power’s proposal for an ‘independent power project’ on the Ventego and Cupola Creeks in British Columbia.
The Golden Star reports, "Selkirk Power chairman Douglas Hurst was welcomed to last Tuesday’s Town council meeting by a rally of around 100 locals who are opposed to the company’s proposed Beaver River Hydro Project. Although Hurst came to Golden to present an update on the project to council and answer questions Councillors might have regarding the proposed power line route through town, local organizations Wildsight, the Council of Canadians and concerned Golden residents saw it as an opportunity to show why they opposed this run-of-river hydroelectric project. Selkirk Power’s Beaver River Hydro Project includes hydroelectric power projects on Cupola, Ventego and Alder Creeks, all located about 50 km northwest of Golden."
"Trevor Hamre, vice-president of the local Council of Canadians chapter, spoke at the rally, explaining that COC’s main issue with the project is the move to private ownership of our energy resources while Rachel Darvill, Wildsight’s Columbia Headwaters Program Manager, spoke on the ecological damage Wildsight believes the Beaver River Hydro project will incur with the addition of roads, power lines, human activity and three river diversions. Other Golden and Kootenay residents spoke on topics like energy conservation and the power of a community rallying together."
On February 24, the Golden Star reported, “Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald presented to the Legislature last week a petition signed by more than 500 Golden and area residents indicating their opposition to the development of private river-diversion projects on Ventego and Cupola Creeks. The petition was created by the Golden Chapter of Council of Canadians. Trevor Hamre, vice-president of the local Council of Canadians chapter, said his message is: We oppose the privatization of rivers in our community. The delivery of the petition to the legislature coincided with the opening of the official public comment period for Selkirk Power’s proposals. The B.C. Ministry of Natural Resources is now accepting comments until April 1, 2011. ’We had to do this petition because Selkirk Power denied that there was even any opposition to their project,’ said Hamre. He believes what happens from here depends on how well the community bands together.”
On March 19, we noted a 3-minute BCLocalNews video of a protest against the private river-diversion project. In the video, Hamre says, “We see the sale of our rivers as theft from the commons.”
To see that video, please go to
http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/
thegoldenstar/news/118109659.html.
Brent Patterson
Director of Campaigns and Communications
Council of Canadians
====================
16. WATCH: Solar hydrogen home Michael Strizki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEdQRVQtffw
Here's a 7 minute presentation of engineer Michael Strizki's, New Jersey home, and what he has personally done to run it 100% by solar, geothermal and hydrogen.
==================
17. SASKATCHEWAN COMPLETES FIRST COMPREHENSIVE TRADE MISSION TO INDIA AND BANGLADESH
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=d0ab6890-1ec4-4bc0-ba42-1ce24844ece3
News Release March 21, 2011
Saskatchewan Delegation Visits Growing Economies of India and Bangladesh as Part of the Province's Long-term Strategy to Engage Key Markets for Saskatchewan's Resources and Expertise
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says the province's first comprehensive trade mission to India and Bangladesh highlighted the contributions Saskatchewan can make in exporting key resources and partnering in research with these two important trading partners, both now and in the future.
"We were able to tell the Saskatchewan story to high ranking government officials in both countries, including Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Mr. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of the dynamic Indian Province of Gujarat," Wall said.
While in India, Wall also held meetings with the Ministers of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Science and Technology, Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Minister of Mines. In Bangladesh, Wall met with the Ministers of Commerce and Foreign Affairs.
MORE:
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=d0ab6890-1ec4-4bc0-ba42-1ce24844ece3
- - - - -
MOU Summary.pdf
http://www.gov.sk.ca/adx/aspx/
adxGetMedia.aspx?mediaId=1379&PN=Shared
====================
18. Budget 2011 meets (lowed) expectations
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/index.php
From: Andrea Harden
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 5:00 PM
While a $400 million contribution to energy efficiency for homes is getting a lot of air play, the truth is there is little for the environment and climate change in the federal budget, and it is indeed a step backwards.
Bearing in mind the questions I posed in my recent blog, here is some initial thoughts on Budget 2011. You can read the budget speech and plan here.
Will the EcoENERGY programs set to end this fiscal year be renewed?
A $400 million investment was announced for the ecoENERGY Retrofit Homes program, a popular program that helps people make their homes more energy efficient. While it is certainly good to see this money go towards ‘green jobs generating and emission reducing’ energy efficiency measures, it represents only one year of funding for the program. It is not a sustained multi-year program which we desperately need and again puts the future of the Canadian governments energy efficient measures into limbo.
Absent from the budget is money allocated to the ecoENERGY renewable power program meaning that it is likely ending. This program invested $1.48 billion increasing Canada’s supply of electricity from renewable sources such as wind, biomass, low-impact hydro, geothermal, solar photovoltaic and ocean energy. The goal was to produce enough clean electricity to power around one million homes.
Will this budget finally see the Canadian government phase out fossil fuel subsidies?
Nope. Responding to public pressure, the budget does change one subsidy directed to the tar sands that will increase government revenue $15 million this year and $30 million next year.
This pales in comparison to the $1.38 billion being wasted every year in subsidies and tax breaks to oil and gas companies. This money could go far, were it invested in energy efficiency, renewable energy expansion or public transit.
Will this budget see Canada repay our climate debt to the Global South?
The budget does not include any money for climate financing for the Global South. I have heard that an announcement could be expected at a later time responding to the government’s commitments under the Copenhagen Accord. This increases our concern that the government may be looking to existing aid budgets to meet these commitments. Funding needs to be increased. It should not be taken away from other aid priorities, it should be new and additional, it should be from public sources and innovative mechanisms such as a financial transaction tax and not dependent on volatile carbon markets.
Will this budget see Canada prioritize green infrastructure spending?
In short, no. While more analysis of the budget is needed, it is abundantly clear that it will not bring about the Council of Canadians recommendation of at least $10 billion dollars invested over each of the next two years in the following five areas: energy conservation through building retrofits and renewable energy projects, mass transit, passenger rail and affordable housing.
Some relevant highlights in the budget include $25 million towards the Canada U.S.Clean Energy Dialogue. One of the priorities under this dialogue is regulatory harmonization in the electricity sector. This could very well equate to increased pressure to adopt a market model like the U.S. with increased privatization of electricity generation and distribution.
There is also $8 million pledged over two years to renew funding for clean energy deployment in Northern and Aboriginal communities. Almost $100 million over two years of research, development and demonstration of clean energy and energy efficiency.
These points are linked to the next question I had raised.
Will the Canadian government continue to fund false solutions to the climate crisis?
The key question here is how the Canadian government defines clean energy. Does it include carbon capture and storage(CCS)? Does it include nuclear? Based on previous government statements and budgets, I’d wager that at least CCS will absorb a good chunk of these funds. This is another question we will be exploring further in the coming days. For the Council’s take on why CCS and nuclear energy are false solutions, refer to our real and false solutions fact sheets.
Will the Canadian government go through with a drastic spending to Environment Canada?
While some funding has been restored compared to the predictions of 20% spending cut to Environment Canada, the trend is still downwards. If you compare government money spending on energy efficiency and renewable energy over the last five years this trend is abundantly clear – I hope to provide more details on this point in the coming days. For now, take a look at this Postmedia News story, which reports that the budget is announcing $1 billion in new spending initiatives compared to the nearly $1.6 billion in projected cuts for federal spending on environmental and resource-based programs.
Andrea Harden
Energy Campaigner
Council of Canadians
www.canadians.org
========================
19. Peak Water Has Already Come and Gone
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54957
by Stephen Leahy Published on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by Inter Press Service
UXBRIDGE, Canada - Canadian Kevin Freedman is celebrating World Water Day Tuesday by living on 25 litres of water a day, instead of the North American average of 330 litres per day. And he has enlisted 31 others in his "Water Conservation Challenge" to go water - lean, using just 25 litres per day for cooking, drinking, cleaning, and sanitation for the entire month of March.
"People in Canada and the U.S. have no idea how much water they use or how much they waste," Freedman told IPS.
"Although people live on less, it is very difficult to use just 25 litres a day. You can't shower or use a washing machine," he said. "I'm hoping to raise awareness that water is a finite resource."
Nearly a billion people don't have good access to safe fresh water. In a single generation, that number could double as growing demands for water will exceed the available and sustainable supply by 40 percent, according a recent study. "Peak water" has already come and gone. Humanity uses more water than can be sustained, drawing on non-renewable reserves of water accumulated over thousands of years in deep aquifers.
"Water cannot be created, it can only by managed," said Margaret Catley-Carlson, a former senior official with both the Canadian government and at the United Nations, a renowned global authority on water issues, and a director at the Canadian Water Network.
In many countries and regions water scarcity is a fundamental challenge to development, Catley-Carlson told IPS. A lack of access to water can lead to starvation, disease, political instability and even armed conflict.
"Governments see their role as delivering water to the public and industry," she said. "This has to change to sustainably managing water resources for society and the natural environment."
MORE:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54957
=================
20. Fighting Spirit - Beaver Lake Cree
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/
eij/article/fighting_spirit/
Earth Island Journal - Spring 2011 - volume 26
Given the threat they pose to regional water and air quality and their especially heavy carbon footprint, the tar sands mines have attracted the ire of a broad range of environmental groups. ForestEthics has worked to get retailers such as Whole Foods to boycott oil derived from tar sands. Greenpeace activists, using their signature stunts, have on several occasions briefly shut down mines with occupations. Environmental Defence-Canada has churned out a raft of studies and the Natural Resources Defense Council has lobbied officials at the highest levels.
Yet when the British Co-operative Bank was looking for a tar sands initiative to throw its financial support behind, it was a legal challenge against the governments of Canada and Alberta by the Beaver Lake Cree – a First Nations band of just 900 people – that caught its eye. Colin Baines, a spokesperson for the bank – which bills itself as Britain’s ethical financial choice – believes the Beaver Lake Cree’s lawsuit is “one of the last and best hopes” of stopping tar sands expansion. “This is a solid case with every chance of success,” Baines says.
The band’s case against the tar sands depends on a treaty that its ancestors signed in 1876 ceding large areas of land to the Crown in exchange for moving to a reserve. In return, members of the Alberta tribe were guaranteed the right to earn their livelihood by continued hunting and fishing on the land they surrendered. Now, the tribe says that the tar sands developments are ruining their hunting and fishing grounds and therefore violating their treaty rights as guaranteed under the Canadian constitution.
Traditional ways are still part of the lives of the Beaver Lake Cree. Families go out in the summer to gather wild raspberries, strawberries, and medicinal plants. In the fall they hunt moose, elk, and caribou. “A lot of our people here are very poor,” says Ron Lameman, advisor to the band chief. “They use the abilities to hunt, fish, trap, and gather as a way to supplement their income.”
Lately, the tribe’s hunters have had trouble finding the wildlife that used to be plentiful. “So much has changed in the last couple of decades and our people are very concerned that the places where they go to hunt and gather are disappearing,” Lameman says. A study commissioned by the band found that woodland caribou in the area had declined by 70 percent over the past 14 years, in part due to the habitat fragmentation caused by development.
The Cree’s civil lawsuit, filed in May 2008, lists the more than 15,000 approved or proposed oil developments on their traditional lands as a violation of their treaty rights. They say the “scale and scope” of the industrialization is ruining the “harvestable surplus” that was guaranteed them more than 100 years ago. The band says it plans to take its lawsuit against the government all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The Co-op bank, through its corporate social responsibility program, has donated over $400,000 to the tribe to help meet legal costs. While the bank is also supporting other initiatives against the tar sands, Baines says that the Beaver Lake Cree’s legal campaign is particularly strategic. One third of tar sands projects already underway are on aboriginal groups’ traditional territories, and the number of developments is set to triple.
“If the case is upheld, it would put a stop to a great deal of the expansions that are going to take place,” Baines says. “For these constitutional rights to have any meaning you can’t destroy the forest and the trees and poison the water.”
In Canada’s current political climate – where expansion of the oil and gas sector is a top priority of the right-of-center government – the band’s legal challenge may be the only way to stop the tar sands juggernaut. “[As environmentalists] we have very few tools at our disposal,” says Jack Woodward, the Victoria lawyer handling the case. “Protests and putting up billboards – these are not going to stop it. The national and the provincial governments are enthusiastic proponents of expanding the tar sands so you’re not going to get any political change. What we need is a fully effective legal mechanism.”
The Beaver Lake Cree’s case faces fierce opposition from the oil companies and is expected to take years to make its way through the court system. If the band succeeds, it will have been instrumental in putting a stop to one of the worst environmental catastrophes on the planet. And it will mark a major victory for the sovereignty of aboriginal people in Canada. “Although those rights seem old-fashioned and quaint,” Woodward says, “they do have constitutional protection, which means they must be protected. And they are a higher priority under Canadian law than extracting oil and gas.”
—Jocelyn Edwards
==================
21. Our silent spring
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/
oped/articles/2011/03/21/our_silent_spring/
By James Carroll March 21, 2011
WHEN RACHEL Carson entitled her prescient 1962 book “Silent Spring,’’ she was imagining the dawning of the season without the sweet sounds of wildlife. She noted that, even then, in many parts of the United States, spring “comes unheralded by the return of birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of birdsong.’’ Carson’s book was heard as a resounding alarm, jumpstarting the contemporary environmental movement. In important ways, her warning was heeded (restrictions on DDT), but the human assault on the natural world only escalated in the decades since, with last week’s catastrophe in Japan a latest signal of the danger.
“There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings.’’ The book begins with what Carson calls a fable for tomorrow. “Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community . . . No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in the stricken world. The people had done it to themselves.’’
As Carson wrote, America’s first commercial nuclear power plant had just come on line (in 1958), and she could hardly have imagined the escalation of risk that took off then. The contaminations of chemical poisons that so worried Carson can seem benign compared to the ruins of radiation, if the worst happens. The Fukushima experience suggests what expert reassurances are worth. More than 500 nuclear power plants are in operation or under construction around the world today, with every one of them being viewed with new skepticism. One chance in a million — such predictions of disaster suddenly seem less of a long shot. What have we done to ourselves?
MORE:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/
editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/03/21/our_silent_spring/
===================
22. In New Brunswick, Gateway freeway expansion cancelled despite signed contract
http://www.straight.com/article-382624/vancouver/
eric-doherty-new-brunswick-gateway-freeway-expansion-cancelled-despite-signed-contract
By Eric Doherty, March 21, 2011
It seems that “Gateway” is a popular name for unpopular freeway projects. Like in the Lower Mainland of B.C., the provincial government in New Brunswick had been trying to push through an expensive freeway expansion scheme called Gateway over the objections of local residents.
The similarities between the two Gateway schemes is uncanny. There was even a bog that was threatened by Gateway on the outskirts of Saint John, New Brunswick—Renforth Bog. In the Lower Mainland it is Burns Bog in Delta that is threatened by the Gateway freeway scheme.
The difference is that the people of Saint John who opposed plans to widen the Mackay Highway to six freeway lanes have won already. On March 18, the government of New Brunswick sent out a media release titled “Mackay Highway project amended”. The release states: “After serious consideration, our government has determined that the Mackay Highway expansion project will be amended. It is part of this government’s mandate to review all capital projects to reduce costs. As a result of this review, we have concluded that the proposed widening of the Mackay Highway is not necessary at this time.”
MORE:
http://www.straight.com/article-382624/
vancouver/eric-doherty-new-brunswick-gateway-freeway-expansion-cancelled-despite-signed-contract
=================
23. WATCH: 300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-J91SwP8w
Fossil fuels have powered human growth and ingenuity for centuries. Now that we're reaching the end of cheap and abundant oil and coal supplies, we're in for an exciting ride. While there's a real risk that we'll fall off a cliff, there's still time to control our transition to a post-carbon future.
A deeper analysis of the crises we face, and possible solutions we can work on right now can be had HERE:
http://j.mp/PCReader
==================
24. WATCH: Wadah Khanfar: A historic moment in the Arab world | Video on TED.com
http://www.ted.com/talks/
wadah_khanfar_a_historic_moment_in_the_arab_world.html?awesm=on.ted.com_Khanfar&utm_content=awesm-bookmarklet&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_source=direct-on.ted.com
About this talk
As a democratic revolution led by tech-empowered young people sweeps the Arab world, Wadah Khanfar, the head of Al Jazeera, shares a profoundly optimistic view of what's happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and beyond -- at this powerful moment when people realized they could step out of their houses and ask for change.
About Wadah Khanfar
As Director General of Al Jazeera, the only international TV network based in the developing world, Wadah Khanfar works to bring rare liberties like information, transparency and dissenting voices to…
Full bio and more links:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/wadah_khanfar.html
1. Happy birthday, Pops: A tribute to David Suzuki (with a great PHOTO)
2. EVENT: Lecture - Regina - March 29 - Wind Power: Myths and Realities
3. EVENT: Drumheller - April 5 - "GASLAND" - the movie
4. WATCH: Ben Parfitt on Fracking in BC Pt. 1 & 2
5. NIKIFORUK: The Gwyn Morgan Files: EnCana's Grip on BC (3 articles)
6. Canada: Shale Gas – Update On Developments In Quebec
7. Encana forecasts 'liquidity' in gas
8. Tackling Corporate Power, One Town at a Time
9. Gas Industry Working Overtime to Smother Revived FRAC Act Efforts To Rein In Hydraulic Fracturing
10. Five reasons every wonk in DC is humping the leg of natural gas right about now
11. Stewardship of Alberta's oilsands must remain free of controversy/Carson
12. Edmonton filmmaker addresses precious water resources/Video: White Water, Black Gold - Trailer
13. B.C. pipeline opponents target moneylenders
14. Canada lobbying EU parliamentarians on the tar sands
15. WATCH: Golden chapter protests Selkirk Power Ventego/ Cupola Creek power project
16. WATCH: Solar hydrogen home Michael Strizki
17. SASKATCHEWAN COMPLETES FIRST COMPREHENSIVE TRADE MISSION TO INDIA AND BANGLADESH
18. Budget 2011 meets (lowed) expectations
19. Peak Water Has Already Come and Gone
20. Fighting Spirit - Beaver Lake Cree
21. Our silent spring
22. In New Brunswick, Gateway freeway expansion cancelled despite signed contract
23. WATCH: 300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds
24. WATCH: Wadah Khanfar: A historic moment in the Arab world | Video on TED.com
=========
1. Happy birthday, Pops: A tribute to David Suzuki (with a great PHOTO)
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/
Happy+birthday+Pops+tribute+David+Suzuki/4494896/story.html
Daughter writes, 'He's one heck of a role model' for Canadians
By Sarika Cullis-suzuki, Vancouver Sun March 24, 2011 5:32 AM
It's a strange sight, watching a group of macho college students tell your dad they love him and attack him with high-fives.
It never gets old, walking down the street with David Suzuki.
Another thing that doesn't seem to get old: The man in question. That's why it's startling news to hear he's turning 75.
It's not his packed schedule that's astounding, or the diversity of projects he's involved in (I just found out he's started French classes on the side). It's his ceaseless energy. [ . . . ]
============
2. EVENT: Lecture - Regina - March 29 - Wind Power: Myths and Realities
Wind Power: Myths and Realities
A Lecture by Tim Weis of the Pembina Institute
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
7 pm, Shumiatcher Theatre at the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina
Come out and learn more about wind power as a viable renewable energy source in Saskatchewan.
Sponsored by Clean Green Regina and Regina EcoLiving Inc. For more information visit www.cleangreensask.ca. Contact us at cleangreenregina@yahoo.ca.
=================
3. EVENT: Drumheller - April 5 - "GASLAND" - the movie
2011 Oscar Nomination for Best Documentary Film
An award-winning film about the crisis in the USA that is threatening Canada
Tuesday, April 5
Doors open at 6:30 pm
COST: $6.00
AV room - 224 Centre Street, Drumheller, AB
Sponsored by Council of Canadians.
=================
4. WATCH: Ben Parfitt on Fracking in BC Pt. 1 & 2
Part 1: Fracking in BC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhEsIMsMV_Y
Part 2 - Recommendations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa2Ud1CiJ5U.
On March 16th the Vancouver chapter of the Council of Canadians held a speaker's session on the practice of Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) for gas in BC
Bill Parfitt, a resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and author of the Munk Report (Fracture Lines: Will Canada's Water be Protected in the Rush to Develop Shale Gas?) Spoke about Fracking in BC and made 13 recommendations to the local Gas Industry.
Parfitt recently wrote in the Tyee.ca that, “If (the Calgary-based companies) Talisman and Canbriam get their way, they could soon withdraw a combined 7.3 billion litres of water annually out of the (Williston Lake) reservoir (in the Northern Interior of British Columbia for their fracking operations)…”
More on his comments on fracking and water at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=6868.
==================
5. NIKIFORUK: The Gwyn Morgan Files: EnCana's Grip on BC (3 articles)
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/18/GwynMorgan2/
How Christy Clark's advisor steered his Alberta petro giant to become the most powerful corporation in this province.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, Today, TheTyee.ca
- - - - -
QUOTES: ”Morgan: praised Gordon Campbell's petro-friendly 'policy environment.' “
“In central Alberta's farm belt between Calgary and Edmonton, EnCana drilled thousands of shallow wells for methane trapped in coal seams and upset dozens of landowner groups. But whenever a major fracking problem or water contamination incident hit the news, the company quickly made donations to local recreation centres or scholarship funds.” See below....
= = = = = =
Gratitude from Gleichen
http://www.strathmorestandard.com/Artic ... ?e=3038685
Sara Wilson Standard Reporter March 22, 2011
With nearly 100 residents packing the seats, the official opening of Gleichen's arena took place on the night of Friday, March 18, followed by a showcase of the best skating talent in the area.
On hand to celebrate the ribbon cutting and official opening was Strathmore-Brooks MLA Arno Doerksen.
"It's an honour to be here today. I used to play minor hockey here as a kid and it's a privilege to be back here today," Doerksen said. "Congratulations to everyone involved that helped make this happen."
In addition to the $145,000 contribution made by the Alberta Government, the ceremony last Friday night was aimed at the local volunteers and businesses that helped raise funds for the arena.
Master of ceremonies, Gord Stewart sang the praises for the largest contributors including Encana, whose rural initiatives help to raise $75,000 for the renovations.
Luigi Vescarelli, community relations advisor for Encana was on had to help cut the opening ribbon.
"I know how important this kind of support is to rural communities, it's about keeping the community together," Vescarelli said.
"Part of Encana's over all business strategy is a commitment to strengthen and ensure the sustainability of rural communities like Gleichen. Our community investment dollars go right back into the rural communities where the activities are taking place. We're giving more and more to rural communities. To all of you in Gleichen, keep up the good work."
In addition to donations from the Alberta Government and Encana, enterprises such as Farm Credit Canada, The Gleichen Lions Club, Volker Stevin, Gleichen's Ag society, Gleichen Minor Hockey and Wheatland County were represented by individuals excited to officially open the arena.
MORE:
http://www.strathmorestandard.com/Artic ... ?e=3038685
= = = = = =
Natural gas the next ‘green hope’
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
commentary/gwyn-morgan/natural-gas-the-next-green-hope/article1948906/
GWYN MORGAN | Columnist profile From Monday's Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Mar. 20, 2011 8:00PM EDT
(Gwyn Morgan is the retired founding CEO of Encana Corp.)
- - - - -
QUOTE: “Our country has abundant natural gas, our industry has world-class technology, our environment will benefit. It’s time to join the natural gas vehicle revolution.”
- - - - - -
My March 7 column pointing out how much sense it makes, from a supply security and ethical superiority standpoint, for the United States to import oil from Canada’s oil sands rather than from unstable Middle Eastern and tyrant-led North African countries, drew this reader response: “Canada should be encouraging both countries to detox and pursue the very energy alternatives casually dismissed by Morgan.” [ . . . ]
MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY (All Links are at URL above)
The ethics of oil in a time of turmoil
Synthetic fuel sees new life
Oil companies show faith in natural gas
===============
6. Canada: Shale Gas – Update On Developments In Quebec
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/
article.asp?articleid=126362&email_access=on
17 March 2011 Article by Katia Opalka
Copyright 2011, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Energy/Environment, March 2011
Introduction
Industry has been waiting for Quebec to unveil its Hydrocarbons Act, a much-anticipated set of rules for oil and gas exploration and development in the province (see our September 2010 Blakes Bulletin: Shale Gas: Anticipated Changes to Quebec's Regulatory Framework).
[ http://www.blakes.com/english/
view_bulletin.asp?ID=4214 ]
In the fall of 2010, the government put off disclosing the new rules until the spring, pending the outcome of a review of environmental issues related to shale gas exploration and development by the province's environmental public hearings board, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE or the Board). To view the formal report generated by BAPE – available in French only – click here. The BAPE tabled its report with the government on February 28, 2011 and the report was made public on March 8, 2011. The BAPE's central recommendation, to which the government has agreed, is to push back adoption of new rules for shale gas exploration and development pending completion of a strategic environmental assessment, expected to begin in June 2011 and take up to two years. In the meantime, it appears that developers can continue to apply for permits, licences and authorizations required under the Mining Act, An Act respecting the preservation of agricultural land and agricultural activities and the Environment Quality Act to carry on exploration activities, though closer scrutiny of permit applications is expected and it is not clear whether, and under what circumstances, hydraulic fracturing will be permitted.
================
7. Encana forecasts 'liquidity' in gas
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Encana+forecasts+liquidity/4262981/story.html
LNG exports a hedge against low gas prices for Alberta producer
BY SHAUN POLCZER, CALGARY HERALD; POSTMEDIA NEWS FEBRUARY 11, 2011
Encana Corp. said Thursday it is eyeing liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports as a way of sidestepping what it sees as long-term -- and possibly permanent -- structural shifts in the North American natural gas market.
And while it wasn't explicitly considered as a part of Wednesday's $5.4-billion tie-up with PetroChina, the possibility of large-scale gas exports from Canada to Asia likely played a role in the thinking of both companies to seal the deal, Encana CEO Randy Eresman said.
"It wasn't part of the discussions at all, although I fully understand and appreciate the desire of Petro-China to link up with LNG in North America," he told analysts in a conference call.
"We've thought about the need for LNG export capacity in North America. ... More specifically, we think there's an opportunity with Asian players who demand more natural gas in their energy portfolios."
Currently, there are no LNG export terminals in North America although the proposed Kitimat, B.C., project is expected to ship 700 million cubic feet a day starting in 2015. Encana is in a joint venture with Kogas, the Korean state gas company, to supply about 40 per cent of the facility's rated capacity.
But Eresman's comments seemed to indicate Encana is looking beyond Kitimat and suggested it could take 10 to 20 years to ramp up large-scale export volumes.
MORE:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Encana+forecasts+liquidity/4262981/story.html
==================
8. Tackling Corporate Power, One Town at a Time
http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/
tackling-corporate-power-one-town-at-a-time
Thursday 17 March 2011 by Mari Margil
What’s a town to do when state regulatory agencies don’t keep corporate drilling out?
As more information about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," (a technique used during natural gas drilling) emerges, more and more cities and municipalities are organizing to keep drilling and fracking out of their own communities, but are surprised to find that they do not have the legal authority to say “no” to these corporate activities.
Last week, Mountain Lake Park, Maryland, with fewer than 2,500 residents, became the latest community to do something about this, adopting the state’s first ordinance banning corporations from natural gas drilling.
Drafted with the help of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, the ordinance comes on the heels of the City of Pittsburgh’s ordinance banning drilling by corporations, adopted in November. Both ordinances also eliminate the authority of corporations to wield their constitutional rights to override the municipality's wishes. Such constitutional rights and powers are often used by corporations to overturn local and state laws adopted to protect the environment and public health.
Also See: Fracking Debate Heats Up as New Jersey Seeks Ban
[ http://www.truth-out.org/
fracking-debate-heats-up-new-jersey-seeks-ban68494 ]
More and more communities are organizing to fight drilling and fracking, but are surprised to find that they do not have the legal authority to say “no” to these corporate activities.
=====================
9. Gas Industry Working Overtime to Smother Revived FRAC Act Efforts To Rein In Hydraulic Fracturing
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-works-overtime-smother-federal-regulation-revived-frac-act
21 March 11
Last week, US Senators Robert Casey (D-PA) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reintroduced legislation to the Senate that would close the oversight gap that the gas industry has taken full advantage of since 2005.
The “Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act,”:
[ http://degette.house.gov/
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1056:degette-hinchey-and-polis-introduce-frac-act-to-ensure-safe-drilling&catid=76:press-releases-&Itemid=227 ]
commonly known as the FRAC Act, would close the Halliburton Loophole:
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opini ... .html?_r=1 ]
in Dick Cheney’s infamous 2005 Energy Policy Act:
[ http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/regula ... t2005.html ]
which exempted hydraulic fracturing from the auspices of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Hydraulic fracturing is used in 90% of all unconventional natural gas wells in the U.S. and involves the injection of millions of gallons of water, sand and dangerous chemicals into the ground. The bill would also require that the natural gas industry publicly disclose the chemicals they use to drill for unconventional gas.
These chemicals, including potent cancer-causing agents,
[ http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/files/
Oct2011HERA10-48forweb3-3-11.pdf ]
are protected as industry trade secrets.
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-works-overtime-smother-federal-regulation-revived-frac-act
==================
10. Five reasons every wonk in DC is humping the leg of natural gas right about now
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-22-five-reasons-every-wonk-in-dc-is-humping-the-leg-of-natural-gas-
THIS FAUSTIAN IS A BARGAIN!
BY Christopher Mims 22 MAR 2011 10:58 AM
The Times wants you to know that our energy crisis is over, because there's at least one abundant fossil fuel still standing between civilization and the abyss of energy poverty. In a piece remarkable for its complete failure to mention renewables, a bunch of old-economy energy analysts describe a 21st century that looks only vaguely different than our recent past.
1. So much for nuclear power. Now that Fukushima is right on the cusp of becoming a verb, ("The insurance company cut me a check ‘cause it's completely Fukushima'd, so, hello Carribean vacation!") you cannot throw a rock in any statehouse or newsroom on the planet without hitting someone who wants you to know that the supposed "nuclear renaissance" is now about as likely as a Two and a Half Men reunion.
2. So much for oil. Deepwater drilling is going to come back, sure, but it's going to labor under increased scrutiny. Also there is that small detail that oil is mostly just going to get more expensive from here on out.
3. Japan is going to make up for the shortfall in electricity production from nuclear power plants by buying more liquefied natural gas -- lots more.
MORE:
http://www.grist.org/article/
2011-03-22-five-reasons-every-wonk-in-dc-is-humping-the-leg-of-natural-gas-
Read more:
"Natural Gas Now Viewed as Safer Bet" The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/business/
global/22gas.html?src=busln
=====================
11. Stewardship of Alberta's oilsands must remain free of controversy/Carson
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Stewardship+Alberta+oilsands+must+remain+free+controversy/4481595/story.html
BY PAULA SIMONS, EDMONTON JOURNAL MARCH 22, 2011
- - -
QUOTE: “Is it appropriate to appoint a man whose fiancée has a financial interest in a company that sells water treatment systems to First Nations, to a panel examining the impact of oilsands operations on water quality in aboriginal communities?”
- - - - -
EDMONTON - Let's start with two questions.
How did Bruce Carson, 66, come to be appointed as the executive director of the Canada School of Energy and Environment, a federally-funded think-tank that links academics from the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge?
How did Carson come to be named, only this January, to the Alberta government's "expert panel," which is supposed to create a world-class environmental monitoring system for Alberta's oilsands?
Carson, after all, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in the 1980s for theft and fraud in relation to the misappropriation of funds from both his law firm and his clients. (The thinktank website boasts of Carson's two legal degrees, without mentioning that he was disbarred by the Upper Canada Law Society in 1980.) More to the point, perhaps, Carson is a former senior policy adviser to Stephen Harper, and a federal Conservative campaign strategist who has been instrumental in structuring the federal government's pro oilsands PR strategy, and in serving as an adviser to CAPP, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
He was appointed to the federally-created, federally-funded think-tank in 2008 while he was actually working in Harper's office, and he continued to do campaign strategy work and policy consultation for the Conservative party and the Harper government even after he was named the school's executive director. It's a degree of political consanguinity that undermines the credibility and academic integrity of the think-tank, which is supposed to be positioning Alberta as a world leader in "green" energy development.
MORE:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Stewardship+Alberta+oilsands+must+remain+free+controversy/4481595/story.html
= = = =
Carson takes leave of absence from oil sands advisory panel
http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/
Carson+takes+leave+absence+from+oilsands+advisory+panel/4467402/story.html
BY LAURA STONE, CALGARY HERALD MARCH 18, 2011 4:02 PM
Bruce Carson has taken a leave of absence but did not resign from a provincial government advisory panel for Alberta’s oil sands in light of an RCMP investigation into the business dealings of the former senior advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“Mr. Carson contacted Alberta Environment and said he would be comfortable with any decisions the minister made in regards to Mr. Carson’s participation on our panel,” said ministry spokeswoman Erin Carrier.
Environment Minister Rob Renner on Thursday “took (Carson) up on his offer of a leave of absence on the Alberta advisory panel. As events unfold, Mr. Carson’s further participation no the panel will be re-evaluated,” she said.
Allegations relate to Carson’s lobbying of the Department of Indian Affairs on behalf of an Ottawa-based company to secure lucrative water contracts in First Nations communities, with a 20 per cent pay off to his former-escort fiance, as first reported by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
Alberta’s NDP environment critic Rachel Notley said Friday Carson should have never been appointed to the oilsands monitoring panel. [ . . . ]
===================
12. Edmonton filmmaker addresses precious water resources/Video: White Water, Black Gold - Trailer
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Edmonton+filmmaker+addresses+precious+water+resources/4484848/story.html
Documentary digs into effects of oil industry in Alberta
BY HANNEKE BROOYMANS, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM MARCH 22, 2011 1:02 PM
EDMONTON - David Lavallee spent 15 years guiding hikes in the Columbia Icefields but didn’t give much thought to what happened to the water that melted off the glaciers.
Then one day he was standing on the Athabasca glacier with glaciologist Shawn Marshall. Marshall talked about how the river ran to the tarsands where a huge amount of the water was used by the industry and ended up in toxic tailings ponds, which were growing exponentially.
“I was like, ‘hmm, interesting. How come I don’t know anything about this?’ I was born and raised in Edmonton. I’d always heard about the oilsands as a kid, but they were just this small project up there. Now all of a sudden they just completely took off and now we’re the caretakers of the second biggest deposit of oil on the planet.”
Lavallee was interested and concerned enough to do something. Unlike most people, he decided that “something” was creating a documentary, called White Water, Black Gold. It will be screened in Edmonton on Thursday. [ . . .]
- - - - - -
WATCH: White Water, Black Gold - Trailer
http://www.indiegogo.com/White-Water-Black-Gold
A Nation's Water in Peril
Created by David Lavallee
=================
13. B.C. pipeline opponents target moneylenders
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/
2011/03/22/bc-enbridge-pipeline-first-nations-protest.html
CBC News Mar 22, 2011
First Nations and environmental groups are targeting potential financial backers in their latest attempt to stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline project that would deliver oil from Alberta to tankers on the B.C. coast.
A few dozen protesters waved placards, banged drums and chanted outside a Bank of Montreal shareholders meeting at a Vancouver hotel on Tuesday.
Maxim Winther, with the Rainforest Action Network, said they're concerned about BMO's environmental policies and its relationship with Enbridge Inc., the company planning to build the pipeline through B.C.
"We're looking to identify the sources of funding that Enbridge will be going to in the future when they seek funding for this project," Winther said.
They want banks to implement policies that recognize First Nations' rights around development, Winther said.
"It is their land, after all, that this pipeline is going through," he said. "So if Enbridge had any respect for that, or if the Bank of Montreal had any respect, they would drop this project right away."
Geraldine Thomas-Flurer, with the five-nation Yinka Dene Alliance, said her group wants the bank to live up to the highest human rights and environmental standards in making financial decisions.
Thomas-Flurer was allowed to make a presentation to shareholders during the Vancouver meeting and said the group was very receptive.
"Everyone who makes decisions was there to listen to us," she said. "We came away with [the belief] that they were going to look at their existing policies and they're going to take into consideration our concerns."
Thomas-Flurer said talking to the financiers is just one more step in the plan to prevent the pipeline development.
"We're going to use any means possible to stop them."
MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/
story/2011/03/22/bc-enbridge-pipeline-first-nations-protest.html
================
14. Canada lobbying EU parliamentarians on the tar sands
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7057#more-7057
March 21, 2011
[ This evening’s Globe and Mail article is at
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-sands-emissions-rules-stalled-despite-vows-to-eu/article1950567/?from=sec453. ]
The Globe and Mail reports, “Canada’s ambassador to the European Union privately promised EU politicians a year ago that the (Harper) government would bring in regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the oil sands, newly released documents indicate. But Ottawa has yet to act on that commitment. Meetings between Ambassador Ross Hornby and European parliamentarians were part of a campaign to derail the EU’s proposed clean-fuel standards that would penalize the oil sands as ‘dirty fuel’.”
“In concert with the oil industry and province of Alberta, the federal government has launched an ‘engagement strategy’ aimed at burnishing the image of the oil sands in the U.S. and Europe. While Europe does not import oil sands crude, it is home to several major companies that invest in the Alberta projects, including France’s Total SA, Norway’s Statoil ASA, Britain’s BP PLC and the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell PLC, all of whom are facing increased public criticism of their activities there.”
“The Harper government was also lobbying to prevent the European Parliament from adopting fuel standards that would single out the oil sands projects as particularly heavy emitters, according to documents obtained under Access to Information by the environmental group Climate Action Network Canada. …The European Commission is still debating whether to impose the ‘proposed clean-fuel directive’.”
“Trade Minister Peter Van Loan conceded the federal government has opposed the regulation, but rejected charges that Ottawa has injected the issue into Canada-EU free trade negotiations.”
MORE:
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7057#more-7057
====================
15. WATCH: Golden chapter protests Selkirk Power Ventego/ Cupola Creek power project
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7022
March 19, 2011
VIDEO:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/
thegoldenstar/news/118109659.html.
The Council of Canadians Golden chapter has been opposing Selkirk Power’s proposal for an ‘independent power project’ on the Ventego and Cupola Creeks in British Columbia.
The Golden Star reports, "Selkirk Power chairman Douglas Hurst was welcomed to last Tuesday’s Town council meeting by a rally of around 100 locals who are opposed to the company’s proposed Beaver River Hydro Project. Although Hurst came to Golden to present an update on the project to council and answer questions Councillors might have regarding the proposed power line route through town, local organizations Wildsight, the Council of Canadians and concerned Golden residents saw it as an opportunity to show why they opposed this run-of-river hydroelectric project. Selkirk Power’s Beaver River Hydro Project includes hydroelectric power projects on Cupola, Ventego and Alder Creeks, all located about 50 km northwest of Golden."
"Trevor Hamre, vice-president of the local Council of Canadians chapter, spoke at the rally, explaining that COC’s main issue with the project is the move to private ownership of our energy resources while Rachel Darvill, Wildsight’s Columbia Headwaters Program Manager, spoke on the ecological damage Wildsight believes the Beaver River Hydro project will incur with the addition of roads, power lines, human activity and three river diversions. Other Golden and Kootenay residents spoke on topics like energy conservation and the power of a community rallying together."
On February 24, the Golden Star reported, “Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald presented to the Legislature last week a petition signed by more than 500 Golden and area residents indicating their opposition to the development of private river-diversion projects on Ventego and Cupola Creeks. The petition was created by the Golden Chapter of Council of Canadians. Trevor Hamre, vice-president of the local Council of Canadians chapter, said his message is: We oppose the privatization of rivers in our community. The delivery of the petition to the legislature coincided with the opening of the official public comment period for Selkirk Power’s proposals. The B.C. Ministry of Natural Resources is now accepting comments until April 1, 2011. ’We had to do this petition because Selkirk Power denied that there was even any opposition to their project,’ said Hamre. He believes what happens from here depends on how well the community bands together.”
On March 19, we noted a 3-minute BCLocalNews video of a protest against the private river-diversion project. In the video, Hamre says, “We see the sale of our rivers as theft from the commons.”
To see that video, please go to
http://www.bclocalnews.com/kootenay_rockies/
thegoldenstar/news/118109659.html.
Brent Patterson
Director of Campaigns and Communications
Council of Canadians
====================
16. WATCH: Solar hydrogen home Michael Strizki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEdQRVQtffw
Here's a 7 minute presentation of engineer Michael Strizki's, New Jersey home, and what he has personally done to run it 100% by solar, geothermal and hydrogen.
==================
17. SASKATCHEWAN COMPLETES FIRST COMPREHENSIVE TRADE MISSION TO INDIA AND BANGLADESH
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=d0ab6890-1ec4-4bc0-ba42-1ce24844ece3
News Release March 21, 2011
Saskatchewan Delegation Visits Growing Economies of India and Bangladesh as Part of the Province's Long-term Strategy to Engage Key Markets for Saskatchewan's Resources and Expertise
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says the province's first comprehensive trade mission to India and Bangladesh highlighted the contributions Saskatchewan can make in exporting key resources and partnering in research with these two important trading partners, both now and in the future.
"We were able to tell the Saskatchewan story to high ranking government officials in both countries, including Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and Mr. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of the dynamic Indian Province of Gujarat," Wall said.
While in India, Wall also held meetings with the Ministers of Agriculture and Food Processing Industries, Science and Technology, Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Minister of Mines. In Bangladesh, Wall met with the Ministers of Commerce and Foreign Affairs.
MORE:
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=d0ab6890-1ec4-4bc0-ba42-1ce24844ece3
- - - - -
MOU Summary.pdf
http://www.gov.sk.ca/adx/aspx/
adxGetMedia.aspx?mediaId=1379&PN=Shared
====================
18. Budget 2011 meets (lowed) expectations
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/index.php
From: Andrea Harden
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 5:00 PM
While a $400 million contribution to energy efficiency for homes is getting a lot of air play, the truth is there is little for the environment and climate change in the federal budget, and it is indeed a step backwards.
Bearing in mind the questions I posed in my recent blog, here is some initial thoughts on Budget 2011. You can read the budget speech and plan here.
Will the EcoENERGY programs set to end this fiscal year be renewed?
A $400 million investment was announced for the ecoENERGY Retrofit Homes program, a popular program that helps people make their homes more energy efficient. While it is certainly good to see this money go towards ‘green jobs generating and emission reducing’ energy efficiency measures, it represents only one year of funding for the program. It is not a sustained multi-year program which we desperately need and again puts the future of the Canadian governments energy efficient measures into limbo.
Absent from the budget is money allocated to the ecoENERGY renewable power program meaning that it is likely ending. This program invested $1.48 billion increasing Canada’s supply of electricity from renewable sources such as wind, biomass, low-impact hydro, geothermal, solar photovoltaic and ocean energy. The goal was to produce enough clean electricity to power around one million homes.
Will this budget finally see the Canadian government phase out fossil fuel subsidies?
Nope. Responding to public pressure, the budget does change one subsidy directed to the tar sands that will increase government revenue $15 million this year and $30 million next year.
This pales in comparison to the $1.38 billion being wasted every year in subsidies and tax breaks to oil and gas companies. This money could go far, were it invested in energy efficiency, renewable energy expansion or public transit.
Will this budget see Canada repay our climate debt to the Global South?
The budget does not include any money for climate financing for the Global South. I have heard that an announcement could be expected at a later time responding to the government’s commitments under the Copenhagen Accord. This increases our concern that the government may be looking to existing aid budgets to meet these commitments. Funding needs to be increased. It should not be taken away from other aid priorities, it should be new and additional, it should be from public sources and innovative mechanisms such as a financial transaction tax and not dependent on volatile carbon markets.
Will this budget see Canada prioritize green infrastructure spending?
In short, no. While more analysis of the budget is needed, it is abundantly clear that it will not bring about the Council of Canadians recommendation of at least $10 billion dollars invested over each of the next two years in the following five areas: energy conservation through building retrofits and renewable energy projects, mass transit, passenger rail and affordable housing.
Some relevant highlights in the budget include $25 million towards the Canada U.S.Clean Energy Dialogue. One of the priorities under this dialogue is regulatory harmonization in the electricity sector. This could very well equate to increased pressure to adopt a market model like the U.S. with increased privatization of electricity generation and distribution.
There is also $8 million pledged over two years to renew funding for clean energy deployment in Northern and Aboriginal communities. Almost $100 million over two years of research, development and demonstration of clean energy and energy efficiency.
These points are linked to the next question I had raised.
Will the Canadian government continue to fund false solutions to the climate crisis?
The key question here is how the Canadian government defines clean energy. Does it include carbon capture and storage(CCS)? Does it include nuclear? Based on previous government statements and budgets, I’d wager that at least CCS will absorb a good chunk of these funds. This is another question we will be exploring further in the coming days. For the Council’s take on why CCS and nuclear energy are false solutions, refer to our real and false solutions fact sheets.
Will the Canadian government go through with a drastic spending to Environment Canada?
While some funding has been restored compared to the predictions of 20% spending cut to Environment Canada, the trend is still downwards. If you compare government money spending on energy efficiency and renewable energy over the last five years this trend is abundantly clear – I hope to provide more details on this point in the coming days. For now, take a look at this Postmedia News story, which reports that the budget is announcing $1 billion in new spending initiatives compared to the nearly $1.6 billion in projected cuts for federal spending on environmental and resource-based programs.
Andrea Harden
Energy Campaigner
Council of Canadians
www.canadians.org
========================
19. Peak Water Has Already Come and Gone
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54957
by Stephen Leahy Published on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 by Inter Press Service
UXBRIDGE, Canada - Canadian Kevin Freedman is celebrating World Water Day Tuesday by living on 25 litres of water a day, instead of the North American average of 330 litres per day. And he has enlisted 31 others in his "Water Conservation Challenge" to go water - lean, using just 25 litres per day for cooking, drinking, cleaning, and sanitation for the entire month of March.
"People in Canada and the U.S. have no idea how much water they use or how much they waste," Freedman told IPS.
"Although people live on less, it is very difficult to use just 25 litres a day. You can't shower or use a washing machine," he said. "I'm hoping to raise awareness that water is a finite resource."
Nearly a billion people don't have good access to safe fresh water. In a single generation, that number could double as growing demands for water will exceed the available and sustainable supply by 40 percent, according a recent study. "Peak water" has already come and gone. Humanity uses more water than can be sustained, drawing on non-renewable reserves of water accumulated over thousands of years in deep aquifers.
"Water cannot be created, it can only by managed," said Margaret Catley-Carlson, a former senior official with both the Canadian government and at the United Nations, a renowned global authority on water issues, and a director at the Canadian Water Network.
In many countries and regions water scarcity is a fundamental challenge to development, Catley-Carlson told IPS. A lack of access to water can lead to starvation, disease, political instability and even armed conflict.
"Governments see their role as delivering water to the public and industry," she said. "This has to change to sustainably managing water resources for society and the natural environment."
MORE:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54957
=================
20. Fighting Spirit - Beaver Lake Cree
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/
eij/article/fighting_spirit/
Earth Island Journal - Spring 2011 - volume 26
Given the threat they pose to regional water and air quality and their especially heavy carbon footprint, the tar sands mines have attracted the ire of a broad range of environmental groups. ForestEthics has worked to get retailers such as Whole Foods to boycott oil derived from tar sands. Greenpeace activists, using their signature stunts, have on several occasions briefly shut down mines with occupations. Environmental Defence-Canada has churned out a raft of studies and the Natural Resources Defense Council has lobbied officials at the highest levels.
Yet when the British Co-operative Bank was looking for a tar sands initiative to throw its financial support behind, it was a legal challenge against the governments of Canada and Alberta by the Beaver Lake Cree – a First Nations band of just 900 people – that caught its eye. Colin Baines, a spokesperson for the bank – which bills itself as Britain’s ethical financial choice – believes the Beaver Lake Cree’s lawsuit is “one of the last and best hopes” of stopping tar sands expansion. “This is a solid case with every chance of success,” Baines says.
The band’s case against the tar sands depends on a treaty that its ancestors signed in 1876 ceding large areas of land to the Crown in exchange for moving to a reserve. In return, members of the Alberta tribe were guaranteed the right to earn their livelihood by continued hunting and fishing on the land they surrendered. Now, the tribe says that the tar sands developments are ruining their hunting and fishing grounds and therefore violating their treaty rights as guaranteed under the Canadian constitution.
Traditional ways are still part of the lives of the Beaver Lake Cree. Families go out in the summer to gather wild raspberries, strawberries, and medicinal plants. In the fall they hunt moose, elk, and caribou. “A lot of our people here are very poor,” says Ron Lameman, advisor to the band chief. “They use the abilities to hunt, fish, trap, and gather as a way to supplement their income.”
Lately, the tribe’s hunters have had trouble finding the wildlife that used to be plentiful. “So much has changed in the last couple of decades and our people are very concerned that the places where they go to hunt and gather are disappearing,” Lameman says. A study commissioned by the band found that woodland caribou in the area had declined by 70 percent over the past 14 years, in part due to the habitat fragmentation caused by development.
The Cree’s civil lawsuit, filed in May 2008, lists the more than 15,000 approved or proposed oil developments on their traditional lands as a violation of their treaty rights. They say the “scale and scope” of the industrialization is ruining the “harvestable surplus” that was guaranteed them more than 100 years ago. The band says it plans to take its lawsuit against the government all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The Co-op bank, through its corporate social responsibility program, has donated over $400,000 to the tribe to help meet legal costs. While the bank is also supporting other initiatives against the tar sands, Baines says that the Beaver Lake Cree’s legal campaign is particularly strategic. One third of tar sands projects already underway are on aboriginal groups’ traditional territories, and the number of developments is set to triple.
“If the case is upheld, it would put a stop to a great deal of the expansions that are going to take place,” Baines says. “For these constitutional rights to have any meaning you can’t destroy the forest and the trees and poison the water.”
In Canada’s current political climate – where expansion of the oil and gas sector is a top priority of the right-of-center government – the band’s legal challenge may be the only way to stop the tar sands juggernaut. “[As environmentalists] we have very few tools at our disposal,” says Jack Woodward, the Victoria lawyer handling the case. “Protests and putting up billboards – these are not going to stop it. The national and the provincial governments are enthusiastic proponents of expanding the tar sands so you’re not going to get any political change. What we need is a fully effective legal mechanism.”
The Beaver Lake Cree’s case faces fierce opposition from the oil companies and is expected to take years to make its way through the court system. If the band succeeds, it will have been instrumental in putting a stop to one of the worst environmental catastrophes on the planet. And it will mark a major victory for the sovereignty of aboriginal people in Canada. “Although those rights seem old-fashioned and quaint,” Woodward says, “they do have constitutional protection, which means they must be protected. And they are a higher priority under Canadian law than extracting oil and gas.”
—Jocelyn Edwards
==================
21. Our silent spring
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/
oped/articles/2011/03/21/our_silent_spring/
By James Carroll March 21, 2011
WHEN RACHEL Carson entitled her prescient 1962 book “Silent Spring,’’ she was imagining the dawning of the season without the sweet sounds of wildlife. She noted that, even then, in many parts of the United States, spring “comes unheralded by the return of birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of birdsong.’’ Carson’s book was heard as a resounding alarm, jumpstarting the contemporary environmental movement. In important ways, her warning was heeded (restrictions on DDT), but the human assault on the natural world only escalated in the decades since, with last week’s catastrophe in Japan a latest signal of the danger.
“There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings.’’ The book begins with what Carson calls a fable for tomorrow. “Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change. Some evil spell had settled on the community . . . No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in the stricken world. The people had done it to themselves.’’
As Carson wrote, America’s first commercial nuclear power plant had just come on line (in 1958), and she could hardly have imagined the escalation of risk that took off then. The contaminations of chemical poisons that so worried Carson can seem benign compared to the ruins of radiation, if the worst happens. The Fukushima experience suggests what expert reassurances are worth. More than 500 nuclear power plants are in operation or under construction around the world today, with every one of them being viewed with new skepticism. One chance in a million — such predictions of disaster suddenly seem less of a long shot. What have we done to ourselves?
MORE:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/
editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/03/21/our_silent_spring/
===================
22. In New Brunswick, Gateway freeway expansion cancelled despite signed contract
http://www.straight.com/article-382624/vancouver/
eric-doherty-new-brunswick-gateway-freeway-expansion-cancelled-despite-signed-contract
By Eric Doherty, March 21, 2011
It seems that “Gateway” is a popular name for unpopular freeway projects. Like in the Lower Mainland of B.C., the provincial government in New Brunswick had been trying to push through an expensive freeway expansion scheme called Gateway over the objections of local residents.
The similarities between the two Gateway schemes is uncanny. There was even a bog that was threatened by Gateway on the outskirts of Saint John, New Brunswick—Renforth Bog. In the Lower Mainland it is Burns Bog in Delta that is threatened by the Gateway freeway scheme.
The difference is that the people of Saint John who opposed plans to widen the Mackay Highway to six freeway lanes have won already. On March 18, the government of New Brunswick sent out a media release titled “Mackay Highway project amended”. The release states: “After serious consideration, our government has determined that the Mackay Highway expansion project will be amended. It is part of this government’s mandate to review all capital projects to reduce costs. As a result of this review, we have concluded that the proposed widening of the Mackay Highway is not necessary at this time.”
MORE:
http://www.straight.com/article-382624/
vancouver/eric-doherty-new-brunswick-gateway-freeway-expansion-cancelled-despite-signed-contract
=================
23. WATCH: 300 Years of FOSSIL FUELS in 300 Seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ-J91SwP8w
Fossil fuels have powered human growth and ingenuity for centuries. Now that we're reaching the end of cheap and abundant oil and coal supplies, we're in for an exciting ride. While there's a real risk that we'll fall off a cliff, there's still time to control our transition to a post-carbon future.
A deeper analysis of the crises we face, and possible solutions we can work on right now can be had HERE:
http://j.mp/PCReader
==================
24. WATCH: Wadah Khanfar: A historic moment in the Arab world | Video on TED.com
http://www.ted.com/talks/
wadah_khanfar_a_historic_moment_in_the_arab_world.html?awesm=on.ted.com_Khanfar&utm_content=awesm-bookmarklet&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_source=direct-on.ted.com
About this talk
As a democratic revolution led by tech-empowered young people sweeps the Arab world, Wadah Khanfar, the head of Al Jazeera, shares a profoundly optimistic view of what's happening in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and beyond -- at this powerful moment when people realized they could step out of their houses and ask for change.
About Wadah Khanfar
As Director General of Al Jazeera, the only international TV network based in the developing world, Wadah Khanfar works to bring rare liberties like information, transparency and dissenting voices to…
Full bio and more links:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/wadah_khanfar.html
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: May 4, 2011
by Oscar » Thu May 05, 2011 4:18 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: May 5, 2011
1. Ernst v. EnCana Corporation
2. Residents, including children, sick after large oil spill in the Peace Region
3. Fracking protest marks Halifax Earth Day
4. Truth Comes out on 'Fracking' Toxins
5. 503 billion barrels of oil beneath Canada and the US. Why are gas prices so high?
6. Saskatchewan Land Grab by Natural Gas – 2011
7. Halliburton’s N.D. fracking fluids info are online
8. Hydrogen sulfide leak at Alberta oil well site kills one worker and injuries more
9. Aboriginal health concerns are obstacles to oil sands growth: government foreign outreach strategy
10. Energy security and environmental change could radically alter society: military report
11. Unconventional Energy Storage on a Grand Scale
12. How do they stack up? The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition's climate report card project.
13. The Conservative's very dirty secret
14. You and Your Slaves
15. It’s new, it’s disgusting! And it fooled an oil industry group
16. Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
17. DOBBIN: Now What for Canada's Left?
18. Iraq war had ‘broad support’ from AB oil patch: Wikileaks
19. Drilling Fluid Gushes from PA Gas well
20. CWCWC Sues to Prevent DEC from High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing in New York State Forests
21. Attorney General Gansler Notifies Chesapeake Energy of the State's Intent to Sue for Endangering the Health of Citizens and the Environment
====================================
1. Ernst v. EnCana Corporation
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/
Landowner Jessica Ernst sues EnCana and Alberta government regulators over water contamination
Multi-Million Dollar Landmark North American Lawsuit on Hydraulic Fracturing and Its Impact on Groundwater
Suit accuses EnCana, Alberta Environment and Energy Resources Conservation Board of negligence and unlawful activities. Case to be presented at the United Nations in New York.
Nearly a decade ago EnCana, one of the world’s largest natural gas producers, began a risky and experimental drilling program that required intense hydraulic fracturing for shallow coalbed methane (Horseshoe Canyon Formation) throughout central Alberta.
Hydraulic fracturing blasts open oil, gas and coal formations with highly pressurized volumes of water, sand and undisclosed chemical fluids or gases. The technology has boosted natural gas reserves but has become the subject of serious government investigations throughout North America due to surface and groundwater contamination.
In Report 2011-A Alberta’s primary energy regulator, the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), recently disclosed that the potential for hydraulic fracturing to contaminate useable water aquifers with fracturing fluid chemicals and natural gas is a real public issue, especially in shallow zones.
On April 27, 2011 lawyers representing Jessica Ernst, a 54-year-old oil patch consultant, released a 73-page statement of claim that alleges that EnCana broke multiple provincial laws and regulations and contaminated a shallow aquifer used by a rural community with natural gas and toxic industry-related chemicals.
The claim methodically reports how Alberta’s two key groundwater regulators, Alberta Environment and the ERCB, “failed to follow the investigation and enforcement processes that they had established and publicized.”
The ERCB recently gave EnCana permission to drill and fracture more CBM wells above the base of groundwater protection near the affected water wells mentioned in this claim.
Jessica Ernst has been invited to present her story and make recommendations to governments at the 19th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development at the United Nations in New York.
The claim represents assertions that have not yet been proven in court. All defendants will have the opportunity to respond in these proceedings.
MORE:
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/
- - - - -
Alberta landowner seeks $33 million over methane in drinking water
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Alberta+landowner+seeks+million+over+methane+drinking+water/4679138/story.html
By Kelly Cryderman, Postmedia News April 26, 2011
CALGARY — A southern Alberta landowner who has long claimed coal bed methane drilling polluted her well has launched a lawsuit demanding more than $10 million each from Encana, the Alberta government and the province's energy regulator.
Jessica Ernst, 54, is one of the province's most outspoken critics of drilling methods such as fracking — where water, chemicals and sand are blasted deep underground to break up coal formations and release natural gas.
In a statement of claim filed at the courthouse in Drumheller, Alta., she states the failure of Alberta's Environment Department and the Energy Resources Conservation Board to investigate her case and enforce regulations "served as a government coverup of environmental contamination caused by the oil and gas industry."
Ernst claims that a decade ago Encana "began a risky and experimental drilling program for shallow coal bed methane at dozens of wells in the area around Rosebud," a small hamlet northeast of Calgary.
Ernst, an environmental consultant for the oil and gas industry who lives near the hamlet, alleges the natural gas giant released a large amount of contaminants into underground freshwater supplies.
"As a result, Ms. Ernst's water is now so contaminated with methane and other chemicals that it can be lit on fire," said the legal statement. [ . . . ]
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Rosebud landowner sues over alleged well contamination
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/05/
rosebud-landowner-sues-over-alleged-well-contamination/
May 3, 2011 By: Enrique Massot
A landowner in the southern Alberta hamlet of Rosebud is claiming millions in damages from an oil and gas company for allegedly rendering her water undrinkable in the last decade because of hydraulic fracturing — a practice being used north of Cochrane for oil drilling operations there.
On April 27, Jessica Ernst presented at a Calgary press conference a 73-page statement of claim that has been filed at the Drumheller’s judicial centre of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.
The claim, prepared by Toronto-based lawyers Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless of Klippensteins Barristers and Solicitors, alleges EnCana Corporation “negligently injected chemical fracturing fluids at high pressure into coal seams located at shallow depths below ground.”
Ernst, a 54-year-old oil patch consultant, also alleges Alberta Environment and the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) failed to use their powers to protect the citizens’ water supply in the area. [ . . . ]
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‘Fracking’ starts to bring on legal challenges
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
fracking-starts-to-bring-on-legal-challenges/article2007417/
JEFF GRAY, NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
TORONTO AND CALGARY— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May. 02, 2011 7:30PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, May. 03, 2011 7:40PM EDT
A controversial method of drilling for natural gas that has revolutionized the industry is confronting a growing backlash across North America, and the fast-spreading technique faces a legal test in Canada’s oil and gas heartland.
In the latest sign that pressure against the practice, known as “fracking,” is mounting, a Southern Alberta woman filed a $33-million lawsuit alleging that nearby drilling by Encana Corp. (ECA-T30.99-0.25-0.80%)is responsible for contaminating her water with enough methane that it can be lit on fire.
The allegations have not been proven in court. The case comes just weeks after Quebec put all projects using fracking – short for fracturing – on hold while it studies the environmental effects.
Fracturing involves injecting substances below ground to break up rock formations and force up natural gas. Often companies use large volumes of sand, water and chemicals. In other places, they use gases like nitrogen.
Controversy over its effects, including the alleged contamination of groundwater, has raged in the United States.
Last week, Jessica Ernst, 54, a landowner near Rosebud, Alta. – about 120 kilometres northeast of Calgary – filed a lawsuit against EnCana, the province and the province’s energy regulator.
Ms. Ernst, who has worked as an environmental consultant to the oil and gas industry, accuses Encana in her statement of claim of engaging in a “risky and experimental drilling program” to extract shallow coal-bed methane from several wells near her property in the Rosebud area.
The lawsuit, which she launched after waging a long local campaign against fracking, also targets the provincial government and the province’s Energy Resources Conservation Board, which she accuses of failing to police the industry since her water starting irritating her skin in 2004.
“I’m not the only one. There are many others that this has happened to, and my story is not unique,” Ms. Ernst said in an interview from New York, where she is taking part in a panel discussion on fracking being held at the United Nations.
The fracturing used to extract coal-bed methane is technically different from methods employed in extraction of shale gas, which has generated major controversy around the globe. But the alleged impacts are largely the same, as are the questions surrounding how industry taps novel energy sources.
Encana spokesman Alan Boras defended the company’s natural gas production, saying it is safe and that there are “numerous precautions put in place that ensure that we do not interact or contaminate groundwater.” [ . . ]
=============================
2. Residents, including children, sick after large oil spill in the Peace Region
http://rabble.ca/news/2011/05/
residents-including-children-sick-after-large-oil-spill-albertas-peace-region
by Clayton Thomas-Muller on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 10:25am
For Immediate Release
4 May 2011 (Edmonton) — Little Buffalo community members, including school children, continue to experience nausea, burning eyes and headaches after one of the largest pipeline spills in Alberta history last Friday by Plains All American leaked nearly 30,000 barrels of oil into Lubicon traditional territory in the Peace Region of Northern Alberta.
Instead of attending an in-person community meeting, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) faxed a one-page fact sheet to Little Buffalo School. The fact sheet indicates that tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil, or 4,500 cubic metres, has spread into nearby stands of “stagnant water.” The spill, April 29 at 7:30 a.m., occurred only 300 metres from local waterways. The ERCB said the spill has been contained, but community members report that the oil is still leaking into the surrounding forest and bog. The ERCB also said to the community that there is “no threat to public safety as a result of the leak.” Yet people are still getting sick, the local school has been shut down and children ordered to stay at home. An investigation into the incident is underway.
“It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air. The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs,” said Brian Alexander, the principle of Little Buffalo School. “We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well.
“The company and the ERCB have given us little information in the past five days. What we do know is that the health of our community is at stake,” said Chief Steve Noskey. “Our children cannot attend school until there is a resolution, The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with. The company is failing to provide sufficient information to us so we can ensure that the health and safety of our community is protected.”
The ERCB fact sheet states that air monitors are in place on site and have “detected no hydrocarbon levels above Alberta Ambient Air Quality guidelines.” But this is little consolation for a community that is scared to breathe the air. Veronica Okemow has six children, the youngest one attending the school, and she is very worried. “We are deeply concerned about the health effects on the community,” Okemow said. “It is a scary thing when your children are feeling sick from the air. People are scared to breathe in the fumes.”
With both Transcanada and Enbridge pipeline corporations vying to build massive pipelines to link Tar Sands to the pacific and gulf coasts. First Nations and American Indian Tribes in the right of way are not convinced that their lands, air and water will not be put into jeopardy in this high risk game that Albertan big oil is playing with their lives, say’s Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and a Greenpeace Climate & Energy Campaigner in Alberta said: “The Plains All American spill marks the second pipeline spill in Alberta in just a week, with Kinder Morgan spilling just days before. This is an alarm bell for Alberta residents. If this 45-year-old pipeline were to break elsewhere along its route there would be more safety and health hazards. Communities across Alberta and B.C. are demanding an end to this type of risky development; yet the government refuses to listen. Instead it continues on as business as usual without plans for the cleaner, healthier, sustainable future that is possible.” -30-
For more information, please contact:
Steve Noskey, Chief of the Lubicon Cree, (780) 649-4466
Brian Alexander, Principle of Little Buffalo School, (780) 629 -2210 (h) (403) 397-9779 (c)
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, member of the Lubicon Cree and Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, (780) 504-5567
- - - - -
Alta. oil spill behind illnesses, First Nation says
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/
2011/05/04/edmonton-oil-spill-clean-up.html
Energy board denies largest spill in 35 years is making band sick
CBC News Posted: May 4, 2011 11:30 AM MT Last Updated: May 4, 2011 4:22 PM MT
Members of a First Nation community near one of the largest oil spills in Alberta's history say fumes from the leaking crude are making them sick.
A pipeline break northeast of Peace River, Alta., has leaked 28,000 barrels (nearly 4.5 million litres) of crude oil since Friday.
Lubicon Cree residents of Little Buffalo, Alta., 30 kilometres from the spill site, say they've been experiencing nausea, burning eyes and headaches since the leak began. The community closed its school and ordered children to stay at home.
"It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air," said Brian Alexander, principal of Little Buffalo School. "The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs.
"We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school, but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well."
The oil is now contained and about 100 workers are working to recover oil from sand and a nearby pond, said the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board.
Neither the ERCB nor the owner of the pipeline, Plains Midstream Canada, has spoken directly with the band, said Chief Steve Nosky.
"The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with," he said.
ERCB monitoring air quality
"The company is failing to provide sufficient information to us so we can ensure that the health and safety of our community is protected," said Nosky.
The ERCB is monitoring the air quality and doesn't believe the symptoms are related to the spill, said spokesman Davis Sheremata. [ . . . ]
- - - - - - - -
SHIELDS: An Incidental Amount---In Alberta
Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 18:59:19 -0700
From: lagran <lagran@shaw.ca>
To: <minister.energy@gov.ab.ca>
CC: David Swann <David.Swann@assembly.ab.ca>, <calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca>, brian mason <brian.mason@assembly.ab.ca>, Andrew Nikiforuk <andrew@andrewnikiforuk.com>, Alberta Activism <albertaactivism@shaw.ca>
Wow 28,000 bbls x 111 per bbl= $ 3,108,000 And 30% royalty would mean Alberta's loss of product should be around $ 932,400 prior to environmental costs and damages, along with the cost to government agencies. The aforementioned we will never know as the ERCB refuse in their investigations to include public costs, the most important thing, from the public perspective and should be from a government perspective. It's very easy to imagine costs to the public of over a million dollars that go unrecorded and unaccounted for under our present system. To date even the opposition parties have been unsuccessful in obtaining well blow-out and other incident costs with respect to the energy industry!! Why is this? I follow well blow-outs and major industry incidents, and can verify a constant and ongoing public loss that Albertans are totally unaware of , including our opposition parties. What will become of the funds from this 28,000 bbls when it's recovered? Is the Alberta Energy provided data to ensure the public portion is properly handled and public funds gathered for this public resource? How can the public be sure their interests are being guarded when the main government agency the ERCB refuses to declare public losses in their investigation reports!
This but one incident exampled out of the many that occur, to point out the great problem of cover-ups and secrecy involved with the ERCB and Alberta Energy and how they handle public property!! Are we that rich in Alberta that product from our main industry owned by the Alberta public can be handled in this sloppy, secret, and underhanded way?: Could our health care use the $ 932,400 dollars?
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - - - -
Alta. oil pipeline leaked 28,000 barrels
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/
2011/05/03/edmonton-pipeline-leak-alberta.html
Emergency crews working to clean up massive leak northeast of Peace River
A pipeline break northeast of Peace River, Alta., has leaked 28,000 barrels of crude oil, during what is now considered to be one of the largest in the province's history.
The leak from the Plains Midstream Canada pipeline, discovered Friday, was originally thought to have involved several hundred barrels of oil.
It now appears to be the biggest crude oil pipeline leak in Alberta since 1975, when a Bow River Ltd. pipeline leaked 40,000 barrels, according to Davis Sheremata, a spokesman for the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board.
"It's been the biggest spill from a pipeline involving crude oil that we've had in Alberta certainly in about the last 18 years or so," Sheremata said. [ . . . ]
========================
3. Fracking protest marks Halifax Earth Day
http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/ottawa/story/
2011/04/22/ns-fracking-protest-in-halifax.html
The Canadian Press Posted: Apr 22, 2011 5:13 PM ET Last Updated: Apr 22, 2011 6:44 PM ET
More than 100 protesters marked Earth Day on Friday by calling on the Nova Scotia government to ban hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting natural gas from underground.
The crowd gathered in front of the Nova Scotia legislature in Halifax. They held placards and chanted slogans against so-called fracking, which they say poses a threat to groundwater and people's health.
Two large banners were draped over the iron fence in front of the legislature. One said "No Compromise Ban Fracking" while the other read "We Love Nova Scotia's H2O."
Arranged at the foot of one banner were jars of fresh water, each labelled to indicate the areas of the province where they came from. [ . . . ]
====================
4. Truth Comes out on 'Fracking' Toxins
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/04/20/FrackingToxins/
Who finally tells us the nasty chemicals used for shale gas drilling in Western Canada? The US Congress.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 20 Apr 2011, TheTyee.ca
In one blunt 30-page report the U.S. Congress has now spilled the beans on an extreme Canadian energy sport.
[http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/
sites/default/files/documents/Hydraulic%20Fracturing%20Report%204.18.11.pdf ]
Believe it or not, the U.S. Committee On Energy and Commerce disclosed what our very own energy regulators won't: it listed the contents of hydraulic fracking fluids for shale gas and oil production.
Judging by the lengthy toxic menu, it's easy to see why Canadian regulators have left poor water drinkers in Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan in the dark.
According to the U.S. Congress, the majority of 750 fracking chemicals, which include a bunch of kitchen sink stuff too, are hazardous if not tumor-guaranteed cancer makers.
The amazing list includes coffee grinds, salt, ceramic balls, walnut hulls, lead, petroleum distillates, methanol, (a dirty air pollutant) benzene, toluene, xylene and millions of gallons of diesel. Benzene will curdle the brain and the liver, while just a cup of diesel can make an Olympic-sized pool of water undrinkable.
And here's the problem: in the absence of a minimum U.S. national baseline for disclosure of fracking fluids combined with a special industry exemption from U.S. water safety standards, it's nearly impossible to "assess any impact the use of these fluids may have on the environment or public health." In Canada it's frackin' impossible. [ . . . ]
=====================
5. 503 billion barrels of oil beneath Canada and the US. Why are gas prices so high?
http://presscore.ca/2011/?p=2382
Posted by PC World news Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Beneath southeastern Saskatchewan, southwestern Manitoba, North Dakota and Montana lies an estimated $9 trillion worth of high grade oil. This massive oil reserve is located in the Bakken Formation. The Bakken Formation oil reserves is possibly the largest conventional oil discovery in Canada since 1957. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), there may be as many as 503 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation.
In 1999 it was estimated that the Bakken Formation contains between 271 and 503 billion barrels of petroleum, with 413 billion barrels being the most likely amount. In comparison the low estimated reserves (271 barrels) of the Bakken Formation is more than double the 125 billion barrels at the massive Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia. Compared to the 7.8 billion at Alberta’s Pembina Cardium and 21.4 billion for the entire U.S. reserves, the Bakken Formation oil reserves is a phenomenal find. If this oil formation plays out towards the higher end of size and recoverability then it will change the geopolitics of oil and the economies of the United States and Canada.
Not only is the oil plentiful, but it’s reported to be high quality too, 41 degree light sweet crude. In contrast to that which comes from Alberta’s oil sands, the oil from the Bakken is “liquid and free of water, sulphur and other impurities.”
Is the Bakken oil being extracted? According to the Saskatchewan Energy and Resources it is. For 2004 production was 278,540 barrels. For 2007 production was 4,965,000 barrels. Saskatchewan has the hottest housing market in all of Canada. Saskatchewan is booming.
Mean undiscovered volumes of 3.65 billion barrels of oil, 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids in the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin Province, Montana and North Dakota,” can be unearthed using current technology ~ according to the results of a study released by the USGS in April 2008. [ . . . ]
====================
6. Saskatchewan Land Grab by Natural Gas - 2011
APRIL LAND SALE TOPS $100 MILLION
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=a7aca7da-4d23-4a01-80cb-f734bde9903e
News Release - April 14, 2011
Heightened interest in the southwest's Shaunavon oil play has significantly boosted revenue from the latest sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights.
The Shaunavon play accounted for more than half the total in April's sale, which brought in $109 million in revenue for the province. Land sale revenues for the 2011 calendar year stand at $152 million after two sales. [ . . . ]
= = = = =
NEW RECORD SET FOR DRILLING OF HORIZONTAL OIL WELLS
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=04792106-e013-4714-a3c8-27ee3ab78ff4
News Release - January 13, 2011
Saskatchewan has set a new record for the drilling of horizontal oil wells in the province.
Year-end statistics from the Ministry of Energy and Resources show that 1,531 horizontal oil wells were drilled in 2010. That's an 88 per cent increase over the figure for 2009 and a 13 per cent increase over the previous record set in 2008.
"Horizontal well drilling has now become the standard in the Canadian oil industry," Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said. "Twenty years ago it was experimental technology that our province pioneered, but now it represents more than 50 per cent of our total oil production."
Horizontal wells accounted for 56 per cent of the 2,730 oil wells drilled in Saskatchewan last year. The 2,730 figure is a 70 per cent increase over the number of oil wells drilled in 2009 and was above the 2,360 yearly average for oil wells drilled over the last five years.
Boyd noted that horizontal oil wells involve more complicated drilling processes and require more work by his ministry to review and approve well licenses. The ministry is accordingly hiring eight additional staff in its well licensing areas and field offices to deal with industry demands.
"Our oil industry bounced back from a more challenging year in 2009 with great drilling numbers and increased activity in land sales," Boyd said. "We're looking forward to a strong 2011 from the industry and are working hard as a government to be responsive to that activity, and in particular to this new trend in horizontal drilling."
Last year, the province's oil and gas industry recorded approximately $10.5 billion in sales and invested $3.3 billion in exploration and development activity. It provides direct and indirect employment for more than 29,000 people. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis, Energy and Resources, Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
=======================
7. Halliburton’s N.D. fracking fluids info are online
http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/
554234/Halliburton-s-N-D--fracking-fluids-info-are-online.html?nav=5010
April 30, 2011 By ELOISE OGDEN - Regional Editor
Halliburton has added new content for North Dakota on its hydraulic fracturing microsite, which launched in November.
The site is designed to provide the public with information related to the identity and common uses of the additives and constituents generally involved in the hydraulic fracturing process, said Tara Mullee Agard, senior public relations representative for Halliburton in Houston.
Hydraulic fracturing is used in about 95 percent of the wells drilled in North Dakota.
Hydraulic fracturing is a process to stimulate production of oil and natural gas. Large volumes of water, sand and chemicals are injected underground at high pressures to extract the oil and gas from the formations.
Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at the direction of Congress, is working on a study of fracking to determine whether it has any impact on drinking water resources.
A panel of independent scientists reviewing fracking for the EPA is scheduled to release its draft response in mid-May.
Halliburton's hydraulic fracturing microsite is accessible online at (www.halliburton.com/hydraulicfracturing). It also has a description of Halliburton's advancements in the field of 3-D subsurface fracture mapping, along with information on Halliburton's CleanStim formulation, CleanStream service and CleanWave system.
Halliburton's online fluids disclosure information currently includes besides North Dakota, South Texas and Pennsylvania but more states are to be added.
The site will be updated regularly, Agard said.
MORE:
http://www.halliburton.com/public/projects/pubsdata/
Hydraulic_Fracturing/index.html
======================
8. Hydrogen sulfide leak at Alberta oil well site kills one worker and injuries more
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/
article/ALeqM5i5-P5oY4m5mhNc6GxPGpGr20G9hw?docId=6725932
By: The Canadian Press Posted: 05/1/2011 3:13 PM
FOX CREEK, Alta. - A hydrogen sulfide leak at a northern Alberta oil well site killed one worker on Saturday.
Several other people, including a Mountie at a roadblock, were injured after inhaling the deadly gas.
RCMP say three workers were doing maintenance work on a gas line off Highway 47 near Fox Creek on Saturday evening when hydrogen sulfide began to leak.
Two of the workers were exposed, but the third was far enough away that he could get assistance for his colleagues.
Firefighters from Fox Creek donned breathing packs and were able to get the two workers out, but one of the workers died at the scene.
The other was taken to hospital in Fox Creek.
RCMP say one of their officers was conducting a road block some distance away when he also breathed in some of the gas, and is now being treated in hospital.
"The facility and the pipeline have been shut in, and air monitoring is on site as well, so there's been no further impact to the public on this matter," said Darin Barter, a spokesman for the Energy Resources Conservation Board.
An investigation by the board and officials with Alberta Occupational Health and Safety is underway, he said. [ . . . ]
=====================
9. Aboriginal health concerns are obstacles to oil sands growth: government foreign outreach strategy
http://blog.decisioncanada.ca/conservatives/
aboriginal-health-concerns-are-obstacle-to-oilsands-growth-government-foreign-outreach-strategy/
Postmedia News, April 27, 2011
"In a presentation, given to its diplomats last fall and obtained by Postmedia News, the government highlighted the “perceived social impacts” as a threat to the oilpatch and included the federal Health and Indian Affairs Departments among the “key players” of a “U.S. Oilsands Outreach” strategy.
"The presentation noted that anti-oilsands campaigns were “gaining ground,” while progress on protecting the environment was “seen as lagging” and perceived social impacts, “e.g. Aboriginal health,” was “gaining profile.”
"The document, obtained by Climate Action Network Canada through an Access to Information request by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin, provides more details about the government’s international lobbying efforts, first reported by Postmedia News last fall, to fight foreign legislation and regulations that aim to protect the environment and reduce pollution." [ . . . ]
=====================
10. Energy security and environmental change could radically alter society: military report
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/
op-ed/Energy+security+environmental+change+could+radically+alter+society/4630821/story.html
BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS APRIL 17, 2011
KINGSTON, Ont. — The planet is running out of oil and heading toward a future that could trap Canada in a violent spiral of decline in the economy and the environment, a special research unit within the Canadian military is predicting.
This "global quagmire" is one of four possible future scenarios advanced by the six members of the team who are developing a plan for the army of tomorrow based on existing scientific research and analysis.
In a best-case scenario, they predict that Canada could be at the forefront of a prosperous green economy, in which clean energy and environmental protection are priorities and living standards improve around the world.
Two other scenarios fall in between, but all four alternatives conclude that energy security and global environmental change are the most serious and unpredictable factors that could radically alter society as well as the role of Canada's army.
"It all depends on what kind of steps are taken today that could lead to various futures," Peter Gizewski, a strategic analyst on the team, told Postmedia News. [ . . . ]
==================
11. Unconventional Energy Storage on a Grand Scale
As wind and solar power account for a growing share of the energy mix, scientists are investigating new approaches to energy storage. One unconventional but innovative option for capturing energy from the grid comes from physicist Eduard Heindl, whose proposed hydraulic water storage system represents the creative thinking needed to balance future electricity loads.
Read: Unconventional 'Hydraulic Hydro Storage' System Offers Energy Storage for the Grid on a Grand Scale by Will Bierbower:
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/revolt/
unconventional-%E2%80%9Chydraulic-hydro-storage%E2%80%9D-system-offers-energy-storage-for-the-grid-on-a-grand-scale/
==========================
12. How do they stack up? The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition's climate report card project.
http://www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress/
how-do-they-stack-up-the-cyccs-climate-report-card-project/
"The goal of this publication is to provide a consolidated source of information regarding the climate, environmental and inter-generational initiatives promised by each of the five major political party platforms. We have worked to create short, but comprehensive and easy to digest one page summaries that break down the party platforms into five categories: Tar Sands & Clean Energy, Green Infrastructure, Food, Air & Water, Investments in Youth and Other Initiatives.
"In compiling this document we also recognize that no current federal party is proposing the sort of programs that would bring about the expedient shifts towards a clean, sustainable and just future that our nation and the planet need. While many of the programs proposed in these platforms are steps in the right direction, they fall short of reaching the destination."
To see the full report card visit:
http://www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress/
how-do-they-stack-up-the-cyccs-climate-report-card-project/
Related story: Our Generation, Our Future, Our Demands
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/grahamsaul/
2011/04/our-generation-our-future-our-demands
=====================
13. The Conservative's very dirty secret
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
economy/economy-lab/the-economists/theres-a-dirty-secret-in-tory-greenhouse-gas-plan/article1999296/
In the midst of all of the bickering between the NDP and the Liberals about who is doing more and who can manage what when it comes to tackling climate change, we wanted to draw people’s attention to this article in the Globe and Mail; There’s a dirty secret in Tory greenhouse gas plan, which reminds us of the huge gaps in the Conservative’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
Climate Action Network Canada has done an analysis of all of the party platforms, and while we can and should recognize that with the exception of the Greens, no platform will get us where we need to go fast enough, ignoring the crisis almost entirely is a problem of different proportions.
Its time to get real. Canadians need to send a strong and unified message at the polls this Monday – Canadians want action on climate change and we want our elected representatives to take this crises seriously. There are too many lives at risk, both today and in a climate impacted future, to not take action now.
=========================
14. You and Your Slaves
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/05/05/EnergySlaves/
Yes, you're the slave master of many energy-driven gadgets that replace human labour. But our slave society won't last.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, Today, TheTyee.ca
Slave driver: Energy use of a single person, at top, as represented by all the people it would take to generate it with sheer muscle power.
Related Articles (Links are at URL above)
Japan, Oil and the Fragility of Globalization
'Energy and Equity' starts today -- Andrew Nikiforuk's new weekly Tyee column about oil, energy and civilization.
Yes, Sell Rivers! And Make Legal Some Slave Contracts
Libertarian scholar Walter Block fires back at Rafe Mair.
'The End of Suburbia'
After peak oil comes what fresh hell?
"A low-energy policy allows for a wide choice of lifestyles and cultures. If, on the other hand, a society opts for high energy consumption, its social relations must be dictated by technocracy and will be equally degrading whether labeled capitalist or socialist." -- Ivan Illich
In 2009 a British family living in a four-bedroom house became the subject of a subversive energy experiment about modern slavery.
While the foursome flicked on gadgets one Sunday with the abandon of Roman patricians, an army of volunteers (The Human Power Station) furiously peddled 100 bicycles next door to generate the needed energy.
The unsuspecting family, of course, had no idea they had been unplugged from a power grid fueled largely by fossil fuels.
At the end of the day the slave masters literally dropped their jaws when a BBC television crew introduced them to the exhausted slaves that boiled their tea. (Get this: it took 24 peddlers to heat the oven and 11 cyclists to make two slices of toast.)
At the end of the experiment many of the cyclists collapsed. Several couldn't walk for days. The peddlers actually consumed more energy in food than they generated by peddling.
The experiment crudely illustrated the global state of North American energy consumption (just imagine an empty yet well-lit house powered by 100 hungry cyclists). It also convinced one of experiment's designers, Tom Siddall of Electric Pedals, that "volunteer slavery" (hordes of sweating cyclists) or old fashioned shackled labour will power the future. "I have no doubt that slavery will return as the world's energy resources get increasingly scarce." [ . . . ]
====================================
15. It’s new, it’s disgusting! And it fooled an oil industry group
http://blogs.reuters.com/blog/archives/7086
JUN 19, 2007 07:00 EDT
Posted by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
Sometimes you can't make it up any weirder than it actually is. That definitely was the case on June 14, when a pair of environmental pranksters managed to promote themselves as keynote speakers at the Gas and Oil Exposition aka GO-EXPO 2007 in Calgary.
Masquerading as officials from ExxonMobil and the U.S. National Petroleum Council, the two appeared before an oil industry audience and the buzz was that they would deliver long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
They actually offered something a bit more revolutionary: a new fuel called Vivoleum, to be used in the event of a global climate calamity and made by transforming the billions of people who die into oil. [ . . . ]
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16. Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/04/27/Carso ... index.html
Taxpayer millions set up PM advisor to push petro interests from U of Calgary.
A special Tyee investigation. By Andrew Nikiforuk, 27 Apr 2011, TheTyee.ca
The Carson affair is under-reported. This story is the first time I have seen it as comprehensively laid out. The media have been giving it scant attention. People should send the url for this story to everyone they know, post it in comments blogs, etc. Adscam was thievery by crooked individuals operating under the radar. The Carson affair was crooked dealing through the front door of the PMO. Big difference. [ . . . ]
======================
17. DOBBIN: Now What for Canada's Left?
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/05/04/CanadasLeft/
Progressives must invest more thought, energy and, yes, money in their vision for this nation.
By Murray Dobbin, Today, TheTyee.ca
EXCERPTS:
The results in Quebec are truly amazing -- it is the one place in Canada that can be described as genuinely progressive. We should rejoice in the results there. Somehow in Quebec citizens remain connected to their history, their culture and their insistence that government and politicians serve them, not the other way 'round. When Gilles Duceppe joined in a call for another referendum at a PQ gathering, the whole province turned with stunning speed against him, essentially saying to the aging sovereignist elite, 'don't tell us what we need'. Duceppe forgot that people voted for him because of his social democracy. When he seemed to forget that, they booted him out. They trust Layton because he understands and respects their nationalism -- which is at the root of their progressive values -- without insulting them about another referendum.
While it may be little comfort in the short term, 60 per cent of Canadians still voted against the Harper government. We can hope that many of those who voted Conservative have not clearly anticipated what that will mean -- for the Medicare they cherish, for the democracy they participate in, for the security they hope for in old age, for the notion that government can actually work for them.
When things get worse
But what now for progressives, activists and people engaged in democracy? Over the decades I have heard too many progressives muse along the theme of "the worse the better." That is, when things get really bad, people will wake up and fight back and we will see fundamental change. I hope we can avoid that thinking. Actually, history suggests that more often the rule is pretty simple: the worse things get the worse they are. And they were pretty terrible over the past five years and going into this election. It didn't mobilize people. Most have adapted to a new normal
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18. Iraq war had ‘broad support’ from AB oil patch: Wikileaks
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Federal-Politics/
2011/05/02/Iraq-war-Alberta-wikileaks/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=030511
By Geoff Dembicki May 2, 2011 10:02 am
The U.S. invasion of Iraq enjoyed “broad support” from Alberta ministers and top energy sector leaders, according to a 2003 diplomatic cable newly released by Wikileaks.
An American diplomat, writing from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, noted that this was “hardly surprising in U.S.-friendly Alberta.”
But the official apparently found the intensity of support – and hatred of then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s Liberal government – notable during meetings in early April.
“[U.S. Diplomats] all but had to cut off pro-Washington, anti-Ottawa tirades by both provincial ministers and energy executives,” the cable reads.
Chief among their grievances were comments made by then-Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal calling then-President George W. Bush a “failed statesman”.
Alberta representatives appeared to “intensely resent” the fact that Chretien had not publicly rebuked those statements.
The cable also noted that severe misgivings about other federal policy initiatives seemed to be abating – if only slightly.
“While distrust of Ottawa on climate change and Kyoto implementation (and most other things) remains the norm in Alberta, the extreme hostility to Ottawa-driven policy of a few months ago has moderated,” it reads.
Alberta officials hoped to have their own climate plan running shortly. And oil patch representatives figured that by the time the federal government actually began implementing Kyoto, Paul Martin would be prime minister.
Martin, in their view, “‘understands and supports’ the oil sand gas industry,” reads the cable.
The diplomat assured Alberta representatives that the U.S. government “valued greatly” its energy relationship with Canada.
Geoff Dembicki reports for the Tyee.
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19. Drilling Fluid Gushes from PA Gas well
http://www.uticaod.com/environment/
hydrofracking/x449046256/Drilling-fluid-gushes-from-Pennsylvania-gas-well
By Michael Rubinkam The Associated Press Posted May 03, 2011 @ 03:44 PM
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A blowout at a natural gas well in rural northern Pennsylvania spilled thousands of gallons of chemical-laced water Wednesday, contaminating a stream and forcing the evacuation of seven families who live nearby as crews struggled to stop the gusher.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. lost control of the well site near Canton, in Bradford County, around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, officials said. Tainted water continued to flow from the site Wednesday afternoon, though workers finally managed to prevent any more of it from reaching the stream.
No injuries were reported, and there was no explosion or fire. [ . . . ]
====================
20. CWCWC Sues to Prevent DEC from High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing in New York State Forests
http://www.tcgasmap.org/media/
State%20Forest%20Plan%20CWCWC%20Suit%20Against%20HVHF%20in%20State%20Forests.pdf
CROTON WATERSHED CLEAN WATER COALITION
PO Box 484 Bedford, NY 10506
www.newyorkwater.org
Contact: Marian Rose (914) 234-3179 or MarianR451@aol.com
May 3, 2011
The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, Inc. (CWCWC) has sued the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in New York State Supreme Court to declare High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHHF) in New York State Forests contrary to the New York State Constitution and applicable environmental laws.
CWCWC president Fay Muir explained, “New York State Forests are one of the great environmental success stories of the 20th century. After years of industrialization laying waste to hundreds of thousands of acres, New York State began a reforestation program with assistance from depression-era work programs. DEC correctly states that ‘New York's green certified State Forests shine among the gems of the State's public land holdings… sustainable management of these lands [adds] multiple benefits including clean water, timber, recreation, wildlife and scenic beauty.’ HVHHF in State Forests will reverse those gains allowing industry to profit over people. Further, the radioactive discharges will threaten human health for centuries. New Yorkers deserve better. Although DEC allows minor vertical drilling, the New York State Constitution guarantees that these forests shall be used for wildlife and forest conservation as opposed to massive HVHHF with gas rigs, pipelines, compressor stations, and access roads. DEC bans other industrial uses such as wind turbines, commercial mining and communications towers and there is no reason to reverse DEC policy by allowing HVHHF in such an important public resource.”
For an independent analysis of the biological impacts of HVHHF in the State Forests, CWCWC retained Hudsonia, a nonprofit, non-advocacy institute that conducts research and provides information for land use planning and environmental management. Hudsonia and Hickory Creek Consulting prepared a report analyzing a number of potential impacts to biological resources, particularly including the toxicity of spilled or leaked wastewater affecting streams and wetlands, and the fragmentation of forests by drilling pads, access roads, and pipelines.
Sierra Club’s Lower Hudson Group chairman George Klein said, “Our DEC’s mission includes protecting New York's natural resources and environment and controlling water, land and air pollution, in order to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state. Allowing HVHHF in our state forests would be an outrageous violation of their mission, and of our forests. This suit simply prods DEC to fulfill its mission."
"The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition has done a great service to all New Yorkers by bringing this lawsuit and seeking to protect us from the harms of HVHHF in our state forests. I am grateful for the opportunity to join in the suit as an individual plaintiff. I live next to the Birdseye Hollow State Forest in Steuben County, and am concerned that air and water
contamination caused by HVHHF in Birdseye Hollow will be harmful to the health of those of us who live near the forest and destructive to property values, farming and tourism in our area," said Rachel Treichler, Hammondsport, New York.
HVHHF is the highly controversial process used to extract natural gas (mostly methane) from a deep-lying hard rock formation, the Marcellus Shale, which underlies most of NYS's southern tier. Explosive forces and millions of gallons of water per well, under high pressure and laced with carcinogenic chemicals, amongst others, are used to shatter the rock and release the methane. The briny water that goes back to the surface contains heavy metals and unusually high levels of salt and radioactivity. No water treatment plant in NYS is capable of safely treating or disposing of these products, and the underlying geological formations are unsuitable for injection wells. Air pollution from the hundreds of trucks needed to bring in the water; stream and lake pollution from inadequate holding ponds; spills and stormwater runoff; noise pollution; destruction of forested areas - all will disperse the wildlife. Instead of being areas for recreation and a low-level, sustainable industry of forest products such as timber, these forests will become highly industrialized zones, entirely contrary to the purposes for which they were established and maintained since 1929, at public expense.
For legal questions please contact James Bacon, Esq., attorney for CWCWC at (845) 255-2026.
###
The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, Inc. (CWCWC) is a not-for-profit organization comprising over fifty community, environmental, religious and housing groups throughout NYC, Westchester and Putnam Counties. CWCWC strives to protect and improve the waters of NYC's Croton Watershed as well as all NYS watersheds. We are an alliance of individuals and groups who believe that safe, clean and affordable drinking water is a basic human right.
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21. Attorney General Gansler Notifies Chesapeake Energy of the State's Intent to Sue for Endangering the Health of Citizens and the Environment
http://protectingourwaters.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/
maryland-attorney-general-gansler-notifies-chesapeake-energy-of-the-states-intent-to-sue-for-endangering-the-health-of-citizens-and-the-environment/
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Raquel Guillory, 410-576-6357 rguillory@oag.state.md.us
BALTIMORE, MD ( May 2, 2011) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler today announced that he has sent a letter to Chesapeake Energy Corporation and its affiliates, notifying the companies of the State of Maryland's intent to sue for violating the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). On April 19, thousands of gallons of fracking fluids were released from a well owned and operated by Chesapeake Energy into Towanda Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, which supplies 45% of the fresh water in the Chesapeake Bay. In his letter, Attorney General Gansler notified the company that at the close of the required 90-day notice period, the State intends to file a citizen suit and seek injunctive relief and civil penalties under RCRA for solid or hazardous waste contamination of soils and ground waters, and the surface waters and sediments of Towanda Creek and the Susquehanna River. The State also intends to seek injunctive relief and civil penalties under the CWA for violation of the CWA's prohibition on unpermitted pollution to waters of the United States. [ . . . ]
1. Ernst v. EnCana Corporation
2. Residents, including children, sick after large oil spill in the Peace Region
3. Fracking protest marks Halifax Earth Day
4. Truth Comes out on 'Fracking' Toxins
5. 503 billion barrels of oil beneath Canada and the US. Why are gas prices so high?
6. Saskatchewan Land Grab by Natural Gas – 2011
7. Halliburton’s N.D. fracking fluids info are online
8. Hydrogen sulfide leak at Alberta oil well site kills one worker and injuries more
9. Aboriginal health concerns are obstacles to oil sands growth: government foreign outreach strategy
10. Energy security and environmental change could radically alter society: military report
11. Unconventional Energy Storage on a Grand Scale
12. How do they stack up? The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition's climate report card project.
13. The Conservative's very dirty secret
14. You and Your Slaves
15. It’s new, it’s disgusting! And it fooled an oil industry group
16. Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
17. DOBBIN: Now What for Canada's Left?
18. Iraq war had ‘broad support’ from AB oil patch: Wikileaks
19. Drilling Fluid Gushes from PA Gas well
20. CWCWC Sues to Prevent DEC from High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing in New York State Forests
21. Attorney General Gansler Notifies Chesapeake Energy of the State's Intent to Sue for Endangering the Health of Citizens and the Environment
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1. Ernst v. EnCana Corporation
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/
Landowner Jessica Ernst sues EnCana and Alberta government regulators over water contamination
Multi-Million Dollar Landmark North American Lawsuit on Hydraulic Fracturing and Its Impact on Groundwater
Suit accuses EnCana, Alberta Environment and Energy Resources Conservation Board of negligence and unlawful activities. Case to be presented at the United Nations in New York.
Nearly a decade ago EnCana, one of the world’s largest natural gas producers, began a risky and experimental drilling program that required intense hydraulic fracturing for shallow coalbed methane (Horseshoe Canyon Formation) throughout central Alberta.
Hydraulic fracturing blasts open oil, gas and coal formations with highly pressurized volumes of water, sand and undisclosed chemical fluids or gases. The technology has boosted natural gas reserves but has become the subject of serious government investigations throughout North America due to surface and groundwater contamination.
In Report 2011-A Alberta’s primary energy regulator, the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), recently disclosed that the potential for hydraulic fracturing to contaminate useable water aquifers with fracturing fluid chemicals and natural gas is a real public issue, especially in shallow zones.
On April 27, 2011 lawyers representing Jessica Ernst, a 54-year-old oil patch consultant, released a 73-page statement of claim that alleges that EnCana broke multiple provincial laws and regulations and contaminated a shallow aquifer used by a rural community with natural gas and toxic industry-related chemicals.
The claim methodically reports how Alberta’s two key groundwater regulators, Alberta Environment and the ERCB, “failed to follow the investigation and enforcement processes that they had established and publicized.”
The ERCB recently gave EnCana permission to drill and fracture more CBM wells above the base of groundwater protection near the affected water wells mentioned in this claim.
Jessica Ernst has been invited to present her story and make recommendations to governments at the 19th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development at the United Nations in New York.
The claim represents assertions that have not yet been proven in court. All defendants will have the opportunity to respond in these proceedings.
MORE:
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/
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Alberta landowner seeks $33 million over methane in drinking water
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Alberta+landowner+seeks+million+over+methane+drinking+water/4679138/story.html
By Kelly Cryderman, Postmedia News April 26, 2011
CALGARY — A southern Alberta landowner who has long claimed coal bed methane drilling polluted her well has launched a lawsuit demanding more than $10 million each from Encana, the Alberta government and the province's energy regulator.
Jessica Ernst, 54, is one of the province's most outspoken critics of drilling methods such as fracking — where water, chemicals and sand are blasted deep underground to break up coal formations and release natural gas.
In a statement of claim filed at the courthouse in Drumheller, Alta., she states the failure of Alberta's Environment Department and the Energy Resources Conservation Board to investigate her case and enforce regulations "served as a government coverup of environmental contamination caused by the oil and gas industry."
Ernst claims that a decade ago Encana "began a risky and experimental drilling program for shallow coal bed methane at dozens of wells in the area around Rosebud," a small hamlet northeast of Calgary.
Ernst, an environmental consultant for the oil and gas industry who lives near the hamlet, alleges the natural gas giant released a large amount of contaminants into underground freshwater supplies.
"As a result, Ms. Ernst's water is now so contaminated with methane and other chemicals that it can be lit on fire," said the legal statement. [ . . . ]
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Rosebud landowner sues over alleged well contamination
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/05/
rosebud-landowner-sues-over-alleged-well-contamination/
May 3, 2011 By: Enrique Massot
A landowner in the southern Alberta hamlet of Rosebud is claiming millions in damages from an oil and gas company for allegedly rendering her water undrinkable in the last decade because of hydraulic fracturing — a practice being used north of Cochrane for oil drilling operations there.
On April 27, Jessica Ernst presented at a Calgary press conference a 73-page statement of claim that has been filed at the Drumheller’s judicial centre of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.
The claim, prepared by Toronto-based lawyers Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless of Klippensteins Barristers and Solicitors, alleges EnCana Corporation “negligently injected chemical fracturing fluids at high pressure into coal seams located at shallow depths below ground.”
Ernst, a 54-year-old oil patch consultant, also alleges Alberta Environment and the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) failed to use their powers to protect the citizens’ water supply in the area. [ . . . ]
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‘Fracking’ starts to bring on legal challenges
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
fracking-starts-to-bring-on-legal-challenges/article2007417/
JEFF GRAY, NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
TORONTO AND CALGARY— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Monday, May. 02, 2011 7:30PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, May. 03, 2011 7:40PM EDT
A controversial method of drilling for natural gas that has revolutionized the industry is confronting a growing backlash across North America, and the fast-spreading technique faces a legal test in Canada’s oil and gas heartland.
In the latest sign that pressure against the practice, known as “fracking,” is mounting, a Southern Alberta woman filed a $33-million lawsuit alleging that nearby drilling by Encana Corp. (ECA-T30.99-0.25-0.80%)is responsible for contaminating her water with enough methane that it can be lit on fire.
The allegations have not been proven in court. The case comes just weeks after Quebec put all projects using fracking – short for fracturing – on hold while it studies the environmental effects.
Fracturing involves injecting substances below ground to break up rock formations and force up natural gas. Often companies use large volumes of sand, water and chemicals. In other places, they use gases like nitrogen.
Controversy over its effects, including the alleged contamination of groundwater, has raged in the United States.
Last week, Jessica Ernst, 54, a landowner near Rosebud, Alta. – about 120 kilometres northeast of Calgary – filed a lawsuit against EnCana, the province and the province’s energy regulator.
Ms. Ernst, who has worked as an environmental consultant to the oil and gas industry, accuses Encana in her statement of claim of engaging in a “risky and experimental drilling program” to extract shallow coal-bed methane from several wells near her property in the Rosebud area.
The lawsuit, which she launched after waging a long local campaign against fracking, also targets the provincial government and the province’s Energy Resources Conservation Board, which she accuses of failing to police the industry since her water starting irritating her skin in 2004.
“I’m not the only one. There are many others that this has happened to, and my story is not unique,” Ms. Ernst said in an interview from New York, where she is taking part in a panel discussion on fracking being held at the United Nations.
The fracturing used to extract coal-bed methane is technically different from methods employed in extraction of shale gas, which has generated major controversy around the globe. But the alleged impacts are largely the same, as are the questions surrounding how industry taps novel energy sources.
Encana spokesman Alan Boras defended the company’s natural gas production, saying it is safe and that there are “numerous precautions put in place that ensure that we do not interact or contaminate groundwater.” [ . . ]
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2. Residents, including children, sick after large oil spill in the Peace Region
http://rabble.ca/news/2011/05/
residents-including-children-sick-after-large-oil-spill-albertas-peace-region
by Clayton Thomas-Muller on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 10:25am
For Immediate Release
4 May 2011 (Edmonton) — Little Buffalo community members, including school children, continue to experience nausea, burning eyes and headaches after one of the largest pipeline spills in Alberta history last Friday by Plains All American leaked nearly 30,000 barrels of oil into Lubicon traditional territory in the Peace Region of Northern Alberta.
Instead of attending an in-person community meeting, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) faxed a one-page fact sheet to Little Buffalo School. The fact sheet indicates that tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil, or 4,500 cubic metres, has spread into nearby stands of “stagnant water.” The spill, April 29 at 7:30 a.m., occurred only 300 metres from local waterways. The ERCB said the spill has been contained, but community members report that the oil is still leaking into the surrounding forest and bog. The ERCB also said to the community that there is “no threat to public safety as a result of the leak.” Yet people are still getting sick, the local school has been shut down and children ordered to stay at home. An investigation into the incident is underway.
“It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air. The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs,” said Brian Alexander, the principle of Little Buffalo School. “We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well.
“The company and the ERCB have given us little information in the past five days. What we do know is that the health of our community is at stake,” said Chief Steve Noskey. “Our children cannot attend school until there is a resolution, The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with. The company is failing to provide sufficient information to us so we can ensure that the health and safety of our community is protected.”
The ERCB fact sheet states that air monitors are in place on site and have “detected no hydrocarbon levels above Alberta Ambient Air Quality guidelines.” But this is little consolation for a community that is scared to breathe the air. Veronica Okemow has six children, the youngest one attending the school, and she is very worried. “We are deeply concerned about the health effects on the community,” Okemow said. “It is a scary thing when your children are feeling sick from the air. People are scared to breathe in the fumes.”
With both Transcanada and Enbridge pipeline corporations vying to build massive pipelines to link Tar Sands to the pacific and gulf coasts. First Nations and American Indian Tribes in the right of way are not convinced that their lands, air and water will not be put into jeopardy in this high risk game that Albertan big oil is playing with their lives, say’s Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and a Greenpeace Climate & Energy Campaigner in Alberta said: “The Plains All American spill marks the second pipeline spill in Alberta in just a week, with Kinder Morgan spilling just days before. This is an alarm bell for Alberta residents. If this 45-year-old pipeline were to break elsewhere along its route there would be more safety and health hazards. Communities across Alberta and B.C. are demanding an end to this type of risky development; yet the government refuses to listen. Instead it continues on as business as usual without plans for the cleaner, healthier, sustainable future that is possible.” -30-
For more information, please contact:
Steve Noskey, Chief of the Lubicon Cree, (780) 649-4466
Brian Alexander, Principle of Little Buffalo School, (780) 629 -2210 (h) (403) 397-9779 (c)
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, member of the Lubicon Cree and Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, (780) 504-5567
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Alta. oil spill behind illnesses, First Nation says
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/
2011/05/04/edmonton-oil-spill-clean-up.html
Energy board denies largest spill in 35 years is making band sick
CBC News Posted: May 4, 2011 11:30 AM MT Last Updated: May 4, 2011 4:22 PM MT
Members of a First Nation community near one of the largest oil spills in Alberta's history say fumes from the leaking crude are making them sick.
A pipeline break northeast of Peace River, Alta., has leaked 28,000 barrels (nearly 4.5 million litres) of crude oil since Friday.
Lubicon Cree residents of Little Buffalo, Alta., 30 kilometres from the spill site, say they've been experiencing nausea, burning eyes and headaches since the leak began. The community closed its school and ordered children to stay at home.
"It has been four days since classes were suspended due to the noxious odours in the air," said Brian Alexander, principal of Little Buffalo School. "The children and staff at the school were disorientated, getting headaches and feeling sick to their stomachs.
"We tried to send the children outside to get fresh air as it seemed worse in the school, but when we sent them out they were getting sick as well."
The oil is now contained and about 100 workers are working to recover oil from sand and a nearby pond, said the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board.
Neither the ERCB nor the owner of the pipeline, Plains Midstream Canada, has spoken directly with the band, said Chief Steve Nosky.
"The ERCB is not being accountable to our community; they did not even show up to our community meeting to inform us of the unsettling situation we are dealing with," he said.
ERCB monitoring air quality
"The company is failing to provide sufficient information to us so we can ensure that the health and safety of our community is protected," said Nosky.
The ERCB is monitoring the air quality and doesn't believe the symptoms are related to the spill, said spokesman Davis Sheremata. [ . . . ]
- - - - - - - -
SHIELDS: An Incidental Amount---In Alberta
Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 18:59:19 -0700
From: lagran <lagran@shaw.ca>
To: <minister.energy@gov.ab.ca>
CC: David Swann <David.Swann@assembly.ab.ca>, <calgary.currie@assembly.ab.ca>, brian mason <brian.mason@assembly.ab.ca>, Andrew Nikiforuk <andrew@andrewnikiforuk.com>, Alberta Activism <albertaactivism@shaw.ca>
Wow 28,000 bbls x 111 per bbl= $ 3,108,000 And 30% royalty would mean Alberta's loss of product should be around $ 932,400 prior to environmental costs and damages, along with the cost to government agencies. The aforementioned we will never know as the ERCB refuse in their investigations to include public costs, the most important thing, from the public perspective and should be from a government perspective. It's very easy to imagine costs to the public of over a million dollars that go unrecorded and unaccounted for under our present system. To date even the opposition parties have been unsuccessful in obtaining well blow-out and other incident costs with respect to the energy industry!! Why is this? I follow well blow-outs and major industry incidents, and can verify a constant and ongoing public loss that Albertans are totally unaware of , including our opposition parties. What will become of the funds from this 28,000 bbls when it's recovered? Is the Alberta Energy provided data to ensure the public portion is properly handled and public funds gathered for this public resource? How can the public be sure their interests are being guarded when the main government agency the ERCB refuses to declare public losses in their investigation reports!
This but one incident exampled out of the many that occur, to point out the great problem of cover-ups and secrecy involved with the ERCB and Alberta Energy and how they handle public property!! Are we that rich in Alberta that product from our main industry owned by the Alberta public can be handled in this sloppy, secret, and underhanded way?: Could our health care use the $ 932,400 dollars?
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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Alta. oil pipeline leaked 28,000 barrels
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/
2011/05/03/edmonton-pipeline-leak-alberta.html
Emergency crews working to clean up massive leak northeast of Peace River
A pipeline break northeast of Peace River, Alta., has leaked 28,000 barrels of crude oil, during what is now considered to be one of the largest in the province's history.
The leak from the Plains Midstream Canada pipeline, discovered Friday, was originally thought to have involved several hundred barrels of oil.
It now appears to be the biggest crude oil pipeline leak in Alberta since 1975, when a Bow River Ltd. pipeline leaked 40,000 barrels, according to Davis Sheremata, a spokesman for the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board.
"It's been the biggest spill from a pipeline involving crude oil that we've had in Alberta certainly in about the last 18 years or so," Sheremata said. [ . . . ]
========================
3. Fracking protest marks Halifax Earth Day
http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/ottawa/story/
2011/04/22/ns-fracking-protest-in-halifax.html
The Canadian Press Posted: Apr 22, 2011 5:13 PM ET Last Updated: Apr 22, 2011 6:44 PM ET
More than 100 protesters marked Earth Day on Friday by calling on the Nova Scotia government to ban hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting natural gas from underground.
The crowd gathered in front of the Nova Scotia legislature in Halifax. They held placards and chanted slogans against so-called fracking, which they say poses a threat to groundwater and people's health.
Two large banners were draped over the iron fence in front of the legislature. One said "No Compromise Ban Fracking" while the other read "We Love Nova Scotia's H2O."
Arranged at the foot of one banner were jars of fresh water, each labelled to indicate the areas of the province where they came from. [ . . . ]
====================
4. Truth Comes out on 'Fracking' Toxins
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/04/20/FrackingToxins/
Who finally tells us the nasty chemicals used for shale gas drilling in Western Canada? The US Congress.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 20 Apr 2011, TheTyee.ca
In one blunt 30-page report the U.S. Congress has now spilled the beans on an extreme Canadian energy sport.
[http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/
sites/default/files/documents/Hydraulic%20Fracturing%20Report%204.18.11.pdf ]
Believe it or not, the U.S. Committee On Energy and Commerce disclosed what our very own energy regulators won't: it listed the contents of hydraulic fracking fluids for shale gas and oil production.
Judging by the lengthy toxic menu, it's easy to see why Canadian regulators have left poor water drinkers in Alberta, B.C. and Saskatchewan in the dark.
According to the U.S. Congress, the majority of 750 fracking chemicals, which include a bunch of kitchen sink stuff too, are hazardous if not tumor-guaranteed cancer makers.
The amazing list includes coffee grinds, salt, ceramic balls, walnut hulls, lead, petroleum distillates, methanol, (a dirty air pollutant) benzene, toluene, xylene and millions of gallons of diesel. Benzene will curdle the brain and the liver, while just a cup of diesel can make an Olympic-sized pool of water undrinkable.
And here's the problem: in the absence of a minimum U.S. national baseline for disclosure of fracking fluids combined with a special industry exemption from U.S. water safety standards, it's nearly impossible to "assess any impact the use of these fluids may have on the environment or public health." In Canada it's frackin' impossible. [ . . . ]
=====================
5. 503 billion barrels of oil beneath Canada and the US. Why are gas prices so high?
http://presscore.ca/2011/?p=2382
Posted by PC World news Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Beneath southeastern Saskatchewan, southwestern Manitoba, North Dakota and Montana lies an estimated $9 trillion worth of high grade oil. This massive oil reserve is located in the Bakken Formation. The Bakken Formation oil reserves is possibly the largest conventional oil discovery in Canada since 1957. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), there may be as many as 503 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation.
In 1999 it was estimated that the Bakken Formation contains between 271 and 503 billion barrels of petroleum, with 413 billion barrels being the most likely amount. In comparison the low estimated reserves (271 barrels) of the Bakken Formation is more than double the 125 billion barrels at the massive Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia. Compared to the 7.8 billion at Alberta’s Pembina Cardium and 21.4 billion for the entire U.S. reserves, the Bakken Formation oil reserves is a phenomenal find. If this oil formation plays out towards the higher end of size and recoverability then it will change the geopolitics of oil and the economies of the United States and Canada.
Not only is the oil plentiful, but it’s reported to be high quality too, 41 degree light sweet crude. In contrast to that which comes from Alberta’s oil sands, the oil from the Bakken is “liquid and free of water, sulphur and other impurities.”
Is the Bakken oil being extracted? According to the Saskatchewan Energy and Resources it is. For 2004 production was 278,540 barrels. For 2007 production was 4,965,000 barrels. Saskatchewan has the hottest housing market in all of Canada. Saskatchewan is booming.
Mean undiscovered volumes of 3.65 billion barrels of oil, 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids in the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin Province, Montana and North Dakota,” can be unearthed using current technology ~ according to the results of a study released by the USGS in April 2008. [ . . . ]
====================
6. Saskatchewan Land Grab by Natural Gas - 2011
APRIL LAND SALE TOPS $100 MILLION
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=a7aca7da-4d23-4a01-80cb-f734bde9903e
News Release - April 14, 2011
Heightened interest in the southwest's Shaunavon oil play has significantly boosted revenue from the latest sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights.
The Shaunavon play accounted for more than half the total in April's sale, which brought in $109 million in revenue for the province. Land sale revenues for the 2011 calendar year stand at $152 million after two sales. [ . . . ]
= = = = =
NEW RECORD SET FOR DRILLING OF HORIZONTAL OIL WELLS
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=04792106-e013-4714-a3c8-27ee3ab78ff4
News Release - January 13, 2011
Saskatchewan has set a new record for the drilling of horizontal oil wells in the province.
Year-end statistics from the Ministry of Energy and Resources show that 1,531 horizontal oil wells were drilled in 2010. That's an 88 per cent increase over the figure for 2009 and a 13 per cent increase over the previous record set in 2008.
"Horizontal well drilling has now become the standard in the Canadian oil industry," Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said. "Twenty years ago it was experimental technology that our province pioneered, but now it represents more than 50 per cent of our total oil production."
Horizontal wells accounted for 56 per cent of the 2,730 oil wells drilled in Saskatchewan last year. The 2,730 figure is a 70 per cent increase over the number of oil wells drilled in 2009 and was above the 2,360 yearly average for oil wells drilled over the last five years.
Boyd noted that horizontal oil wells involve more complicated drilling processes and require more work by his ministry to review and approve well licenses. The ministry is accordingly hiring eight additional staff in its well licensing areas and field offices to deal with industry demands.
"Our oil industry bounced back from a more challenging year in 2009 with great drilling numbers and increased activity in land sales," Boyd said. "We're looking forward to a strong 2011 from the industry and are working hard as a government to be responsive to that activity, and in particular to this new trend in horizontal drilling."
Last year, the province's oil and gas industry recorded approximately $10.5 billion in sales and invested $3.3 billion in exploration and development activity. It provides direct and indirect employment for more than 29,000 people. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis, Energy and Resources, Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
=======================
7. Halliburton’s N.D. fracking fluids info are online
http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/
554234/Halliburton-s-N-D--fracking-fluids-info-are-online.html?nav=5010
April 30, 2011 By ELOISE OGDEN - Regional Editor
Halliburton has added new content for North Dakota on its hydraulic fracturing microsite, which launched in November.
The site is designed to provide the public with information related to the identity and common uses of the additives and constituents generally involved in the hydraulic fracturing process, said Tara Mullee Agard, senior public relations representative for Halliburton in Houston.
Hydraulic fracturing is used in about 95 percent of the wells drilled in North Dakota.
Hydraulic fracturing is a process to stimulate production of oil and natural gas. Large volumes of water, sand and chemicals are injected underground at high pressures to extract the oil and gas from the formations.
Currently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, at the direction of Congress, is working on a study of fracking to determine whether it has any impact on drinking water resources.
A panel of independent scientists reviewing fracking for the EPA is scheduled to release its draft response in mid-May.
Halliburton's hydraulic fracturing microsite is accessible online at (www.halliburton.com/hydraulicfracturing). It also has a description of Halliburton's advancements in the field of 3-D subsurface fracture mapping, along with information on Halliburton's CleanStim formulation, CleanStream service and CleanWave system.
Halliburton's online fluids disclosure information currently includes besides North Dakota, South Texas and Pennsylvania but more states are to be added.
The site will be updated regularly, Agard said.
MORE:
http://www.halliburton.com/public/projects/pubsdata/
Hydraulic_Fracturing/index.html
======================
8. Hydrogen sulfide leak at Alberta oil well site kills one worker and injuries more
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/
article/ALeqM5i5-P5oY4m5mhNc6GxPGpGr20G9hw?docId=6725932
By: The Canadian Press Posted: 05/1/2011 3:13 PM
FOX CREEK, Alta. - A hydrogen sulfide leak at a northern Alberta oil well site killed one worker on Saturday.
Several other people, including a Mountie at a roadblock, were injured after inhaling the deadly gas.
RCMP say three workers were doing maintenance work on a gas line off Highway 47 near Fox Creek on Saturday evening when hydrogen sulfide began to leak.
Two of the workers were exposed, but the third was far enough away that he could get assistance for his colleagues.
Firefighters from Fox Creek donned breathing packs and were able to get the two workers out, but one of the workers died at the scene.
The other was taken to hospital in Fox Creek.
RCMP say one of their officers was conducting a road block some distance away when he also breathed in some of the gas, and is now being treated in hospital.
"The facility and the pipeline have been shut in, and air monitoring is on site as well, so there's been no further impact to the public on this matter," said Darin Barter, a spokesman for the Energy Resources Conservation Board.
An investigation by the board and officials with Alberta Occupational Health and Safety is underway, he said. [ . . . ]
=====================
9. Aboriginal health concerns are obstacles to oil sands growth: government foreign outreach strategy
http://blog.decisioncanada.ca/conservatives/
aboriginal-health-concerns-are-obstacle-to-oilsands-growth-government-foreign-outreach-strategy/
Postmedia News, April 27, 2011
"In a presentation, given to its diplomats last fall and obtained by Postmedia News, the government highlighted the “perceived social impacts” as a threat to the oilpatch and included the federal Health and Indian Affairs Departments among the “key players” of a “U.S. Oilsands Outreach” strategy.
"The presentation noted that anti-oilsands campaigns were “gaining ground,” while progress on protecting the environment was “seen as lagging” and perceived social impacts, “e.g. Aboriginal health,” was “gaining profile.”
"The document, obtained by Climate Action Network Canada through an Access to Information request by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin, provides more details about the government’s international lobbying efforts, first reported by Postmedia News last fall, to fight foreign legislation and regulations that aim to protect the environment and reduce pollution." [ . . . ]
=====================
10. Energy security and environmental change could radically alter society: military report
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/
op-ed/Energy+security+environmental+change+could+radically+alter+society/4630821/story.html
BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS APRIL 17, 2011
KINGSTON, Ont. — The planet is running out of oil and heading toward a future that could trap Canada in a violent spiral of decline in the economy and the environment, a special research unit within the Canadian military is predicting.
This "global quagmire" is one of four possible future scenarios advanced by the six members of the team who are developing a plan for the army of tomorrow based on existing scientific research and analysis.
In a best-case scenario, they predict that Canada could be at the forefront of a prosperous green economy, in which clean energy and environmental protection are priorities and living standards improve around the world.
Two other scenarios fall in between, but all four alternatives conclude that energy security and global environmental change are the most serious and unpredictable factors that could radically alter society as well as the role of Canada's army.
"It all depends on what kind of steps are taken today that could lead to various futures," Peter Gizewski, a strategic analyst on the team, told Postmedia News. [ . . . ]
==================
11. Unconventional Energy Storage on a Grand Scale
As wind and solar power account for a growing share of the energy mix, scientists are investigating new approaches to energy storage. One unconventional but innovative option for capturing energy from the grid comes from physicist Eduard Heindl, whose proposed hydraulic water storage system represents the creative thinking needed to balance future electricity loads.
Read: Unconventional 'Hydraulic Hydro Storage' System Offers Energy Storage for the Grid on a Grand Scale by Will Bierbower:
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/revolt/
unconventional-%E2%80%9Chydraulic-hydro-storage%E2%80%9D-system-offers-energy-storage-for-the-grid-on-a-grand-scale/
==========================
12. How do they stack up? The Canadian Youth Climate Coalition's climate report card project.
http://www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress/
how-do-they-stack-up-the-cyccs-climate-report-card-project/
"The goal of this publication is to provide a consolidated source of information regarding the climate, environmental and inter-generational initiatives promised by each of the five major political party platforms. We have worked to create short, but comprehensive and easy to digest one page summaries that break down the party platforms into five categories: Tar Sands & Clean Energy, Green Infrastructure, Food, Air & Water, Investments in Youth and Other Initiatives.
"In compiling this document we also recognize that no current federal party is proposing the sort of programs that would bring about the expedient shifts towards a clean, sustainable and just future that our nation and the planet need. While many of the programs proposed in these platforms are steps in the right direction, they fall short of reaching the destination."
To see the full report card visit:
http://www.ourclimate.ca/wordpress/
how-do-they-stack-up-the-cyccs-climate-report-card-project/
Related story: Our Generation, Our Future, Our Demands
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/grahamsaul/
2011/04/our-generation-our-future-our-demands
=====================
13. The Conservative's very dirty secret
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
economy/economy-lab/the-economists/theres-a-dirty-secret-in-tory-greenhouse-gas-plan/article1999296/
In the midst of all of the bickering between the NDP and the Liberals about who is doing more and who can manage what when it comes to tackling climate change, we wanted to draw people’s attention to this article in the Globe and Mail; There’s a dirty secret in Tory greenhouse gas plan, which reminds us of the huge gaps in the Conservative’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
Climate Action Network Canada has done an analysis of all of the party platforms, and while we can and should recognize that with the exception of the Greens, no platform will get us where we need to go fast enough, ignoring the crisis almost entirely is a problem of different proportions.
Its time to get real. Canadians need to send a strong and unified message at the polls this Monday – Canadians want action on climate change and we want our elected representatives to take this crises seriously. There are too many lives at risk, both today and in a climate impacted future, to not take action now.
=========================
14. You and Your Slaves
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/05/05/EnergySlaves/
Yes, you're the slave master of many energy-driven gadgets that replace human labour. But our slave society won't last.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, Today, TheTyee.ca
Slave driver: Energy use of a single person, at top, as represented by all the people it would take to generate it with sheer muscle power.
Related Articles (Links are at URL above)
Japan, Oil and the Fragility of Globalization
'Energy and Equity' starts today -- Andrew Nikiforuk's new weekly Tyee column about oil, energy and civilization.
Yes, Sell Rivers! And Make Legal Some Slave Contracts
Libertarian scholar Walter Block fires back at Rafe Mair.
'The End of Suburbia'
After peak oil comes what fresh hell?
"A low-energy policy allows for a wide choice of lifestyles and cultures. If, on the other hand, a society opts for high energy consumption, its social relations must be dictated by technocracy and will be equally degrading whether labeled capitalist or socialist." -- Ivan Illich
In 2009 a British family living in a four-bedroom house became the subject of a subversive energy experiment about modern slavery.
While the foursome flicked on gadgets one Sunday with the abandon of Roman patricians, an army of volunteers (The Human Power Station) furiously peddled 100 bicycles next door to generate the needed energy.
The unsuspecting family, of course, had no idea they had been unplugged from a power grid fueled largely by fossil fuels.
At the end of the day the slave masters literally dropped their jaws when a BBC television crew introduced them to the exhausted slaves that boiled their tea. (Get this: it took 24 peddlers to heat the oven and 11 cyclists to make two slices of toast.)
At the end of the experiment many of the cyclists collapsed. Several couldn't walk for days. The peddlers actually consumed more energy in food than they generated by peddling.
The experiment crudely illustrated the global state of North American energy consumption (just imagine an empty yet well-lit house powered by 100 hungry cyclists). It also convinced one of experiment's designers, Tom Siddall of Electric Pedals, that "volunteer slavery" (hordes of sweating cyclists) or old fashioned shackled labour will power the future. "I have no doubt that slavery will return as the world's energy resources get increasingly scarce." [ . . . ]
====================================
15. It’s new, it’s disgusting! And it fooled an oil industry group
http://blogs.reuters.com/blog/archives/7086
JUN 19, 2007 07:00 EDT
Posted by Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
Sometimes you can't make it up any weirder than it actually is. That definitely was the case on June 14, when a pair of environmental pranksters managed to promote themselves as keynote speakers at the Gas and Oil Exposition aka GO-EXPO 2007 in Calgary.
Masquerading as officials from ExxonMobil and the U.S. National Petroleum Council, the two appeared before an oil industry audience and the buzz was that they would deliver long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.
They actually offered something a bit more revolutionary: a new fuel called Vivoleum, to be used in the event of a global climate calamity and made by transforming the billions of people who die into oil. [ . . . ]
=============================================
16. Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/04/27/Carso ... index.html
Taxpayer millions set up PM advisor to push petro interests from U of Calgary.
A special Tyee investigation. By Andrew Nikiforuk, 27 Apr 2011, TheTyee.ca
The Carson affair is under-reported. This story is the first time I have seen it as comprehensively laid out. The media have been giving it scant attention. People should send the url for this story to everyone they know, post it in comments blogs, etc. Adscam was thievery by crooked individuals operating under the radar. The Carson affair was crooked dealing through the front door of the PMO. Big difference. [ . . . ]
======================
17. DOBBIN: Now What for Canada's Left?
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/05/04/CanadasLeft/
Progressives must invest more thought, energy and, yes, money in their vision for this nation.
By Murray Dobbin, Today, TheTyee.ca
EXCERPTS:
The results in Quebec are truly amazing -- it is the one place in Canada that can be described as genuinely progressive. We should rejoice in the results there. Somehow in Quebec citizens remain connected to their history, their culture and their insistence that government and politicians serve them, not the other way 'round. When Gilles Duceppe joined in a call for another referendum at a PQ gathering, the whole province turned with stunning speed against him, essentially saying to the aging sovereignist elite, 'don't tell us what we need'. Duceppe forgot that people voted for him because of his social democracy. When he seemed to forget that, they booted him out. They trust Layton because he understands and respects their nationalism -- which is at the root of their progressive values -- without insulting them about another referendum.
While it may be little comfort in the short term, 60 per cent of Canadians still voted against the Harper government. We can hope that many of those who voted Conservative have not clearly anticipated what that will mean -- for the Medicare they cherish, for the democracy they participate in, for the security they hope for in old age, for the notion that government can actually work for them.
When things get worse
But what now for progressives, activists and people engaged in democracy? Over the decades I have heard too many progressives muse along the theme of "the worse the better." That is, when things get really bad, people will wake up and fight back and we will see fundamental change. I hope we can avoid that thinking. Actually, history suggests that more often the rule is pretty simple: the worse things get the worse they are. And they were pretty terrible over the past five years and going into this election. It didn't mobilize people. Most have adapted to a new normal
======================================
18. Iraq war had ‘broad support’ from AB oil patch: Wikileaks
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Federal-Politics/
2011/05/02/Iraq-war-Alberta-wikileaks/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=030511
By Geoff Dembicki May 2, 2011 10:02 am
The U.S. invasion of Iraq enjoyed “broad support” from Alberta ministers and top energy sector leaders, according to a 2003 diplomatic cable newly released by Wikileaks.
An American diplomat, writing from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, noted that this was “hardly surprising in U.S.-friendly Alberta.”
But the official apparently found the intensity of support – and hatred of then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s Liberal government – notable during meetings in early April.
“[U.S. Diplomats] all but had to cut off pro-Washington, anti-Ottawa tirades by both provincial ministers and energy executives,” the cable reads.
Chief among their grievances were comments made by then-Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal calling then-President George W. Bush a “failed statesman”.
Alberta representatives appeared to “intensely resent” the fact that Chretien had not publicly rebuked those statements.
The cable also noted that severe misgivings about other federal policy initiatives seemed to be abating – if only slightly.
“While distrust of Ottawa on climate change and Kyoto implementation (and most other things) remains the norm in Alberta, the extreme hostility to Ottawa-driven policy of a few months ago has moderated,” it reads.
Alberta officials hoped to have their own climate plan running shortly. And oil patch representatives figured that by the time the federal government actually began implementing Kyoto, Paul Martin would be prime minister.
Martin, in their view, “‘understands and supports’ the oil sand gas industry,” reads the cable.
The diplomat assured Alberta representatives that the U.S. government “valued greatly” its energy relationship with Canada.
Geoff Dembicki reports for the Tyee.
=======================================
19. Drilling Fluid Gushes from PA Gas well
http://www.uticaod.com/environment/
hydrofracking/x449046256/Drilling-fluid-gushes-from-Pennsylvania-gas-well
By Michael Rubinkam The Associated Press Posted May 03, 2011 @ 03:44 PM
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A blowout at a natural gas well in rural northern Pennsylvania spilled thousands of gallons of chemical-laced water Wednesday, contaminating a stream and forcing the evacuation of seven families who live nearby as crews struggled to stop the gusher.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. lost control of the well site near Canton, in Bradford County, around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, officials said. Tainted water continued to flow from the site Wednesday afternoon, though workers finally managed to prevent any more of it from reaching the stream.
No injuries were reported, and there was no explosion or fire. [ . . . ]
====================
20. CWCWC Sues to Prevent DEC from High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing in New York State Forests
http://www.tcgasmap.org/media/
State%20Forest%20Plan%20CWCWC%20Suit%20Against%20HVHF%20in%20State%20Forests.pdf
CROTON WATERSHED CLEAN WATER COALITION
PO Box 484 Bedford, NY 10506
www.newyorkwater.org
Contact: Marian Rose (914) 234-3179 or MarianR451@aol.com
May 3, 2011
The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, Inc. (CWCWC) has sued the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in New York State Supreme Court to declare High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHHF) in New York State Forests contrary to the New York State Constitution and applicable environmental laws.
CWCWC president Fay Muir explained, “New York State Forests are one of the great environmental success stories of the 20th century. After years of industrialization laying waste to hundreds of thousands of acres, New York State began a reforestation program with assistance from depression-era work programs. DEC correctly states that ‘New York's green certified State Forests shine among the gems of the State's public land holdings… sustainable management of these lands [adds] multiple benefits including clean water, timber, recreation, wildlife and scenic beauty.’ HVHHF in State Forests will reverse those gains allowing industry to profit over people. Further, the radioactive discharges will threaten human health for centuries. New Yorkers deserve better. Although DEC allows minor vertical drilling, the New York State Constitution guarantees that these forests shall be used for wildlife and forest conservation as opposed to massive HVHHF with gas rigs, pipelines, compressor stations, and access roads. DEC bans other industrial uses such as wind turbines, commercial mining and communications towers and there is no reason to reverse DEC policy by allowing HVHHF in such an important public resource.”
For an independent analysis of the biological impacts of HVHHF in the State Forests, CWCWC retained Hudsonia, a nonprofit, non-advocacy institute that conducts research and provides information for land use planning and environmental management. Hudsonia and Hickory Creek Consulting prepared a report analyzing a number of potential impacts to biological resources, particularly including the toxicity of spilled or leaked wastewater affecting streams and wetlands, and the fragmentation of forests by drilling pads, access roads, and pipelines.
Sierra Club’s Lower Hudson Group chairman George Klein said, “Our DEC’s mission includes protecting New York's natural resources and environment and controlling water, land and air pollution, in order to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state. Allowing HVHHF in our state forests would be an outrageous violation of their mission, and of our forests. This suit simply prods DEC to fulfill its mission."
"The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition has done a great service to all New Yorkers by bringing this lawsuit and seeking to protect us from the harms of HVHHF in our state forests. I am grateful for the opportunity to join in the suit as an individual plaintiff. I live next to the Birdseye Hollow State Forest in Steuben County, and am concerned that air and water
contamination caused by HVHHF in Birdseye Hollow will be harmful to the health of those of us who live near the forest and destructive to property values, farming and tourism in our area," said Rachel Treichler, Hammondsport, New York.
HVHHF is the highly controversial process used to extract natural gas (mostly methane) from a deep-lying hard rock formation, the Marcellus Shale, which underlies most of NYS's southern tier. Explosive forces and millions of gallons of water per well, under high pressure and laced with carcinogenic chemicals, amongst others, are used to shatter the rock and release the methane. The briny water that goes back to the surface contains heavy metals and unusually high levels of salt and radioactivity. No water treatment plant in NYS is capable of safely treating or disposing of these products, and the underlying geological formations are unsuitable for injection wells. Air pollution from the hundreds of trucks needed to bring in the water; stream and lake pollution from inadequate holding ponds; spills and stormwater runoff; noise pollution; destruction of forested areas - all will disperse the wildlife. Instead of being areas for recreation and a low-level, sustainable industry of forest products such as timber, these forests will become highly industrialized zones, entirely contrary to the purposes for which they were established and maintained since 1929, at public expense.
For legal questions please contact James Bacon, Esq., attorney for CWCWC at (845) 255-2026.
###
The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, Inc. (CWCWC) is a not-for-profit organization comprising over fifty community, environmental, religious and housing groups throughout NYC, Westchester and Putnam Counties. CWCWC strives to protect and improve the waters of NYC's Croton Watershed as well as all NYS watersheds. We are an alliance of individuals and groups who believe that safe, clean and affordable drinking water is a basic human right.
========================================
21. Attorney General Gansler Notifies Chesapeake Energy of the State's Intent to Sue for Endangering the Health of Citizens and the Environment
http://protectingourwaters.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/
maryland-attorney-general-gansler-notifies-chesapeake-energy-of-the-states-intent-to-sue-for-endangering-the-health-of-citizens-and-the-environment/
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Raquel Guillory, 410-576-6357 rguillory@oag.state.md.us
BALTIMORE, MD ( May 2, 2011) - Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler today announced that he has sent a letter to Chesapeake Energy Corporation and its affiliates, notifying the companies of the State of Maryland's intent to sue for violating the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA). On April 19, thousands of gallons of fracking fluids were released from a well owned and operated by Chesapeake Energy into Towanda Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River, which supplies 45% of the fresh water in the Chesapeake Bay. In his letter, Attorney General Gansler notified the company that at the close of the required 90-day notice period, the State intends to file a citizen suit and seek injunctive relief and civil penalties under RCRA for solid or hazardous waste contamination of soils and ground waters, and the surface waters and sediments of Towanda Creek and the Susquehanna River. The State also intends to seek injunctive relief and civil penalties under the CWA for violation of the CWA's prohibition on unpermitted pollution to waters of the United States. [ . . . ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: May 7, 2011
by Oscar » Sun May 08, 2011 6:04 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: May 7, 2011
1. EVENT: CONFERENCE ON MAY 19th: Shale gas could have major impact on Chemical Valley
2. FRACKING THE FUTURE: Report: DeSmogBlog “Fracking the Future” Uncloaks Big Oil’s Takeover of Gas Industry
3. Canada: Fracking, Drinking Water And Regulation
4. Alberta and the Curse of the Petro State
5. Canadian Industry Statistics (CIS) - Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (NAICS 21)
6. Hydrocarbon Mining: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing (2011)
7. WATCH: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing
8. Hydraulic fracturing in mining publications
9. Statistical yearbook 2011 - SECTOR 3 INDUSTRY MINING
10. Syncrude Oil Sand Mine, Alberta, Canada
11. ERCB: Mining
12. New study: fracking ghg’s worse than coal!
13. REPORT: Preliminary Assessment of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Natural Gas obtained by Hydraulic Fracturing - Robert W. Howarth
14. SHIELDS: Tory Troubles Abound!
15. B.C. sells its gas for billions less than it is worth
16. Some countries targeted for shale gas development.
17. ‘Fracking’ comes to Europe, sparking rising controversy
18. The Gwyn Morgan File: Rise of a Shale Gas Baron
19. Fracked Water Thousands of Times More Dangerous Than They're Telling Us - NY Times Report
==========================
1. EVENT: CONFERENCE ON MAY 19th: Shale gas could have major impact on Chemical Valley
http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3077519
By SHAWN JEFFORDS, The Observer (April 15, 2011?)
A day-long conference will be held to discuss the development of shale gas mining and how it could have a major impact on Sarnia's Chemical Valley.
The invitation-only event May 19 at the Pt. Edward Holiday Inn will focus on supporting and building local partnerships to develop the fledgling feedstock source.
Mike Ireland, senior development consultant with the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, said shale gas is a "game changer" to many in the energy industry.
"We're trying to get the various players involved in the industry together in one room talking about the various projects," he said.
Shale gas is found in large quantities in the Marcellus deposits in Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia. The natural gas is buried deep in the ground under shale rock deposits, but is now being extracted.
Such 'wet gas' has several byproducts including ethane, a key building block in many petrochemical products and something traditionally arriving from Western Canada at great cost to refiners.
But the Marcellus shale deposit is changing that, and Sarnia's industry could benefit greatly. Two major pipeline projects are already in the initial development stages that would bring the feedstock to Sarnia, Ireland said.
"Right now, the most logical and economical thing to do with (the ethane) is to ship it to Sarnia, were both Nova and Imperial Oil can use that ethane to manufacture ethylene."
Some of the world's most widely used plastics are made from ethylene, including garbage bags and packaging.
A range of speakers will address the conference, and Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Sandra Pupatello, has been invited.
Dean Edwardson said the potential is great for shale gas and its byproducts, but it's vital to ensure the gas is extracted properly, he said.
"It has to be done in an environmentally correct way to ensure there is no impact on ground water."
Shale gas operations in Pennsylvania, where an estimated 2.8 trillion cubic feet is buried in deposits, have caught the eye of state regulators. Inspections have revealed improper waste water controls and unauthorized water withdrawal from area streams.
The shale boom raised alarm among environmentalists because of the threat of chemicals seeping into ground water through the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
But Edwardson said the early efforts seem to be encouraging and could help sustain the current Chemical Valley workforce.
"On the face of things, this is something to be fairly excited about," he said.
With files from Reuters.
sjeffords@theobserver.ca
For breaking news go to theobserver.ca, or check us out on Facebook and Twitter
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2. FRACKING THE FUTURE: Report: DeSmogBlog “Fracking the Future” Uncloaks Big Oil’s Takeover of Gas Industry
Watchdog finds oil giants block legislation and push Washington around on safe gas drilling
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2011
DeSmog Intro:
http://desmogblog.com/
fracking-future-how-unconventional-gas-threatens-our-water-health-and-climate-report
Report html version:
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/
PDF full report version:
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/
desmog-fracking-the-future.pdf
ARLINGTON, VA –DeSmogBlog today released the first comprehensive report on the lobbying and misinformation campaigns run by the gas industry to confuse lawmakers and the public and effectively limit federal oversight of unconventional gas operations.
The report found that the gas industry’s influence in Washington, D.C. has grown tremendously over the last few years because of the industry’s consolidation into conglomerate oil corporations with new interest in unconventional gas plays. Although front groups promote the image of an “independent” industry representing “mom and pop” companies, oil giants such as BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron now dominate the gas patch.
In the report, DeSmogBlog also details the gas industry’s use of lobbying, campaign contributions and other forms of influence to successfully block federal efforts to hold oil and gas corporations accountable for their impacts on health and the environment. Copying the tactics of the tobacco industry and chemical companies, the industry has tried to brand federal oversight, increased scrutiny and accountability measures as “economy-killing,” while oil and gas corporations amass record profits and growth.
A growing body of scientific evidence and investigative reports point to the threat of irreparable harm an unchecked gas-drilling boom poses to air and water quality and the health of American families. Given these recent developments and the findings of this report, DeSmogBlog offered five recommendations to lawmakers to ensure the protection of their constituents’ health and community:
• A national moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until independent scientific studies are conducted to verify the process does not impact drinking water, public health and the global climate.
• The federal government should strictly oversee setting and enforcing standards for unconventional gas drilling. Federal officials should employ existing federal statutes that don’t currently apply to gas drilling, and review the need for any new standards necessary to protect public health and the environment.
• Greater scrutiny is needed into common drilling practices such as cementing procedures, wastewater handling and storage of harmful drilling chemicals.
• Congress and federal agency officials must immediately require mandatory industry reporting of lifecycle emissions of gas drilling operations to ensure relevant and reliable information is accessible to the public, especially independent experts.
• Congress and federal agency officials must also require mandatory disclosure of hydraulic fracturing fluid chemicals, including the exact chemical recipes used in each operation.
Link to the study:
http://desmogblog.com/files/desmog-frac ... future.pdf
About us:
DeSmogBlog exists to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science on climate change. An overwhelming majority of the world’s climate scientists agree that the globe is warming and that the indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels is to blame. We know that the risks are incalculable and, increasingly, we understand that the solutions are affordable and wise choices for many reasons.
Website:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
Twitter: @DeSmogBlog
Media contact: Serena Connor
(703) 302-8398
sconnor@tigercomm.us
Brendan DeMelle
206-588-2580 (office)
206-295-4399 (cell)
Brendan@DeSmogBlog.com
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Fracking the Future: How Unconventional Gas Threatens Our Water, Health and Climate - Report
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future
Carol Linnitt DeSmogBlog 6 May 2011
The United States is at the center of a high profile controversy over the threats posed by unconventional gas drilling, particularly surrounding the industry’s hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling techniques. Amidst the dirty energy industry’s rush to drill the last of America’s dwindling fossil fuel reserves, a growing number of independent scientists, politicians, environmental organizations and impacted citizens are urging the nation’s lawmakers to adopt a more cautious and informed approach to the fracked gas boom.
The oil and gas industry, however, is fighting back against calls for caution, suggesting that it has everything under control – much like it did prior to BP’s offshore drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a new report released today, “Fracking the Future: How Unconventional Gas Threatens Water, Health, and Climate,” DeSmogBlog details the concerns that scientists, cancer specialists, ecologists, investigative journalists and others have raised about the unconventional gas boom. Featuring original interviews and unpublicized reports, “Fracking The Future” delves
into many of the key issues in the unconventional gas debate.
DeSmogBlog is calling for a nationwide moratorium on fracking, citing the fact that the potential impacts on water, health, and climate appear greater than previously understood. A moratorium is necessary to protect the public while fracking is studied much more thoroughly in order to determine if the risks of this practice outweigh the benefits.
Additionally, since state regulators have failed to safeguard the public from the ill effects of gas fracking, federal health and safety officials must be empowered to hold the gas industry accountable for damage to public health, drinking water and the environment.
The report traces the massive industry lobbying efforts to confuse the public and stifle long-overdue federal oversight of the unconventional gas drilling bonanza. We review the sordid history of industry favoritism by the Bush administration, typified by the infamous Halliburton Loophole, which created a recipe for recklessness that has led to air and water contamination and drilling-related accidents. But the prioritization of industry greed above public health and safety didn’t start there.
Since the Reagan era, those charged with protecting health and the environment have instead worked with the gas industry to minimize public awareness of its practices, and to hide the early warning signs regarding the inherent dangers of drilling deeper into the Earth for fossil fuels. State agencies have been pressured to accommodate the industry’s increasingly dangerous drilling techniques, and have largely enabled the poor, unmonitored practices common in the industry today.
The gas industry is investing millions of dollars each year to restrict oversight to the state level and thwart all federal involvement. The number of gas industry lobbyists has increased seven-fold in recent years, exhibiting the dangerous political sway the dirty energy industry exercises in Washington and at the local level across the nation.
Industry front groups like Energy in Depth (EID) play a pivotal role in the dissemination of misinformation and efforts to attack and silence those who attempt to call polluters to account.
Despite EID’s claims to represent small, independent “mom and pop” gas producers, internal industry documents uncovered by DeSmogBlog reveal that the group was created with seed funding from Big Oil multinationals. When communicating with its industry friends, EID continues to repeatedly tout the funding it receives from BP, Halliburton, Shell, Chevron,
ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and other oil giants that certainly don’t fit the “mom and pop shop” characterization.
With international attention focused on the U.S. experience with unconventional gas, “Fracking the Future” urges a cautious approach and much greater industry transparency. The public deserves to know the true costs of fracked unconventional gas before allowing the oil and gas industry to carry on with its pursuit of this fossil fuel.
Read more: Fracking the Future: How Unconventional Gas Threatens Our Water, Health and Climate:
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future
http://www.desmogblog.com/
fracking-future-how-unconventional-gas-threatens-our-water-health-and-climate-report
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3. Canada: Fracking, Drinking Water And Regulation
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/
article.asp?articleid=131200&email_access=on
04 May 2011 Article by Dianne Saxe
Jessica Ernst has launched a multi million dollar lawsuit against Encana Corporation, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, and the Alberta government for contamination of her property and drinking water due to Encana's fracking program. Encana fractures rock to extract coal bed methane, much as fracking is used to extract natural gas from shale. (In March, after a public hearing, Quebec put a moratorium on shale gas exploration pending a full environmental assessment of the potential damage from fracking.) According to the Statement of Claim, many Albertans depend on drinking water from coal bed aquifers, but Ms. Ernst's water is now so contaminated that it can be lit on fire.
She is also suing Alberta's oil and gas regulator, alleging that it not only tolerated illegal behaviour by Encana and failed to protect her, but actively attempted to silence her complaints, and that Alberta Environment showed bad faith in "investigating" those complaints.
The lawsuit, together with the Quebec moratorium, signals the likelihood of stronger environmental regulations of fracking in the pursuit of shale gas or coalbed methane.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
Specific Questions relating to this article should be addressed directly to the author.
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4. Alberta and the Curse of the Petro State
http://www.afl.org/index.php/May-2011/
alberta-a-the-curse-of-the-petro-state.html
Friday, 22 April 2011
Alberta now suffers from too much of a good thing or what some wags call "the paradox of plenty."
Although blessed with the richest endowment of oil and gas in Canada, the bitumen exporter simply can't pay its bills or manage its oil wealth in a fiscally disciplined manner. Moreover, the government has failed to collect its fair share of oil profits let alone save any of this one-time inheritance for a rainy day. Nor can it table a balanced budget any better than a tin pot banana republic. For the last four years the province has recorded four deficits in a row totalling $10 billion. Wedded to increasingly volatile oil and gas revenues that have dropped by 50 per cent ($7 billion) since 2006, Alberta's government now offers but one innovative solution - that Albertans pray for another oil boom. 1
The whole sorry predicament confirms what many citizens still find impossible to accept – that Alberta is just another troubled petro state. Although the media and academia are loath to recognize the condition, the province has been massively bent out of shape by its crippling love affair with petro dollars. [ . . . ]
Andrew Nikiforuk is an award winning Calgary-based journalist and author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of The Continent.
Footnotes
1 www.energy.alberta.ca/Org/Publications/AR2010.pdf
2 http://politicalscience.stanford.edu/faculty/documents/
KarlParadox.pdf
3 www.aspe.spb.ru/Papers/25_1.pdf
4 www.finance.alberta.ca/business/tax_rebates/index.html
5 www.cdhowe.org/pdf/Commentary_313.pdf
6 www.revenuewatch.org/files/
RWI_Broken_Boom_Esanov_Heller_FINAL.pdf
7 http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/
Environment/2010/12/09/Ethical-Oil-tobacco/
8 http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/02/08/AlbertaElectricity/
9 http://ideas.repec.org/p/luc/wpaper/09-06.html#download
10 www.albertacanada.com/documents/ABIndustrySector.pdf
11 http://policyschool.ucalgary.ca/files/p ... albsp2.pdf
12 www.energy.alberta.ca/Org/pdfs/CCS_Implementation.pdf
13 www.aeso.ca/downloads/Long-term_Plan_bo ... _Final.pdf
14 http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/21537/
No_80_Terry_Karl_-_Effects_of_Oil_Development.pdf
15 www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/280368/0084457.pdf
16 www.finance.alberta.ca/fipac/fipac_final_report.pdf
17 www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n732 ... 8476a.html
18 www.gao.gov/new.items/d07676r.pdf
19 www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/displaydocumentpdf/
?cote=eco/wkp(2008)26&doclanguage=en
20 www.cfr.org/canada/canadian-oil-sands/p19345
21 http://parklandinstitute.ca/research/su ... enerosity/
22 http://www.business.ualberta.ca/Centres/WCER/~/
media/University%20of%20Alberta/Faculties/Business/Faculty%20Site/Centres/WCER/Documents/Publications/InformationBulletins/136_electronic.ashx
23 http://politicalscience.stanford.edu/fa ... arlERC.pdf
24 http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/sep06/lougheed.pdf
25 http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/sep06/lougheed.pdf
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5. Canadian Industry Statistics (CIS)
Definition
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (NAICS 21)
http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf ... 1defe.html
Under this topic you will find the North American Industry Classification System definition of the Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (NAICS 21) sector. You can use this definition to properly identify the segment of the industry you wish to study further in other sections of Canadian Industry Statistics.
Definition of the Sector
This sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in extracting naturally occurring minerals. These can be solids, such as coal and ores; liquids, such as crude petroleum; and gases, such as natural gas. The term "mining" is used in the broad sense to include quarrying, well operations, milling (for example, crushing, screening, washing, or flotation) and other preparation customarily done at the mine site, or as a part of mining activity. Establishments engaged in exploration for minerals, development of mineral properties and mining operations are included in this sector. Establishments performing similar activities, on a contract or fee basis, are also included.
Exclusions
No exclusions are specified in the 2007 NAICS Canada manual.
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Definition
Support Activities for Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction(NAICS 213)
http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf ... 3defe.html
Definition of the Subsector
This subsector comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing support services, on a contract or fee basis, required for the mining and quarrying of minerals and for the extraction of oil and gas. Establishments engaged in the exploration for minerals, other than oil or gas, are included. Exploration includes traditional prospecting methods, such as taking ore samples and making geological observations at prospective sites.
Exclusions
No exclusions are specified in the 2007 NAICS Canada manual.
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6. Hydrocarbon Mining: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing (2011)
March 29, 2011 Dr. Carl Sondergeld, Professor of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma gives a technnical presentation of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
Download full presentation:
Wooford_summit_final0.pdf 16.56 MB
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7. WATCH: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing
http://video.mining.com/videos/2261c0/
horizontal_drilling_and_hydraulic_fracturing.aspx
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8. Hydraulic fracturing in mining publications
http://confprd2.vm.csiro.au/display/CSIROpedia/
Hydraulic+fracturing+in+mining+publications
The following publications detail the work involved in the development of CSIRO's Hydraulic fracturing in mining.
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9. Statistical yearbook 2011
SECTOR 3 INDUSTRY MINING
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/
statistical_year_book_2011/SECTOR-3-INDUSTRY%20SECTOR/CH-15-MINING/MINING-WRITEUP.pdf
MINING
Mining comprises extraction of any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or created artificially in a laboratory or factory. It includes non-renewable resource (e.g., petroleum and natural gas,). Most of the materials recovered by mining are base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash. The activity of mining and quarrying also covers all the supplementary activities such as dressing and beneficiation of ores, crushing, screening, washing, cleaning, grading, milling floatation, melting, palletising, topping and other preparations carried out at the mine site which are needed to render the material marketable. Both open cast mining and underground mining operations are carried out and drilling/pumping is undertaken for extracting liquid or gaseous fuels. [ . . . ]
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10. Syncrude Oil Sand Mine, Alberta, Canada
http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/syncrude/
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11. ERCB: Mining
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/
PTARGS_0_0_201_0_0_35/http%3B/ercbContent/publishedcontent/publish/ercb_home/public_zone/oil_sands/development/
Today open-pit mining today accounts for most oil sands production. Huge pieces of equipment are needed to excavate and transport the sticky sand to extraction plants and upgraders to release the bitumen from the sand and prepare it for refining and market. Before the oil sands can be mined, the overburden must be cleared away. Once removed, a portion of this layer of earth and sediment is stored for later use in land reclamation efforts.
Did you know? Using current technologies, only 19 per cent of Alberta ’s oil sands can be surface mined. [ . . . ]
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12. New study: fracking ghg’s worse than coal!
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/?p=511
April 11, 2011
Link to report:
In a much anticipated report, burning natural gas attained by fracking, a controversial drilling technique, has been shown to release far more greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Indeed, the report suggests over a 20 year period, the emissions associated with fracked gas is 20% and perhaps even up to 50% higher than coal.
Professor Robert W. Howarth of Cornell University, one of the authors of this report, had previously suggested this in his preliminary assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions of fracked gas.
This will be another blow to the fracking industry which is increasingly under fire. This includes examples such as a moratorium on fracking in France, partial moratorium in Quebec, and provincial review of fracking in Nova Scotia.
A bit of background:
Hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking is a means to extract natural gas trapped deep inside rock. Huge volumes of water and sand along with some toxic chemicals are blasted from a well bore into rock formations such as shale, coal beds and “tight” sands. This “injection” process creates cracks which allow pockets of natural gas to flow up the well. While fracking technology is around sixty years old, its recent pairing with horizontal drilling alongside diminishing conventional natural gas production (easier and cheaper to produce, but we are running out) is ushering in an unconventional natural gas “boom.”
The Council of Canadians: No Fracking Way!
The Council of Canadians is committed to opposing fracking in Canada. You can see our webpage on fracking here, including our fact sheet. We have already had some success working with local partners and have participated in an Ontario Energy Board process raising concerns around fracking. A number of chapters are engaged in local and provincial challenges to fracking. This includes the Inverness County Chapter in Nova Scotia and Lethridge chapter in Alberta. The Inverness County Chapter has been an important voice in building opposition which recently led the provincial government to agree to conduct a review on fracking.
Burning water:
People following the issue of fracking are likely familiar with the dramatic risks it poses to water. There are hundreds, if not thousands of reports of drinking water sources contaminated with methane near fracking projects in the U.S. - water so contaminated people can literally light their tap water on fire. Fracking also requires huge volumes of water and the chemicals used in the process can contaminate water and pose risks to people’s health.
Fracking greenwash: unconventional natural gas is a false solution to the climate crisis
To start with, any energy resource that sacrifices water protection and threatens people’s health and environmental safety in such significant ways can not be accepted as a solution to the climate crisis.Lesser known than water and health impacts are the questions around the climate impacts of fracked gas. Natural gas is often framed as a transitional fuel off of oil and coal to renewable resources such as wind and solar power, hydro and tidal power, biogas and public transporation. While natural gas burns cleaner than oil and coal, there remains too many questions about the full emissions, or life cycle of fracking gas - questions which this new report seeks to answer.
Methane: a Potent Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This new study adds to one released earlier this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that shows that, in fracking operations, methane emissions were up to 9,000 times higher than previously reported.
Here are some key findings from the pre-publication version of the report:
Methane emissions from fracking are at least 30% more than those, and perhaps twice as great as those from conventional gas.
Increased methane emissions is associated with the fracking as methane escapes from flow back return fluids. Otherwise the methane emissions are similar to conventional gas.
Methane is a powerful GHG that is more potent on a short-term timescale.
The footprint of shale gas is greater than conventional over any time period but particularly so over 20 years: “Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years.”
If these results are anywhere close to accurate, and I haven’t seen anything convincing otherwise, it blows a great big huge hole in the argument that fracked gas is a viable transition fuel in the quest to kick our fossil fuel habit.
This is particularly bad news for the development of the Horn River Basin shale. Briefing notes prepared for Canada’s Natural Resource Minister Christian Paradis, acquired by the Council of Canadians using a Freedom of Information Request, state clearly that shale gas development could contribute significantly to Canadian emissions, particularly if the Horn River Basin shale in B.C. is developed because it is of a higher carbon dioxide level. Take this alongside the potential for significant methane emissions and the depletion and contamination of water, you’ve got some pretty compelling reasons to just leave the shale in the ground, a demand that is building strength in B.C. and beyond.
It will be important to ensure that this doesn’t result in increasing reliance on oil and coal, but rather growing pressure on governments for real solutions including vastly improved conservation and energy efficiency, development of renewable energy resources, public transportation and sustainable agriculture.
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13. REPORT: Preliminary Assessment of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Natural Gas obtained by Hydraulic Fracturing - Robert W. Howarth
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/files/
39646/GHG.emissions.from.Marcellus.Shale.April12010%20draft.pdf
David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology & Environmental Biology, Cornell University
(1 April 2010 Draft) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Natural gas is being widely advertised and promoted as a clean burning fuel that produces less greenhouse gas emissions than coal when burned. While it is true that less carbon dioxide is emitted from burning natural gas than from burning coal per unit of energy generated, the combustion emissions are only part of story and the comparison is quite misleading. A complete consideration of all emissions from using natural gas seems likely to make natural gas far less attractive than oil and not significantly better than coal in terms of the consequences for global warming.
There is an urgent need for a comprehensive assessment of the full range of emission of greenhouse gases from using natural gas obtained by high-volume, slick water hydraulic fracturing (HVSWHF, or “hydrofracking”). I am aware of no such analysis that is publicly available. Some information suggests that one or more assessments may have been conducted by industry groups, but if so these are available only to industry on a confidential basis. If such assessments exist, they have not been subjected to external, unbiased scientific review.
A first attempt at comparing the total emissions of greenhouse gas emissions from HVWWHFobtained natural gas suggests that they are 2.4-fold greater than are the emissions just from the combustion of the natural gas. This estimate is highly uncertain, but is likely conservative, with true emissions being even greater. When the total emissions of greenhouse gases are considered, Greenhouse gas emissions from HVSWHF-obtained natural gas are estimated to be 60% more than for diesel fuel and gasoline. HVSWHF-obtained natural gas and coal from mountain-top removal probably have similar releases. These numbers should be treated with caution.
Nonetheless, until better estimates are generated and rigorously reviewed, society should be wary of claims that natural gas is a desirable fuel in terms of the consequences on global warming. Far better would be to rapidly move towards an economy based on renewable fuels. Recent studies indicate the U.S. and the world could rely 100% on such green energy sources within 20 years if we dedicate ourselves to that course. See Jacobson & Delucchi (2009) A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030, Scientific American 301: 58-65.
Presentation of assumptions and uncertainties behind estimates:
Considering the release during combustion alone, greenhouse gas emissions from burning natural gas average 13.7 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy compared to 18.6 for gasoline, 18.9 for diesel fuel, and 24.0 for bituminous coal (U. S. Department of Energy:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/coefficients.html).
Additional emissions of greenhouse gas occur
during the development, processing, and transport of natural gas (due to the use of fossil fuels to build pipelines, truck water, drill wells, make the compounds used in drilling and fracturing, and treat wastes, and the loss of carbon-trapping forests). I am aware of no rigorous estimate for these additional greenhouse gas emissions, but they appear likely to equal at least one third of those released during combustion (4.5 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy). For comparison, the greenhouse gas emissions from obtaining, processing, and transporting diesel fuel and gasoline are in the range of 8% (Howarth et al. 2009: http://cip.cornell.edu/biofuels/), or perhaps 1.5 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy. Note that as fossil fuel energy resources become more diffuse and difficult to obtain (as is gas in the Marcellus Shale), the energy needed to extract them and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with this effort go up substantially.
The leakage of methane gas during production, transport, processing, and use of natural gas is probably a far more important consideration. Methane is by the far the major component of natural gas, and it is a powerful greenhouse gas: 72-times more powerful than is CO2 per molecule in the atmosphere
(Table 2.14 in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/
publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_wg1_report_the_physical_science_basis.htm ).
Note that this comparison of the global warming potential of methane with CO2 is based on a 20-year assessment time; the factor decreases to 25-fold for for an 100-year assessment time. The shorter time with the higher relative global warming potential is the appropriate one, if one is concerned about the effects of methane during the time a natural gas field is developed, and for the few decades after production in the field ends. Since methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas, even small leakages of natural gas to the atmosphere have very large consequences on global warming.
The most recent data I could find for the US (from 2006) suggest a leakage rate from the oil and gas industry of an amount of methane equal to 1.5% of the natural gas consumed (based on leakage data reported in EPA (2008) Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990 – 2006 and consumption data from the U.S. Department of Energy:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natu ... ble_02.pdf).
This leakage rate is roughly equal to that estimated by the EPA in 1997 (http://p2pays.net/ref/07/06348.pdf). However, as noted by Andrew Revkin in the New York Times in October 2009, the actual leakage is not well known, as monitoring is quite limited, and “government scientists and some industry officials caution that the real figure is actually higher”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/
energyenvironment/15degrees.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=natural%20gas%20leaks%20tanks&st=cse).
If we assume a 1.5% leakage rate, this would have a greenhouse gas warming potential equal to 14.8 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy. This would be additive to the emissions during combustion (13.7 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy) and to the emissions associated with obtaining and transporting the natural gas (very roughly estimated above as 4.5 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy). Total greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas from hydraulic fracturing may, therefore, be equivalent to 33 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy. For diesel fuel or gasoline, the total greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to approximately 20.3 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy.
The comparison with coal is difficult, as the energy needs and greenhouse gas emissions from mining and transporting the coal are not well known. As a first cut, it may make sense to assume that these are roughly equal to those for obtaining shale gas. Some methane leakage also occurs when mining coal, but the amount varies greatly with the type and location of the coal and the mining technology used.
A preliminary assessment suggests methane leakage is less than for natural gas. If so, total emissions from coal are probably quite similar to those for natural gas obtained from shale formations such as the Marcellus Shale.
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14. SHIELDS: Tory Troubles Abound!
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P.
Cc: Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; goodale ; Bymak, Pat (The StarPhoenix) ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 4:44 PM
Where was this guy 10 years ago when Alberta Activism was busy warning all that would listen about the pending doom in the natural gas business if exports continue solely through NAFTA. The sole politician to pay heed to what we had been advancing for years was Frank McKenna the former ambassador to United States. McKenna tried to warn Alberta about the problem everyone now recognizes without success.
Alberta have continually kept removing public share of the natural gas resources and presenting these funds to industry who simple were able to use these funds to export through NAFTA at ever increasing lower prices!! The great fear is Harper will attempt the same thing with bitumen once the Americans gain price control over bitumen as they have with NAFTA exported natural gas. Remember it was the Tories Mulroney who rushed Simon Reisman in negotiations to settle class 600 items with respect to petroleum issues to enable signing to take place while the United States president visited Canada. Who believe the U.S. president's visit was early on intention?
I am indeed very very proud of Alberta Activism's predictions and justified warnings on natural gas issues.One of our members no longer with us would have been delighted at this press release confirming our position so many years ago! B.C.has been forced into this situation of giving away their nonrenewable resource by Alberta's thoughtlessness. Each time Alberta aided industry coffers to produce more natural gas, the effect was the export price fell since industry were now doing fine! Although this seem so simple, watch Harper manage the very same thing with Bitumen. Synthetic crude has OPEC production prices as a comparative in sweet light crude oil, bitumen has not, and already we see the spread widen to the point upgrade units at source is the only sensible way to export bitumen from a financial, work related, and spin off industry point of view.
Alberta Activism have never held with the view that financial matters entered into the reasoning for raw bitumen exports. Bitumen exports demand over twice the pipeline capacity, along with over twice the pipeline toll fees once diluents are added before consideration is even given to the cost of imported diluents and the pipelines needed for diluents delivery to Canada. Then Canada looses the ethane needed for our petro-chemical industry subsidizes by our Alberta government, not to mention the abrasive nature of sour raw bitumen. Then after all these considerations, the product simply must be upgraded at trail end!!! How stupid!
The energy market stocks fell 498 points in the first 4 days after Harper's majority election win, and with good reason. Market watchers are aware of how much actual wealth Alberta has gained from it's enormous reservoirs of petroleum products under a Tory government. Harper's similar attitude expressed by licensing pipelines for raw bitumen exports and entertaining meeting with a foreign CARTEL to decide how many borrowed public dollars should support the Mackenzie pipeline without any ownership for the public investment. Market watchers like the knee-jerk action of a Tory government over the well planned and organized moves by former liberal governments, however they are very aware of the grave dangers presented by a Tory government as the market indicated!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, alta
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15. B.C. sells its gas for billions less than it is worth
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/thewest/
sells+billions+less+than+worth/4737772/story.html
By Don Cayo, Vancouver Sun May 6, 2011 12:14 PM
British Columbia is losing billions of dollars by exporting vast quantities of natural gas for a small fraction of what it's worth, says energy analyst Peter Tertzakian, the managing director of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp.
"B.C. sells its natural gas for $3 or $4 [per 1,000 cubic feet] when the Japanese are paying $11," Tertzakian told me. "The loss of revenue to the government in terms of taxes and royalties is immense."
And these losses, he said, will get worse before they get better.
Why?
Well, we sell cheap because we have no choice. The only foreign market we have the infrastructure to supply is the United States, and that's not only distant and expensive for B.C. producers to serve, but the Americans are no longer hungry for our product. The last few years have seen massive development of its own shale gas supplies, leaving Canada to compete with a ubiquitous domestic product that comes out of the ground much closer to where it's burned. [ . . . ]
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16. Some countries targeted for shale gas development.
EXCERPT from Fracking the world by Joyce Nelson
http://www.newint.org/issues/2011/05/01/
UK's New Internationalist Magazine: Analysis ENVIRONMENT
New INterNatIoNalIst ● MAY 2011, pg. 24 & 25
On the fracking radar - Some countries targeted for shale gas development.
Countries /Companies interested
France - Elixir Petroleum Ltd, Vermillion Energy, Toreador Resources
Poland - ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Talisman Energy, Chevron
Indonesia - BP
China - Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips
Australia - ConocoPhillips, Origin Energy Ltd, BP, Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol
Nigeria - ExxonMobil
Hungary - ExxonMobil
Germany - ExxonMobil
Austria - OMV
Ukraine - Royal Dutch Shell
Sweden - Royal Dutch Shell
South Africa - Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol
Algeria - BP
India - Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol
New Zealand - Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol, Energy Corp of America
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17. ‘Fracking’ comes to Europe, sparking rising controversy
http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/
2011-03-01/%E2%80%98fracking%E2%80%99-comes-europe-sparking-rising-controversy
by Ben Schiller Published Mar 1 2011 by Yale Environment 360, Archived Mar 1 2011
As concerns grow in the U.S. about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract natural gas from shale, companies have set their sights on Europe and its abundant reserves of this “unconventional” gas. But from Britain to Poland, critics warn of the potentially high environmental cost of this looming energy boom. [ . . . ]
==================================
18. The Gwyn Morgan File: Rise of a Shale Gas Baron
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/17/GwynMorganFile/
Christy Clark picked the EnCana empire builder to guide her into power, and that says volumes about who's shaping BC's future. Part one of two.
By: By Andrew Nikiforuk, 17 March 2011, TheTyee.ca
"In rentier states, economic and political power is especially concentrated, the lines between public and private are very blurred, and rent-seeking as a wealth creation strategy is rampant." -- Terry Karl, Paradox of Plenty
Gwyn Morgan's emergence as a political advisor to BC Liberal leader and premier designate Christy Clark not only reflects the province's growing dependence on shale gas revenue but her party's formidable indebtedness to petro politics.
Morgan's calculated political ascension, which should prick the interest of every British Columbian, also illustrates the growing ambition of the country's petroleum elite.
Morgan, a sort of Canadian version of former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney and a man who admires the "journalism" of former tobacco lobbyist Ezra Levant, also serves as an advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
As an ideological supporter of Alberta's de facto petro state (it gets 35 per cent of its revenue from hydrocarbons and has been ruled by one party for 40 years), Morgan earnestly endorses the Alberta model of resource development.
Alberta's "give-it-away" model consists of generous profits for corporations, emasculated or captured regulators (B.C.'s Oil and Gas Commission is 100 per cent funded by industry and even seconds EnCana employees for projects), paltry returns for resource owners, low taxes and a petro state crippled by disengaged citizenry with no savings for the future.
Morgan, who retired to a modest $7-million property in North Saanich in 2006, is no stranger to B.C. politics. He not only helped build EnCana's massive holdings in unconventional gas plays in northern British Columbia (more than 3 million hectares of leased land) but also negotiated an "encouraging policy environment" with Premier Gordon Campbell's government.
This unique relationship, rarely analyzed by the press, gave both shale gas and EnCana extensive influence over the province's affairs. Natural gas now drives B.C., not wood. [ . . .]
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19. Fracked Water Thousands of Times More Dangerous Than They're Telling Us - NY Times Report
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/508316/
ny_times_report%3A_fracked_water_thousands_of_times_more_dangerous_than_they're_telling_us/
By Steven D. | Sourced from Booman Tribune Posted at February 28, 2011, 9:39 am
Good old hydrofracking. You know about it right? It's the method to produce natural gas by fracturing rock formations with millions of gallons of water and toxic chemicals. It's been contaminating groundwater in the Western US for many years and now it is being pursued with a vengeance in the East, particularity with respect to the Marcellus Shale formation that extends across Pennsylvania and New York.
Everyone in the know has warned us for years that hydrofracking was highly dangerous to sources of groundwater used for human consumption. But only now are we being told how much worse is that contamination of our water supplies. So bad it will make you ill after you read this investigative report from the NY Times:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/
27gas.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=hydrofracking&st=cse ]
With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.
While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.
The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle.
In short, if your source of drinking water is a water plant that receives treated waste water from hydrofracking operations, your health and the health of your children and your neighbors and everyone else you know is at serious risk, a risk far greater than previously acknowledged by the oil and gas industry and federal regulators. [ . . . ]
1. EVENT: CONFERENCE ON MAY 19th: Shale gas could have major impact on Chemical Valley
2. FRACKING THE FUTURE: Report: DeSmogBlog “Fracking the Future” Uncloaks Big Oil’s Takeover of Gas Industry
3. Canada: Fracking, Drinking Water And Regulation
4. Alberta and the Curse of the Petro State
5. Canadian Industry Statistics (CIS) - Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (NAICS 21)
6. Hydrocarbon Mining: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing (2011)
7. WATCH: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing
8. Hydraulic fracturing in mining publications
9. Statistical yearbook 2011 - SECTOR 3 INDUSTRY MINING
10. Syncrude Oil Sand Mine, Alberta, Canada
11. ERCB: Mining
12. New study: fracking ghg’s worse than coal!
13. REPORT: Preliminary Assessment of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Natural Gas obtained by Hydraulic Fracturing - Robert W. Howarth
14. SHIELDS: Tory Troubles Abound!
15. B.C. sells its gas for billions less than it is worth
16. Some countries targeted for shale gas development.
17. ‘Fracking’ comes to Europe, sparking rising controversy
18. The Gwyn Morgan File: Rise of a Shale Gas Baron
19. Fracked Water Thousands of Times More Dangerous Than They're Telling Us - NY Times Report
==========================
1. EVENT: CONFERENCE ON MAY 19th: Shale gas could have major impact on Chemical Valley
http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3077519
By SHAWN JEFFORDS, The Observer (April 15, 2011?)
A day-long conference will be held to discuss the development of shale gas mining and how it could have a major impact on Sarnia's Chemical Valley.
The invitation-only event May 19 at the Pt. Edward Holiday Inn will focus on supporting and building local partnerships to develop the fledgling feedstock source.
Mike Ireland, senior development consultant with the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership, said shale gas is a "game changer" to many in the energy industry.
"We're trying to get the various players involved in the industry together in one room talking about the various projects," he said.
Shale gas is found in large quantities in the Marcellus deposits in Pennsylvania, New York and Virginia. The natural gas is buried deep in the ground under shale rock deposits, but is now being extracted.
Such 'wet gas' has several byproducts including ethane, a key building block in many petrochemical products and something traditionally arriving from Western Canada at great cost to refiners.
But the Marcellus shale deposit is changing that, and Sarnia's industry could benefit greatly. Two major pipeline projects are already in the initial development stages that would bring the feedstock to Sarnia, Ireland said.
"Right now, the most logical and economical thing to do with (the ethane) is to ship it to Sarnia, were both Nova and Imperial Oil can use that ethane to manufacture ethylene."
Some of the world's most widely used plastics are made from ethylene, including garbage bags and packaging.
A range of speakers will address the conference, and Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Sandra Pupatello, has been invited.
Dean Edwardson said the potential is great for shale gas and its byproducts, but it's vital to ensure the gas is extracted properly, he said.
"It has to be done in an environmentally correct way to ensure there is no impact on ground water."
Shale gas operations in Pennsylvania, where an estimated 2.8 trillion cubic feet is buried in deposits, have caught the eye of state regulators. Inspections have revealed improper waste water controls and unauthorized water withdrawal from area streams.
The shale boom raised alarm among environmentalists because of the threat of chemicals seeping into ground water through the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking."
But Edwardson said the early efforts seem to be encouraging and could help sustain the current Chemical Valley workforce.
"On the face of things, this is something to be fairly excited about," he said.
With files from Reuters.
sjeffords@theobserver.ca
For breaking news go to theobserver.ca, or check us out on Facebook and Twitter
=======================================
2. FRACKING THE FUTURE: Report: DeSmogBlog “Fracking the Future” Uncloaks Big Oil’s Takeover of Gas Industry
Watchdog finds oil giants block legislation and push Washington around on safe gas drilling
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 6, 2011
DeSmog Intro:
http://desmogblog.com/
fracking-future-how-unconventional-gas-threatens-our-water-health-and-climate-report
Report html version:
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/
PDF full report version:
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/
desmog-fracking-the-future.pdf
ARLINGTON, VA –DeSmogBlog today released the first comprehensive report on the lobbying and misinformation campaigns run by the gas industry to confuse lawmakers and the public and effectively limit federal oversight of unconventional gas operations.
The report found that the gas industry’s influence in Washington, D.C. has grown tremendously over the last few years because of the industry’s consolidation into conglomerate oil corporations with new interest in unconventional gas plays. Although front groups promote the image of an “independent” industry representing “mom and pop” companies, oil giants such as BP, ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron now dominate the gas patch.
In the report, DeSmogBlog also details the gas industry’s use of lobbying, campaign contributions and other forms of influence to successfully block federal efforts to hold oil and gas corporations accountable for their impacts on health and the environment. Copying the tactics of the tobacco industry and chemical companies, the industry has tried to brand federal oversight, increased scrutiny and accountability measures as “economy-killing,” while oil and gas corporations amass record profits and growth.
A growing body of scientific evidence and investigative reports point to the threat of irreparable harm an unchecked gas-drilling boom poses to air and water quality and the health of American families. Given these recent developments and the findings of this report, DeSmogBlog offered five recommendations to lawmakers to ensure the protection of their constituents’ health and community:
• A national moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until independent scientific studies are conducted to verify the process does not impact drinking water, public health and the global climate.
• The federal government should strictly oversee setting and enforcing standards for unconventional gas drilling. Federal officials should employ existing federal statutes that don’t currently apply to gas drilling, and review the need for any new standards necessary to protect public health and the environment.
• Greater scrutiny is needed into common drilling practices such as cementing procedures, wastewater handling and storage of harmful drilling chemicals.
• Congress and federal agency officials must immediately require mandatory industry reporting of lifecycle emissions of gas drilling operations to ensure relevant and reliable information is accessible to the public, especially independent experts.
• Congress and federal agency officials must also require mandatory disclosure of hydraulic fracturing fluid chemicals, including the exact chemical recipes used in each operation.
Link to the study:
http://desmogblog.com/files/desmog-frac ... future.pdf
About us:
DeSmogBlog exists to clear the PR pollution that is clouding the science on climate change. An overwhelming majority of the world’s climate scientists agree that the globe is warming and that the indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels is to blame. We know that the risks are incalculable and, increasingly, we understand that the solutions are affordable and wise choices for many reasons.
Website:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
Twitter: @DeSmogBlog
Media contact: Serena Connor
(703) 302-8398
sconnor@tigercomm.us
Brendan DeMelle
206-588-2580 (office)
206-295-4399 (cell)
Brendan@DeSmogBlog.com
- - - - -
Fracking the Future: How Unconventional Gas Threatens Our Water, Health and Climate - Report
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future
Carol Linnitt DeSmogBlog 6 May 2011
The United States is at the center of a high profile controversy over the threats posed by unconventional gas drilling, particularly surrounding the industry’s hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling techniques. Amidst the dirty energy industry’s rush to drill the last of America’s dwindling fossil fuel reserves, a growing number of independent scientists, politicians, environmental organizations and impacted citizens are urging the nation’s lawmakers to adopt a more cautious and informed approach to the fracked gas boom.
The oil and gas industry, however, is fighting back against calls for caution, suggesting that it has everything under control – much like it did prior to BP’s offshore drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
In a new report released today, “Fracking the Future: How Unconventional Gas Threatens Water, Health, and Climate,” DeSmogBlog details the concerns that scientists, cancer specialists, ecologists, investigative journalists and others have raised about the unconventional gas boom. Featuring original interviews and unpublicized reports, “Fracking The Future” delves
into many of the key issues in the unconventional gas debate.
DeSmogBlog is calling for a nationwide moratorium on fracking, citing the fact that the potential impacts on water, health, and climate appear greater than previously understood. A moratorium is necessary to protect the public while fracking is studied much more thoroughly in order to determine if the risks of this practice outweigh the benefits.
Additionally, since state regulators have failed to safeguard the public from the ill effects of gas fracking, federal health and safety officials must be empowered to hold the gas industry accountable for damage to public health, drinking water and the environment.
The report traces the massive industry lobbying efforts to confuse the public and stifle long-overdue federal oversight of the unconventional gas drilling bonanza. We review the sordid history of industry favoritism by the Bush administration, typified by the infamous Halliburton Loophole, which created a recipe for recklessness that has led to air and water contamination and drilling-related accidents. But the prioritization of industry greed above public health and safety didn’t start there.
Since the Reagan era, those charged with protecting health and the environment have instead worked with the gas industry to minimize public awareness of its practices, and to hide the early warning signs regarding the inherent dangers of drilling deeper into the Earth for fossil fuels. State agencies have been pressured to accommodate the industry’s increasingly dangerous drilling techniques, and have largely enabled the poor, unmonitored practices common in the industry today.
The gas industry is investing millions of dollars each year to restrict oversight to the state level and thwart all federal involvement. The number of gas industry lobbyists has increased seven-fold in recent years, exhibiting the dangerous political sway the dirty energy industry exercises in Washington and at the local level across the nation.
Industry front groups like Energy in Depth (EID) play a pivotal role in the dissemination of misinformation and efforts to attack and silence those who attempt to call polluters to account.
Despite EID’s claims to represent small, independent “mom and pop” gas producers, internal industry documents uncovered by DeSmogBlog reveal that the group was created with seed funding from Big Oil multinationals. When communicating with its industry friends, EID continues to repeatedly tout the funding it receives from BP, Halliburton, Shell, Chevron,
ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and other oil giants that certainly don’t fit the “mom and pop shop” characterization.
With international attention focused on the U.S. experience with unconventional gas, “Fracking the Future” urges a cautious approach and much greater industry transparency. The public deserves to know the true costs of fracked unconventional gas before allowing the oil and gas industry to carry on with its pursuit of this fossil fuel.
Read more: Fracking the Future: How Unconventional Gas Threatens Our Water, Health and Climate:
http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future
http://www.desmogblog.com/
fracking-future-how-unconventional-gas-threatens-our-water-health-and-climate-report
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3. Canada: Fracking, Drinking Water And Regulation
http://www.mondaq.com/canada/
article.asp?articleid=131200&email_access=on
04 May 2011 Article by Dianne Saxe
Jessica Ernst has launched a multi million dollar lawsuit against Encana Corporation, the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, and the Alberta government for contamination of her property and drinking water due to Encana's fracking program. Encana fractures rock to extract coal bed methane, much as fracking is used to extract natural gas from shale. (In March, after a public hearing, Quebec put a moratorium on shale gas exploration pending a full environmental assessment of the potential damage from fracking.) According to the Statement of Claim, many Albertans depend on drinking water from coal bed aquifers, but Ms. Ernst's water is now so contaminated that it can be lit on fire.
She is also suing Alberta's oil and gas regulator, alleging that it not only tolerated illegal behaviour by Encana and failed to protect her, but actively attempted to silence her complaints, and that Alberta Environment showed bad faith in "investigating" those complaints.
The lawsuit, together with the Quebec moratorium, signals the likelihood of stronger environmental regulations of fracking in the pursuit of shale gas or coalbed methane.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
Specific Questions relating to this article should be addressed directly to the author.
= = = = = = =
4. Alberta and the Curse of the Petro State
http://www.afl.org/index.php/May-2011/
alberta-a-the-curse-of-the-petro-state.html
Friday, 22 April 2011
Alberta now suffers from too much of a good thing or what some wags call "the paradox of plenty."
Although blessed with the richest endowment of oil and gas in Canada, the bitumen exporter simply can't pay its bills or manage its oil wealth in a fiscally disciplined manner. Moreover, the government has failed to collect its fair share of oil profits let alone save any of this one-time inheritance for a rainy day. Nor can it table a balanced budget any better than a tin pot banana republic. For the last four years the province has recorded four deficits in a row totalling $10 billion. Wedded to increasingly volatile oil and gas revenues that have dropped by 50 per cent ($7 billion) since 2006, Alberta's government now offers but one innovative solution - that Albertans pray for another oil boom. 1
The whole sorry predicament confirms what many citizens still find impossible to accept – that Alberta is just another troubled petro state. Although the media and academia are loath to recognize the condition, the province has been massively bent out of shape by its crippling love affair with petro dollars. [ . . . ]
Andrew Nikiforuk is an award winning Calgary-based journalist and author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of The Continent.
Footnotes
1 www.energy.alberta.ca/Org/Publications/AR2010.pdf
2 http://politicalscience.stanford.edu/faculty/documents/
KarlParadox.pdf
3 www.aspe.spb.ru/Papers/25_1.pdf
4 www.finance.alberta.ca/business/tax_rebates/index.html
5 www.cdhowe.org/pdf/Commentary_313.pdf
6 www.revenuewatch.org/files/
RWI_Broken_Boom_Esanov_Heller_FINAL.pdf
7 http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/
Environment/2010/12/09/Ethical-Oil-tobacco/
8 http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/02/08/AlbertaElectricity/
9 http://ideas.repec.org/p/luc/wpaper/09-06.html#download
10 www.albertacanada.com/documents/ABIndustrySector.pdf
11 http://policyschool.ucalgary.ca/files/p ... albsp2.pdf
12 www.energy.alberta.ca/Org/pdfs/CCS_Implementation.pdf
13 www.aeso.ca/downloads/Long-term_Plan_bo ... _Final.pdf
14 http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/21537/
No_80_Terry_Karl_-_Effects_of_Oil_Development.pdf
15 www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/280368/0084457.pdf
16 www.finance.alberta.ca/fipac/fipac_final_report.pdf
17 www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n732 ... 8476a.html
18 www.gao.gov/new.items/d07676r.pdf
19 www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/displaydocumentpdf/
?cote=eco/wkp(2008)26&doclanguage=en
20 www.cfr.org/canada/canadian-oil-sands/p19345
21 http://parklandinstitute.ca/research/su ... enerosity/
22 http://www.business.ualberta.ca/Centres/WCER/~/
media/University%20of%20Alberta/Faculties/Business/Faculty%20Site/Centres/WCER/Documents/Publications/InformationBulletins/136_electronic.ashx
23 http://politicalscience.stanford.edu/fa ... arlERC.pdf
24 http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/sep06/lougheed.pdf
25 http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/sep06/lougheed.pdf
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5. Canadian Industry Statistics (CIS)
Definition
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (NAICS 21)
http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf ... 1defe.html
Under this topic you will find the North American Industry Classification System definition of the Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction (NAICS 21) sector. You can use this definition to properly identify the segment of the industry you wish to study further in other sections of Canadian Industry Statistics.
Definition of the Sector
This sector comprises establishments primarily engaged in extracting naturally occurring minerals. These can be solids, such as coal and ores; liquids, such as crude petroleum; and gases, such as natural gas. The term "mining" is used in the broad sense to include quarrying, well operations, milling (for example, crushing, screening, washing, or flotation) and other preparation customarily done at the mine site, or as a part of mining activity. Establishments engaged in exploration for minerals, development of mineral properties and mining operations are included in this sector. Establishments performing similar activities, on a contract or fee basis, are also included.
Exclusions
No exclusions are specified in the 2007 NAICS Canada manual.
- - - - -
Definition
Support Activities for Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction(NAICS 213)
http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf ... 3defe.html
Definition of the Subsector
This subsector comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing support services, on a contract or fee basis, required for the mining and quarrying of minerals and for the extraction of oil and gas. Establishments engaged in the exploration for minerals, other than oil or gas, are included. Exploration includes traditional prospecting methods, such as taking ore samples and making geological observations at prospective sites.
Exclusions
No exclusions are specified in the 2007 NAICS Canada manual.
===========================
6. Hydrocarbon Mining: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing (2011)
March 29, 2011 Dr. Carl Sondergeld, Professor of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma gives a technnical presentation of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.
Download full presentation:
Wooford_summit_final0.pdf 16.56 MB
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7. WATCH: Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing
http://video.mining.com/videos/2261c0/
horizontal_drilling_and_hydraulic_fracturing.aspx
===================================
8. Hydraulic fracturing in mining publications
http://confprd2.vm.csiro.au/display/CSIROpedia/
Hydraulic+fracturing+in+mining+publications
The following publications detail the work involved in the development of CSIRO's Hydraulic fracturing in mining.
=======================================
9. Statistical yearbook 2011
SECTOR 3 INDUSTRY MINING
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
http://mospi.nic.in/Mospi_New/upload/
statistical_year_book_2011/SECTOR-3-INDUSTRY%20SECTOR/CH-15-MINING/MINING-WRITEUP.pdf
MINING
Mining comprises extraction of any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, or created artificially in a laboratory or factory. It includes non-renewable resource (e.g., petroleum and natural gas,). Most of the materials recovered by mining are base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash. The activity of mining and quarrying also covers all the supplementary activities such as dressing and beneficiation of ores, crushing, screening, washing, cleaning, grading, milling floatation, melting, palletising, topping and other preparations carried out at the mine site which are needed to render the material marketable. Both open cast mining and underground mining operations are carried out and drilling/pumping is undertaken for extracting liquid or gaseous fuels. [ . . . ]
===============================
10. Syncrude Oil Sand Mine, Alberta, Canada
http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/syncrude/
========================================
11. ERCB: Mining
http://www.ercb.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/
PTARGS_0_0_201_0_0_35/http%3B/ercbContent/publishedcontent/publish/ercb_home/public_zone/oil_sands/development/
Today open-pit mining today accounts for most oil sands production. Huge pieces of equipment are needed to excavate and transport the sticky sand to extraction plants and upgraders to release the bitumen from the sand and prepare it for refining and market. Before the oil sands can be mined, the overburden must be cleared away. Once removed, a portion of this layer of earth and sediment is stored for later use in land reclamation efforts.
Did you know? Using current technologies, only 19 per cent of Alberta ’s oil sands can be surface mined. [ . . . ]
=====================================
12. New study: fracking ghg’s worse than coal!
http://www.canadians.org/energyblog/?p=511
April 11, 2011
Link to report:
In a much anticipated report, burning natural gas attained by fracking, a controversial drilling technique, has been shown to release far more greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Indeed, the report suggests over a 20 year period, the emissions associated with fracked gas is 20% and perhaps even up to 50% higher than coal.
Professor Robert W. Howarth of Cornell University, one of the authors of this report, had previously suggested this in his preliminary assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions of fracked gas.
This will be another blow to the fracking industry which is increasingly under fire. This includes examples such as a moratorium on fracking in France, partial moratorium in Quebec, and provincial review of fracking in Nova Scotia.
A bit of background:
Hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking is a means to extract natural gas trapped deep inside rock. Huge volumes of water and sand along with some toxic chemicals are blasted from a well bore into rock formations such as shale, coal beds and “tight” sands. This “injection” process creates cracks which allow pockets of natural gas to flow up the well. While fracking technology is around sixty years old, its recent pairing with horizontal drilling alongside diminishing conventional natural gas production (easier and cheaper to produce, but we are running out) is ushering in an unconventional natural gas “boom.”
The Council of Canadians: No Fracking Way!
The Council of Canadians is committed to opposing fracking in Canada. You can see our webpage on fracking here, including our fact sheet. We have already had some success working with local partners and have participated in an Ontario Energy Board process raising concerns around fracking. A number of chapters are engaged in local and provincial challenges to fracking. This includes the Inverness County Chapter in Nova Scotia and Lethridge chapter in Alberta. The Inverness County Chapter has been an important voice in building opposition which recently led the provincial government to agree to conduct a review on fracking.
Burning water:
People following the issue of fracking are likely familiar with the dramatic risks it poses to water. There are hundreds, if not thousands of reports of drinking water sources contaminated with methane near fracking projects in the U.S. - water so contaminated people can literally light their tap water on fire. Fracking also requires huge volumes of water and the chemicals used in the process can contaminate water and pose risks to people’s health.
Fracking greenwash: unconventional natural gas is a false solution to the climate crisis
To start with, any energy resource that sacrifices water protection and threatens people’s health and environmental safety in such significant ways can not be accepted as a solution to the climate crisis.Lesser known than water and health impacts are the questions around the climate impacts of fracked gas. Natural gas is often framed as a transitional fuel off of oil and coal to renewable resources such as wind and solar power, hydro and tidal power, biogas and public transporation. While natural gas burns cleaner than oil and coal, there remains too many questions about the full emissions, or life cycle of fracking gas - questions which this new report seeks to answer.
Methane: a Potent Greenhouse Gas Emissions
This new study adds to one released earlier this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that shows that, in fracking operations, methane emissions were up to 9,000 times higher than previously reported.
Here are some key findings from the pre-publication version of the report:
Methane emissions from fracking are at least 30% more than those, and perhaps twice as great as those from conventional gas.
Increased methane emissions is associated with the fracking as methane escapes from flow back return fluids. Otherwise the methane emissions are similar to conventional gas.
Methane is a powerful GHG that is more potent on a short-term timescale.
The footprint of shale gas is greater than conventional over any time period but particularly so over 20 years: “Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years.”
If these results are anywhere close to accurate, and I haven’t seen anything convincing otherwise, it blows a great big huge hole in the argument that fracked gas is a viable transition fuel in the quest to kick our fossil fuel habit.
This is particularly bad news for the development of the Horn River Basin shale. Briefing notes prepared for Canada’s Natural Resource Minister Christian Paradis, acquired by the Council of Canadians using a Freedom of Information Request, state clearly that shale gas development could contribute significantly to Canadian emissions, particularly if the Horn River Basin shale in B.C. is developed because it is of a higher carbon dioxide level. Take this alongside the potential for significant methane emissions and the depletion and contamination of water, you’ve got some pretty compelling reasons to just leave the shale in the ground, a demand that is building strength in B.C. and beyond.
It will be important to ensure that this doesn’t result in increasing reliance on oil and coal, but rather growing pressure on governments for real solutions including vastly improved conservation and energy efficiency, development of renewable energy resources, public transportation and sustainable agriculture.
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13. REPORT: Preliminary Assessment of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Natural Gas obtained by Hydraulic Fracturing - Robert W. Howarth
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/files/
39646/GHG.emissions.from.Marcellus.Shale.April12010%20draft.pdf
David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology & Environmental Biology, Cornell University
(1 April 2010 Draft) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Natural gas is being widely advertised and promoted as a clean burning fuel that produces less greenhouse gas emissions than coal when burned. While it is true that less carbon dioxide is emitted from burning natural gas than from burning coal per unit of energy generated, the combustion emissions are only part of story and the comparison is quite misleading. A complete consideration of all emissions from using natural gas seems likely to make natural gas far less attractive than oil and not significantly better than coal in terms of the consequences for global warming.
There is an urgent need for a comprehensive assessment of the full range of emission of greenhouse gases from using natural gas obtained by high-volume, slick water hydraulic fracturing (HVSWHF, or “hydrofracking”). I am aware of no such analysis that is publicly available. Some information suggests that one or more assessments may have been conducted by industry groups, but if so these are available only to industry on a confidential basis. If such assessments exist, they have not been subjected to external, unbiased scientific review.
A first attempt at comparing the total emissions of greenhouse gas emissions from HVWWHFobtained natural gas suggests that they are 2.4-fold greater than are the emissions just from the combustion of the natural gas. This estimate is highly uncertain, but is likely conservative, with true emissions being even greater. When the total emissions of greenhouse gases are considered, Greenhouse gas emissions from HVSWHF-obtained natural gas are estimated to be 60% more than for diesel fuel and gasoline. HVSWHF-obtained natural gas and coal from mountain-top removal probably have similar releases. These numbers should be treated with caution.
Nonetheless, until better estimates are generated and rigorously reviewed, society should be wary of claims that natural gas is a desirable fuel in terms of the consequences on global warming. Far better would be to rapidly move towards an economy based on renewable fuels. Recent studies indicate the U.S. and the world could rely 100% on such green energy sources within 20 years if we dedicate ourselves to that course. See Jacobson & Delucchi (2009) A Path to Sustainable Energy by 2030, Scientific American 301: 58-65.
Presentation of assumptions and uncertainties behind estimates:
Considering the release during combustion alone, greenhouse gas emissions from burning natural gas average 13.7 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy compared to 18.6 for gasoline, 18.9 for diesel fuel, and 24.0 for bituminous coal (U. S. Department of Energy:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/coefficients.html).
Additional emissions of greenhouse gas occur
during the development, processing, and transport of natural gas (due to the use of fossil fuels to build pipelines, truck water, drill wells, make the compounds used in drilling and fracturing, and treat wastes, and the loss of carbon-trapping forests). I am aware of no rigorous estimate for these additional greenhouse gas emissions, but they appear likely to equal at least one third of those released during combustion (4.5 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy). For comparison, the greenhouse gas emissions from obtaining, processing, and transporting diesel fuel and gasoline are in the range of 8% (Howarth et al. 2009: http://cip.cornell.edu/biofuels/), or perhaps 1.5 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy. Note that as fossil fuel energy resources become more diffuse and difficult to obtain (as is gas in the Marcellus Shale), the energy needed to extract them and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with this effort go up substantially.
The leakage of methane gas during production, transport, processing, and use of natural gas is probably a far more important consideration. Methane is by the far the major component of natural gas, and it is a powerful greenhouse gas: 72-times more powerful than is CO2 per molecule in the atmosphere
(Table 2.14 in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis.
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/
publications_ipcc_fourth_assessment_report_wg1_report_the_physical_science_basis.htm ).
Note that this comparison of the global warming potential of methane with CO2 is based on a 20-year assessment time; the factor decreases to 25-fold for for an 100-year assessment time. The shorter time with the higher relative global warming potential is the appropriate one, if one is concerned about the effects of methane during the time a natural gas field is developed, and for the few decades after production in the field ends. Since methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas, even small leakages of natural gas to the atmosphere have very large consequences on global warming.
The most recent data I could find for the US (from 2006) suggest a leakage rate from the oil and gas industry of an amount of methane equal to 1.5% of the natural gas consumed (based on leakage data reported in EPA (2008) Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990 – 2006 and consumption data from the U.S. Department of Energy:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/natu ... ble_02.pdf).
This leakage rate is roughly equal to that estimated by the EPA in 1997 (http://p2pays.net/ref/07/06348.pdf). However, as noted by Andrew Revkin in the New York Times in October 2009, the actual leakage is not well known, as monitoring is quite limited, and “government scientists and some industry officials caution that the real figure is actually higher”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/business/
energyenvironment/15degrees.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=natural%20gas%20leaks%20tanks&st=cse).
If we assume a 1.5% leakage rate, this would have a greenhouse gas warming potential equal to 14.8 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy. This would be additive to the emissions during combustion (13.7 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy) and to the emissions associated with obtaining and transporting the natural gas (very roughly estimated above as 4.5 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy). Total greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas from hydraulic fracturing may, therefore, be equivalent to 33 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy. For diesel fuel or gasoline, the total greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to approximately 20.3 g C of CO2 per million joules of energy.
The comparison with coal is difficult, as the energy needs and greenhouse gas emissions from mining and transporting the coal are not well known. As a first cut, it may make sense to assume that these are roughly equal to those for obtaining shale gas. Some methane leakage also occurs when mining coal, but the amount varies greatly with the type and location of the coal and the mining technology used.
A preliminary assessment suggests methane leakage is less than for natural gas. If so, total emissions from coal are probably quite similar to those for natural gas obtained from shale formations such as the Marcellus Shale.
==========================================
14. SHIELDS: Tory Troubles Abound!
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P.
Cc: Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; goodale ; Bymak, Pat (The StarPhoenix) ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 4:44 PM
Where was this guy 10 years ago when Alberta Activism was busy warning all that would listen about the pending doom in the natural gas business if exports continue solely through NAFTA. The sole politician to pay heed to what we had been advancing for years was Frank McKenna the former ambassador to United States. McKenna tried to warn Alberta about the problem everyone now recognizes without success.
Alberta have continually kept removing public share of the natural gas resources and presenting these funds to industry who simple were able to use these funds to export through NAFTA at ever increasing lower prices!! The great fear is Harper will attempt the same thing with bitumen once the Americans gain price control over bitumen as they have with NAFTA exported natural gas. Remember it was the Tories Mulroney who rushed Simon Reisman in negotiations to settle class 600 items with respect to petroleum issues to enable signing to take place while the United States president visited Canada. Who believe the U.S. president's visit was early on intention?
I am indeed very very proud of Alberta Activism's predictions and justified warnings on natural gas issues.One of our members no longer with us would have been delighted at this press release confirming our position so many years ago! B.C.has been forced into this situation of giving away their nonrenewable resource by Alberta's thoughtlessness. Each time Alberta aided industry coffers to produce more natural gas, the effect was the export price fell since industry were now doing fine! Although this seem so simple, watch Harper manage the very same thing with Bitumen. Synthetic crude has OPEC production prices as a comparative in sweet light crude oil, bitumen has not, and already we see the spread widen to the point upgrade units at source is the only sensible way to export bitumen from a financial, work related, and spin off industry point of view.
Alberta Activism have never held with the view that financial matters entered into the reasoning for raw bitumen exports. Bitumen exports demand over twice the pipeline capacity, along with over twice the pipeline toll fees once diluents are added before consideration is even given to the cost of imported diluents and the pipelines needed for diluents delivery to Canada. Then Canada looses the ethane needed for our petro-chemical industry subsidizes by our Alberta government, not to mention the abrasive nature of sour raw bitumen. Then after all these considerations, the product simply must be upgraded at trail end!!! How stupid!
The energy market stocks fell 498 points in the first 4 days after Harper's majority election win, and with good reason. Market watchers are aware of how much actual wealth Alberta has gained from it's enormous reservoirs of petroleum products under a Tory government. Harper's similar attitude expressed by licensing pipelines for raw bitumen exports and entertaining meeting with a foreign CARTEL to decide how many borrowed public dollars should support the Mackenzie pipeline without any ownership for the public investment. Market watchers like the knee-jerk action of a Tory government over the well planned and organized moves by former liberal governments, however they are very aware of the grave dangers presented by a Tory government as the market indicated!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, alta
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15. B.C. sells its gas for billions less than it is worth
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/thewest/
sells+billions+less+than+worth/4737772/story.html
By Don Cayo, Vancouver Sun May 6, 2011 12:14 PM
British Columbia is losing billions of dollars by exporting vast quantities of natural gas for a small fraction of what it's worth, says energy analyst Peter Tertzakian, the managing director of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp.
"B.C. sells its natural gas for $3 or $4 [per 1,000 cubic feet] when the Japanese are paying $11," Tertzakian told me. "The loss of revenue to the government in terms of taxes and royalties is immense."
And these losses, he said, will get worse before they get better.
Why?
Well, we sell cheap because we have no choice. The only foreign market we have the infrastructure to supply is the United States, and that's not only distant and expensive for B.C. producers to serve, but the Americans are no longer hungry for our product. The last few years have seen massive development of its own shale gas supplies, leaving Canada to compete with a ubiquitous domestic product that comes out of the ground much closer to where it's burned. [ . . . ]
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16. Some countries targeted for shale gas development.
EXCERPT from Fracking the world by Joyce Nelson
http://www.newint.org/issues/2011/05/01/
UK's New Internationalist Magazine: Analysis ENVIRONMENT
New INterNatIoNalIst ● MAY 2011, pg. 24 & 25
On the fracking radar - Some countries targeted for shale gas development.
Countries /Companies interested
France - Elixir Petroleum Ltd, Vermillion Energy, Toreador Resources
Poland - ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Talisman Energy, Chevron
Indonesia - BP
China - Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips
Australia - ConocoPhillips, Origin Energy Ltd, BP, Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol
Nigeria - ExxonMobil
Hungary - ExxonMobil
Germany - ExxonMobil
Austria - OMV
Ukraine - Royal Dutch Shell
Sweden - Royal Dutch Shell
South Africa - Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol
Algeria - BP
India - Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol
New Zealand - Statoil, Chesapeake, Sasol, Energy Corp of America
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17. ‘Fracking’ comes to Europe, sparking rising controversy
http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/
2011-03-01/%E2%80%98fracking%E2%80%99-comes-europe-sparking-rising-controversy
by Ben Schiller Published Mar 1 2011 by Yale Environment 360, Archived Mar 1 2011
As concerns grow in the U.S. about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract natural gas from shale, companies have set their sights on Europe and its abundant reserves of this “unconventional” gas. But from Britain to Poland, critics warn of the potentially high environmental cost of this looming energy boom. [ . . . ]
==================================
18. The Gwyn Morgan File: Rise of a Shale Gas Baron
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/03/17/GwynMorganFile/
Christy Clark picked the EnCana empire builder to guide her into power, and that says volumes about who's shaping BC's future. Part one of two.
By: By Andrew Nikiforuk, 17 March 2011, TheTyee.ca
"In rentier states, economic and political power is especially concentrated, the lines between public and private are very blurred, and rent-seeking as a wealth creation strategy is rampant." -- Terry Karl, Paradox of Plenty
Gwyn Morgan's emergence as a political advisor to BC Liberal leader and premier designate Christy Clark not only reflects the province's growing dependence on shale gas revenue but her party's formidable indebtedness to petro politics.
Morgan's calculated political ascension, which should prick the interest of every British Columbian, also illustrates the growing ambition of the country's petroleum elite.
Morgan, a sort of Canadian version of former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney and a man who admires the "journalism" of former tobacco lobbyist Ezra Levant, also serves as an advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
As an ideological supporter of Alberta's de facto petro state (it gets 35 per cent of its revenue from hydrocarbons and has been ruled by one party for 40 years), Morgan earnestly endorses the Alberta model of resource development.
Alberta's "give-it-away" model consists of generous profits for corporations, emasculated or captured regulators (B.C.'s Oil and Gas Commission is 100 per cent funded by industry and even seconds EnCana employees for projects), paltry returns for resource owners, low taxes and a petro state crippled by disengaged citizenry with no savings for the future.
Morgan, who retired to a modest $7-million property in North Saanich in 2006, is no stranger to B.C. politics. He not only helped build EnCana's massive holdings in unconventional gas plays in northern British Columbia (more than 3 million hectares of leased land) but also negotiated an "encouraging policy environment" with Premier Gordon Campbell's government.
This unique relationship, rarely analyzed by the press, gave both shale gas and EnCana extensive influence over the province's affairs. Natural gas now drives B.C., not wood. [ . . .]
===============================
19. Fracked Water Thousands of Times More Dangerous Than They're Telling Us - NY Times Report
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/508316/
ny_times_report%3A_fracked_water_thousands_of_times_more_dangerous_than_they're_telling_us/
By Steven D. | Sourced from Booman Tribune Posted at February 28, 2011, 9:39 am
Good old hydrofracking. You know about it right? It's the method to produce natural gas by fracturing rock formations with millions of gallons of water and toxic chemicals. It's been contaminating groundwater in the Western US for many years and now it is being pursued with a vengeance in the East, particularity with respect to the Marcellus Shale formation that extends across Pennsylvania and New York.
Everyone in the know has warned us for years that hydrofracking was highly dangerous to sources of groundwater used for human consumption. But only now are we being told how much worse is that contamination of our water supplies. So bad it will make you ill after you read this investigative report from the NY Times:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/
27gas.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=hydrofracking&st=cse ]
With hydrofracking, a well can produce over a million gallons of wastewater that is often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium, all of which can occur naturally thousands of feet underground. Other carcinogenic materials can be added to the wastewater by the chemicals used in the hydrofracking itself.
While the existence of the toxic wastes has been reported, thousands of internal documents obtained by The New York Times from the Environmental Protection Agency, state regulators and drillers show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.
The documents reveal that the wastewater, which is sometimes hauled to sewage plants not designed to treat it and then discharged into rivers that supply drinking water, contains radioactivity at levels higher than previously known, and far higher than the level that federal regulators say is safe for these treatment plants to handle.
In short, if your source of drinking water is a water plant that receives treated waste water from hydrofracking operations, your health and the health of your children and your neighbors and everyone else you know is at serious risk, a risk far greater than previously acknowledged by the oil and gas industry and federal regulators. [ . . . ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS – June 4, 2011
by Oscar » Sat Jun 04, 2011 10:44 am
[b]FRACKING ENERGY NEWS – June 4, 2011
1. A Devout Meditation For Brigette DePape
2. Conference: Tight Oil Canada 2011
3. Harper Doesn't Have The Equipment!
4. Environment Canada layoffs spook civil servants
5. Oilsands greenhouse gas emissions shot up in 2009: Environment Canada
6. Rosebud celebrates grand opening
7. Progress has $1B deal to develop, export B.C. gas
8. Technology gives western Canadian conventional crude production a boost
9. Our dependence on natural gas is growing
10. LISTEN: Water Under Threat: CETA, Fracking and Water Markets
11. Shale gas - Bouchard adopt a threatening tone (Translated (apparently, poorly) from French
12. Apache Corp Pulls Out Of New Brunswick Gas Fracking Project
13. NIKIFORUK: How Fish Use Energy Teaches True Oil Economics
14. TransCanada Keystone I Pipeline Shut Down Indefinitely Due to Safety Concerns
15. UK Opposed to Europe’s Tar Sands Import Ban
16. United States: State And Federal Law Enforcement Authorities Focus Attention On Marcellus Shale
17. Natural Gas Is Not Exactly Environmentally Clean
18. Drill, drill, drill
19. Julian Assange wins Martha Gellhorn journalism prize
20. Israel accused after Palestinian boys burned by mystery canister
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1. A Devout Meditation For Brigette DePape[/b]
(See original article below.....)
- - - - -
A Devout Meditation For Brigette DePape
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/2011/06/
devout-meditation-for-brigette-depape.html
QUOTE:
"As for me, if I would have known that she was about to do what this young lady did I would have left my job and tuned into it. Why? Because it would have been most refreshing to know that amidst all the well-adapted and perfectly sane people gathered in the Senate, at least one person has a meaningful concept of love and considers it relevant enough to act upon it, is willing to respond to the needs and suffering of others, who recognizes all people as humans, and can apprehend other's pain as her own. She might have been disruptive, yes. But that's the point of protest. And she did it in a most dignified manner. A true Canadian. I hope she runs for political office some day. I'd vote for her in a heartbeat. And one of this mob had the audacity to call her insane? Undoubtedly, the truly Canadian thing for Jason Kenney to do is to apologize...and to mean it!!! "
FULL TEXT:
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/2011/06/
devout-meditation-for-brigette-depape.html
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WATCH: YOUTH PROTEST - ‘Stop Harper’ placard gets Senate page turfed from Throne Speech - See Photo
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... -notebook/
stop-harper-placard-gets-senate-page-turfed-from-throne-speech/article2046548/
DANIEL LEBLANC OTTAWA— Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Friday, June 3, 2011 3:50PM EDT
A Senate page disrupted the Speech from the Throne by taking out a sign saying "Stop Harper" in the middle of the opening of the new parliamentary session.
She was immediately removed from the Senate chamber and fired from her job.
Brigette DePape, from Manitoba, has been working in the Senate for a year. A statement issued in her name said she opposes the agenda of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, which won a majority mandate on May 2. [. . . ]
VIDEO: Senate page upstages Throne Speech
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2. Conference: Tight Oil Canada 2011
http://www.canadian-business-conferences.com/c55/
tight-oil-canada-2011/
Cutting Edge Thought Leadership On Cost Effective Completions Techniques & Technologies For Maximizing Tight Oil Production In Canada
Dear Colleague,
As I know you have an interest in Unconventional Oil & Gas, I wanted to check on your availability for Tight Oil Canada 2011 (June 22-23, 2011, Calgary Convention Centre). The event brings senior professionals from key Canadian E&P companies working in the Cardium, Viking, Bakken and Lower Shaunavon to share practical solutions on minimizing cost and maximizing productivity in tight oil production. (Emphasis Added. Ed.)
We are now expecting over 500 delegates to attend this event - make sure that you and your company don't miss out!
Speaker Organizations Include:
PetroBakken, Harvest Operations, Cenovus, Legacy Oil & Gas, Penn West Exploration, Enerplus Corporation, TAQA North, Wild Stream Exploration, Anterra Energy, Saskatchewan Government, Canadian Energy Exploration and more
Topics Examined Include:
Cost-Effective Completions Strategies, Oil Vs Water Fracture Fluids, Fracture Size & Spacing, Completions Technologies, Incorporating Geological Data Into Completions Strategy, Monobore Vs Conventional Drilling
As the conference is now only three weeks away - I wanted to check that you had the latest conference information. You can download the brochure now or simply reply to this email and I will forward it on to you. Please also let me know if you would like information on group booking rates or you can register online now.
Louise Gosling
Senior Marketing Manager
Canadian Business Conferences
T: 1-800-721-3915
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3. Harper Doesn't Have The Equipment!
A bold national energy plan can benefit the provinces (Article is below)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... s/economy/
economy-lab/daily-mix/a-bold-national-energy-plan-can-benefit-the-provinces/article2044612/
QUOTE: “These Prime Ministers, however, are today remembered as some of the strongest leaders our country has ever seen. Mr. Harper can continue to serve the status quo, and play it safe - or he can dare to be great.”
= = = = =
Subject: Harper Doesn't Have The Equipment!
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 17:30:13 -0700
From: lagran <lagran@shaw.ca>
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. <Layton.J@parl.gc.ca>
CC: <Rae.B@parl.gc.ca>, "Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX" <EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca>, "bill boyd" <minister.er@gov.sk.ca>, <acameron@neb-one.gc.ca>
With the federal NEB headquartered in the industry town of Calgary, and seemingly taking directions from the large diameter pipeline companies, it's obvious Harper is not equipped to become involved in the energy business. The public interest part of the energy industry has suffered terrible losses, starting with Mulroney's Free Trade Agreement and deregulation of natural gas, moving on to the approval of Raw natural gas exports, and Harper's approvals for bitumen exports and dangerous diluents importations! Allowing the Americans to control natural gas prices of even Canadian's domestic usage, taught Harper nothing. He is prepared to entertain a foreign CARTEL of Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and Conoco Phillip's plea for Canadian borrowed public dollars to build a Mackenzie pipeline that would continue to isolate Canadian natural gas exports solely to the low -priced NAFTA market.
So weak is our present Tory government on international trade, along with international relations, the western provinces have united in an effort to offset these obvious short-comings. Alberta is so schizophrenic about losing control over their energy resource that they will fight those federal folks trying to help them regulate industry. And the industry that totally own the Alberta government, with CAPP's help, want desperately to keep Alberta's Low-Brow politicians in power! Alberta was the influence that Mulroney was pleasing when he deregulated Canada's natural gas that has lead to the lowest natural gas prices in the modern world!
The benefits the NEP brought to Canadians under Trudeau was simply transferred to the American's, with the Mulroney Tories gaining political power in Canada. Alberta really gained nothing, indeed it has lost the small amount of control it could once enforce, and the value of much of the government owned energy industries. What is indeed unbelievable is where the funds went for payment of Nova and Alberta Energy Corporation?
The western provinces have allowed industry through CAPP to play one province against the other until the provincial public are paying as much as industry through royalty tax credits to drill wells in western Canada!!
Many Canadians would prefer the presence of the federal government through a FREE government agency to help control and retain the proper value of property provincial sources say the public own, but is traded for political favour and funding!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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A bold national energy plan can benefit the provinces
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... s/economy/
economy-lab/daily-mix/a-bold-national-energy-plan-can-benefit-the-provinces/article2044612/
Warren Mabee Globe and Mail Blog Posted on Friday, June 3, 2011 7:54AM .
Warren Mabee is assistant professor and director of the Queen’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, Queen’s University
In Germany, a pledge to abolish nuclear power by 2022 will see nearly 22 GW taken offline, a move that Canadians consider either a wake-up call or environmental vandalism. In Ontario, Tim Hudak’s Conservative party threatens to remove incentives for renewable energy contained in the controversial Green Energy and Green Economy Act if elected. Like it or hate it, energy is becoming a wedge issue around which elections are won and lost. Recognizing this, what should Prime Minister Stephen Harper do? There is a way for his government to get out in front of these issues and begin laying the groundwork for a truly Canadian energy strategy -- without compromising its commitment to provincial jurisdiction over energy resources. [ . . . ]
= = = = =
4. Environment Canada layoffs spook civil servants
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/06/02/
ottawa-layoffs-environment-canada.html?ref=rss
CBC News Posted: Jun 2, 2011 10:11 PM ET Last Updated: Jun 2, 2011 10:50 PM ET
More than two dozen Environment Canada employees have received layoff notices, spurring fears among federal civil servants that thousands of job losses loom as the government struggles to balance its budget.
The notices were handed out this week to at least 28 scientists at the department, said Bill Pynn, president of the Union of Environment Workers, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The personnel were all term employees, many of them nearing permanent status. [ . . . ]
Related Links (Active at URL above)
Clement prepared for difficult Treasury Board post
Public servants fear layoffs amid Tory majority
Federal workers brace for possible job cuts
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5. Oilsands greenhouse gas emissions shot up in 2009: Environment Canada
http://www.canada.com/business/Oilsands ... story.html
BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS JUNE 3, 2011 8:00 AM
The Herald's Don Braid says few stories have caused as much local head-scratching as May 30's front-page screamer claiming the federal Tories intentionally left oilsands emissions out of a report to the United Nations.
After days of discussions with an oil and gas industry association, Environment Canada has confirmed a substantial rise in greenhouse gas emissions from the oilsands sector in 2009, along with data that casts doubts on whether the industry can continue to reduce emissions per barrel of oil produced.
While overall emissions from the sector rose by 11 per cent in 2009 -a new calculation based on revised Environment Canada estimates for oilsands emissions in 2008 -department spokesman Mark Johnson said the data indicated "very little change in the total emissions intensity in oilsands" in 2009.
The details on the rise in emissions for the sector were left out of an inventory report on greenhouse gas emissions submitted by Canada to the UN. But they were released gradually over the past week by Environment Canada through a series of e-mails in response to questions from Postmedia News. The department declined all interview requests, except for one with a department official that was cancelled at the last minute without explanation. [ . . . ]
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6. Rosebud celebrates grand opening
http://www.hannaherald.com/ArticleDispl ... ?e=3152231
June 3, 2011 Josh Chalmers Standard Reporter
In recognition of both the past and the future the Grand Opening of the new Rosebud Mercantile on May 27 coincided with Centennial Celebrations for the original building.
Many got their first look at the new mercantile. The 10,000 square foot building features the Encana Conference Centre upstairs, and a new restaurant portion called Wild Horse Jacks, named after area rancher 'Wild Horse' Jack Morton.
Attendees of the event included representatives of the municipal, provincial and federal governments as well as individual and corporate sponsors.
"The resiliency of the mercantile is a testament to the community spirit of Rosebud," said Wheatland County Division 6 Councillor Glenn Koester. "Congratulations are to be extended to the Rosebud Centre for the Arts on the completion of this expansion and renovation of the mercantile. Thanks to their foresight this great facility will last for another 100 years and continue to serve the needs of Rosebud and Wheatland County."
The original mercantile began by serving the railway starting in 1911. In the 1970s the mercantile was purchased by Rosebud School of the Arts and has served as the host for the dining portion of the Rosebud Dinner Theatre. The new building will continue to serve as the hub for the town's thriving arts community. [ . . . ]
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Rosebud landowner sues over alleged well contamination
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/05/ro ... amination/
May 3, 2011 By: Enrique Massot
A landowner in the southern Alberta hamlet of Rosebud is claiming millions in damages from an oil and gas company for allegedly rendering her water undrinkable in the last decade because of hydraulic fracturing — a practice being used north of Cochrane for oil drilling operations there.
On April 27, Jessica Ernst presented at a Calgary press conference a 73-page statement of claim that has been filed at the Drumheller’s judicial centre of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.
The claim, prepared by Toronto-based lawyers Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless of Klippensteins Barristers and Solicitors, alleges EnCana Corporation “negligently injected chemical fracturing fluids at high pressure into coal seams located at shallow depths below ground.”
Ernst, a 54-year-old oil patch consultant, also alleges Alberta Environment and the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) failed to use their powers to protect the citizens’ water supply in the area.
None of the allegations contained in Ernst’s claim have been proven in court.
Drilling released methane and other contaminants into underground freshwater supplies and specifically into Ernst’s water well, the statement of claim read.
In 2001, the claim noted EnCana perforated into the Rosebud aquifer and hydraulically fractured coal seams starting 121.5 metres below ground.
“Three of these fractures were at depths that correspond to the depth of local water wells,” the claim read.
The statement of claim also alleges the operation caused water to be removed from the aquifer, reducing hydrostatic pressure in the same aquifer.
That, in turn, “caused the release of substantial quantities of methane from the aquifer coal seams into the Ernst water well,” the statement read.
Ernst is seeking $11.7 million in damages from EnCana.
EnCana’s spokesperson Alan Boras did not want to speak about Ernst’s claim.
“Because it’s before the courts we are not commenting on the lawsuit,” he told the Eagle on April 29. [ . . . ]
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7. Progress has $1B deal to develop, export B.C. gas
Malaysian company Petronas will invest in and market LNG
CBC News Posted: Jun 2, 2011 9:50 AM ET Last Updated: Jun 2, 2011 4:12 PM ET
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2 ... shale.html
Progress Energy Resources Corp. has a framework agreement to sell half of its interest in three northeast British Columbia shale gas properties for $1.07 billion in a deal aimed at developing and exporting liquified natural gas to Asia, the company said Thursday.
The buyer is Petronas, the Malaysian national oil company, which will bring capital and its access to LNG markets to the table.
The strategic partnership will enable the company to speed up its growth strategy, Michael Culbert, president and CEO of Calgary-based Progress, said in a news release.
The Progress deal is the most recent in a series that have seen international companies inject billions of dollars into B.C. shale gas developments.
Progress shares closed up 59 cents or 4.2 per cent to $14.57 in TSX trading.
New gas export facility considered
The partnership will look for ways to develop liquefied natural gas exports. It will establish an LNG export joint venture, 80 per cent owned by Petronas and 20 per cent by Progress, which will look into building and operating a new LNG export facility on B.C.'s west coast.
Petronas would operate the facility, and the two companies would jointly market the LNG using Petronas' existing network of global LNG customers. [ . . ]
Related Links (Links active on URL above)
Encana in $5.4B deal with PetroChina
Talisman, Sasol in second B.C. deal
Penn West, Mitsubishi in joint venture
Three-month TSX trading in Progress
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8. Technology gives western Canadian conventional crude production a boost
Declines switch to increases on horizontal drilling
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Te ... story.html
BY DINA O'MEARA, CALGARY HERALD JUNE 2, 2011 6:03 PM COMMENTS (2)
After years of declining production in Western Canada, conventional oil is making a come back on strong prices and horizontal drilling, according to a new industry report.
CALGARY — Conventional oil has made a comeback in Western Canada, rebounding from almost a decade of declining production to boost overall supply along with growing bitumen volumes.
By 2025 conventional crude will add about 200,000 barrels per day out of 400,000 bpd additional volumes added to last year’s forecast, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
The association now expects total Canadian oil production to reach 4.7 million barrels per day, from 2.8 million produced last year.
About half of the increase comes at the tail end of the 15-year forecast from new oilsands projects. The surprise for CAPP was evidence of a resurgence in conventional oil at the front of the prediction time span.
“What’s interesting to us is that it’s the first time in about a decade that we’ve seen a reversal in the decline that’s been the maturing nature of the western basin,” said Greg Stringham, CAPP vice-president of marketing.
The resurgence could be even stronger than the association had calculated, based on the surprising results of Wednesday’s provincial land sale, Stringham said.
Producers shelled out a record-breaking $842 million for oil and gas licences, almost double the provincial take to date and including a $107 million for a township-sized chunk of land northwest of Red Deer.
Stringham attributed the rise in conventional production to the use of new technologies on older fields on the back of strong oil prices and favourable royalty changes in Alberta.
Despite the increase, conventional oil production in Western Canada will decline to around 860,000 barrels per day by 2025, from 1.08 million bpd in 2010, according to the report.
Oilsands production will increase to 3.73 million bpd from 1.47 million bpd during the same time frame. [ . . . ]
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9. Our dependence on natural gas is growing
http://www.troymedia.com/2011/06/01/our ... s-growing/
First of a 19-part Special June 1, 2011
CALGARY, AB, June 1, 2011/ Troy Media/ – On the coldest Alberta winter mornings, Robert Young awakens to cozy warmth, and heads into a hot shower before he cooks himself breakfast. A quick check of his e-mail and he heads off to work.
His head is spinning by 10 o’clock with the business of running Beatniq and Piq Niq, a trendy jazz club and French bistro in downtown Calgary. Like most Canadians, the last thing on his mind is what makes his day run so smoothly.
Natural gas is the unsung hero in this club owner’s life: From his hot shower and morning coffee, to the electricity that powers his computer and the flame that cooks his patrons’ dinner, the clean-burning energy source is something of a silent partner to Young.
Taking natural gas for granted
“You don’t think about how much you use it,” he shrugs. “I think we all just take natural gas for granted.”
Indeed, in many parts of the country, Canadians use natural gas in almost every aspect of their lives, yet they do so with barely a thought. Light a match to this question, and the answer burns bright: natural gas is virtually everywhere.
Composed primarily of methane, the natural gas used by Young in his home and at his restaurant is ubiquitous: According to Encana, the Calgary-based energy company, Canadians and our neighbours to the south use more than 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas each year to heat homes and water, cook food and power generators. To understand the scale of its use, consider the fact that one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day is enough to fuel 3.9 million mid-sized cars, and would give them enough juice to travel 25,000 km a year. [ . . . . ]
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10. LISTEN: Water Under Threat: CETA, Fracking and Water Markets
http://sacpa.ca/index.php?p=38&action=v ... ion&ID=802
By Maude Barlow – June 1, 2011 at Lethbridge Memorial Centre
Water is vital to people’s health and livelihoods and yet our freshwater faces crises including contamination, shortages, and privatization. Canada’s water systems are under threat from a free-trade agreement being negotiated between Canada and the European Union called the Comprehensive Economic Free Trade Agreement (CETA). A recent report from CUPE and the Council of Canadians exposes how CETA would open public water systems across Canada to privatization. In Alberta, the provincial government has plans to introduce legislation to create a province-wide, deregulated water market that distributes water based on the ability of one to pay, instead of being based on environmental needs and the public interest. [ . . . ]
LISTEN: 3 Tracks
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11. Shale gas - Bouchard adopt a threatening tone (Translated (apparently, poorly) from French
http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebe ... n-menacant
The industry requires compensation under penalty of prosecution, for the loss of access to the bed of the St. Lawrence and islands of the estuary
Alexander Shields June 1, 2011 Quebec
Lucien Bouchard demanded yesterday a compensation process for shale gas industry, due to the revocation by the government of exploration permits in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The plea of the President of the Oil and Gas Association of Quebec, who testified before the committee on Bill 18, which cancels all permits for the estuary, was also punctuated by a collision with Mr. Amir Khadir. The latter accused him of not defending Quebec's interests by working to protect the "multinational" seeking to "plunder our natural resources."
The former prime minister had first presented to parliamentarians to assert that the decision to block access to the bed of the St. Lawrence River and the islands situated in the heart of the estuary requires to pay financial compensation to companies in the hydrocarbon sector.
Otherwise they could bring "remedy" in court to succeed. Bill 18, "limiting oil and gas activities" provides that "no compensation" will be paid by the state.
The decision to revoke the license, announced in September, was taken to protect these natural areas and resort very fragile. A first strategic environmental assessment conducted for the entire estuary in effect concluded that the risks associated with the exploitation of hydrocarbons were much too high to be considered. Hence the choice of Minister Nathalie Normandeau to forbid any exploration, including the islands already under license, the Island of Orleans, Goose Island, Crane Island, Isle aux Coudres , Green Island, the Isle of Bic and the island of St. Barnabas. At 10 cents an acre, a permit to Green Island for example, costs $ 117.70 per year. In most cases, the municipal authorities of these islands were not aware of issue of such permits. [ . . . ]
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12. Apache Corp Pulls Out Of New Brunswick Gas Fracking Project
http://www.desmogblog.com/apache-corp-p ... ng-project
T.J. SCOLNICK 2 June 11
Halifax’s Corridor Resources Ltd. has announced that Apache Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Houston’s Apache Corporation, is giving up on unconventional gas exploration southwest of Moncton, in New Brunswick. This is a major setback for the drillers using hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) on Canada’s east coast, since the $25 million Apache has already invested in dangerous unconventional gas drilling was expected to be supplemented by an extra $100 million.
Last year, Corridor, a smaller player in the gas industry, partnered with Apache in order to test the profitability of two horizontal trial wells into the Frederick Brook shale deposit located in the Elgin region of the province. While Corridor considers Elgin and the surrounding area to contain North America’s largest gas concentrations per square kilometer [pdf], the Will DeMille G-59 and Green Road B-41 test wells were not proving commercially viable.
When their partnership was announced, the companies were hoping to drill up to 480 wells, but with meager results from the two wells in phase 1, and a June 1st deadline to decide whether to invest additional millions or to opt out entirely, Apache balked and walked away from phase 2. [ . . . ]
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13. NIKIFORUK: How Fish Use Energy Teaches True Oil Economics
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/03/Fi ... gyTeaches/
ENERGY & EQUITY, a Tyee column by Andrew Nikiforuk, this week explains the secret of EROI.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, June 3, 2011 TheTyee.ca
Charlie Hall, the outspoken ecologist who charges that neoclassical economists largely write fairy tales, is having a good day in Puerto Rico. The sun is shining and girls in bikinis are walking down the beach.
But Hall, as usual, is thinking about how surplus energy makes the world go around and why the U.S. economy is faltering.
Now Hall, a 68-year-old New England born professor with a gift for plain speaking, has made a name for himself by championing a revolutionary idea known as energy return on energy invested (EROI). Every plant, animal and human civilization lives by EROI.
The law isn't rocket science. Whenever a salmon, bear, lodgepole or Dow Jones company spends more energy on an activity than they get back, death follows. Or in corporate terms, debt builds and things fall apart. [ . . . [
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14. TransCanada Keystone I Pipeline Shut Down Indefinitely Due to Safety Concerns
http://www.desmogblog.com/breaking-tran ... y-concerns
3 June 11
Following a string of oil spills, TransCanada's Keystone I tar sands oil pipeline has been indefinitely shut down, and banned from restarting operations. Today, the Pipelines and Hazerdous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a Corrective Action Order, which stops use of the pipeline until the regulator determines that safety problems have been corrected.
In the order, Jeffrey Wiese, associate administrator for pipeline safety at the Department of Transportation, wrote:
"I find that the continued operation of the pipeline without corrective measures would be hazardous to life, property and the environment. Additionally, after considering the circumstances surrounding the May 7 and May 29, 2011 failures, the proximity of the pipeline to populated areas, water bodies, public roadways and high consequence areas, the hazardous nature of the product the pipeline transports, the ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the failures, and the potential for the conditions causing the failures to be present elsewhere on the pipeline, I find that a failure to issue this Order expeditiously to require immediate corrective action would result in likely serious harm to life, property, and the environment."
The Keystone I pipeline has spilled 12 times since beginning operation less than one year ago. Late last year, TransCanada had to dig up portions of the pipeline when abnormalities were discovered.
Experts have raised concerns that tar sands oil pipelines pose serious safety risks due to the corrosive, acidic quality of tar sands oil, which is also pumped at higher temperatures and pressures than conventional oil.
This is a major blow for TransCanada, who is seeking approval from the State Department to construct the Keystone XL pipeline. The $13 billion Keystone XL pipeline would significantly increase the Canadian export of of dirty tar sands bitumen to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day. This project would pump crude from Canada to refineries in Texas, crossing the Ogallala Aquifer, America's largest aquifer and a source of drinking water for two million people. [ . . . ]
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U.S. shuts down Keystone pipeline
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-in ... le2046610/
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE, SHAWN MCCARTHY
Calgary, Ottawa— Globe and Mail Update
Published Friday, Jun. 03, 2011 4:25PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jun. 03, 2011 5:38PM EDT
A U.S. government agency has issued a corrective action order, keeping the TransCanada Corp. (TRP-T42.950.190.44%) Keystone pipeline shut down until the company completes a series of steps.
The order by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration was issued suddenly Friday afternoon after U.S. regulators decided to forego normal requirements for prior notice and a hearing with TransCanada. [ . . . ]
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15. UK Opposed to Europe’s Tar Sands Import Ban
http://www.desmogblog.com/uk-opposed-eu ... import-ban
2 June 11
While most European countries are working on a proposal that would effectively ban the use of Canadian tar sands in the European Union, the United Kingdom has made it clear that they will not support any measure to reduce their reliance on tar sands. Britain joins the Netherlands as one of only two countries that want to continue to have the option to use oil derived from Canadian tar sands.
The EU is working to produce a new “fuel directive” this year that would reduce the amount of emissions acceptable from fuels used for transportation. The directive would require a 6% reduction in the amount of emissions from vehicle fuel over the next 9 years. Because the emissions from tar sands run about 23% higher than those from traditional fossil fuels, this would mean that their use in the EU would be effectively prohibited. [ . . . ]
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16. United States: State And Federal Law Enforcement Authorities Focus Attention On Marcellus Shale
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/arti ... _access=on
27 May 2011 Article by Ronald A. Sarachan and Bonnie Barnett
The U.S. Department of Justice is sponsoring a two-day law enforcement conference this week in State College, Pa., on the Marcellus Shale. The purpose is to educate local law enforcement in Pennsylvania on environmental and other crimes specific to the Marcellus Shale. The conference is open only to law enforcement and prosecutors. It is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Criminal Investigations Division, the FBI, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and other federal and state law enforcement agencies. Scheduled speakers include Peter J. Smith, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Ignacia Moreno, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department. The high level speakers and extensive resources devoted to the conference reflect the very high priority being placed by government authorities on environmental and other criminal enforcement related to the Marcellus Shale. [ . . . ]
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17. Natural Gas Is Not Exactly Environmentally Clean
http://www.whchronicle.com/2011/05/natu ... lly-clean/
By Llewellyn King Published May 30, 2011 – 3:22 pm
If you live in the United States — almost anywhere in the U.S. — there may be a gas well coming to a site near you. Even on property you think you own, a gas well may be on its way.
Then there is the problem of how much air and water pollution that neighborhood gas well will bring with it. So far pollution has brought the most public outcry, largely because it is the issue that environmentalists are concerned with.
The new abundance of natural gas is a bonanza, but it is not a free lunch. Gas wells near or in your backyard are dividing communities, particularly in rural areas, and could eventually divide the environmental movement.
- - - SNIP - - -
Horizontal drilling finds the lock and fracking turns the key. Whereas once drillers put down one straw and sucked, now they put down one straw and then send out others horizontally in many directions.
Thus enabled, gas can now be exploited where it was previously unreachable — in shale rock. But to get the rock to give up its harvest, fracking is essential. With it come problems, and gas — if you will — loses its innocence.
Fracking is environmentally contaminating:
a. The fracking agent along with the methane could seep into drinking water and alarm farmers and communities.
b. Methane tends to escape around the well and is a major greenhouse gas.
c. A gas well using fracking demands millions of gallons of water. Many pollutants, like mercury and nitrates, are borne to the surface with the discharged water, which is then held in leach ponds.
This negates the big environmental virtue of gas that it burns with half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal and none of the nitrous oxides. The lunch tab has gone from nearly free to quite pricey.
The problem for the environmental movement is that it has favored natural gas for electricity production over its bete noirs: nuclear and coal.
The problem of an unwanted gas well landing on land you thought you owned is an historical one which recognizes "split estates." This was a concept in law that the land had two values: the surface and the oil and gas contained under the surface.
These two estates could be split and a landowner could sell the rights to the subterranean estate. Historically, many have done so. Now with the value of shale gas rising in 30 or more states, homeowners are finding that grandpa or a previous owner may have tried to capitalize too early by selling the underground rights.
As Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council told a meeting on fracking in Washington this week, the law's results can be devastating. A family in Wise County, Texas, lost all value in their 10-acre holding when a gas company, which leased the mineral rights from neighbors who had bought them earlier, set up a rig and occupied five acres of land for their operations.
This is part of the back story on the new bonanza of natural gas that is giving so many so much hope for our energy future. The new gas is not your father's gas and while it is a boon, it is not all blessing.
– For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate
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Dear Jessica,
We don’t need to tell you the risks that hydraulic fracturing (“hydrofracking”) poses to our health and our homes. You’ve heard it already. Fracking could contaminate the drinking water supply for millions of New Yorkers.
Sure, the oil and gas companies are doing their best to spin the story and fool the public. And they have the NY Post, always keen to support corporate greed, on their side.
Fortunately, we have Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on ours. He sees through the spin. This week, he filed suit against the federal government for its failure to review fully the public health and safety effects posed by fracking in New York State.
Usually we ask you to sign a petition when we need to apply pressure to a politician to do the right thing. But it’s just as important that we recognize and thank our leaders when they stand up for us.
Please add your name to a “Thank You” card for Attorney General Schneiderman. We want him to know that we stand with him in opposition to fracking:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/ ... n_KEY=4211
Last month we told you about the operators in Pennsylvania who lost control of a natural gas well, spewing thousands of gallons of chemically contaminated water and forcing residents to evacuate their homes. Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, a British company has decided to halt fracking because they believe that it might have triggered two earthquakes.
But despite it all, the gas industry is doing everything it can to bring fracking into New York. “Drill first, ask questions later” is their motto.
Federal agencies are required to complete full impact studies before taking action that could significantly affect the environment. So the Attorney General is saying something true and plain to the feds: issuing regulations for gas drilling without first finding out all the facts violates the law. Not to mention common sense.
Tell Attorney General Schneiderman that we stand behind his efforts to enforce the law and get all the facts before this controversial drilling technique could wreak havoc on our communities.
Add your name: http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/ ... n_KEY=4211
We pride ourselves on holding elected officials accountable.
Leaders like Eric Schneiderman make our jobs easier.
Thanks,
Bill Lipton
Deputy Director, WFP
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18. Drill, drill, drill
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51 ... h.html.csp
First published May 27 2011 06:15PM Updated May 30, 2011 09:31AM
Weaning America off its addiction to fossil fuels, and members of Congress off the trough continually filled with hefty campaign contributions from gas and oil developers, will not be easy. But it’s essential for the long-term economic and environmental health of the country.
Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee represent two generations of Republican politicians determined to milk the lucrative, but probably short-term, boom of oil and gas development, regardless of its consequences. Both have signed on to legislation sponsored by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, one of the biggest champions of carbon fuels in Congress. They want to eliminate or severely restrict the ability of federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management to enact or enforce policies that limit drilling in any way.
Their default position is that taxpayers should continue to subsidize drilling for oil and gas anywhere in the West, clean air and water and precious recreational lands be damned.
A Senate vote to end the $21 billion that taxpayers have coughed up over the past decade to oil and gas developers was defeated the other day. The nonpartisan research group Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that Utahns alone pay $141 million a year in tax breaks to oil and gas companies. Nevertheless, Hatch and Lee both voted against ending the subsidies, and Hatch called the bill a debilitating tax hike on companies that have raked in billions in profits over the past decade. While supporting the subsidies, both senators pocket hefty contributions from oil and gas developers.
In comparison, developers of renewable energy from wind and sun get little such support.
[ . . . ]
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19. Julian Assange wins Martha Gellhorn journalism prize
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... horn-prize
WikiLeaks founder praised as 'brave, determined, independent' by judges
Jason Deans Friday June 3 2011 guardian.co.uk
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has won the 2011 Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism.
The annual prize is awarded to a journalist "whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or 'official drivel', as Martha Gellhorn called it". [ . . . ]
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20. Israel accused after Palestinian boys burned by mystery canister
Military experts say unidentified devices found in West Bank may have contained outlawed white phosphorus
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... k-canister
Conal Urquhart in Buweib The Guardian, Friday 3 June 2011
Eid Da'ajani, 15, suffered severe burns after picking up a mysterious silver canister close to his home
The Israeli army has been accused of leaving dangerous munitions near Palestinian homes after two boys were seriously burnt when they picked up a mysterious silver canister which exuded toxic white fumes.
A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion
The army does not deny leaving the devices, but would not identify them and suggested they were left over after training exercises. But the area where they were found does not feature on an army map of designated training areas and the canisters appeared new and unweathered.
Eid Da'ajani, 15, found the canister on 20 February, around 100 metres from his home in the village of Buweib, south of Hebron. The device, around 20cm (7.9 ins) long and 5cm in diameter, was lying in a scrubland where the boys were watching the family's goats.
[ . . . ]
1. A Devout Meditation For Brigette DePape
2. Conference: Tight Oil Canada 2011
3. Harper Doesn't Have The Equipment!
4. Environment Canada layoffs spook civil servants
5. Oilsands greenhouse gas emissions shot up in 2009: Environment Canada
6. Rosebud celebrates grand opening
7. Progress has $1B deal to develop, export B.C. gas
8. Technology gives western Canadian conventional crude production a boost
9. Our dependence on natural gas is growing
10. LISTEN: Water Under Threat: CETA, Fracking and Water Markets
11. Shale gas - Bouchard adopt a threatening tone (Translated (apparently, poorly) from French
12. Apache Corp Pulls Out Of New Brunswick Gas Fracking Project
13. NIKIFORUK: How Fish Use Energy Teaches True Oil Economics
14. TransCanada Keystone I Pipeline Shut Down Indefinitely Due to Safety Concerns
15. UK Opposed to Europe’s Tar Sands Import Ban
16. United States: State And Federal Law Enforcement Authorities Focus Attention On Marcellus Shale
17. Natural Gas Is Not Exactly Environmentally Clean
18. Drill, drill, drill
19. Julian Assange wins Martha Gellhorn journalism prize
20. Israel accused after Palestinian boys burned by mystery canister
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1. A Devout Meditation For Brigette DePape[/b]
(See original article below.....)
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A Devout Meditation For Brigette DePape
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/2011/06/
devout-meditation-for-brigette-depape.html
QUOTE:
"As for me, if I would have known that she was about to do what this young lady did I would have left my job and tuned into it. Why? Because it would have been most refreshing to know that amidst all the well-adapted and perfectly sane people gathered in the Senate, at least one person has a meaningful concept of love and considers it relevant enough to act upon it, is willing to respond to the needs and suffering of others, who recognizes all people as humans, and can apprehend other's pain as her own. She might have been disruptive, yes. But that's the point of protest. And she did it in a most dignified manner. A true Canadian. I hope she runs for political office some day. I'd vote for her in a heartbeat. And one of this mob had the audacity to call her insane? Undoubtedly, the truly Canadian thing for Jason Kenney to do is to apologize...and to mean it!!! "
FULL TEXT:
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/2011/06/
devout-meditation-for-brigette-depape.html
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WATCH: YOUTH PROTEST - ‘Stop Harper’ placard gets Senate page turfed from Throne Speech - See Photo
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... -notebook/
stop-harper-placard-gets-senate-page-turfed-from-throne-speech/article2046548/
DANIEL LEBLANC OTTAWA— Globe and Mail Update
Posted on Friday, June 3, 2011 3:50PM EDT
A Senate page disrupted the Speech from the Throne by taking out a sign saying "Stop Harper" in the middle of the opening of the new parliamentary session.
She was immediately removed from the Senate chamber and fired from her job.
Brigette DePape, from Manitoba, has been working in the Senate for a year. A statement issued in her name said she opposes the agenda of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, which won a majority mandate on May 2. [. . . ]
VIDEO: Senate page upstages Throne Speech
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2. Conference: Tight Oil Canada 2011
http://www.canadian-business-conferences.com/c55/
tight-oil-canada-2011/
Cutting Edge Thought Leadership On Cost Effective Completions Techniques & Technologies For Maximizing Tight Oil Production In Canada
Dear Colleague,
As I know you have an interest in Unconventional Oil & Gas, I wanted to check on your availability for Tight Oil Canada 2011 (June 22-23, 2011, Calgary Convention Centre). The event brings senior professionals from key Canadian E&P companies working in the Cardium, Viking, Bakken and Lower Shaunavon to share practical solutions on minimizing cost and maximizing productivity in tight oil production. (Emphasis Added. Ed.)
We are now expecting over 500 delegates to attend this event - make sure that you and your company don't miss out!
Speaker Organizations Include:
PetroBakken, Harvest Operations, Cenovus, Legacy Oil & Gas, Penn West Exploration, Enerplus Corporation, TAQA North, Wild Stream Exploration, Anterra Energy, Saskatchewan Government, Canadian Energy Exploration and more
Topics Examined Include:
Cost-Effective Completions Strategies, Oil Vs Water Fracture Fluids, Fracture Size & Spacing, Completions Technologies, Incorporating Geological Data Into Completions Strategy, Monobore Vs Conventional Drilling
As the conference is now only three weeks away - I wanted to check that you had the latest conference information. You can download the brochure now or simply reply to this email and I will forward it on to you. Please also let me know if you would like information on group booking rates or you can register online now.
Louise Gosling
Senior Marketing Manager
Canadian Business Conferences
T: 1-800-721-3915
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3. Harper Doesn't Have The Equipment!
A bold national energy plan can benefit the provinces (Article is below)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... s/economy/
economy-lab/daily-mix/a-bold-national-energy-plan-can-benefit-the-provinces/article2044612/
QUOTE: “These Prime Ministers, however, are today remembered as some of the strongest leaders our country has ever seen. Mr. Harper can continue to serve the status quo, and play it safe - or he can dare to be great.”
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Subject: Harper Doesn't Have The Equipment!
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 17:30:13 -0700
From: lagran <lagran@shaw.ca>
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. <Layton.J@parl.gc.ca>
CC: <Rae.B@parl.gc.ca>, "Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX" <EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca>, "bill boyd" <minister.er@gov.sk.ca>, <acameron@neb-one.gc.ca>
With the federal NEB headquartered in the industry town of Calgary, and seemingly taking directions from the large diameter pipeline companies, it's obvious Harper is not equipped to become involved in the energy business. The public interest part of the energy industry has suffered terrible losses, starting with Mulroney's Free Trade Agreement and deregulation of natural gas, moving on to the approval of Raw natural gas exports, and Harper's approvals for bitumen exports and dangerous diluents importations! Allowing the Americans to control natural gas prices of even Canadian's domestic usage, taught Harper nothing. He is prepared to entertain a foreign CARTEL of Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and Conoco Phillip's plea for Canadian borrowed public dollars to build a Mackenzie pipeline that would continue to isolate Canadian natural gas exports solely to the low -priced NAFTA market.
So weak is our present Tory government on international trade, along with international relations, the western provinces have united in an effort to offset these obvious short-comings. Alberta is so schizophrenic about losing control over their energy resource that they will fight those federal folks trying to help them regulate industry. And the industry that totally own the Alberta government, with CAPP's help, want desperately to keep Alberta's Low-Brow politicians in power! Alberta was the influence that Mulroney was pleasing when he deregulated Canada's natural gas that has lead to the lowest natural gas prices in the modern world!
The benefits the NEP brought to Canadians under Trudeau was simply transferred to the American's, with the Mulroney Tories gaining political power in Canada. Alberta really gained nothing, indeed it has lost the small amount of control it could once enforce, and the value of much of the government owned energy industries. What is indeed unbelievable is where the funds went for payment of Nova and Alberta Energy Corporation?
The western provinces have allowed industry through CAPP to play one province against the other until the provincial public are paying as much as industry through royalty tax credits to drill wells in western Canada!!
Many Canadians would prefer the presence of the federal government through a FREE government agency to help control and retain the proper value of property provincial sources say the public own, but is traded for political favour and funding!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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A bold national energy plan can benefit the provinces
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... s/economy/
economy-lab/daily-mix/a-bold-national-energy-plan-can-benefit-the-provinces/article2044612/
Warren Mabee Globe and Mail Blog Posted on Friday, June 3, 2011 7:54AM .
Warren Mabee is assistant professor and director of the Queen’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy, Queen’s University
In Germany, a pledge to abolish nuclear power by 2022 will see nearly 22 GW taken offline, a move that Canadians consider either a wake-up call or environmental vandalism. In Ontario, Tim Hudak’s Conservative party threatens to remove incentives for renewable energy contained in the controversial Green Energy and Green Economy Act if elected. Like it or hate it, energy is becoming a wedge issue around which elections are won and lost. Recognizing this, what should Prime Minister Stephen Harper do? There is a way for his government to get out in front of these issues and begin laying the groundwork for a truly Canadian energy strategy -- without compromising its commitment to provincial jurisdiction over energy resources. [ . . . ]
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4. Environment Canada layoffs spook civil servants
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/06/02/
ottawa-layoffs-environment-canada.html?ref=rss
CBC News Posted: Jun 2, 2011 10:11 PM ET Last Updated: Jun 2, 2011 10:50 PM ET
More than two dozen Environment Canada employees have received layoff notices, spurring fears among federal civil servants that thousands of job losses loom as the government struggles to balance its budget.
The notices were handed out this week to at least 28 scientists at the department, said Bill Pynn, president of the Union of Environment Workers, a branch of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. The personnel were all term employees, many of them nearing permanent status. [ . . . ]
Related Links (Active at URL above)
Clement prepared for difficult Treasury Board post
Public servants fear layoffs amid Tory majority
Federal workers brace for possible job cuts
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5. Oilsands greenhouse gas emissions shot up in 2009: Environment Canada
http://www.canada.com/business/Oilsands ... story.html
BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS JUNE 3, 2011 8:00 AM
The Herald's Don Braid says few stories have caused as much local head-scratching as May 30's front-page screamer claiming the federal Tories intentionally left oilsands emissions out of a report to the United Nations.
After days of discussions with an oil and gas industry association, Environment Canada has confirmed a substantial rise in greenhouse gas emissions from the oilsands sector in 2009, along with data that casts doubts on whether the industry can continue to reduce emissions per barrel of oil produced.
While overall emissions from the sector rose by 11 per cent in 2009 -a new calculation based on revised Environment Canada estimates for oilsands emissions in 2008 -department spokesman Mark Johnson said the data indicated "very little change in the total emissions intensity in oilsands" in 2009.
The details on the rise in emissions for the sector were left out of an inventory report on greenhouse gas emissions submitted by Canada to the UN. But they were released gradually over the past week by Environment Canada through a series of e-mails in response to questions from Postmedia News. The department declined all interview requests, except for one with a department official that was cancelled at the last minute without explanation. [ . . . ]
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6. Rosebud celebrates grand opening
http://www.hannaherald.com/ArticleDispl ... ?e=3152231
June 3, 2011 Josh Chalmers Standard Reporter
In recognition of both the past and the future the Grand Opening of the new Rosebud Mercantile on May 27 coincided with Centennial Celebrations for the original building.
Many got their first look at the new mercantile. The 10,000 square foot building features the Encana Conference Centre upstairs, and a new restaurant portion called Wild Horse Jacks, named after area rancher 'Wild Horse' Jack Morton.
Attendees of the event included representatives of the municipal, provincial and federal governments as well as individual and corporate sponsors.
"The resiliency of the mercantile is a testament to the community spirit of Rosebud," said Wheatland County Division 6 Councillor Glenn Koester. "Congratulations are to be extended to the Rosebud Centre for the Arts on the completion of this expansion and renovation of the mercantile. Thanks to their foresight this great facility will last for another 100 years and continue to serve the needs of Rosebud and Wheatland County."
The original mercantile began by serving the railway starting in 1911. In the 1970s the mercantile was purchased by Rosebud School of the Arts and has served as the host for the dining portion of the Rosebud Dinner Theatre. The new building will continue to serve as the hub for the town's thriving arts community. [ . . . ]
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Rosebud landowner sues over alleged well contamination
http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/05/ro ... amination/
May 3, 2011 By: Enrique Massot
A landowner in the southern Alberta hamlet of Rosebud is claiming millions in damages from an oil and gas company for allegedly rendering her water undrinkable in the last decade because of hydraulic fracturing — a practice being used north of Cochrane for oil drilling operations there.
On April 27, Jessica Ernst presented at a Calgary press conference a 73-page statement of claim that has been filed at the Drumheller’s judicial centre of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.
The claim, prepared by Toronto-based lawyers Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless of Klippensteins Barristers and Solicitors, alleges EnCana Corporation “negligently injected chemical fracturing fluids at high pressure into coal seams located at shallow depths below ground.”
Ernst, a 54-year-old oil patch consultant, also alleges Alberta Environment and the Energy Resource Conservation Board (ERCB) failed to use their powers to protect the citizens’ water supply in the area.
None of the allegations contained in Ernst’s claim have been proven in court.
Drilling released methane and other contaminants into underground freshwater supplies and specifically into Ernst’s water well, the statement of claim read.
In 2001, the claim noted EnCana perforated into the Rosebud aquifer and hydraulically fractured coal seams starting 121.5 metres below ground.
“Three of these fractures were at depths that correspond to the depth of local water wells,” the claim read.
The statement of claim also alleges the operation caused water to be removed from the aquifer, reducing hydrostatic pressure in the same aquifer.
That, in turn, “caused the release of substantial quantities of methane from the aquifer coal seams into the Ernst water well,” the statement read.
Ernst is seeking $11.7 million in damages from EnCana.
EnCana’s spokesperson Alan Boras did not want to speak about Ernst’s claim.
“Because it’s before the courts we are not commenting on the lawsuit,” he told the Eagle on April 29. [ . . . ]
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7. Progress has $1B deal to develop, export B.C. gas
Malaysian company Petronas will invest in and market LNG
CBC News Posted: Jun 2, 2011 9:50 AM ET Last Updated: Jun 2, 2011 4:12 PM ET
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2 ... shale.html
Progress Energy Resources Corp. has a framework agreement to sell half of its interest in three northeast British Columbia shale gas properties for $1.07 billion in a deal aimed at developing and exporting liquified natural gas to Asia, the company said Thursday.
The buyer is Petronas, the Malaysian national oil company, which will bring capital and its access to LNG markets to the table.
The strategic partnership will enable the company to speed up its growth strategy, Michael Culbert, president and CEO of Calgary-based Progress, said in a news release.
The Progress deal is the most recent in a series that have seen international companies inject billions of dollars into B.C. shale gas developments.
Progress shares closed up 59 cents or 4.2 per cent to $14.57 in TSX trading.
New gas export facility considered
The partnership will look for ways to develop liquefied natural gas exports. It will establish an LNG export joint venture, 80 per cent owned by Petronas and 20 per cent by Progress, which will look into building and operating a new LNG export facility on B.C.'s west coast.
Petronas would operate the facility, and the two companies would jointly market the LNG using Petronas' existing network of global LNG customers. [ . . ]
Related Links (Links active on URL above)
Encana in $5.4B deal with PetroChina
Talisman, Sasol in second B.C. deal
Penn West, Mitsubishi in joint venture
Three-month TSX trading in Progress
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8. Technology gives western Canadian conventional crude production a boost
Declines switch to increases on horizontal drilling
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Te ... story.html
BY DINA O'MEARA, CALGARY HERALD JUNE 2, 2011 6:03 PM COMMENTS (2)
After years of declining production in Western Canada, conventional oil is making a come back on strong prices and horizontal drilling, according to a new industry report.
CALGARY — Conventional oil has made a comeback in Western Canada, rebounding from almost a decade of declining production to boost overall supply along with growing bitumen volumes.
By 2025 conventional crude will add about 200,000 barrels per day out of 400,000 bpd additional volumes added to last year’s forecast, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
The association now expects total Canadian oil production to reach 4.7 million barrels per day, from 2.8 million produced last year.
About half of the increase comes at the tail end of the 15-year forecast from new oilsands projects. The surprise for CAPP was evidence of a resurgence in conventional oil at the front of the prediction time span.
“What’s interesting to us is that it’s the first time in about a decade that we’ve seen a reversal in the decline that’s been the maturing nature of the western basin,” said Greg Stringham, CAPP vice-president of marketing.
The resurgence could be even stronger than the association had calculated, based on the surprising results of Wednesday’s provincial land sale, Stringham said.
Producers shelled out a record-breaking $842 million for oil and gas licences, almost double the provincial take to date and including a $107 million for a township-sized chunk of land northwest of Red Deer.
Stringham attributed the rise in conventional production to the use of new technologies on older fields on the back of strong oil prices and favourable royalty changes in Alberta.
Despite the increase, conventional oil production in Western Canada will decline to around 860,000 barrels per day by 2025, from 1.08 million bpd in 2010, according to the report.
Oilsands production will increase to 3.73 million bpd from 1.47 million bpd during the same time frame. [ . . . ]
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9. Our dependence on natural gas is growing
http://www.troymedia.com/2011/06/01/our ... s-growing/
First of a 19-part Special June 1, 2011
CALGARY, AB, June 1, 2011/ Troy Media/ – On the coldest Alberta winter mornings, Robert Young awakens to cozy warmth, and heads into a hot shower before he cooks himself breakfast. A quick check of his e-mail and he heads off to work.
His head is spinning by 10 o’clock with the business of running Beatniq and Piq Niq, a trendy jazz club and French bistro in downtown Calgary. Like most Canadians, the last thing on his mind is what makes his day run so smoothly.
Natural gas is the unsung hero in this club owner’s life: From his hot shower and morning coffee, to the electricity that powers his computer and the flame that cooks his patrons’ dinner, the clean-burning energy source is something of a silent partner to Young.
Taking natural gas for granted
“You don’t think about how much you use it,” he shrugs. “I think we all just take natural gas for granted.”
Indeed, in many parts of the country, Canadians use natural gas in almost every aspect of their lives, yet they do so with barely a thought. Light a match to this question, and the answer burns bright: natural gas is virtually everywhere.
Composed primarily of methane, the natural gas used by Young in his home and at his restaurant is ubiquitous: According to Encana, the Calgary-based energy company, Canadians and our neighbours to the south use more than 6.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas each year to heat homes and water, cook food and power generators. To understand the scale of its use, consider the fact that one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day is enough to fuel 3.9 million mid-sized cars, and would give them enough juice to travel 25,000 km a year. [ . . . . ]
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10. LISTEN: Water Under Threat: CETA, Fracking and Water Markets
http://sacpa.ca/index.php?p=38&action=v ... ion&ID=802
By Maude Barlow – June 1, 2011 at Lethbridge Memorial Centre
Water is vital to people’s health and livelihoods and yet our freshwater faces crises including contamination, shortages, and privatization. Canada’s water systems are under threat from a free-trade agreement being negotiated between Canada and the European Union called the Comprehensive Economic Free Trade Agreement (CETA). A recent report from CUPE and the Council of Canadians exposes how CETA would open public water systems across Canada to privatization. In Alberta, the provincial government has plans to introduce legislation to create a province-wide, deregulated water market that distributes water based on the ability of one to pay, instead of being based on environmental needs and the public interest. [ . . . ]
LISTEN: 3 Tracks
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11. Shale gas - Bouchard adopt a threatening tone (Translated (apparently, poorly) from French
http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebe ... n-menacant
The industry requires compensation under penalty of prosecution, for the loss of access to the bed of the St. Lawrence and islands of the estuary
Alexander Shields June 1, 2011 Quebec
Lucien Bouchard demanded yesterday a compensation process for shale gas industry, due to the revocation by the government of exploration permits in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The plea of the President of the Oil and Gas Association of Quebec, who testified before the committee on Bill 18, which cancels all permits for the estuary, was also punctuated by a collision with Mr. Amir Khadir. The latter accused him of not defending Quebec's interests by working to protect the "multinational" seeking to "plunder our natural resources."
The former prime minister had first presented to parliamentarians to assert that the decision to block access to the bed of the St. Lawrence River and the islands situated in the heart of the estuary requires to pay financial compensation to companies in the hydrocarbon sector.
Otherwise they could bring "remedy" in court to succeed. Bill 18, "limiting oil and gas activities" provides that "no compensation" will be paid by the state.
The decision to revoke the license, announced in September, was taken to protect these natural areas and resort very fragile. A first strategic environmental assessment conducted for the entire estuary in effect concluded that the risks associated with the exploitation of hydrocarbons were much too high to be considered. Hence the choice of Minister Nathalie Normandeau to forbid any exploration, including the islands already under license, the Island of Orleans, Goose Island, Crane Island, Isle aux Coudres , Green Island, the Isle of Bic and the island of St. Barnabas. At 10 cents an acre, a permit to Green Island for example, costs $ 117.70 per year. In most cases, the municipal authorities of these islands were not aware of issue of such permits. [ . . . ]
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12. Apache Corp Pulls Out Of New Brunswick Gas Fracking Project
http://www.desmogblog.com/apache-corp-p ... ng-project
T.J. SCOLNICK 2 June 11
Halifax’s Corridor Resources Ltd. has announced that Apache Canada Ltd., a subsidiary of Houston’s Apache Corporation, is giving up on unconventional gas exploration southwest of Moncton, in New Brunswick. This is a major setback for the drillers using hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) on Canada’s east coast, since the $25 million Apache has already invested in dangerous unconventional gas drilling was expected to be supplemented by an extra $100 million.
Last year, Corridor, a smaller player in the gas industry, partnered with Apache in order to test the profitability of two horizontal trial wells into the Frederick Brook shale deposit located in the Elgin region of the province. While Corridor considers Elgin and the surrounding area to contain North America’s largest gas concentrations per square kilometer [pdf], the Will DeMille G-59 and Green Road B-41 test wells were not proving commercially viable.
When their partnership was announced, the companies were hoping to drill up to 480 wells, but with meager results from the two wells in phase 1, and a June 1st deadline to decide whether to invest additional millions or to opt out entirely, Apache balked and walked away from phase 2. [ . . . ]
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13. NIKIFORUK: How Fish Use Energy Teaches True Oil Economics
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/03/Fi ... gyTeaches/
ENERGY & EQUITY, a Tyee column by Andrew Nikiforuk, this week explains the secret of EROI.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, June 3, 2011 TheTyee.ca
Charlie Hall, the outspoken ecologist who charges that neoclassical economists largely write fairy tales, is having a good day in Puerto Rico. The sun is shining and girls in bikinis are walking down the beach.
But Hall, as usual, is thinking about how surplus energy makes the world go around and why the U.S. economy is faltering.
Now Hall, a 68-year-old New England born professor with a gift for plain speaking, has made a name for himself by championing a revolutionary idea known as energy return on energy invested (EROI). Every plant, animal and human civilization lives by EROI.
The law isn't rocket science. Whenever a salmon, bear, lodgepole or Dow Jones company spends more energy on an activity than they get back, death follows. Or in corporate terms, debt builds and things fall apart. [ . . . [
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14. TransCanada Keystone I Pipeline Shut Down Indefinitely Due to Safety Concerns
http://www.desmogblog.com/breaking-tran ... y-concerns
3 June 11
Following a string of oil spills, TransCanada's Keystone I tar sands oil pipeline has been indefinitely shut down, and banned from restarting operations. Today, the Pipelines and Hazerdous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a Corrective Action Order, which stops use of the pipeline until the regulator determines that safety problems have been corrected.
In the order, Jeffrey Wiese, associate administrator for pipeline safety at the Department of Transportation, wrote:
"I find that the continued operation of the pipeline without corrective measures would be hazardous to life, property and the environment. Additionally, after considering the circumstances surrounding the May 7 and May 29, 2011 failures, the proximity of the pipeline to populated areas, water bodies, public roadways and high consequence areas, the hazardous nature of the product the pipeline transports, the ongoing investigation to determine the cause of the failures, and the potential for the conditions causing the failures to be present elsewhere on the pipeline, I find that a failure to issue this Order expeditiously to require immediate corrective action would result in likely serious harm to life, property, and the environment."
The Keystone I pipeline has spilled 12 times since beginning operation less than one year ago. Late last year, TransCanada had to dig up portions of the pipeline when abnormalities were discovered.
Experts have raised concerns that tar sands oil pipelines pose serious safety risks due to the corrosive, acidic quality of tar sands oil, which is also pumped at higher temperatures and pressures than conventional oil.
This is a major blow for TransCanada, who is seeking approval from the State Department to construct the Keystone XL pipeline. The $13 billion Keystone XL pipeline would significantly increase the Canadian export of of dirty tar sands bitumen to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day. This project would pump crude from Canada to refineries in Texas, crossing the Ogallala Aquifer, America's largest aquifer and a source of drinking water for two million people. [ . . . ]
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U.S. shuts down Keystone pipeline
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-in ... le2046610/
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE, SHAWN MCCARTHY
Calgary, Ottawa— Globe and Mail Update
Published Friday, Jun. 03, 2011 4:25PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jun. 03, 2011 5:38PM EDT
A U.S. government agency has issued a corrective action order, keeping the TransCanada Corp. (TRP-T42.950.190.44%) Keystone pipeline shut down until the company completes a series of steps.
The order by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration was issued suddenly Friday afternoon after U.S. regulators decided to forego normal requirements for prior notice and a hearing with TransCanada. [ . . . ]
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15. UK Opposed to Europe’s Tar Sands Import Ban
http://www.desmogblog.com/uk-opposed-eu ... import-ban
2 June 11
While most European countries are working on a proposal that would effectively ban the use of Canadian tar sands in the European Union, the United Kingdom has made it clear that they will not support any measure to reduce their reliance on tar sands. Britain joins the Netherlands as one of only two countries that want to continue to have the option to use oil derived from Canadian tar sands.
The EU is working to produce a new “fuel directive” this year that would reduce the amount of emissions acceptable from fuels used for transportation. The directive would require a 6% reduction in the amount of emissions from vehicle fuel over the next 9 years. Because the emissions from tar sands run about 23% higher than those from traditional fossil fuels, this would mean that their use in the EU would be effectively prohibited. [ . . . ]
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16. United States: State And Federal Law Enforcement Authorities Focus Attention On Marcellus Shale
http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/arti ... _access=on
27 May 2011 Article by Ronald A. Sarachan and Bonnie Barnett
The U.S. Department of Justice is sponsoring a two-day law enforcement conference this week in State College, Pa., on the Marcellus Shale. The purpose is to educate local law enforcement in Pennsylvania on environmental and other crimes specific to the Marcellus Shale. The conference is open only to law enforcement and prosecutors. It is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Criminal Investigations Division, the FBI, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and other federal and state law enforcement agencies. Scheduled speakers include Peter J. Smith, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Ignacia Moreno, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Justice Department. The high level speakers and extensive resources devoted to the conference reflect the very high priority being placed by government authorities on environmental and other criminal enforcement related to the Marcellus Shale. [ . . . ]
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17. Natural Gas Is Not Exactly Environmentally Clean
http://www.whchronicle.com/2011/05/natu ... lly-clean/
By Llewellyn King Published May 30, 2011 – 3:22 pm
If you live in the United States — almost anywhere in the U.S. — there may be a gas well coming to a site near you. Even on property you think you own, a gas well may be on its way.
Then there is the problem of how much air and water pollution that neighborhood gas well will bring with it. So far pollution has brought the most public outcry, largely because it is the issue that environmentalists are concerned with.
The new abundance of natural gas is a bonanza, but it is not a free lunch. Gas wells near or in your backyard are dividing communities, particularly in rural areas, and could eventually divide the environmental movement.
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Horizontal drilling finds the lock and fracking turns the key. Whereas once drillers put down one straw and sucked, now they put down one straw and then send out others horizontally in many directions.
Thus enabled, gas can now be exploited where it was previously unreachable — in shale rock. But to get the rock to give up its harvest, fracking is essential. With it come problems, and gas — if you will — loses its innocence.
Fracking is environmentally contaminating:
a. The fracking agent along with the methane could seep into drinking water and alarm farmers and communities.
b. Methane tends to escape around the well and is a major greenhouse gas.
c. A gas well using fracking demands millions of gallons of water. Many pollutants, like mercury and nitrates, are borne to the surface with the discharged water, which is then held in leach ponds.
This negates the big environmental virtue of gas that it burns with half the carbon dioxide emissions of coal and none of the nitrous oxides. The lunch tab has gone from nearly free to quite pricey.
The problem for the environmental movement is that it has favored natural gas for electricity production over its bete noirs: nuclear and coal.
The problem of an unwanted gas well landing on land you thought you owned is an historical one which recognizes "split estates." This was a concept in law that the land had two values: the surface and the oil and gas contained under the surface.
These two estates could be split and a landowner could sell the rights to the subterranean estate. Historically, many have done so. Now with the value of shale gas rising in 30 or more states, homeowners are finding that grandpa or a previous owner may have tried to capitalize too early by selling the underground rights.
As Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council told a meeting on fracking in Washington this week, the law's results can be devastating. A family in Wise County, Texas, lost all value in their 10-acre holding when a gas company, which leased the mineral rights from neighbors who had bought them earlier, set up a rig and occupied five acres of land for their operations.
This is part of the back story on the new bonanza of natural gas that is giving so many so much hope for our energy future. The new gas is not your father's gas and while it is a boon, it is not all blessing.
– For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate
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Dear Jessica,
We don’t need to tell you the risks that hydraulic fracturing (“hydrofracking”) poses to our health and our homes. You’ve heard it already. Fracking could contaminate the drinking water supply for millions of New Yorkers.
Sure, the oil and gas companies are doing their best to spin the story and fool the public. And they have the NY Post, always keen to support corporate greed, on their side.
Fortunately, we have Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on ours. He sees through the spin. This week, he filed suit against the federal government for its failure to review fully the public health and safety effects posed by fracking in New York State.
Usually we ask you to sign a petition when we need to apply pressure to a politician to do the right thing. But it’s just as important that we recognize and thank our leaders when they stand up for us.
Please add your name to a “Thank You” card for Attorney General Schneiderman. We want him to know that we stand with him in opposition to fracking:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/ ... n_KEY=4211
Last month we told you about the operators in Pennsylvania who lost control of a natural gas well, spewing thousands of gallons of chemically contaminated water and forcing residents to evacuate their homes. Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, a British company has decided to halt fracking because they believe that it might have triggered two earthquakes.
But despite it all, the gas industry is doing everything it can to bring fracking into New York. “Drill first, ask questions later” is their motto.
Federal agencies are required to complete full impact studies before taking action that could significantly affect the environment. So the Attorney General is saying something true and plain to the feds: issuing regulations for gas drilling without first finding out all the facts violates the law. Not to mention common sense.
Tell Attorney General Schneiderman that we stand behind his efforts to enforce the law and get all the facts before this controversial drilling technique could wreak havoc on our communities.
Add your name: http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/ ... n_KEY=4211
We pride ourselves on holding elected officials accountable.
Leaders like Eric Schneiderman make our jobs easier.
Thanks,
Bill Lipton
Deputy Director, WFP
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18. Drill, drill, drill
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51 ... h.html.csp
First published May 27 2011 06:15PM Updated May 30, 2011 09:31AM
Weaning America off its addiction to fossil fuels, and members of Congress off the trough continually filled with hefty campaign contributions from gas and oil developers, will not be easy. But it’s essential for the long-term economic and environmental health of the country.
Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee represent two generations of Republican politicians determined to milk the lucrative, but probably short-term, boom of oil and gas development, regardless of its consequences. Both have signed on to legislation sponsored by Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, one of the biggest champions of carbon fuels in Congress. They want to eliminate or severely restrict the ability of federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management to enact or enforce policies that limit drilling in any way.
Their default position is that taxpayers should continue to subsidize drilling for oil and gas anywhere in the West, clean air and water and precious recreational lands be damned.
A Senate vote to end the $21 billion that taxpayers have coughed up over the past decade to oil and gas developers was defeated the other day. The nonpartisan research group Taxpayers for Common Sense reports that Utahns alone pay $141 million a year in tax breaks to oil and gas companies. Nevertheless, Hatch and Lee both voted against ending the subsidies, and Hatch called the bill a debilitating tax hike on companies that have raked in billions in profits over the past decade. While supporting the subsidies, both senators pocket hefty contributions from oil and gas developers.
In comparison, developers of renewable energy from wind and sun get little such support.
[ . . . ]
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19. Julian Assange wins Martha Gellhorn journalism prize
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... horn-prize
WikiLeaks founder praised as 'brave, determined, independent' by judges
Jason Deans Friday June 3 2011 guardian.co.uk
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, has won the 2011 Martha Gellhorn prize for journalism.
The annual prize is awarded to a journalist "whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or 'official drivel', as Martha Gellhorn called it". [ . . . ]
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20. Israel accused after Palestinian boys burned by mystery canister
Military experts say unidentified devices found in West Bank may have contained outlawed white phosphorus
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ju ... k-canister
Conal Urquhart in Buweib The Guardian, Friday 3 June 2011
Eid Da'ajani, 15, suffered severe burns after picking up a mysterious silver canister close to his home
The Israeli army has been accused of leaving dangerous munitions near Palestinian homes after two boys were seriously burnt when they picked up a mysterious silver canister which exuded toxic white fumes.
A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion
The army does not deny leaving the devices, but would not identify them and suggested they were left over after training exercises. But the area where they were found does not feature on an army map of designated training areas and the canisters appeared new and unweathered.
Eid Da'ajani, 15, found the canister on 20 February, around 100 metres from his home in the village of Buweib, south of Hebron. The device, around 20cm (7.9 ins) long and 5cm in diameter, was lying in a scrubland where the boys were watching the family's goats.
[ . . . ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS: June 20, 2011 – Part 1
by Oscar » Mon Jun 20, 2011 2:44 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS: June 20, 2011 – Part 1
1. Penobsquis Residents Seek Compensation for Damages
2. PRESS RELEASE: PADDLE FOR WATER – Say No to Shale Gas
3. WATCH: ERNST: Addressing the UN - Allegations of an Alberta Cover-up
4. WATCH: ERNST: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction
5. Fracking, methane and drinking water
6. Encana behind Alberta land sale record - Firm targets new gas in Duvernay
7. Encana close to finalizing sale of Cabin Gas Plant: Canada division head
8. Ottawa maintains right to intervene in shale-gas industry
9. WATCH: Shale gas 101-Utica.mov gasdeschiste
10. Month-long shale gas protest ends in Montreal
11. SHALE GAS – A BUSINESS PLAN VERY MUCH IN THE RED
12. NIKIFORUK: National Energy Board: Captured Regulator? What happens when watchdog becomes lapdog?
13. Canada on Secret Oil Offensive: Documents
14. SHIELDS: IF WE OWN IT--PROVE IT!!
15. NIKIFORUK: Wikileaks Shines Light on Alberta's $16-Billion Electricity Scandal
16. SHIELDS: We Can Admire CAPP's Progress and Industry Profits!!---We Only Own The Resource!!
17. SHIELDS: U.S. LNG Exports---Using Canadian Natural Gas!!
18. Shields: Our Largest Industry!
19. SHIELDS: The Public Interest---Decided By The Public!!
20. First Nations now covered by Human Rights Act
21. Conditions on reserves have worsened, AG says
22. Murder in El Salvador Calls Canadian Mining Interests Into Question
23. A Government Beyond Reproach
MORE INFO:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=31
=============
1. Penobsquis Residents Seek Compensation for Damages
http://www.penobsquis.ca/2011/05/
mining-commissioner-hearings-resume/
A group of Penobsquis homeowners in rural New Brunswick are taking action against PotashCorp Inc. for damages resulting from their mining activities.
Since discussions with the government of New Brunswick and PotashCorp Inc. have failed to adequately address concerns, these residents are forced to take the next step as directed by the Mining Act, and have filed a claim with the Mining Commissioner.
This is a precedent setting legal battle.
The hearings resume on June 20 at 9am at the All Seasons Restaurant in Sussex N.B. and are open to the public.
VIDEO Link:
http://youtu.be/Imk1VgdjHQI
Support Us!
Donations are needed to help fund costs associated with pursuing justice for residents of Penobsquis.
Contact us at: concernedcitizensofpenobsquis@yahoo.ca
Donations can be sent to:
Concerned Citizens of Penobsquis
81 Penobsquis Loop Road
Penobsquis, NB E4G 2B6
Regards,
Rob Turgeon
Concerned Citizens of Penobsquis
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
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2. PRESS RELEASE: PADDLE FOR WATER – Say No to Shale Gas
http://nbharbinger.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/
eco-action-calendar-june-9-2/
Water First is a recently formed group of Hampton citizens who are concerned about shale gas exploration in New Brunswick. This exploration involves a procedure called ‘fracking’. Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing and involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, at high pressure, into the ground (shale rock) to fracture the rock in order to release trapped natural gas.
Fracking directly threatens all of our clean, drinkable water supplies. The chemicals released are pressurized and shot over a huge area, often traveling many kilometers in horizontal directions from the surface site. Unfortunately, water veins also spread out along the fracking path, flowing, at times, in the form of underground channels, shoots and veins. This brings the threat of chemical contamination kilometers from the initial intrusion into the water supply of everyone’s village, town, city or backyard. Some of the chemicals used are long lasting and highly toxic. In addition, five and a half million gallons of water, on average, are needed for each well and 100% of this becomes contaminated. Where will this water come from? Water is sacred and essential to all life.
Our food, our agriculture, our lives; indeed, our very planet, depend on clean, unpolluted sources of fresh water.
In a recent Globe and Mail article (6/02/11, A2) the British Geological Survey suggests that the increased seismic activity of “fracking may be at fault” in two recent earthquakes. Point Lepreau is built over a fault. Fracking in New Brunswick will affect all of our backyards. We cannot adopt the ‘Nimby’ attitude (It’s ok as long as it does not occur in my own backyard). We need to act on this now! People are saying “No to fracking” the world over.
Water First is organizing a ‘Paddle for Water’ this Saturday, June 18th, at 1 p.m. at the Hampton River Centre (Green Bridge). There will be a flotilla of war canoes, kayaks and boats of every type. Concerned citizens and representatives of more than 30 citizens’ groups around the province will be represented to raise awareness and to remind our politicians of the province that they are our elected representatives, in our employ, and that we in NO WAY want this exploitation of the people’s water resources and the planet to go on. Bring your own ‘Say No to Shale Gas’ sign and join us in a war canoe; bring your own watercraft; rent a kayak or canoe from Osprey Adventures; or gather on the shore in support of maintaining clean water. Gather at 1 p.m.; the Paddle will be from 2-3 p.m.
That evening at 7 p.m., to continue our clean water event, there will be a special, complimentary showing of the prize-winning documentary ‘Gasland’, which has enlightened audiences throughout North America and Europe to the continued threat of shale gas exploration.
Contact: Chris Rendell at (506) 832-4660 or Sarah Wilbur at (506) 476-6956
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3. WATCH: ERNST: Addressing the UN - Allegations of an Alberta Cover-up
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/
Stories.aspx?pd=2291&FlashVars=Video/PTR_050211.flv
Monday, May 02, 2011
It’s a long way from Rosebud to Manhattan, but Jessica Ernst is there to tell the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development that gas production has allegedly contaminated her drinking water. Ernst is suing Encana, the Alberta Government and its Energy Resource Conservation Board for $33 million. She claims Provincially-approved hydraulic fracturing by the energy company has tainted well water with chemicals. What does Ernst hope to gain at the UN? Is there proof she can, as she says, light her water on fire...if so, why? And why does she accuse Alberta and energy companies of an alleged cover-up? Joining us for this discussion is Jessica Ernst, Environmental Consultant in the oil and gas industry
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4. WATCH: ERNST: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction (about 30 mins.)
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Stories.aspx?pd=2455
June 15, 2011
Fracking is a burgeoning technology being used to extract natural gas locked within rock formations. Fluid is pumped into natural or man made fractures under high pressure to open up cracks and access hard to reach reservoirs. Critics are calling for a moratorium on fracking, saying it poses serious health risks to nearby residents, damages the environment and could even cause small earthquakes. Supporters say those claims are overblown, and fracking is essential to Alberta's natural gas industry. Is fracking dangerous? Is it critical to our economic future? How should Alberta proceed? Joining us for this discussion is Jessica Ernst, Rosebud resident and former energy sector consultant is now suing Encana; Tim Marchant, Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Energy Geopolitics at the University of Calgary; and Ben Parfitt, Resource Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
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5. Fracking, methane and drinking water
http://envirolaw.com/fracking-methane-drinking-water/
by DIANNE SAXE on MAY 17, 2011
The Ernst v. Encana fracking lawsuit gained strength this month with the publication of Rob Jackson’s peer-reviewed paper: “Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing.”
( http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/pnas2011.html )
Jackson is a professor at Duke University, and his paper is published in the leading journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He shows strong evidence for methane contamination of drinking water where shalegas extraction is occurring.
“In active gas-extraction areas (one or more gas wells within 1 km), average and maximum methane concentrations in drinking-water wells increased with proximity to the nearest gas well and were … a potential explosion hazard… We conclude that greater stewardship, data, and— possibly—regulation are needed to ensure the sustainable future of shale-gas extraction and to improve public confidence in its use.”
For a lay explanation of the paper:
http://www.loe.org/shows/
segments.html?programID=11-P13-00019&segmentID=1
Jackson has also studied the potential risks that carbon sequestration poses to drinking water aquifers:
( http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/est2011a.html )
another issue that energy and environment regulators should be taking into account.
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6. Encana behind Alberta land sale record - Firm targets new gas in Duvernay
http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Encana+behind+Alberta+land+sale+record/4941741/story.html#ixzz1PGPl3KWASomething
BY REBECCA PENTY, CALGARY HERALD JUNE 14, 2011 7:20 AM
Encana Corp. took part in Alberta's record land sale to target a new gas opportunity potentially as liquids-rich as the hottest current play in the U.S., executive vice-president Mike Graham said Monday.
The continent's second largest producer of natural gas participated in the $842-million rights sale on June 1, Graham admitted, not revealing how much Encana spent or how much land it bought up.
He said the firm is trying to prove the potential of liquids-rich gas in the Duvernay formation in the Rimbey area, about 60 kilometres northwest of Red Deer.
"We're excited about results from the Duvernay," Graham told reporters after speaking at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers annual Oil and Gas Investment Symposium, noting Encana will drill 3-4 wells in the shale by year's end.
Graham, the president of Encana's Canadian operations, made the first public admission Encana was in on the bidding for oil and gas leases and licences, a highly secretive process that sees companies have landsmen submit offers on their behalf.
Alberta oil and gas companies paid, on average, $3,100 per hectare on June 1 for leases or licences on 271,000 hectares in the largest sale on record for the province; the next sale will take place on Wednesday.
Research analysts at boutique investment banking firm Peters and Co. estimated in a note that the vast majority of money spent -$750 million -was on deep rights likely targeting the Duvernay shale and said a significant portion of acquired Crown acreage is interspersed with freehold title lands, with Encana being the dominant owner.
Encana owns just over 76,000 hectares of land underlain by the Duvernay, Graham said, noting competitors have been producing more than five million cubic feet of gas per day from the shale, with 50-200 barrels of liquids per mcf of gas. [ . . . ]
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7. Encana close to finalizing sale of Cabin Gas Plant: Canada division head
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/
NaturalGas/6185656
Calgary (Platts)--13Jun2011/533 pm EDT/2133 GMT
Encana is close to finalizing a sale of its Cabin Gas Plant project located 60 km northeast of Fort Nelson in the Horn River basin, British Columbia.
"We will soon be announcing the disposition of that asset," Mike Graham, president of the Canada Division, said Monday at the annual Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers oil and gas conference.
Encana is building the Cabin plant to serve producers in the Horn River natural gas play in northeast British Columbia.
The facility is being constructed in stages, with phase 1 due to start production in 2012 at a rate of 400,000 Mcf/d, according to Encana spokesman Alan Boras.
"As a company, we are shifting our target from dry gas to rich liquids," Graham said, noting the company is a 30% partner in the Kitimat LNG project, "for which a final investment decision will be taken later this year."
The Kitimat LNG export terminal on the coast of central British Columbia would have an initial capacity of 700,000 Mcf/d in the first of two potential phases.
The project includes a 36-inch diameter pipeline, known as Pacific Trails, running 436 km from Spectra Energy's gas transmission system at Summit Lake, British Columbia, to Kitimat. [ . . . ]
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8. Ottawa maintains right to intervene in shale-gas industry
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Ottawa+maintains+right+intervene+shale+industry/4962493/story.html
Harper government studying long-term effects of controversial 'fracking' technique, environment minister says
REUTERS, WITH FILES FROM VANCOUVER SUN JUNE 17, 2011
The Canadian government said on Thursday it can intervene in the shalegas industry if it sees an environmental threat from a burgeoning extraction method that involves pumping chemicals into the ground.
Environment Minister Peter Kent said that while the energy sector is generally regulated by provincial governments, Ottawa oversees the use of toxic substances and can step in to regulate their use if needed.
"The principle responsibility rests with the provinces and the territories, but indeed the federal government has an interest and can involve itself when a threat is perceived and reported," Kent said in the House of Commons in response to a question by the opposition New Democratic Party.
"[The federal Environment Department] is responsible for regulating toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and where required we will intervene," he said.
At issue is hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in which large amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, are pumped at high pressure into wells to crack the tightly stacked shale rock formations to allow the gas to flow.
The NDP wants the government to demand companies reveal which chemicals they use and to study the long-term effects of fracking on groundwater. The technology has become increasingly commonplace in recent years as energy firms look to tap rich deposits of shale gas. [ . . . ]
- - - - - -
Feds keeping an eye on controversial 'fracking' procedure
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Ottawa+maintains+right+intervene+shale+industry/4962493/story.html
BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS JUNE 16, 2011
OTTAWA — The federal government is paying attention to shale gas exploration in Canada and is prepared to intervene against any toxic threats, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Thursday.
Responding to questions from NDP environment critic Megan Leslie, Kent noted that regulations for the sector were mainly a provincial and territorial responsibility, but acknowledged that there could be an emerging federal role.
"Indeed, the federal government has an interest and can involve itself when a threat is perceived and reported," Kent told the House of Commons. "Environment Canada is responsible for regulating toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and where required, we will intervene."
Leslie said the government should do more to examine the process of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, used to extract the gas from shale rocks underground. She also said companies should be required to divulge more about their operations.
"Hydraulic fracturing is very controversial and few studies have been done," Leslie said. "The fracturing requires enormous amounts of water mixed with very toxic chemicals. However the government doesn't require companies to divulge the nature of the products used. This toxic mix injected underground could contaminate groundwater and, of course, waterways." [ . . . ]
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9. WATCH: Shale gas 101-Utica.mov gasdeschiste
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=AW2qGewjb7k
Original documents at:
http://www.facebook.com/shalegas
May 7, 2011 (3 videos)
This video explains the geological and technical aspects of the proposed exploitation of the Utica shale gas in the densely populated area between Montreal and Quebec. The technical documents discusses the very serious technical limitations and flaws of the fracking method. It shows why only a mere 20% of the gas can be extracted by this technique, and the serious consequences that this will imply, with the remaining 80% of methane that will slowly but continuously for years and centuries, flow from the fractured shale.
by Marc Durand, honorary professor of engineering geology, Earth Sc Dept. Univ. of Quebec, - English narration: Ingrid Style/ G. Beaulieu
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10. Month-long shale gas protest ends in Montreal
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110619/
montreal-shale-gas-development-protest-110619/
The Associated Press Jun. 19, 2011
MONTREAL — More than two-thousand people marched in Montreal yesterday to call for a moratorium on shale gas development.
The protesters were joined by a group who arrived in the city after a month-long walk along the St-Lawrence River.
During the 700-kilometre trek, the group stopped in dozens of small towns rich in gas reserves to spread its message.
Philippe Duhamel, who led the walk, is calling for a 20-year moratorium on shale gas development.
He says the process used to unlock natural gas from shale contaminates groundwater and wrecks the environment.
The Quebec government has slowed development of its shale-gas deposits due to public concerns about the environmental consequences.
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11. SHALE GAS – A BUSINESS PLAN VERY MUCH IN THE RED
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_i ... 7797815818
by Shale Gas Info on Thursday, 10 March 2011 at 13:26
Following the publication on the Web of my article on shale gas -Gaz de schiste- quelques réflexions d'un ingénieur en génie géologique, I received numerous comments, one of which was the following question from Claude Paré:
"I would like M. Durand to clarify two points. I know he is knowledgeable about cement - what, in his opinion, is the life of these wells; could they become conduits for the liquids and the gases. Can the saline solutions and the fracturing fluids buried underground weaken the cement?"
I haven't read all the briefs to BAPE*, but among those I have read there is not one which asks or addresses your question, which I would reformulate thus: ''What is the life-span of a well - including its ability to contain the drilling permanently, and what will happen when the underground part of the well loses its integrity through corrosion and other degradations?''
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12. NIKIFORUK: National Energy Board: Captured Regulator? What happens when watchdog becomes lapdog?
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/17/NEB/
Nikiforuk's latest ENERGY & EQUITY inquiry.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, TheTyee.ca June 17, 2011
The Economist magazine once described "regulatory capture" as a simple case of a gamekeeper behaving like a poacher.
Whenever industry captures the power of the state to foster private goals (and it's an occupation older than prostitution), regulators get captured and corruption surely follows.
And that's now a big problem for North America's energy regulators, which, arguably, are the continent's most powerful public servants. Yet their integrity appears to have peaked along with conventional oil and gas in the 1970s, and most are now abusing their powers. In an era of volatile energy prices, it appears that regulators would rather please industry than police it. [ . . . ]
Related Articles
Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/02/21/CorrosiveDenial/
With so many now heeding the harsh effect oil sands bitumen has on pipelines and refineries, why aren't the province's regulators?
Open Media, Open Government
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2009/07/27 ... iaOpenGov/
How digital democracy activists are pointing to a new way of governing.
Clean tech, oil and gas can work 'hand in hand': Lekstrom
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/
Labour-Industry/2010/03/26/CleanTechOil/
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13. Canada on Secret Oil Offensive: Documents
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3991
Foreign ministry's tar sands team rebranding Alberta oil in Europe
by MARTIN LUKACS May 25, 2011
MONTREAL—The Canadian government has been carrying out a secret plan in Europe to boost investment and keep world markets open for the Alberta tar sands, collaborating with major oil companies and aggressively undermining European environmental measures, documents obtained by The Dominion reveal.
In 2009 the federal government launched a strategy to “protect and advance Canadian interests related to the oil sands," fearing that growing protest could curb European investment in the industry and that EU restrictions on tar sands imports could be mimicked globally.
“Oil sands are posing a growing reputational problem [in Europe], with the oil sands defining the Canadian brand,” states one document released under the Access to Information Act. “Canada’s reputation as a clean, reliable source of energy may be put at risk.”
Led by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAIT), alongside Natural Resources and Environment Canada, the Albertan government, and involving eight foreign missions, a European “Oil Sands Team” has gone on the offensive against threats to the tar sands: they have monitored green groups, responded to “significant negative media coverage,” helped Canadian policymakers lobby European parliamentarians and organize trips to Alberta, worked to “enhance cooperation” with oil companies, and coordinated regular meetings between top European oil executives and Albertan and federal ministers, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper. [ . . . ]
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14. SHIELDS: IF WE OWN IT--PROVE IT!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 1:27 PM
Subject: IF WE OWN IT--PROVE IT!!
How nice to see CAEPLA come out against what has been a great injustice pulled on not only landowners, but everyone who is a Canadian citizen. CAEPLA are doing a great job with its mandate as an advocate for landowners; however, the NEB problem is understated if we are to consider only the abuses suffered by landowners! The export of raw bitumen approved by the NEB is the best example of how the public good is ignored by the NEB affecting every Canadian, whether Rural, Urban, or a City dweller!! " At times, the synthetic crude oil gained from upgrading at source has been exported for almost double the price of raw bitumen. Just imagine the royalties, spin-off industries, jobs, and taxes which the NEB approved to be shipped down the Keystone pipeline, for American profit!! "
The NEB have allowed Canadian's natural gas to export to a single customer at the lowest prices in the world, without offering a manner and means of bypassing the very stupid NAFTA process. Although warned for years by Alberta Activism of the danger posed by "Free-Trade," allowing the Americans to set natural gas prices, and ignoring the movement to LNG exports, NEB sat quiet. Now we find even Australia have passed Canada with great Asian natural gas deals shipped as an LNG. Canada as a country has been wounded and left weak by our regulator being too influenced by the Big-Inch pipeline Industry centered in Calgary, where the NEB find themselves headquartered!!
Canada has fallen years behind other world exporters of natural gas, who all quickly joined the LNG markets to have natural gas export similar to crude oil. Other nations formed an NG exporting group {GECF} now headquarter in Qatar, has the NEB every sent representatives to a GECF meeting as has Norway? And licensing the export of raw natural gas has cost Canada an entire budding Petro-Chemical industry!! These very negative moves hurt Canada deeply and for years to come!!
Alberta Activism unlike CAEPLA is not calling for reform to the NEB, recognizing the difficulty in one regular headquarter so far from Ottawa to act in the best interests of the Canadian public. Indeed we are asking the federal government to strike a "Super-Board" paid solely by the federal government, situated in Ottawa, and mandated to represent solely the public part of the energy business. This super-board would not pretend neutrality, but act very much the same as CAPP does for industry. It is Alberta Activisms position that if indeed the Canadian public are owners of energy resources in Canada, we require far and away better representation either through a Board or a Crown-Corporation in decisions made on Canada's behalf!! This Board or Crown Corporation would be mandated to give the owning public quarterly reports as to how they are benefiting the public it serves. The public wealth contained within the energy business, that today is not visable must be corrected the moment we can replace Harper. No more trying to pry information from an unwilling and uncooperative group-------transparency will be a big demand in 4 more years!! If we own it---Prove it!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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Canada’s National Energy Board & the Need for Its Reform
http://www.landownerassociation.ca/rsrcs/
CanadasNationalEnergyBoard_NeedForItsReform.pdf
CAEPLA Connections Landowner Update
Background notes for a proposed resolution calling for an evaluation and review of the structure and mandate of the National Energy Board
OTTAWA’S NATIONAL ENERGY BOARD - PROCEDURAL SECRECY AND A CULTURE OF UNACCOUNTABILITY
Ottawa’s National Energy Board (NEB) has been in continuous operation for more than fifty years. Established during the administration of John Diefenbaker, it was created not long after the goings-on of Parliament had been dominated by what was known as "the Great Pipeline Debate." This debate had centered on the construction of Canada’s first national pipeline, control of the pipeline, and the route it would take to move natural gas from western Canada to the markets of eastern Canada. Some wanted an all Canadian route. Others preferred a less difficult and less expensive US route.
The debate occurred throughout the spring of 1956. It literally turned Parliament into bedlam. It led to the fall of the Liberal government of Louis St. Laurent, the rise of John Diefenbaker as a national political figure, and to what was then an unprecedented Progressive Conservative majority government.
Following on the heels of the Great Pipeline Debate, two other events occurred that led to the creation of the NEB. They were the Royal Commission on Canada’s Economic Prospects and the Royal Commission on Energy. [ . . . ]
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15. NIKIFORUK: Wikileaks Shines Light on Alberta's $16-Billion Electricity Scandal
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/05/26/Wikil ... ectricity/
US cables signal project was for export, contrary to official claims.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 26 May 2011, TheTyee.ca
Critics of Alberta's program to build a $16-billion electricity transmission system without public need studies have called for a major judicial inquiry on the massive taxpayer funded project following new revelations from U.S. embassy cables released by Wikileaks.
Cables sent from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa in 2003 and 2008 show that Alberta politicians offered to export power to the United States using excess electricity generated by oil sands facilities.
Shortly after the last cable the Alberta government proposed a massive upgrade to its existing $2-billion transmission system.
Yet no other jurisdiction in Canada has proposed to build eight times its existing transmission infrastructure at taxpayers' expense with no public needs assessments. Nor has any other province proposed to give away that very infrastructure to two private transmission companies (Atco and AltaLink) along with a promised rate of return of nine per cent.
"The cables show that the government was going to export power all along and lied about what they were doing with transmission upgrades," says Joe Anglin, a former U.S. Marine and long-time advocate for electrical reform in Alberta.
"The cables are the hammer that nails all the supporting evidence together," says Anglin. "We need a full judicial inquiry."
Because many Alberta government officials repeatedly told Albertans that its unprecedented program to spend $16-billion in upgrades were all about "keeping the lights on," Anglin also suspects that many officials may also be guilty of perjury.
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16. SHIELDS: We Can Admire CAPP's Progress and Industry Profits!!---We Only Own The Resource!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P.; Prime Minister/Premier ministre
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca; goodale; flaherty ; bill boyd; Alberta Activism; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 9:32 AM
Subject: We Can Admire CAPP's Progress and Industry Profits!!---We Only Own The Resource!!
This latest news indicates that spilled product in our Arctic area would be wasted in these mentioned clean-up efforts! This certainly means Canadians must have rule changes prior to allowing developers to penetrate oil and gas pools in the Arctic region. Developers who have as their plans interferences with publicly owned energy formations must hold adequate insurance to cover public looses that could accidentally happen. This only makes sense in any area of Canada to prevent the public losses the public have endured in Alberta, where several well blow-outs and fires have destroyed public property. Industry are covered by insurance to cover their loss, but the public loss of inventory has until now simply been written-off!! This must change across the nation!!
Nothing points more to the need of "Super-Boards" all across Canada to act solely on the "Public-Part" of the energy industry. Nowhere is the public loss in oilpatch accidents and incidents being property addressed or even discussed! Each time we fill our automobiles at the pumps we are reminded of just how precious our public owned resources really are. The product now holds a degree of worth that should mean more than gaining a few hard hat jobs in the field, into having a advocate for the public ownership much in the manner CAPP acts for the developer is indeed in order!! The announced clean-up methods stated below seem to take for granted that this very precious resource can simply be wasted and written off the public inventory, as the spoiled industry have been allowed to do in Alberta!
A Super-Board to manage the neglected part of the energy business would manage royalty rates and gathering the same, Audits for royalty correct volumes, all measurements related to royalties, Court actions against royalty cheats, Advice to owning government officials, Paid totally by owning government, headquartered at the government seat, etc. Canadians must become much more involved with the product that has the abilities to make change in our standard of living as it has in several other nations like Norway! The status-quo is marvelous for industry and the governments industry favor, but brutal for the government's public that own the resource, and can only admire CAPP's progress and industries profits!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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Oil industry outlines cleanup strategy for Arctic spill
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-industry-outlines-cleanup-strategy-for-arctic-spill/article2054586/
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE CALGARY— From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 09, 2011 7:43PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jun. 10, 2011 7:24
Beneath the Gulf spill
Filings submitted to the National Energy Board by Chevron Corp. (CVX-N101.23----%) and Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO-T45.50----%) provide a glimpse into how companies would respond to a massive leak like the BP Deepwater Horizon fiasco in a northern setting. They outline the use of numerous techniques, including “herding agents” designed to chemically coalesce oil slicks, as well as huge aircraft to spray dispersants and crews to burn oil.
The documents form part of the NEB’s Arctic Offshore Drilling Review, which is working to set new rules for the exploration of oil and gas in Canada’s Far North. For the oil industry, the Arctic offers an alluring new frontier, a place with the potential for major new finds. For the country, however, drilling in such a sensitive and iconic region has stirred up concern, particularly in the wake of the BP spill. And for critics, the industry’s bold cleanup plans give little cause for reassurance.
As they pursue wells in Beaufort Sea waters as deep as those of the Gulf of Mexico where the BP accident occurred, major energy companies have told the NEB that, in some ways, an Arctic spill could actually be easier to clean than an accident elsewhere. In its submission to the NEB’s review, for example, Chevron says “unique aspects of the Arctic environment … can work to the responders’ advantage.” [ . . . ]
= = = = = = =
17. SHIELDS: U.S. LNG Exports---Using Canadian Natural Gas!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Minister.energy@gov.ab.ca ; Gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca
Cc: Alberta Activism ; bill boyd ; flaherty ; goodale ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; Rae.B@parl.gc.ca
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 12:42 PM
Subject: U.S. LNG Exports---Using Canadian Natural Gas!!
Those that doubt the intentions of United States to join other countries in exporting LNG need to read the caption below. Don't think the idea of importing cheap Canadian natural gas through NAFTA at $4.00 and selling the same as LNG in Asia at $13.00 hasn't entered the United States minds!! Mulroney destroyed the natural gas business for Canada in North America with "Free-Trade," and turning price control of Canadian natural gas over to the Americans with deregulation!! Now Harper's work ethic, and 17th century thinking will leave Canada solely committed to NAFTA and the American entrepreneurship to market Canada's precious resources, even if it is far below the price that's entirely possible!
Everything about the public part of the energy business screams for a new system to ensure Canadians are getting fair value for their energy production! This goes far beyond the percent of royalties gained and then returned to industry in a bevy of industry aids. Why Canada has been exporting natural gas to United States at below the costs of production must be addressed. And why Canada even considers the exports of bitumen slurry along with thousands of good jobs to United States destinations. Is this simply a method of dispersing off-gases over a larger target area in an effort to defuse concerns over pollution at source, where upgrading should take place?
Canadians must demand a Board free of Industry pay and interference, to manage solely the public part of the energy business!! These publicly owned boards would be given broad powers to insure the public interest is indeed the major motive in energy production, something no-one can now state with a straight face!! United States have begun to make changes in their regulations since the BP spill in the Gulf, Canada and especially Alberta, leave the same old systems in place. Having industry regulated by a Board {ERCB} that derives most of its needed funds from the industry it regulates is indeed dead wrong! However when that same industry owned Board control both the volume and measurement of said volumes of royalties due the Alberta public, while admitting to an industry bias, big change is drastically needed!! A "Super Board" to manage the public part of the energy industry solely, surely is the answer!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta.
- - - - - -
United States moves toward LNG exports
http://www.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2011/Jun/10/
United-States-moves-toward-LNG-exports
6/10/2011 12:15:43 AM | Tony D'Altorio, Investment U
It's a big step toward the globalization of natural gas markets and will put the United States into direct competition with other LNG exports
Just a few short weeks ago, the natural gas market saw a jump up in prices to 10-month highs. The reason for this sudden jolt higher was the announcement that the United States had authorized its first big export project for liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The U.S. Department of Energy authorized Cheniere Energy (AMEX: LNG, Stock Forum) to export LNG from its Sabine Pass terminal. Sabine Pass is the largest of nine LNG import facilities in the United States.
Cheniere Energy plans to retrofit the import terminal for liquefaction capabilities. Construction is set to begin in 2012 and the production is expected to come online in 2015.
The company already has preliminary deals in place to supply LNG to companies globally, including Spanish utility Endesa and Japanese trading company Sumitomo.
An LNG milestone for the United States
This LNG export project marks a milestone. It’s a big step toward the globalization of natural gas markets and will put the United States into direct competition with other LNG exports including Russia, Qatar and Australia.
Natural gas trading currently occurs in separate markets around the globe. That is, there’s no one unified global price for natural gas. Markets remain isolated due to a lack of infrastructure uniting them. [ . . . .]
= = = = = = =
18. Shields: Our Largest Industry!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; dnd_mdn@forces.gc.ca ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 7:42 AM
We have found one hell-of-a-poor way to manage the largest industry we have in Canada! The public ownership of energy resources has not brought with it the expected wealth other nations enjoy. Although our governments continue to insist "we the public" own the resource, only the developers and those closely associated with developers, including politicians, seem able to benefit from energy development!! Imagine Alberta with similar production volumes as Norway running deficits---impossible!! Is the average Albertan with an energy industry better off than the average Ontarian without such? How much better?
Many writers and scribes are beginning to recognize the horrid faults in how Canada manages or mismanages the largest industry Canada has. We really have no government body to manage exports, royalty collection, royalty correctness, land sales, measurement, on and on. The NEB based in far away Calgary, and industry paid, have become a pawn of Big-Inch pipeline groups headquartered also in Calgary! This has become so acute that the NEB have ignored the move to transporting natural gas much like crude oil to different customers around the world as an LNG.
Although an LNG export stations on the West Coast would have prevented years of low NAFTA prices for Canada, it also would have greatly lowered the volumes and thus tariffs the large pipeline operators would receive! Since the NEB call these Big-Inch operators their "Partners" we are still "Land-Locked" with respect to our natural gas and the NEB spent millions on the Mackenzie Pipeline so a foreign CARTEL could keep Canada's natural gas "Land-Locked" available only to U.S. customers by the Big-Inch pipeline operators! And what about our Alberta, British Columbia, and federal governments?? All were warned over and over again by Alberta Activism of exactly the pending doom in the natural gas business we now face by following blindly the NEB lead! Indeed Frank McKenna, Canada's former ambassador to United States, as the first politician to wake-up to what was happening and warn Alberta of the danger of NAFTA only sales. Alberta however reacted by allowing the developer more of the public interest in natural gas wealth, making it possible to export to NAFTA at even lower prices!!
Our federal politicians have become fearful of doing their jobs with respect to the energy industry after CAPP was successful in promoting the myth about the "National Energy Program"!! This Myth has gone far enough in destroying the wealth the Canadian public are properly due for their ownership of an extremely valuable resource. Canadians must ask their politicians to grow b---s if they lack in that department, and get with it in respect to gaining for the public their entire entitlements from energy resources! That Norway has gained the largest capital pool in the world while Canada with more production runs deficits is impossible!!
We desperately need all federal energy properties and rights, including royalties and exports rolled into a "Crown-Corporation" that has operating procedures it must follow to stop being put in front of a judge! Or a " Super-Board" could be struck paid fully by Ottawa, and situated in Ottawa, mandated to manage solely the public part of the energy business. The present partnership between the owning public and the industry developer is unsustainable in its present form. Even the slowest of government member must recognize the lack of any government management system to protect the interests of the owning public?? The path out of years of more TORY debt lays directly before any government in Canada with the b---s to take that walk!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - - - -
B.C. sells its gas for billions less than it is worth
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/
story.html?id=56fd573b-9a75-474d-901c-286cdf7f48bf&k=24534&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+canwest%2FF261+(Vancouver+Sun+-+BusinessBC
By Vancouver Sun May 6, 2011
British Columbia is losing billions of dollars by exporting vast quantities of natural gas for a small fraction of what it's worth, says energy analyst Peter Tertzakian, the managing director of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp.
"B.C. sells its natural gas for $3 or $4 [per 1,000 cubic feet] when the Japanese are paying $11," Tertzakian told me. "The loss of revenue to the government in terms of taxes and royalties is immense."
And these losses, he said, will get worse before they get better.
Why? [ . . . ]
= = = = = = = =
19. SHIELDS: The Public Interest---Decided By The Public!!
From: lagran <lagran@shaw.ca>
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. <Layton.J@parl.gc.ca>, Prime Minister/Premier ministre <pm@pm.gc.ca>
CC: <Rae.B@parl.gc.ca>, "Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX" <EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca>, "goodale" <goodale.r@parl.gc.ca>, "flaherty" <flaherty.j@parl.gc.ca>, <dnd_mdn@forces.gc.ca>, "bill boyd" <minister.er@gov.sk.ca>, "Alberta Activism" <albertaactivism@shaw.ca>, <acameron@neb-one.gc.ca>
The Public Interest---Decided By The Public!!
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:30:45 -0700
If Ottawa had a "Super-Board" to act as an advocate for the public part of the energy business, there would be no need to strike a special panel for a decision of this nature! A Super Board could hear briefs from their respective public then offer the Federal Minister of Energy guidance for a decision. This is much much better than allowing the Provincial ERCB to hold hearings to decide a federal issue, as was done with respect to EnCana's submission to Carpet-Bomb drill a wild-Life area contained within the federally held Suffield Block!! This was a real mess, with federal panel members made temporary ERCB members to allow EnCana to have their provincial regulator make a decision on what should have been a Federal area of responsibility!! The NEB certainly can no longer even claim to represent the Canadian public after approving the Keystone Pipeline to haul raw Canadian bitumen to United States destinations.
Quebec seem satisfied to leave energy materials in their natural formations, if indeed that is so, will their wishes be recognized by both the federal and provincial governments? A true public owned tribunal would of course be mandated to manage solely the public-part of the energy industry, thus answerable to the public for decisions that are not in the public interest as decided by the public not the regulator!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - - - -
St. Lawrence oil plan needs close look, Ottawa told
http://www.silobreaker.com/
st-lawrence-oil-plan-needs-close-look-ottawa-told-5_2264636622676951119
SHAWN McCARTHY — GLOBAL ENERGY REPORTER
OTTAWA— Globe and Mail Update
Published Monday, Jun. 13, 2011 11:52AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Jun. 13, 2011 12:56PM EDT
Newfoundland’s offshore regulator has asked the federal government to strike a special panel on oil exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after a drilling proposal at the controversial Old Harry site drew an unprecedented backlash.
In a letter to Environment Minister Peter Kent, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board said the evidence so far suggests the project by Halifax-based Corridor Resources Inc. is unlikely to cause significant environmental harm.
Is lower oil good for energy stocks?
But in the wake of BP PLC’s disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Canadians are demanding a high level of environmental screening for contentious project, CNLOPB chair Max Ruelokke said in a release Monday. [ . . . ]
- - - -
Council opposition helps prompt call for special panel on Gulf of St. Lawrence drilling
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=8222
Monday, June 13th, 2011
Atlantic regional organizer Angela Giles has alerted us that the Globe and Mail is reporting, “Newfoundland’s offshore regulator has asked the federal government to strike a special panel on oil exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after a drilling proposal at the controversial Old Harry site drew an unprecedented backlash. In a letter to Environment Minister Peter Kent, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board said the evidence so far suggests the project by Halifax-based Corridor Resources Inc. is unlikely to cause significant environmental harm. But in the wake of BP PLC’s disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Canadians are demanding a high level of environmental screening for contentious project, CNLOPB chair Max Ruelokke said in a release Monday. …The (Newfoundland) board said it had received more public commentary on the environmental aspects of Old Harry development than on any other a proposed exploration or production project in its 26-year history.”
On March 28, 2011, Council of Canadians vice-chairperson Leo Broderick wrote the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board expressing our concern that Corridor Resources could be granted a permit to drill a deep water exploration well in the Laurentian Trench, north of the Magdalene Islands, and that only a screening level of environmental assessment is being planned. Broderick wrote, “The Council of Canadians is requesting that you stop this project. We ask that you declare a moratorium on oil drilling inside the Gulf. And we also ask that you initiate a strategic environmental assessment with a full panel review and a regional public consultation process (i.e. public consultation meetings in all affected provinces).”
More on Leo Broderick’s letter can be read at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7205.
Additionally, on November 17, 2010, the Council of Canadians joined the call from Save Our Seas and Shores, Attention Fragile (Magdalen Islands), Sierra Club Atlantic, and the Ecology Action Centre, for a moratorium on oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And on April 7, 2011, “Atlantic Council of Canadians chapter delegates, at a meeting the past weekend in Tatamagouche, united in concern with the proposed drilling in the ‘Old Harry’ area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The clear lack of public consultation and information void around the proposed drilling has created more questions than answers.”
The Globe and Mail notes that, “Quebec Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau has said the Old Harry field could contain as much as 2-billion barrels of oil and 5-trillion cubic feet of natural gas, though whether there is any recoverable oil or gas won’t be known until exploration wells are drilled. Corridor Resources has completed seismic work in the area, and filed a proposal with the board in February to drill an exploration well between mid-2012 and early 2014.”
= = = = = = =
20. First Nations now covered by Human Rights Act
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110617/
aboriginal-rights-human-rights-110617/
Date: Fri. Jun. 17 2011 5:46 PM ET
OTTAWA — As of Saturday, First Nations people will have access to the same human rights protections as everyone else in Canada.
But what that will actually mean for living conditions and social peace on reserves is a big unknown, because most of the parties involved agree that First Nations are ill-prepared for the change.
"This is a historic day," said David Langtry, acting chief of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
"Over 700,000 people who previously had no recourse under the Canadian Human Rights Act are now able to come to the Canadian Human Rights Commission to seek a remedy to improve their lives in First Nations communities and beyond."
First Nations people already had the ability to challenge Ottawa over rights violations. That was granted in 2008 in federal legislation that also gave First Nations three years to transition to the new system.
The transition is now over and people on reserves will have the same rights as anyone else in terms of challenging local governments over discrimination.
Funding for clean water, education, child welfare and housing on reserves is all open to question under the rights act, Langtry said.
But he acknowledged that many First Nations members lack the legal or financial capacity to mount quasi-legal challenges. [ . . . ]
= = = = =
21. Conditions on reserves have worsened, AG says
http://www.canada.com/life/
Conditions+reserves+have+worsened+says/4918910/story.html#ixzz1PJYejEiU
By Sharon Kirkey, Postmedia News June 9, 2011
OTTAWA — More than half the drinking water on Canada's First Nation reserves poses a "significant risk" to the people who use them, according to Canada's interim auditor general.
Despite the billions of federal dollars spent each year on programs to improve unsafe housing, high unemployment and polluted water supplies, conditions on reserves have worsened since earlier audits.
The education gap between First Nations living on reserves and the general Canadian population is widening, housing is in poor condition and the housing shortage has grown even more acute over the past decade, growing from an estimated shortage of 8,500 houses in 2003, to an estimated 20,000 shortfall now.
"I am very disappointed that conditions on reserves have worsened and are well below the national average," interim auditor general John Wiersema said in a statement Thursday. [ . . . . ]
= = = = = =
22. Murder in El Salvador Calls Canadian Mining Interests Into Question
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/
murder-el-salvador-calls-canadian-mining-interests-question
For Immediate Release - June 20, 2011
Yet another anti-mining activist has been murdered in El Salvador.
Canadian civil society organizations are calling for a full investigation into the murder of Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, the fourth such death in two years that local organizations believe are linked to the presence of Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining in the department of Cabañas.
On June 2nd, Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, a thirty-year old linguistics student at the Technological University in San Salvador, was hanging posters in the city of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas as part of a campaign against mining and Pacific Rim. The Cabañas Environmental Committee reported that the local mayor ordered municipal police to remove the banners and intimidate the activists hanging them. The next day, Juan left for classes in the capital city and was not heard from again.
Juan Francisco's body was found shortly after midnight on June 4th. He had been shot twice in the head. When the Medical Examiner declared his body 'unidentifiable,' he was buried in a common grave in San Salvador. The following week, the Environmental Committee determined the whereabouts of Juan Francisco's body, and on June 14th, Juan Francisco's father positively identified his son.
This young activist's murder comes two years after community leader and anti-mining activist Marcelo Rivera went missing. Shortly after disappearing, Rivera was found dead with signs of torture. That December, Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto along with her unborn child were also assassinated. In recent months, local journalists at Radio Victoria in Cabañas have received persistent threats. Francisco Piñeda, chair of the Environmental Committee and winner of this year's Goldman Environmental prize, now lives with around-the-clock armed guards to ensure his safety.
"The pattern of violence in Cabañas and the ways in which the presence of a Canadian mining company could be contributing or aggravating the situation is tremendously worrying," says MiningWatch Canada's Latin America Program Coordinator Jennifer Moore. "Not only have activists been targeted in El Salvador, people have also been killed in recent years in Mexico and Guatemala in apparent connection with Canadian interests. To leave those responsible for these crimes in impunity would give a green light for such violence to continue. We can't stand by and let that happen."
In September 2010, two gang members were convicted in the death of Marcelo Rivera. Since then, El Salvadoran organizations have continued to demand that those responsible for orchestrating this crime be investigated and tried, along with others responsible for perpetrating his disappearance, torture and murder. They also continue to seek further investigation into the deaths of Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto, and into the persistent threats and attacks against other activists.
"Juan Francisco was a front line defender for the right to water and a healthy environment," says Emma Lui Water Campaigner for the Council of Canadians. "We ask El Salvadoran authorities to carry out an exhaustive investigation regarding this string of murders in order to identify the material and intellectual authors and to hold them responsible."
Opposition to mining and Pacific Rim Mining's project in El Salvador has arisen out of particular concern for the impacts that industrial gold mining could have on the tiny country's water supplies. With a population of 6.1 million people, El Salvador is only slightly bigger than Lake Ontario and is largely dependent on a single watershed. Pacific Rim Mining is currently suing the government of El Salvador for $77 million dollars under the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement for having not granted it permission to bring its proposed El Dorado mine in Cabañas into production despite the company's failure to meet El Salvadoran environmental requirements.
"This terrible news is further evidence that Canada's voluntary corporate social responsibility policy for companies operating overseas is doing little to stem the tide of human rights abuses," says Louise Casselman of Common Frontiers. "The Canadian government needs to start taking this situation seriously and implement a mandatory framework that will, among other things, ensure affected communities much needed access to justice in Canadian courts." - 30 -
Contacts:
MiningWatch Canada: Jennifer Moore, jen@miningwatch.ca, (613) 569-3439
Council of Canadians: Emma Lui, elui@canadians.org, (613) 233-4487 x234
Common Frontiers: Louise Casselman, CasselL@psac-afpc.com, (613) 560-5494
--
Jamie Kneen
Communications & Outreach Coordinator
MiningWatch Canada
http://www.miningwatch.ca
- - - - - -
El Salvadoran Anti-Mining Activist Against Canadian Mining Company Assassinated
https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6099/p/dia/action/
public/?action_KEY=7205
From: Jen Moore
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 7:59 AM
Subject: [MWC-Alerts] UPDATE AND ACTION ALERT: El Salvadoran Anti-Mining Activist Assassinated
Further to the action alert that we distributed on Wednesday, Juan Francisco's body has been found and pressure needs to be kept up to ensure that his murder, as well as threats and three earlier murders of other anti-mining activists in El Salvador, are fully investigated.
= = = = =
23. A Government Beyond Reproach
http://www.themarknews.com/articles/
5669-a-government-beyond-reproach
By Alexandre Brassard | The Mark News – Fri, 17 Jun, 2011
Remember Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s May 2 victory speech? His face beaming, he declared: “We are intensely aware that we are and we must be the government of all Canadians, including those who did not vote for us.”
Deferring to experienced political analysts, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that Harper’s new majority would soften his partisan edge, that he’d reveal a more conciliatory side. I proclaimed on-air that the Conservatives would work to bring the country together – not because of some new openness of spirit, but because it would help them win the support of centrist voters.
Sadly, recent events have proven me wrong. [ . . . ]
1. Penobsquis Residents Seek Compensation for Damages
2. PRESS RELEASE: PADDLE FOR WATER – Say No to Shale Gas
3. WATCH: ERNST: Addressing the UN - Allegations of an Alberta Cover-up
4. WATCH: ERNST: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction
5. Fracking, methane and drinking water
6. Encana behind Alberta land sale record - Firm targets new gas in Duvernay
7. Encana close to finalizing sale of Cabin Gas Plant: Canada division head
8. Ottawa maintains right to intervene in shale-gas industry
9. WATCH: Shale gas 101-Utica.mov gasdeschiste
10. Month-long shale gas protest ends in Montreal
11. SHALE GAS – A BUSINESS PLAN VERY MUCH IN THE RED
12. NIKIFORUK: National Energy Board: Captured Regulator? What happens when watchdog becomes lapdog?
13. Canada on Secret Oil Offensive: Documents
14. SHIELDS: IF WE OWN IT--PROVE IT!!
15. NIKIFORUK: Wikileaks Shines Light on Alberta's $16-Billion Electricity Scandal
16. SHIELDS: We Can Admire CAPP's Progress and Industry Profits!!---We Only Own The Resource!!
17. SHIELDS: U.S. LNG Exports---Using Canadian Natural Gas!!
18. Shields: Our Largest Industry!
19. SHIELDS: The Public Interest---Decided By The Public!!
20. First Nations now covered by Human Rights Act
21. Conditions on reserves have worsened, AG says
22. Murder in El Salvador Calls Canadian Mining Interests Into Question
23. A Government Beyond Reproach
MORE INFO:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=31
=============
1. Penobsquis Residents Seek Compensation for Damages
http://www.penobsquis.ca/2011/05/
mining-commissioner-hearings-resume/
A group of Penobsquis homeowners in rural New Brunswick are taking action against PotashCorp Inc. for damages resulting from their mining activities.
Since discussions with the government of New Brunswick and PotashCorp Inc. have failed to adequately address concerns, these residents are forced to take the next step as directed by the Mining Act, and have filed a claim with the Mining Commissioner.
This is a precedent setting legal battle.
The hearings resume on June 20 at 9am at the All Seasons Restaurant in Sussex N.B. and are open to the public.
VIDEO Link:
http://youtu.be/Imk1VgdjHQI
Support Us!
Donations are needed to help fund costs associated with pursuing justice for residents of Penobsquis.
Contact us at: concernedcitizensofpenobsquis@yahoo.ca
Donations can be sent to:
Concerned Citizens of Penobsquis
81 Penobsquis Loop Road
Penobsquis, NB E4G 2B6
Regards,
Rob Turgeon
Concerned Citizens of Penobsquis
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
= = = = = = =
2. PRESS RELEASE: PADDLE FOR WATER – Say No to Shale Gas
http://nbharbinger.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/
eco-action-calendar-june-9-2/
Water First is a recently formed group of Hampton citizens who are concerned about shale gas exploration in New Brunswick. This exploration involves a procedure called ‘fracking’. Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing and involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, at high pressure, into the ground (shale rock) to fracture the rock in order to release trapped natural gas.
Fracking directly threatens all of our clean, drinkable water supplies. The chemicals released are pressurized and shot over a huge area, often traveling many kilometers in horizontal directions from the surface site. Unfortunately, water veins also spread out along the fracking path, flowing, at times, in the form of underground channels, shoots and veins. This brings the threat of chemical contamination kilometers from the initial intrusion into the water supply of everyone’s village, town, city or backyard. Some of the chemicals used are long lasting and highly toxic. In addition, five and a half million gallons of water, on average, are needed for each well and 100% of this becomes contaminated. Where will this water come from? Water is sacred and essential to all life.
Our food, our agriculture, our lives; indeed, our very planet, depend on clean, unpolluted sources of fresh water.
In a recent Globe and Mail article (6/02/11, A2) the British Geological Survey suggests that the increased seismic activity of “fracking may be at fault” in two recent earthquakes. Point Lepreau is built over a fault. Fracking in New Brunswick will affect all of our backyards. We cannot adopt the ‘Nimby’ attitude (It’s ok as long as it does not occur in my own backyard). We need to act on this now! People are saying “No to fracking” the world over.
Water First is organizing a ‘Paddle for Water’ this Saturday, June 18th, at 1 p.m. at the Hampton River Centre (Green Bridge). There will be a flotilla of war canoes, kayaks and boats of every type. Concerned citizens and representatives of more than 30 citizens’ groups around the province will be represented to raise awareness and to remind our politicians of the province that they are our elected representatives, in our employ, and that we in NO WAY want this exploitation of the people’s water resources and the planet to go on. Bring your own ‘Say No to Shale Gas’ sign and join us in a war canoe; bring your own watercraft; rent a kayak or canoe from Osprey Adventures; or gather on the shore in support of maintaining clean water. Gather at 1 p.m.; the Paddle will be from 2-3 p.m.
That evening at 7 p.m., to continue our clean water event, there will be a special, complimentary showing of the prize-winning documentary ‘Gasland’, which has enlightened audiences throughout North America and Europe to the continued threat of shale gas exploration.
Contact: Chris Rendell at (506) 832-4660 or Sarah Wilbur at (506) 476-6956
= = = = = = =
3. WATCH: ERNST: Addressing the UN - Allegations of an Alberta Cover-up
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/
Stories.aspx?pd=2291&FlashVars=Video/PTR_050211.flv
Monday, May 02, 2011
It’s a long way from Rosebud to Manhattan, but Jessica Ernst is there to tell the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development that gas production has allegedly contaminated her drinking water. Ernst is suing Encana, the Alberta Government and its Energy Resource Conservation Board for $33 million. She claims Provincially-approved hydraulic fracturing by the energy company has tainted well water with chemicals. What does Ernst hope to gain at the UN? Is there proof she can, as she says, light her water on fire...if so, why? And why does she accuse Alberta and energy companies of an alleged cover-up? Joining us for this discussion is Jessica Ernst, Environmental Consultant in the oil and gas industry
= = = = = = =
4. WATCH: ERNST: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction (about 30 mins.)
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Stories.aspx?pd=2455
June 15, 2011
Fracking is a burgeoning technology being used to extract natural gas locked within rock formations. Fluid is pumped into natural or man made fractures under high pressure to open up cracks and access hard to reach reservoirs. Critics are calling for a moratorium on fracking, saying it poses serious health risks to nearby residents, damages the environment and could even cause small earthquakes. Supporters say those claims are overblown, and fracking is essential to Alberta's natural gas industry. Is fracking dangerous? Is it critical to our economic future? How should Alberta proceed? Joining us for this discussion is Jessica Ernst, Rosebud resident and former energy sector consultant is now suing Encana; Tim Marchant, Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Energy Geopolitics at the University of Calgary; and Ben Parfitt, Resource Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
= = = = = = =
5. Fracking, methane and drinking water
http://envirolaw.com/fracking-methane-drinking-water/
by DIANNE SAXE on MAY 17, 2011
The Ernst v. Encana fracking lawsuit gained strength this month with the publication of Rob Jackson’s peer-reviewed paper: “Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing.”
( http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/pnas2011.html )
Jackson is a professor at Duke University, and his paper is published in the leading journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He shows strong evidence for methane contamination of drinking water where shalegas extraction is occurring.
“In active gas-extraction areas (one or more gas wells within 1 km), average and maximum methane concentrations in drinking-water wells increased with proximity to the nearest gas well and were … a potential explosion hazard… We conclude that greater stewardship, data, and— possibly—regulation are needed to ensure the sustainable future of shale-gas extraction and to improve public confidence in its use.”
For a lay explanation of the paper:
http://www.loe.org/shows/
segments.html?programID=11-P13-00019&segmentID=1
Jackson has also studied the potential risks that carbon sequestration poses to drinking water aquifers:
( http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/est2011a.html )
another issue that energy and environment regulators should be taking into account.
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6. Encana behind Alberta land sale record - Firm targets new gas in Duvernay
http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Encana+behind+Alberta+land+sale+record/4941741/story.html#ixzz1PGPl3KWASomething
BY REBECCA PENTY, CALGARY HERALD JUNE 14, 2011 7:20 AM
Encana Corp. took part in Alberta's record land sale to target a new gas opportunity potentially as liquids-rich as the hottest current play in the U.S., executive vice-president Mike Graham said Monday.
The continent's second largest producer of natural gas participated in the $842-million rights sale on June 1, Graham admitted, not revealing how much Encana spent or how much land it bought up.
He said the firm is trying to prove the potential of liquids-rich gas in the Duvernay formation in the Rimbey area, about 60 kilometres northwest of Red Deer.
"We're excited about results from the Duvernay," Graham told reporters after speaking at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers annual Oil and Gas Investment Symposium, noting Encana will drill 3-4 wells in the shale by year's end.
Graham, the president of Encana's Canadian operations, made the first public admission Encana was in on the bidding for oil and gas leases and licences, a highly secretive process that sees companies have landsmen submit offers on their behalf.
Alberta oil and gas companies paid, on average, $3,100 per hectare on June 1 for leases or licences on 271,000 hectares in the largest sale on record for the province; the next sale will take place on Wednesday.
Research analysts at boutique investment banking firm Peters and Co. estimated in a note that the vast majority of money spent -$750 million -was on deep rights likely targeting the Duvernay shale and said a significant portion of acquired Crown acreage is interspersed with freehold title lands, with Encana being the dominant owner.
Encana owns just over 76,000 hectares of land underlain by the Duvernay, Graham said, noting competitors have been producing more than five million cubic feet of gas per day from the shale, with 50-200 barrels of liquids per mcf of gas. [ . . . ]
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7. Encana close to finalizing sale of Cabin Gas Plant: Canada division head
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/
NaturalGas/6185656
Calgary (Platts)--13Jun2011/533 pm EDT/2133 GMT
Encana is close to finalizing a sale of its Cabin Gas Plant project located 60 km northeast of Fort Nelson in the Horn River basin, British Columbia.
"We will soon be announcing the disposition of that asset," Mike Graham, president of the Canada Division, said Monday at the annual Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers oil and gas conference.
Encana is building the Cabin plant to serve producers in the Horn River natural gas play in northeast British Columbia.
The facility is being constructed in stages, with phase 1 due to start production in 2012 at a rate of 400,000 Mcf/d, according to Encana spokesman Alan Boras.
"As a company, we are shifting our target from dry gas to rich liquids," Graham said, noting the company is a 30% partner in the Kitimat LNG project, "for which a final investment decision will be taken later this year."
The Kitimat LNG export terminal on the coast of central British Columbia would have an initial capacity of 700,000 Mcf/d in the first of two potential phases.
The project includes a 36-inch diameter pipeline, known as Pacific Trails, running 436 km from Spectra Energy's gas transmission system at Summit Lake, British Columbia, to Kitimat. [ . . . ]
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8. Ottawa maintains right to intervene in shale-gas industry
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Ottawa+maintains+right+intervene+shale+industry/4962493/story.html
Harper government studying long-term effects of controversial 'fracking' technique, environment minister says
REUTERS, WITH FILES FROM VANCOUVER SUN JUNE 17, 2011
The Canadian government said on Thursday it can intervene in the shalegas industry if it sees an environmental threat from a burgeoning extraction method that involves pumping chemicals into the ground.
Environment Minister Peter Kent said that while the energy sector is generally regulated by provincial governments, Ottawa oversees the use of toxic substances and can step in to regulate their use if needed.
"The principle responsibility rests with the provinces and the territories, but indeed the federal government has an interest and can involve itself when a threat is perceived and reported," Kent said in the House of Commons in response to a question by the opposition New Democratic Party.
"[The federal Environment Department] is responsible for regulating toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and where required we will intervene," he said.
At issue is hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in which large amounts of water, mixed with sand and chemicals, are pumped at high pressure into wells to crack the tightly stacked shale rock formations to allow the gas to flow.
The NDP wants the government to demand companies reveal which chemicals they use and to study the long-term effects of fracking on groundwater. The technology has become increasingly commonplace in recent years as energy firms look to tap rich deposits of shale gas. [ . . . ]
- - - - - -
Feds keeping an eye on controversial 'fracking' procedure
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Ottawa+maintains+right+intervene+shale+industry/4962493/story.html
BY MIKE DE SOUZA, POSTMEDIA NEWS JUNE 16, 2011
OTTAWA — The federal government is paying attention to shale gas exploration in Canada and is prepared to intervene against any toxic threats, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Thursday.
Responding to questions from NDP environment critic Megan Leslie, Kent noted that regulations for the sector were mainly a provincial and territorial responsibility, but acknowledged that there could be an emerging federal role.
"Indeed, the federal government has an interest and can involve itself when a threat is perceived and reported," Kent told the House of Commons. "Environment Canada is responsible for regulating toxic substances under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and where required, we will intervene."
Leslie said the government should do more to examine the process of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, used to extract the gas from shale rocks underground. She also said companies should be required to divulge more about their operations.
"Hydraulic fracturing is very controversial and few studies have been done," Leslie said. "The fracturing requires enormous amounts of water mixed with very toxic chemicals. However the government doesn't require companies to divulge the nature of the products used. This toxic mix injected underground could contaminate groundwater and, of course, waterways." [ . . . ]
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9. WATCH: Shale gas 101-Utica.mov gasdeschiste
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=AW2qGewjb7k
Original documents at:
http://www.facebook.com/shalegas
May 7, 2011 (3 videos)
This video explains the geological and technical aspects of the proposed exploitation of the Utica shale gas in the densely populated area between Montreal and Quebec. The technical documents discusses the very serious technical limitations and flaws of the fracking method. It shows why only a mere 20% of the gas can be extracted by this technique, and the serious consequences that this will imply, with the remaining 80% of methane that will slowly but continuously for years and centuries, flow from the fractured shale.
by Marc Durand, honorary professor of engineering geology, Earth Sc Dept. Univ. of Quebec, - English narration: Ingrid Style/ G. Beaulieu
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10. Month-long shale gas protest ends in Montreal
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110619/
montreal-shale-gas-development-protest-110619/
The Associated Press Jun. 19, 2011
MONTREAL — More than two-thousand people marched in Montreal yesterday to call for a moratorium on shale gas development.
The protesters were joined by a group who arrived in the city after a month-long walk along the St-Lawrence River.
During the 700-kilometre trek, the group stopped in dozens of small towns rich in gas reserves to spread its message.
Philippe Duhamel, who led the walk, is calling for a 20-year moratorium on shale gas development.
He says the process used to unlock natural gas from shale contaminates groundwater and wrecks the environment.
The Quebec government has slowed development of its shale-gas deposits due to public concerns about the environmental consequences.
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11. SHALE GAS – A BUSINESS PLAN VERY MUCH IN THE RED
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_i ... 7797815818
by Shale Gas Info on Thursday, 10 March 2011 at 13:26
Following the publication on the Web of my article on shale gas -Gaz de schiste- quelques réflexions d'un ingénieur en génie géologique, I received numerous comments, one of which was the following question from Claude Paré:
"I would like M. Durand to clarify two points. I know he is knowledgeable about cement - what, in his opinion, is the life of these wells; could they become conduits for the liquids and the gases. Can the saline solutions and the fracturing fluids buried underground weaken the cement?"
I haven't read all the briefs to BAPE*, but among those I have read there is not one which asks or addresses your question, which I would reformulate thus: ''What is the life-span of a well - including its ability to contain the drilling permanently, and what will happen when the underground part of the well loses its integrity through corrosion and other degradations?''
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12. NIKIFORUK: National Energy Board: Captured Regulator? What happens when watchdog becomes lapdog?
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/17/NEB/
Nikiforuk's latest ENERGY & EQUITY inquiry.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, TheTyee.ca June 17, 2011
The Economist magazine once described "regulatory capture" as a simple case of a gamekeeper behaving like a poacher.
Whenever industry captures the power of the state to foster private goals (and it's an occupation older than prostitution), regulators get captured and corruption surely follows.
And that's now a big problem for North America's energy regulators, which, arguably, are the continent's most powerful public servants. Yet their integrity appears to have peaked along with conventional oil and gas in the 1970s, and most are now abusing their powers. In an era of volatile energy prices, it appears that regulators would rather please industry than police it. [ . . . ]
Related Articles
Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/02/21/CorrosiveDenial/
With so many now heeding the harsh effect oil sands bitumen has on pipelines and refineries, why aren't the province's regulators?
Open Media, Open Government
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2009/07/27 ... iaOpenGov/
How digital democracy activists are pointing to a new way of governing.
Clean tech, oil and gas can work 'hand in hand': Lekstrom
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/
Labour-Industry/2010/03/26/CleanTechOil/
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13. Canada on Secret Oil Offensive: Documents
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3991
Foreign ministry's tar sands team rebranding Alberta oil in Europe
by MARTIN LUKACS May 25, 2011
MONTREAL—The Canadian government has been carrying out a secret plan in Europe to boost investment and keep world markets open for the Alberta tar sands, collaborating with major oil companies and aggressively undermining European environmental measures, documents obtained by The Dominion reveal.
In 2009 the federal government launched a strategy to “protect and advance Canadian interests related to the oil sands," fearing that growing protest could curb European investment in the industry and that EU restrictions on tar sands imports could be mimicked globally.
“Oil sands are posing a growing reputational problem [in Europe], with the oil sands defining the Canadian brand,” states one document released under the Access to Information Act. “Canada’s reputation as a clean, reliable source of energy may be put at risk.”
Led by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAIT), alongside Natural Resources and Environment Canada, the Albertan government, and involving eight foreign missions, a European “Oil Sands Team” has gone on the offensive against threats to the tar sands: they have monitored green groups, responded to “significant negative media coverage,” helped Canadian policymakers lobby European parliamentarians and organize trips to Alberta, worked to “enhance cooperation” with oil companies, and coordinated regular meetings between top European oil executives and Albertan and federal ministers, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper. [ . . . ]
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14. SHIELDS: IF WE OWN IT--PROVE IT!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 1:27 PM
Subject: IF WE OWN IT--PROVE IT!!
How nice to see CAEPLA come out against what has been a great injustice pulled on not only landowners, but everyone who is a Canadian citizen. CAEPLA are doing a great job with its mandate as an advocate for landowners; however, the NEB problem is understated if we are to consider only the abuses suffered by landowners! The export of raw bitumen approved by the NEB is the best example of how the public good is ignored by the NEB affecting every Canadian, whether Rural, Urban, or a City dweller!! " At times, the synthetic crude oil gained from upgrading at source has been exported for almost double the price of raw bitumen. Just imagine the royalties, spin-off industries, jobs, and taxes which the NEB approved to be shipped down the Keystone pipeline, for American profit!! "
The NEB have allowed Canadian's natural gas to export to a single customer at the lowest prices in the world, without offering a manner and means of bypassing the very stupid NAFTA process. Although warned for years by Alberta Activism of the danger posed by "Free-Trade," allowing the Americans to set natural gas prices, and ignoring the movement to LNG exports, NEB sat quiet. Now we find even Australia have passed Canada with great Asian natural gas deals shipped as an LNG. Canada as a country has been wounded and left weak by our regulator being too influenced by the Big-Inch pipeline Industry centered in Calgary, where the NEB find themselves headquartered!!
Canada has fallen years behind other world exporters of natural gas, who all quickly joined the LNG markets to have natural gas export similar to crude oil. Other nations formed an NG exporting group {GECF} now headquarter in Qatar, has the NEB every sent representatives to a GECF meeting as has Norway? And licensing the export of raw natural gas has cost Canada an entire budding Petro-Chemical industry!! These very negative moves hurt Canada deeply and for years to come!!
Alberta Activism unlike CAEPLA is not calling for reform to the NEB, recognizing the difficulty in one regular headquarter so far from Ottawa to act in the best interests of the Canadian public. Indeed we are asking the federal government to strike a "Super-Board" paid solely by the federal government, situated in Ottawa, and mandated to represent solely the public part of the energy business. This super-board would not pretend neutrality, but act very much the same as CAPP does for industry. It is Alberta Activisms position that if indeed the Canadian public are owners of energy resources in Canada, we require far and away better representation either through a Board or a Crown-Corporation in decisions made on Canada's behalf!! This Board or Crown Corporation would be mandated to give the owning public quarterly reports as to how they are benefiting the public it serves. The public wealth contained within the energy business, that today is not visable must be corrected the moment we can replace Harper. No more trying to pry information from an unwilling and uncooperative group-------transparency will be a big demand in 4 more years!! If we own it---Prove it!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - - - - -
Canada’s National Energy Board & the Need for Its Reform
http://www.landownerassociation.ca/rsrcs/
CanadasNationalEnergyBoard_NeedForItsReform.pdf
CAEPLA Connections Landowner Update
Background notes for a proposed resolution calling for an evaluation and review of the structure and mandate of the National Energy Board
OTTAWA’S NATIONAL ENERGY BOARD - PROCEDURAL SECRECY AND A CULTURE OF UNACCOUNTABILITY
Ottawa’s National Energy Board (NEB) has been in continuous operation for more than fifty years. Established during the administration of John Diefenbaker, it was created not long after the goings-on of Parliament had been dominated by what was known as "the Great Pipeline Debate." This debate had centered on the construction of Canada’s first national pipeline, control of the pipeline, and the route it would take to move natural gas from western Canada to the markets of eastern Canada. Some wanted an all Canadian route. Others preferred a less difficult and less expensive US route.
The debate occurred throughout the spring of 1956. It literally turned Parliament into bedlam. It led to the fall of the Liberal government of Louis St. Laurent, the rise of John Diefenbaker as a national political figure, and to what was then an unprecedented Progressive Conservative majority government.
Following on the heels of the Great Pipeline Debate, two other events occurred that led to the creation of the NEB. They were the Royal Commission on Canada’s Economic Prospects and the Royal Commission on Energy. [ . . . ]
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15. NIKIFORUK: Wikileaks Shines Light on Alberta's $16-Billion Electricity Scandal
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/05/26/Wikil ... ectricity/
US cables signal project was for export, contrary to official claims.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 26 May 2011, TheTyee.ca
Critics of Alberta's program to build a $16-billion electricity transmission system without public need studies have called for a major judicial inquiry on the massive taxpayer funded project following new revelations from U.S. embassy cables released by Wikileaks.
Cables sent from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa in 2003 and 2008 show that Alberta politicians offered to export power to the United States using excess electricity generated by oil sands facilities.
Shortly after the last cable the Alberta government proposed a massive upgrade to its existing $2-billion transmission system.
Yet no other jurisdiction in Canada has proposed to build eight times its existing transmission infrastructure at taxpayers' expense with no public needs assessments. Nor has any other province proposed to give away that very infrastructure to two private transmission companies (Atco and AltaLink) along with a promised rate of return of nine per cent.
"The cables show that the government was going to export power all along and lied about what they were doing with transmission upgrades," says Joe Anglin, a former U.S. Marine and long-time advocate for electrical reform in Alberta.
"The cables are the hammer that nails all the supporting evidence together," says Anglin. "We need a full judicial inquiry."
Because many Alberta government officials repeatedly told Albertans that its unprecedented program to spend $16-billion in upgrades were all about "keeping the lights on," Anglin also suspects that many officials may also be guilty of perjury.
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16. SHIELDS: We Can Admire CAPP's Progress and Industry Profits!!---We Only Own The Resource!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P.; Prime Minister/Premier ministre
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca; goodale; flaherty ; bill boyd; Alberta Activism; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 9:32 AM
Subject: We Can Admire CAPP's Progress and Industry Profits!!---We Only Own The Resource!!
This latest news indicates that spilled product in our Arctic area would be wasted in these mentioned clean-up efforts! This certainly means Canadians must have rule changes prior to allowing developers to penetrate oil and gas pools in the Arctic region. Developers who have as their plans interferences with publicly owned energy formations must hold adequate insurance to cover public looses that could accidentally happen. This only makes sense in any area of Canada to prevent the public losses the public have endured in Alberta, where several well blow-outs and fires have destroyed public property. Industry are covered by insurance to cover their loss, but the public loss of inventory has until now simply been written-off!! This must change across the nation!!
Nothing points more to the need of "Super-Boards" all across Canada to act solely on the "Public-Part" of the energy industry. Nowhere is the public loss in oilpatch accidents and incidents being property addressed or even discussed! Each time we fill our automobiles at the pumps we are reminded of just how precious our public owned resources really are. The product now holds a degree of worth that should mean more than gaining a few hard hat jobs in the field, into having a advocate for the public ownership much in the manner CAPP acts for the developer is indeed in order!! The announced clean-up methods stated below seem to take for granted that this very precious resource can simply be wasted and written off the public inventory, as the spoiled industry have been allowed to do in Alberta!
A Super-Board to manage the neglected part of the energy business would manage royalty rates and gathering the same, Audits for royalty correct volumes, all measurements related to royalties, Court actions against royalty cheats, Advice to owning government officials, Paid totally by owning government, headquartered at the government seat, etc. Canadians must become much more involved with the product that has the abilities to make change in our standard of living as it has in several other nations like Norway! The status-quo is marvelous for industry and the governments industry favor, but brutal for the government's public that own the resource, and can only admire CAPP's progress and industries profits!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - - - - -
Oil industry outlines cleanup strategy for Arctic spill
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-industry-outlines-cleanup-strategy-for-arctic-spill/article2054586/
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE CALGARY— From Friday's Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Jun. 09, 2011 7:43PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jun. 10, 2011 7:24
Beneath the Gulf spill
Filings submitted to the National Energy Board by Chevron Corp. (CVX-N101.23----%) and Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO-T45.50----%) provide a glimpse into how companies would respond to a massive leak like the BP Deepwater Horizon fiasco in a northern setting. They outline the use of numerous techniques, including “herding agents” designed to chemically coalesce oil slicks, as well as huge aircraft to spray dispersants and crews to burn oil.
The documents form part of the NEB’s Arctic Offshore Drilling Review, which is working to set new rules for the exploration of oil and gas in Canada’s Far North. For the oil industry, the Arctic offers an alluring new frontier, a place with the potential for major new finds. For the country, however, drilling in such a sensitive and iconic region has stirred up concern, particularly in the wake of the BP spill. And for critics, the industry’s bold cleanup plans give little cause for reassurance.
As they pursue wells in Beaufort Sea waters as deep as those of the Gulf of Mexico where the BP accident occurred, major energy companies have told the NEB that, in some ways, an Arctic spill could actually be easier to clean than an accident elsewhere. In its submission to the NEB’s review, for example, Chevron says “unique aspects of the Arctic environment … can work to the responders’ advantage.” [ . . . ]
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17. SHIELDS: U.S. LNG Exports---Using Canadian Natural Gas!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Minister.energy@gov.ab.ca ; Gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca
Cc: Alberta Activism ; bill boyd ; flaherty ; goodale ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; Rae.B@parl.gc.ca
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2011 12:42 PM
Subject: U.S. LNG Exports---Using Canadian Natural Gas!!
Those that doubt the intentions of United States to join other countries in exporting LNG need to read the caption below. Don't think the idea of importing cheap Canadian natural gas through NAFTA at $4.00 and selling the same as LNG in Asia at $13.00 hasn't entered the United States minds!! Mulroney destroyed the natural gas business for Canada in North America with "Free-Trade," and turning price control of Canadian natural gas over to the Americans with deregulation!! Now Harper's work ethic, and 17th century thinking will leave Canada solely committed to NAFTA and the American entrepreneurship to market Canada's precious resources, even if it is far below the price that's entirely possible!
Everything about the public part of the energy business screams for a new system to ensure Canadians are getting fair value for their energy production! This goes far beyond the percent of royalties gained and then returned to industry in a bevy of industry aids. Why Canada has been exporting natural gas to United States at below the costs of production must be addressed. And why Canada even considers the exports of bitumen slurry along with thousands of good jobs to United States destinations. Is this simply a method of dispersing off-gases over a larger target area in an effort to defuse concerns over pollution at source, where upgrading should take place?
Canadians must demand a Board free of Industry pay and interference, to manage solely the public part of the energy business!! These publicly owned boards would be given broad powers to insure the public interest is indeed the major motive in energy production, something no-one can now state with a straight face!! United States have begun to make changes in their regulations since the BP spill in the Gulf, Canada and especially Alberta, leave the same old systems in place. Having industry regulated by a Board {ERCB} that derives most of its needed funds from the industry it regulates is indeed dead wrong! However when that same industry owned Board control both the volume and measurement of said volumes of royalties due the Alberta public, while admitting to an industry bias, big change is drastically needed!! A "Super Board" to manage the public part of the energy industry solely, surely is the answer!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta.
- - - - - -
United States moves toward LNG exports
http://www.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2011/Jun/10/
United-States-moves-toward-LNG-exports
6/10/2011 12:15:43 AM | Tony D'Altorio, Investment U
It's a big step toward the globalization of natural gas markets and will put the United States into direct competition with other LNG exports
Just a few short weeks ago, the natural gas market saw a jump up in prices to 10-month highs. The reason for this sudden jolt higher was the announcement that the United States had authorized its first big export project for liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The U.S. Department of Energy authorized Cheniere Energy (AMEX: LNG, Stock Forum) to export LNG from its Sabine Pass terminal. Sabine Pass is the largest of nine LNG import facilities in the United States.
Cheniere Energy plans to retrofit the import terminal for liquefaction capabilities. Construction is set to begin in 2012 and the production is expected to come online in 2015.
The company already has preliminary deals in place to supply LNG to companies globally, including Spanish utility Endesa and Japanese trading company Sumitomo.
An LNG milestone for the United States
This LNG export project marks a milestone. It’s a big step toward the globalization of natural gas markets and will put the United States into direct competition with other LNG exports including Russia, Qatar and Australia.
Natural gas trading currently occurs in separate markets around the globe. That is, there’s no one unified global price for natural gas. Markets remain isolated due to a lack of infrastructure uniting them. [ . . . .]
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18. Shields: Our Largest Industry!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; dnd_mdn@forces.gc.ca ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 7:42 AM
We have found one hell-of-a-poor way to manage the largest industry we have in Canada! The public ownership of energy resources has not brought with it the expected wealth other nations enjoy. Although our governments continue to insist "we the public" own the resource, only the developers and those closely associated with developers, including politicians, seem able to benefit from energy development!! Imagine Alberta with similar production volumes as Norway running deficits---impossible!! Is the average Albertan with an energy industry better off than the average Ontarian without such? How much better?
Many writers and scribes are beginning to recognize the horrid faults in how Canada manages or mismanages the largest industry Canada has. We really have no government body to manage exports, royalty collection, royalty correctness, land sales, measurement, on and on. The NEB based in far away Calgary, and industry paid, have become a pawn of Big-Inch pipeline groups headquartered also in Calgary! This has become so acute that the NEB have ignored the move to transporting natural gas much like crude oil to different customers around the world as an LNG.
Although an LNG export stations on the West Coast would have prevented years of low NAFTA prices for Canada, it also would have greatly lowered the volumes and thus tariffs the large pipeline operators would receive! Since the NEB call these Big-Inch operators their "Partners" we are still "Land-Locked" with respect to our natural gas and the NEB spent millions on the Mackenzie Pipeline so a foreign CARTEL could keep Canada's natural gas "Land-Locked" available only to U.S. customers by the Big-Inch pipeline operators! And what about our Alberta, British Columbia, and federal governments?? All were warned over and over again by Alberta Activism of exactly the pending doom in the natural gas business we now face by following blindly the NEB lead! Indeed Frank McKenna, Canada's former ambassador to United States, as the first politician to wake-up to what was happening and warn Alberta of the danger of NAFTA only sales. Alberta however reacted by allowing the developer more of the public interest in natural gas wealth, making it possible to export to NAFTA at even lower prices!!
Our federal politicians have become fearful of doing their jobs with respect to the energy industry after CAPP was successful in promoting the myth about the "National Energy Program"!! This Myth has gone far enough in destroying the wealth the Canadian public are properly due for their ownership of an extremely valuable resource. Canadians must ask their politicians to grow b---s if they lack in that department, and get with it in respect to gaining for the public their entire entitlements from energy resources! That Norway has gained the largest capital pool in the world while Canada with more production runs deficits is impossible!!
We desperately need all federal energy properties and rights, including royalties and exports rolled into a "Crown-Corporation" that has operating procedures it must follow to stop being put in front of a judge! Or a " Super-Board" could be struck paid fully by Ottawa, and situated in Ottawa, mandated to manage solely the public part of the energy business. The present partnership between the owning public and the industry developer is unsustainable in its present form. Even the slowest of government member must recognize the lack of any government management system to protect the interests of the owning public?? The path out of years of more TORY debt lays directly before any government in Canada with the b---s to take that walk!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - - - -
B.C. sells its gas for billions less than it is worth
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/
story.html?id=56fd573b-9a75-474d-901c-286cdf7f48bf&k=24534&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+canwest%2FF261+(Vancouver+Sun+-+BusinessBC
By Vancouver Sun May 6, 2011
British Columbia is losing billions of dollars by exporting vast quantities of natural gas for a small fraction of what it's worth, says energy analyst Peter Tertzakian, the managing director of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp.
"B.C. sells its natural gas for $3 or $4 [per 1,000 cubic feet] when the Japanese are paying $11," Tertzakian told me. "The loss of revenue to the government in terms of taxes and royalties is immense."
And these losses, he said, will get worse before they get better.
Why? [ . . . ]
= = = = = = = =
19. SHIELDS: The Public Interest---Decided By The Public!!
From: lagran <lagran@shaw.ca>
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. <Layton.J@parl.gc.ca>, Prime Minister/Premier ministre <pm@pm.gc.ca>
CC: <Rae.B@parl.gc.ca>, "Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX" <EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca>, "goodale" <goodale.r@parl.gc.ca>, "flaherty" <flaherty.j@parl.gc.ca>, <dnd_mdn@forces.gc.ca>, "bill boyd" <minister.er@gov.sk.ca>, "Alberta Activism" <albertaactivism@shaw.ca>, <acameron@neb-one.gc.ca>
The Public Interest---Decided By The Public!!
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:30:45 -0700
If Ottawa had a "Super-Board" to act as an advocate for the public part of the energy business, there would be no need to strike a special panel for a decision of this nature! A Super Board could hear briefs from their respective public then offer the Federal Minister of Energy guidance for a decision. This is much much better than allowing the Provincial ERCB to hold hearings to decide a federal issue, as was done with respect to EnCana's submission to Carpet-Bomb drill a wild-Life area contained within the federally held Suffield Block!! This was a real mess, with federal panel members made temporary ERCB members to allow EnCana to have their provincial regulator make a decision on what should have been a Federal area of responsibility!! The NEB certainly can no longer even claim to represent the Canadian public after approving the Keystone Pipeline to haul raw Canadian bitumen to United States destinations.
Quebec seem satisfied to leave energy materials in their natural formations, if indeed that is so, will their wishes be recognized by both the federal and provincial governments? A true public owned tribunal would of course be mandated to manage solely the public-part of the energy industry, thus answerable to the public for decisions that are not in the public interest as decided by the public not the regulator!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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St. Lawrence oil plan needs close look, Ottawa told
http://www.silobreaker.com/
st-lawrence-oil-plan-needs-close-look-ottawa-told-5_2264636622676951119
SHAWN McCARTHY — GLOBAL ENERGY REPORTER
OTTAWA— Globe and Mail Update
Published Monday, Jun. 13, 2011 11:52AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Jun. 13, 2011 12:56PM EDT
Newfoundland’s offshore regulator has asked the federal government to strike a special panel on oil exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after a drilling proposal at the controversial Old Harry site drew an unprecedented backlash.
In a letter to Environment Minister Peter Kent, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board said the evidence so far suggests the project by Halifax-based Corridor Resources Inc. is unlikely to cause significant environmental harm.
Is lower oil good for energy stocks?
But in the wake of BP PLC’s disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Canadians are demanding a high level of environmental screening for contentious project, CNLOPB chair Max Ruelokke said in a release Monday. [ . . . ]
- - - -
Council opposition helps prompt call for special panel on Gulf of St. Lawrence drilling
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=8222
Monday, June 13th, 2011
Atlantic regional organizer Angela Giles has alerted us that the Globe and Mail is reporting, “Newfoundland’s offshore regulator has asked the federal government to strike a special panel on oil exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after a drilling proposal at the controversial Old Harry site drew an unprecedented backlash. In a letter to Environment Minister Peter Kent, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board said the evidence so far suggests the project by Halifax-based Corridor Resources Inc. is unlikely to cause significant environmental harm. But in the wake of BP PLC’s disastrous blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Canadians are demanding a high level of environmental screening for contentious project, CNLOPB chair Max Ruelokke said in a release Monday. …The (Newfoundland) board said it had received more public commentary on the environmental aspects of Old Harry development than on any other a proposed exploration or production project in its 26-year history.”
On March 28, 2011, Council of Canadians vice-chairperson Leo Broderick wrote the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board expressing our concern that Corridor Resources could be granted a permit to drill a deep water exploration well in the Laurentian Trench, north of the Magdalene Islands, and that only a screening level of environmental assessment is being planned. Broderick wrote, “The Council of Canadians is requesting that you stop this project. We ask that you declare a moratorium on oil drilling inside the Gulf. And we also ask that you initiate a strategic environmental assessment with a full panel review and a regional public consultation process (i.e. public consultation meetings in all affected provinces).”
More on Leo Broderick’s letter can be read at
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7205.
Additionally, on November 17, 2010, the Council of Canadians joined the call from Save Our Seas and Shores, Attention Fragile (Magdalen Islands), Sierra Club Atlantic, and the Ecology Action Centre, for a moratorium on oil and gas development in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And on April 7, 2011, “Atlantic Council of Canadians chapter delegates, at a meeting the past weekend in Tatamagouche, united in concern with the proposed drilling in the ‘Old Harry’ area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The clear lack of public consultation and information void around the proposed drilling has created more questions than answers.”
The Globe and Mail notes that, “Quebec Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau has said the Old Harry field could contain as much as 2-billion barrels of oil and 5-trillion cubic feet of natural gas, though whether there is any recoverable oil or gas won’t be known until exploration wells are drilled. Corridor Resources has completed seismic work in the area, and filed a proposal with the board in February to drill an exploration well between mid-2012 and early 2014.”
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20. First Nations now covered by Human Rights Act
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110617/
aboriginal-rights-human-rights-110617/
Date: Fri. Jun. 17 2011 5:46 PM ET
OTTAWA — As of Saturday, First Nations people will have access to the same human rights protections as everyone else in Canada.
But what that will actually mean for living conditions and social peace on reserves is a big unknown, because most of the parties involved agree that First Nations are ill-prepared for the change.
"This is a historic day," said David Langtry, acting chief of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
"Over 700,000 people who previously had no recourse under the Canadian Human Rights Act are now able to come to the Canadian Human Rights Commission to seek a remedy to improve their lives in First Nations communities and beyond."
First Nations people already had the ability to challenge Ottawa over rights violations. That was granted in 2008 in federal legislation that also gave First Nations three years to transition to the new system.
The transition is now over and people on reserves will have the same rights as anyone else in terms of challenging local governments over discrimination.
Funding for clean water, education, child welfare and housing on reserves is all open to question under the rights act, Langtry said.
But he acknowledged that many First Nations members lack the legal or financial capacity to mount quasi-legal challenges. [ . . . ]
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21. Conditions on reserves have worsened, AG says
http://www.canada.com/life/
Conditions+reserves+have+worsened+says/4918910/story.html#ixzz1PJYejEiU
By Sharon Kirkey, Postmedia News June 9, 2011
OTTAWA — More than half the drinking water on Canada's First Nation reserves poses a "significant risk" to the people who use them, according to Canada's interim auditor general.
Despite the billions of federal dollars spent each year on programs to improve unsafe housing, high unemployment and polluted water supplies, conditions on reserves have worsened since earlier audits.
The education gap between First Nations living on reserves and the general Canadian population is widening, housing is in poor condition and the housing shortage has grown even more acute over the past decade, growing from an estimated shortage of 8,500 houses in 2003, to an estimated 20,000 shortfall now.
"I am very disappointed that conditions on reserves have worsened and are well below the national average," interim auditor general John Wiersema said in a statement Thursday. [ . . . . ]
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22. Murder in El Salvador Calls Canadian Mining Interests Into Question
http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/
murder-el-salvador-calls-canadian-mining-interests-question
For Immediate Release - June 20, 2011
Yet another anti-mining activist has been murdered in El Salvador.
Canadian civil society organizations are calling for a full investigation into the murder of Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, the fourth such death in two years that local organizations believe are linked to the presence of Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining in the department of Cabañas.
On June 2nd, Juan Francisco Durán Ayala, a thirty-year old linguistics student at the Technological University in San Salvador, was hanging posters in the city of Ilobasco, in the department of Cabañas as part of a campaign against mining and Pacific Rim. The Cabañas Environmental Committee reported that the local mayor ordered municipal police to remove the banners and intimidate the activists hanging them. The next day, Juan left for classes in the capital city and was not heard from again.
Juan Francisco's body was found shortly after midnight on June 4th. He had been shot twice in the head. When the Medical Examiner declared his body 'unidentifiable,' he was buried in a common grave in San Salvador. The following week, the Environmental Committee determined the whereabouts of Juan Francisco's body, and on June 14th, Juan Francisco's father positively identified his son.
This young activist's murder comes two years after community leader and anti-mining activist Marcelo Rivera went missing. Shortly after disappearing, Rivera was found dead with signs of torture. That December, Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto along with her unborn child were also assassinated. In recent months, local journalists at Radio Victoria in Cabañas have received persistent threats. Francisco Piñeda, chair of the Environmental Committee and winner of this year's Goldman Environmental prize, now lives with around-the-clock armed guards to ensure his safety.
"The pattern of violence in Cabañas and the ways in which the presence of a Canadian mining company could be contributing or aggravating the situation is tremendously worrying," says MiningWatch Canada's Latin America Program Coordinator Jennifer Moore. "Not only have activists been targeted in El Salvador, people have also been killed in recent years in Mexico and Guatemala in apparent connection with Canadian interests. To leave those responsible for these crimes in impunity would give a green light for such violence to continue. We can't stand by and let that happen."
In September 2010, two gang members were convicted in the death of Marcelo Rivera. Since then, El Salvadoran organizations have continued to demand that those responsible for orchestrating this crime be investigated and tried, along with others responsible for perpetrating his disappearance, torture and murder. They also continue to seek further investigation into the deaths of Ramiro Rivera and Dora Alicia Sorto, and into the persistent threats and attacks against other activists.
"Juan Francisco was a front line defender for the right to water and a healthy environment," says Emma Lui Water Campaigner for the Council of Canadians. "We ask El Salvadoran authorities to carry out an exhaustive investigation regarding this string of murders in order to identify the material and intellectual authors and to hold them responsible."
Opposition to mining and Pacific Rim Mining's project in El Salvador has arisen out of particular concern for the impacts that industrial gold mining could have on the tiny country's water supplies. With a population of 6.1 million people, El Salvador is only slightly bigger than Lake Ontario and is largely dependent on a single watershed. Pacific Rim Mining is currently suing the government of El Salvador for $77 million dollars under the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement for having not granted it permission to bring its proposed El Dorado mine in Cabañas into production despite the company's failure to meet El Salvadoran environmental requirements.
"This terrible news is further evidence that Canada's voluntary corporate social responsibility policy for companies operating overseas is doing little to stem the tide of human rights abuses," says Louise Casselman of Common Frontiers. "The Canadian government needs to start taking this situation seriously and implement a mandatory framework that will, among other things, ensure affected communities much needed access to justice in Canadian courts." - 30 -
Contacts:
MiningWatch Canada: Jennifer Moore, jen@miningwatch.ca, (613) 569-3439
Council of Canadians: Emma Lui, elui@canadians.org, (613) 233-4487 x234
Common Frontiers: Louise Casselman, CasselL@psac-afpc.com, (613) 560-5494
--
Jamie Kneen
Communications & Outreach Coordinator
MiningWatch Canada
http://www.miningwatch.ca
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El Salvadoran Anti-Mining Activist Against Canadian Mining Company Assassinated
https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/6099/p/dia/action/
public/?action_KEY=7205
From: Jen Moore
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 7:59 AM
Subject: [MWC-Alerts] UPDATE AND ACTION ALERT: El Salvadoran Anti-Mining Activist Assassinated
Further to the action alert that we distributed on Wednesday, Juan Francisco's body has been found and pressure needs to be kept up to ensure that his murder, as well as threats and three earlier murders of other anti-mining activists in El Salvador, are fully investigated.
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23. A Government Beyond Reproach
http://www.themarknews.com/articles/
5669-a-government-beyond-reproach
By Alexandre Brassard | The Mark News – Fri, 17 Jun, 2011
Remember Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s May 2 victory speech? His face beaming, he declared: “We are intensely aware that we are and we must be the government of all Canadians, including those who did not vote for us.”
Deferring to experienced political analysts, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to believe that Harper’s new majority would soften his partisan edge, that he’d reveal a more conciliatory side. I proclaimed on-air that the Conservatives would work to bring the country together – not because of some new openness of spirit, but because it would help them win the support of centrist voters.
Sadly, recent events have proven me wrong. [ . . . ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS – June 20 – Part II
by Oscar » Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:14 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS – June 20 – Part II
1. CO2 may be used for oil extraction in Ohio
2. Shale Gas: Not a 'Game Changer' After All
3. WATCH: "Fracking" for natural gas continues to raise health concerns
4. Fracking Does Contaminate Groundwater With Methane, But Jury Still Out On Process Overall
5. President Obama’s Fracking Panel Unmoved By Pennsylvanians’ Water Concerns
6. Environmental Consequences of Fossil Fuel Exploration
7. Pa. health chief wants to analyze drilling areas
8. Health secretary wants tabs on shale
9. Color me fracked: Energy industry produces coloring book to make case for gas drilling to kids
10. NBC/GE, Dylan Ratigan Show, and the Methane Gas-Media Industrial Complex
11. MSNBC's (GE's) Dylan Ratigan Show "Firewater?" Series: Natural Gas Industry-Media Complex Exposed
12. Report: Paul Ryan May Personally Benefit From Preserving Billions In Taxpayer Oil Subsidies
13. Leading Marcellus geologist advocates forced pooling of gas over property rights
14. Related Articles
15. UK ministers ignored 'peak oil' warnings, report shows
16. Is greed fuelling the land grab in Africa?
17. This is Ecocide
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1. CO2 may be used for oil extraction in Ohio
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/06/13/
CO2-may-be-used-for-oil-extraction-in-Ohio/UPI-41341307993799/#ixzz1PGAgUkIN
Published: June 13, 2011 at 3:36 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 13 (UPI) -- Ohio officials say they're investigating whether injecting carbon dioxide into a played-out oil well could breathe life into the state oil fields.
Energy companies have injected carbon dioxide into old oil fields in Texas and California for decades, a method that increases underground pressure and mixes with the oil, loosening it from nooks and crannies so it can be removed, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported Monday.
"It lightens the oil. It fluffs it up," said Larry Wickstrom, Ohio Geological Survey head. "It actually makes it so you can push [the oil] through."
- - - SNIP - - -
"I don't doubt the workability of enhanced oil recovery," Nachy Kanfer, the Midwest coordinator of the Sierra Club's coal-to-clean-energy campaign, told the Dispatch. "I doubt carbon dioxide's ability to remain underground."
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Sask. family demands answers on carbon capture and storage risks
http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/press-releases/
sask.-family-demands-answers-on-carbon-capture-and-storage-risks
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan 11, 2011 08:51 AM
Independent research links bubbling, foaming water and animal carcasses to CO2 leakage
Jan 11, 2011
REGINA — A Saskatchewan family has demanded a full public investigation of documented problems on its Weyburn property, located on top of a Cenovus Energy carbon capture and storage site, in light of independent research that indicates unnaturally high levels of CO2 in the area’s soil.
Cameron and Jane Kerr first noticed changes in surface water and well water on their property in 2004, one year after CO2 injections in the area began, and reported these incidents to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources.
Disturbances included bubbling and foaming water, unusual algae growths in ponds and animal carcasses found strewn around the ponds.
“Cenovus Energy and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources failed to properly monitor and investigate the possibility of a CO2 leak during the last six years,” said Ecojustice staff lawyer Barry Robinson, who is advising the Kerrs. “Furthermore, they left the Kerrs in the position of having to prove there was a problem when it was the ministry’s duty to investigate releases from oil and gas activities.”
Cenovus, the ministry and the Kerrs agreed in the fall 2007 that the ministry would conduct a year-long investigation into soil, water and air quality on the Kerrs’ property. The ministry took water and air samples on a single day in July 2008. They did not test for CO2.
Since then, both Cenovus and the ministry have refused to conduct further studies on the property. A petroleum geologist assisting the Kerrs suggested that CO2 leakage could be occurring through faults and fractures or through abandoned oil and gas wells. [ . . . ]
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2. Shale Gas: Not a 'Game Changer' After All
http://scitizen.com/future-energies/
shale-gas-not-a-game-changer-after-all_a-14-3672.html
15 Jun, 2011 04:51 pm
Newly accessible natural gas from deep shale deposits around the world has been touted as a solution to everything from oil dependence to climate change. But our actual experience with shale gas extraction is telling another story.
The natural gas industry would like you to believe that newly accessible gas previously locked away in deep shale deposits is set to make natural gas the dominant fuel of the 21st century. Presumably, that's because natural gas is cleaner, produces fewer greenhouse gases, and will supposedly be widely available at reasonable prices. Therefore, we'll be using it to generate more of our electricity, power more of our vehicles, produce more products from our petrochemical refineries, and generally replace oil as the world's primary fuel.
Can gas from shale really promise all of that? David Hughes, formerly a geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada for 32 years and now an independent consultant, believes that those promises are overblown. He outlines his concerns in a new report entitled "Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?"
( http://www.postcarbon.org/reports/PCI-r ... future.pdf ) which he prepared for the Post Carbon Institute. Even though he has limited his study to the United States, much of what he says is applicable to the rest of the world.
So many of the claims made for shale gas are questionable that it's hard to know where to start. The key claim is that it will be plentiful. But strangely no particular price is attached to this claim. What would we have to pay for that bounty to be available? One driller I know says it's nonsense to tell the public that we will have extensive supplies of natural gas from shale without saying what it will actually cost. He said that natural gas selling for $5 mcf implies a much smaller exploitable resource than gas above $10 mcf, a level hit only briefly twice in the last decade.
The report cites estimates of what price it might take to get large volumes of shale gas out of the ground. Some of the easiest and highest flowing wells may make a profit at current prices around $4 mcf. But harder-to-get gas will likely cost more than $7 mcf and possibly as much as $11.50 mcf. What's clear is that ramping up shale gas production won't be cheap. As my driller friend opined, "We can have cheap natural gas or we can have plentiful natural gas, but we're not going to have cheap, plentiful natural gas."
MORE:
http://scitizen.com/future-energies/
shale-gas-not-a-game-changer-after-all_a-14-3672.html
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3. WATCH: "Fracking" for natural gas continues to raise health concerns
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june11/
fracking_06-15.html
JEFFREY BROWN: Energy companies are increasingly scouring the country for natural gas. But, as they do so, one of the methods they're using, known as fracking, is coming under sharp scrutiny in many states.
NewsHour correspondent Tom Bearden reports from Colorado.
June 15, 2011
TOM BEARDEN: By now, you have likely seen the videos of people seemingly lighting their water on fire. The images were featured in a much-publicized documentary called "Gasland" and have generated government hearings and news coverage about whether the gas in the water was the result of drilling for natural gas.
All the attention has also popularized a word that was little known to the public just a few years ago: fracking.
MAN: Fracking is a form of natural gas drilling.
TOM BEARDEN: It's even inspired a YouTube video.
( GASLAND: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558250/ )
MAN: Water goes into the pipe, the pipe into the ground. The pressure creates fissures 7,000 feet down. The cracks release...
TOM BEARDEN: It's shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, the process used to get the gas out of the ground. Concerns about it have ignited a national debate about whether natural gas, long touted as a greener alternative, is indeed a clean technology.
The process begins with vertical and then horizontal drilling through thousands of feet of rock and soil. Once the gas-laden shale layer is reached, a pipe is inserted and encased in concrete to prevent leaks. Then, a fracking fluid is injected at extremely high pressure, causing the rock to crack. [ . . . ]
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4. Fracking Does Contaminate Groundwater With Methane, But Jury Still Out On Process Overall
http://www.scitizen.com/future-energies/
fracking-does-contaminate-groundwater-with-methane-but-jury-still-out-on-process-overall_a-14-3669.html
By Chris Rhodes 13 May, 2011 12:15 am
A study by Duke University has shown unsafe levels of methane gas in water taken from wells closer than 1000 m to gas-shale hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") operations. Results from ongoing studies by the University of Texas and the US Environmental Protection Agency are awaited with interest, since it is predicted at 45% of US natural gas production will be shale-gas by 2035, but presumably only if the process is deemed safe.
A study has been undertaken by Duke University of methane levels in water from 68 private wells above the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania and New York. The details have just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/05/02/
1100682108.full.pdf+html.
Of these, around one third were in an "active extraction area", which by definition is within one kilometre of a gas well, the remainder being more distant.
The results of the study are striking: in all but one case, making 15 altogether, it is only within 800 metres of a gas-well that levels of methane are high enough (10 - 28 mg/L) to merit warning of the occupants and prudent remediation down to levels ; 10 mg/L, according to the US Office of the Interior, or above 28 mg/L at which point "potentially explosive or flammable quantities of the gas are being liberated in the well and/or may be liberated in confined areas of the home," which requires immediate mitigation.
http://arblast.osmre.gov/downloads/
Mine%20Gases%20and%20Dust/FINAL-Methane.pdf
In this particular study, no evidence for fracking fluid finding its way into the groundwater was found nor for intrusion from deep saline brines into aquifers closer to the surface. According to an isotopic analysis, the excess methane is consistent as originating from deeper thermogenic sediments, rather than being produced biologically in near surface environments.
The Energy Institute at the University of Texas is set to conduct the first integrated study of the science, policy and environmental issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing to recover shale gas at a cost of $300,000, with preliminary findings expected to be released in October. This project aims to combine an independent assessment of groundwater contamination, fugitive air emissions and seismic events for which fracking has been blamed in shale formations, and to evaluate the effectiveness of legal regulations attendant to the process, focussing on Barnett Shale, which extends under over 20 counties in North Texas . The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting its own investigation with results expected after the end of the year 2012. [ . . . ]
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5. President Obama’s Fracking Panel Unmoved By Pennsylvanians’ Water Concerns
http://www.desmogblog.com/
15 June 11 T.J. SCOLNICK
On Monday, the Natural Gas Subcommittee, from Energy Department Secretary Stephen Chu’s Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), held its second public meeting. Around 400 people packed a cramped auditorium at Washington Jefferson College in western Pennsylvania to discuss the effects of hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) on water supplies, air quality and other threats from the controversial practice.
The crowd split into two camps, those opposing and those supporting the highly contentious drilling method which has spread across Pennsylvania. Fracking opponents argued that fracking is a dangerous and destructive process that must be banned immediately, while those in favour yelled out “drill, baby, drill.”
Given the circumstances it was not surprising that the pro-frackers won the evening. This was due, in large part, to the work of gas industry front-group Energy in Depth who sent out emails to Pennsylvania and New York residents supportive of fracking, offering them airfare, hotels and meals to attend. Tickets to see the Pittsburgh Pirates play the New York Mets were even offered, although later retracted. [ . . . ]
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6. Environmental Consequences of Fossil Fuel Exploration
http://www.energy.utexas.edu/
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=160
Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 June 2011 03:43
Examining the environmental consequences of generation of fossil fuels, with initial emphasis on fracturing shale for natural gas and groundwater.
The Problem
The recent discovery of more than 200 years of secure, domestic natural gas sources bodes well for our Nation’s energy future. These reserves, now accessible because of hydraulic fracturing shale, are predominantly found in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania – in the Barnett, Haynesville and Marcellus shale plays, respectively. The problem is that the development of these vast shale gas resources through “fracing” has been accompanied by claims of damage to groundwater and surface water. To date, however, no credible, independent research has been conducted to support or rebut these environmental concerns.
The Energy Institute Solution
The University of Texas at Austin, in partnership with Syracuse University, has developed a two-year, multi-disciplinary study of fracing in the each of the three major shale plays. In addition, the Environmental Defense Fund has agreed to assist in the design of the research agenda and monitor research protocols as the program develops.
Module I of the proposal would entail a comprehensive evaluation of the physical aspects of shale gas development, as well as an assessment of the policy, regulatory, and communications issues surrounding fracing. Module II would examine claims of contamination to local and regional water sources; review current policy and regulatory structures that control shale gas development; and evaluate additional measures proposed in response to environmental concerns. [ . . . . ]
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7. Pa. health chief wants to analyze drilling areas
http://online.wsj.com/article/
AP09a55ca592f543899e518392729a91be.html
Associated Press June 17, 2011
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Corbett's top health adviser said Friday that he wants to make Pennsylvania the first state to create a registry to track illnesses in communities near heavy drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation to determine what kind of impact, if any, the activity has on public health.
Health Secretary Eli Avila told Corbett's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission that creating such a registry is the timeliest and most important step the Department of Health could take, and that his agency is not aware of anything like it in other drilling states.
"We're really at the frontiers of this and we can make a speedy example for all the other states," Avila told the commission at its fourth meeting. [ . . . ]
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8. Health secretary wants tabs on shale
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11169/
1154672-503.stm#ixzz1PdLUPkmJ
Seeks more resources to see if gas drilling poses a health risk
Saturday, June 18, 2011
By Laura Olson, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- The state's top health official said Friday that his agency needs resources to create a registry for tracking whether spikes in illnesses could be related to shale gas drilling.
That request by Department of Health Secretary Eli Avila to the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission came as the panel starts to finalize its recommendations for a July 22 report.
Dozens have spoken during the commission's public-comment sessions, saying they're concerned about public health risks from gas drilling.
Mr. Avila said his department has received "several dozen" similar calls in the past year, often from those who believe their health condition is a result of unsafe drilling practices. The agency needs a "comprehensive and scientific approach" to evaluating those concerns, he said.
"We investigate them all individually now," Mr. Avila said. "It would be great to put them all together, to get to the root cause, if there is a root cause or linkage."
He told the panel that officials so far "have seen no linkage between drilling and the illnesses presented to us," adding that a larger sample size is needed to identify health-related trends.
"We're really at the frontiers of this, and we can make an example" for other states, he said. [ . . . ]
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9. Color me fracked: Energy industry produces coloring book to make case for gas drilling to kids
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11170/
1154547-28.stm#ixzz1PmMZxkOW
Sunday, June 19, 2011 By Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Hey kids, meet "Talisman Terry, the Friendly Fracosaurus."
When the energy industry publishes a coloring book, there is no crayon needed to see the shades of gray.
Exhibit A: "Talisman Terry's Energy Adventure," a handout for children published by Talisman Energy that explains the natural gas industry with the help of a "friendly Fracosaurus" dinosaur named Terry.
Everyone smiles in Terry's world. Mom smiles, Dad smiles, the worker smiles, the dog smiles, the cat smiles, the deer smiles, the fish smiles, the sun smiles, the moon smiles, the flower smiles, the rock smiles. Even the helium balloon -- used to demonstrate how "natural gas is lighter than air" -- smiles.
The coloring book's overt message -- drilling is smart, safe and American -- is delivered in kid-friendly fashion, glossing over the environmental and economic controversies that have surrounded drillers tapping the Marcellus Shale rock formation for lucrative pockets of gas.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pdf/201106/
201106talisman_coloringbook.pdf
And like other early education efforts by the energy industry, the coloring book is called harmless fun by the industry and dishonest propaganda by critics. [ . . . ]
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10. NBC/GE, Dylan Ratigan Show, and the Methane Gas-Media Industrial Complex
http://www.desmogblog.com/
nbcge-dylan-ratigan-show-and-methane-gas-media-industrial-complex
STEVE HORN 15 June 11
Yesterday, I published an article for the Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch titled, "MSNBC's (GE's) Dylan Ratigan Show 'Firewater?' Series: Natural Gas Industry-Media Complex Exposed."
Among other things, the article lays out the fundamental flaw with NBC's coverage of anything pertaining to methane gas drilling--they are a "player in that game," to put it bluntly, with a direct financial interest in the project occurring.
The article then proceeds to discuss, based on that troubling journalistic premise, the "Firewater?" series that took place on the Dylan Ratigan Show from Wed. June 8 through Fri., June 10, revealing all the ways that overarching premise flawed what was pitched as "in-depth coverage," but in reality, served as a three-day advertising campaign for General Electric and the methane gas industry (an industry GE is a part of). [ . . . ]
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11. MSNBC's (GE's) Dylan Ratigan Show "Firewater?" Series: Natural Gas Industry-Media Complex Exposed
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/06/10812/
msnbcs-ges-dylan-ratigan-show-firewater-series-natural-gas-industry-media-complex
Submitted by Steve Horn on June 14, 2011 - 3:24pm
The June 8 - June 10 episodes of MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show featured a three-part series titled "Firewater?" It pondered whether drilling for methane gas is a path toward a prosperous "clean energy" future for the United States, or if, to the contrary, the harms of methane gas drilling, caused by a process called fracking, nullify these oft-repeated industry claims.
While three recent scientific reports -- one by Duke University, one by Cornell University, and one by the Post Carbon Institute -- point to the latter, Ratigan's series portrayed the issue as still up for debate, with both sides' claims having equal merit.
Lest we chalk this up to a typical display of mythical "balanced reporting" by the mass media, it is also important to remember that NBC is owned, in part, by General Electric, alongside Comcast. GE, being a jack of all trades, makes electronics, produces healthcare equipment, manufactures weaponry for war, and designed the nuclear reactors that melted down in recent the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Furthermore, it maintains an energy wing called GE Energy, which among other things, is on the hunt for methane gas, under a wing called GE Oil and Gas.
Additionally, GE is a water privatizer, having recently attended the 2011 Global Water Summit, whose website's URL, appropriately enough, is
www.WaterMeetsMoney.com.
At this point, it is beyond doubt that fracking contaminates drinking water with all sorts of toxic chemicals and carcinogens, including benzene, a known carcinogen.
Yet Ratigan failed to disclose not only GE's financial interest in drilling for methane gas, but also the company's contamination of drinking water. But Ratigan's failure to disclose in his "Firewater" series went far beyond this. A day-by-day run-through of journalistic disclosure failures, thus, is in order. [ . . . .]
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12. Report: Paul Ryan May Personally Benefit From Preserving Billions In Taxpayer Oil Subsidies
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/17/247616/
paul-ryan-windfall-oil-subsidies/
By Lee Fang on Jun 17, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget plan, has put forth a plan that calls for ending a number of tax subsidies. However, he has hedged multiple times when asked about oil subsidies. When given the opportunity to end billions in taxpayer giveaways to big oil companies, Ryan voted to preserve the generous subsidies.
The Daily Beast’s Daniel Stone is reporting that Ryan’s protection of billions in wasteful oil subsidies may relate to his own personal fortune. Newly released personal finance disclosures reveal that Ryan and his wife “own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan.” Stone reports that those companies are among his most valuable assets:
Ryan’s father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil. [ . . . ]
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13. Leading Marcellus geologist advocates forced pooling of gas over property rights
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/06/
leading_marcellus_geologist_ad.html
Published: Friday, June 17, 2011, 7:27 PM Updated: Friday, June 17, 2011, 9:16 PM
By DONALD GILLILAND, The Patriot-News The Patriot-News
Opponents of forced pooling — and that would include Gov. Tom Corbett — should watch the movie “There Will Be Blood,”
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/ ) according to the state’s leading Marcellus Shale geologist.
Terry Engelder explained that the concept — whereby drillers are allowed to remove natural gas from beneath properties of owners who refuse to lease their mineral rights — originated with Upton Sinclair's expose of the oil industry, "Oil!", which forms the basis of the 2007 Academy Award-winning film.
Speaking to the governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission on Friday, Engelder acknowledged up front that the concept bumps squarely up against traditional property rights.
But the benefits, he said, have been determined time and again to outweigh the risk of infringing on those rights.
Pooling is a common feature in the laws of nearly all the oil and gas states, including Pennsylvania.
Yes, Pennsylvania has a forced pooling statute — 50 years old — which makes it illegal to waste gas, said Engelder. But the law only applies to gas below the Onondaga Limestone. The Marcellus — and most of the other gas-rich shale formations in the state — are all above it.
At the moment, Engelder said, the state has the worst of all worlds.
While drillers cannot lay pipe under a property that has not leased its mineral rights, they can drill immediately adjacent to it and legally fracture the shale under that property and drain gas from it — without compensating the owner. That’s the rule of capture. [ . . . ]
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14. Related Articles
Gas pipeline operators fund, shape safety studies. Pipeline operators and their trade organizations shaped, managed and provided sizable funding for numerous safety studies conducted by the federal agency that regulates the industry, a Chronicle investigation shows. San Francisco Chronicle, California.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/06/19/MNRR1JUUL0.DTL
2,000 march to halt shale gas development. A demonstration against shale gas development in Quebec drew people from villages and towns all over the province, who came by the busload to march with signs that read “Protect our drinking water” and “Charest, you give me gas!” Montreal Gazette, Quebec.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
march%20halt%20shale%20development/4970282/story.html
Battlement Mesa may be test case on whether drilling and suburbia can coexist. As oil and gas companies begin to push into Denver suburbs, a battle 200 miles to the west may be a test case on whether drilling and suburbia can coexist. Drilling in developed areas is not only a Colorado issue, as new technologies have unlocked shale oil and gas reserves around the nation. Denver Post, Colorado.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18304843
Energy industry produces coloring book to present the case for drilling to children. The coloring book's overt message -- drilling is smart, safe and American -- is delivered in kid-friendly fashion, glossing over the environmental and economic controversies that have surrounded Marcellus Shale fracking. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11170/1154547-28.stm
Extensive ad campaign plays up benefits, ignores hazards of shale drilling. Natural gas companies and the energy industry that set up shop in Western Pennsylvania to tap the gas-rich Marcellus shale are creating a buzz comparable to that of the U.S. Steel Corp. in the '60s, but ignoring the environmental hazards. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pennsylvania.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 42853.html
Obama administration signals higher gas royalties on public lands. The Obama administration may be readying for a fight with the energy industry as it prepares to raise royalty charges for oil and gas obtained from public lands – and tighten up practices that have allowed companies to pay less than they should. Center for Public Integrity
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/06/17/4926/
obama-administration-signals-higher-gas-royalties-public-lands-and-anticipated
Fertile plains under frack attack. Durum wheat is going head-to-head with coal seam gas in a battle that has spread from cropping and grazing communities of the Liverpool Plains to the north-west slopes and plains centred on Moree. Sydney Morning Herald, Australia. [Registration Required]
http://www.smh.com.au/business/
fertile-plains-under-frack-attack-20110617-1g7sj.html
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15. UK ministers ignored 'peak oil' warnings, report shows
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/15/
peak-oil-warning
Report reveals threat of civil unrest from energy shortages, which has been played down as 'alarmist' by ministers
Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 June 2011 11.20 BST
The government was warned by its own civil servants two years ago that there could be "significant negative economic consequences" to the UK posed by near-term "peak oil" energy shortages.
Ministers were told it was impossible to know exactly when production might fail to meet supply but when it did there could be global consequences, including "civil unrest".
Yet ministers consistently played down the threat with the contemporaneous Wicks review into energy security (PDF)
(http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/what%20we%20do/
global%20climate%20change%20and%20energy/international%20energy/energy%20security/1_20100407102352_e_@@_wicksreviewgovresponse.pdf )
effectively dismissing peak oil as alarmist and irrelevant.
The report on the risks and impacts of a potential future decline in oil production has just been published – but only after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) was repeatedly threatened under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act with forced disclosure. [ . . . .]
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16. Is greed fuelling the land grab in Africa?
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/
1006002--is-greed-fuelling-the-land-grab-in-africa
June 09, 2011 Debra Black
A U.S. think-tank is calling for a moratorium on the sale of land in Africa to hedge funds, investment firms and bio-energy companies until they begin to use ethical and fair negotiations when dealing with local farmers and villages.
The California-based Oakland Institute says that largely unregulated land purchases by hedge funds and foreign speculators result in virtually none of the “promised benefits” for native populations in a recently released report.
“We are finding these are false promises for Africa,” said Frederic Mousseau, policy director for the think-tank, in an interview with the Star.
Millions of local farmers are being forced off their land to make room for agribusiness, backed by bio-fuel companies, investment firms and hedge funds, Mousseau said. And the deals lack any transparency.
These groups are sometimes paying very little to use the land, paying in some cases in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia as little as $2 per hectare to rent land. And in other cases, the population is being forced off the land without any compensation.
In one land transfer, witnessed by the institute’s executive director Anuradha Mittal, a poor tribal chief was given a bottle of Johnny Walker in exchange for land in Zambia, Mousseau said.
Many of the land contracts run for 99 years, with no clauses specifying when any of the promised benefits like schools or health services will be delivered, he added. “We have many instances where the local population feels misled.”
The institute says that in 2009 alone nearly 60 million hectares of land — an area the size of France — was purchased or leased in what they describe as “land grabs.”
And while promises of new infrastructure, investment dollars, jobs and tax revenues for cash-strapped African nations are made, they often fail to materialize, according to the report. [ . . . ]
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17. This is Ecocide
http://countylive.ca/blog/?p=14605
June 12, 2011
Here’s the thing. You see yourself as basically a good person who would like to make the world a better place. But after Copenhagen you also feel that you’re losing ground in a globalized world where corporate interests reign supreme, your voice is marginalized, and the environment continues to be trashed with impunity. Welcome to the club.
But things may be about to change. Dramatically.
A London barrister, Polly Higgins, has proposed to the UN Law Commission that Ecocide become a fifth Crime Against Peace under the mandate of the International Criminal Court. The four other crimes are Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Crimes of Aggression.
At the same time, Higgins has written a new book, Eradicating Ecocide, that may prove to be the most important environmental insight since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Both the book and her companion website,(http://www.thisisecocide.com) flush out her proposal and serve as a springboard for an international campaign to carry it forward.
[ . . . ]
1. CO2 may be used for oil extraction in Ohio
2. Shale Gas: Not a 'Game Changer' After All
3. WATCH: "Fracking" for natural gas continues to raise health concerns
4. Fracking Does Contaminate Groundwater With Methane, But Jury Still Out On Process Overall
5. President Obama’s Fracking Panel Unmoved By Pennsylvanians’ Water Concerns
6. Environmental Consequences of Fossil Fuel Exploration
7. Pa. health chief wants to analyze drilling areas
8. Health secretary wants tabs on shale
9. Color me fracked: Energy industry produces coloring book to make case for gas drilling to kids
10. NBC/GE, Dylan Ratigan Show, and the Methane Gas-Media Industrial Complex
11. MSNBC's (GE's) Dylan Ratigan Show "Firewater?" Series: Natural Gas Industry-Media Complex Exposed
12. Report: Paul Ryan May Personally Benefit From Preserving Billions In Taxpayer Oil Subsidies
13. Leading Marcellus geologist advocates forced pooling of gas over property rights
14. Related Articles
15. UK ministers ignored 'peak oil' warnings, report shows
16. Is greed fuelling the land grab in Africa?
17. This is Ecocide
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1. CO2 may be used for oil extraction in Ohio
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/06/13/
CO2-may-be-used-for-oil-extraction-in-Ohio/UPI-41341307993799/#ixzz1PGAgUkIN
Published: June 13, 2011 at 3:36 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 13 (UPI) -- Ohio officials say they're investigating whether injecting carbon dioxide into a played-out oil well could breathe life into the state oil fields.
Energy companies have injected carbon dioxide into old oil fields in Texas and California for decades, a method that increases underground pressure and mixes with the oil, loosening it from nooks and crannies so it can be removed, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported Monday.
"It lightens the oil. It fluffs it up," said Larry Wickstrom, Ohio Geological Survey head. "It actually makes it so you can push [the oil] through."
- - - SNIP - - -
"I don't doubt the workability of enhanced oil recovery," Nachy Kanfer, the Midwest coordinator of the Sierra Club's coal-to-clean-energy campaign, told the Dispatch. "I doubt carbon dioxide's ability to remain underground."
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Sask. family demands answers on carbon capture and storage risks
http://www.ecojustice.ca/media-centre/press-releases/
sask.-family-demands-answers-on-carbon-capture-and-storage-risks
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan 11, 2011 08:51 AM
Independent research links bubbling, foaming water and animal carcasses to CO2 leakage
Jan 11, 2011
REGINA — A Saskatchewan family has demanded a full public investigation of documented problems on its Weyburn property, located on top of a Cenovus Energy carbon capture and storage site, in light of independent research that indicates unnaturally high levels of CO2 in the area’s soil.
Cameron and Jane Kerr first noticed changes in surface water and well water on their property in 2004, one year after CO2 injections in the area began, and reported these incidents to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources.
Disturbances included bubbling and foaming water, unusual algae growths in ponds and animal carcasses found strewn around the ponds.
“Cenovus Energy and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources failed to properly monitor and investigate the possibility of a CO2 leak during the last six years,” said Ecojustice staff lawyer Barry Robinson, who is advising the Kerrs. “Furthermore, they left the Kerrs in the position of having to prove there was a problem when it was the ministry’s duty to investigate releases from oil and gas activities.”
Cenovus, the ministry and the Kerrs agreed in the fall 2007 that the ministry would conduct a year-long investigation into soil, water and air quality on the Kerrs’ property. The ministry took water and air samples on a single day in July 2008. They did not test for CO2.
Since then, both Cenovus and the ministry have refused to conduct further studies on the property. A petroleum geologist assisting the Kerrs suggested that CO2 leakage could be occurring through faults and fractures or through abandoned oil and gas wells. [ . . . ]
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2. Shale Gas: Not a 'Game Changer' After All
http://scitizen.com/future-energies/
shale-gas-not-a-game-changer-after-all_a-14-3672.html
15 Jun, 2011 04:51 pm
Newly accessible natural gas from deep shale deposits around the world has been touted as a solution to everything from oil dependence to climate change. But our actual experience with shale gas extraction is telling another story.
The natural gas industry would like you to believe that newly accessible gas previously locked away in deep shale deposits is set to make natural gas the dominant fuel of the 21st century. Presumably, that's because natural gas is cleaner, produces fewer greenhouse gases, and will supposedly be widely available at reasonable prices. Therefore, we'll be using it to generate more of our electricity, power more of our vehicles, produce more products from our petrochemical refineries, and generally replace oil as the world's primary fuel.
Can gas from shale really promise all of that? David Hughes, formerly a geoscientist with the Geological Survey of Canada for 32 years and now an independent consultant, believes that those promises are overblown. He outlines his concerns in a new report entitled "Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?"
( http://www.postcarbon.org/reports/PCI-r ... future.pdf ) which he prepared for the Post Carbon Institute. Even though he has limited his study to the United States, much of what he says is applicable to the rest of the world.
So many of the claims made for shale gas are questionable that it's hard to know where to start. The key claim is that it will be plentiful. But strangely no particular price is attached to this claim. What would we have to pay for that bounty to be available? One driller I know says it's nonsense to tell the public that we will have extensive supplies of natural gas from shale without saying what it will actually cost. He said that natural gas selling for $5 mcf implies a much smaller exploitable resource than gas above $10 mcf, a level hit only briefly twice in the last decade.
The report cites estimates of what price it might take to get large volumes of shale gas out of the ground. Some of the easiest and highest flowing wells may make a profit at current prices around $4 mcf. But harder-to-get gas will likely cost more than $7 mcf and possibly as much as $11.50 mcf. What's clear is that ramping up shale gas production won't be cheap. As my driller friend opined, "We can have cheap natural gas or we can have plentiful natural gas, but we're not going to have cheap, plentiful natural gas."
MORE:
http://scitizen.com/future-energies/
shale-gas-not-a-game-changer-after-all_a-14-3672.html
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3. WATCH: "Fracking" for natural gas continues to raise health concerns
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june11/
fracking_06-15.html
JEFFREY BROWN: Energy companies are increasingly scouring the country for natural gas. But, as they do so, one of the methods they're using, known as fracking, is coming under sharp scrutiny in many states.
NewsHour correspondent Tom Bearden reports from Colorado.
June 15, 2011
TOM BEARDEN: By now, you have likely seen the videos of people seemingly lighting their water on fire. The images were featured in a much-publicized documentary called "Gasland" and have generated government hearings and news coverage about whether the gas in the water was the result of drilling for natural gas.
All the attention has also popularized a word that was little known to the public just a few years ago: fracking.
MAN: Fracking is a form of natural gas drilling.
TOM BEARDEN: It's even inspired a YouTube video.
( GASLAND: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558250/ )
MAN: Water goes into the pipe, the pipe into the ground. The pressure creates fissures 7,000 feet down. The cracks release...
TOM BEARDEN: It's shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, the process used to get the gas out of the ground. Concerns about it have ignited a national debate about whether natural gas, long touted as a greener alternative, is indeed a clean technology.
The process begins with vertical and then horizontal drilling through thousands of feet of rock and soil. Once the gas-laden shale layer is reached, a pipe is inserted and encased in concrete to prevent leaks. Then, a fracking fluid is injected at extremely high pressure, causing the rock to crack. [ . . . ]
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4. Fracking Does Contaminate Groundwater With Methane, But Jury Still Out On Process Overall
http://www.scitizen.com/future-energies/
fracking-does-contaminate-groundwater-with-methane-but-jury-still-out-on-process-overall_a-14-3669.html
By Chris Rhodes 13 May, 2011 12:15 am
A study by Duke University has shown unsafe levels of methane gas in water taken from wells closer than 1000 m to gas-shale hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") operations. Results from ongoing studies by the University of Texas and the US Environmental Protection Agency are awaited with interest, since it is predicted at 45% of US natural gas production will be shale-gas by 2035, but presumably only if the process is deemed safe.
A study has been undertaken by Duke University of methane levels in water from 68 private wells above the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania and New York. The details have just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/05/02/
1100682108.full.pdf+html.
Of these, around one third were in an "active extraction area", which by definition is within one kilometre of a gas well, the remainder being more distant.
The results of the study are striking: in all but one case, making 15 altogether, it is only within 800 metres of a gas-well that levels of methane are high enough (10 - 28 mg/L) to merit warning of the occupants and prudent remediation down to levels ; 10 mg/L, according to the US Office of the Interior, or above 28 mg/L at which point "potentially explosive or flammable quantities of the gas are being liberated in the well and/or may be liberated in confined areas of the home," which requires immediate mitigation.
http://arblast.osmre.gov/downloads/
Mine%20Gases%20and%20Dust/FINAL-Methane.pdf
In this particular study, no evidence for fracking fluid finding its way into the groundwater was found nor for intrusion from deep saline brines into aquifers closer to the surface. According to an isotopic analysis, the excess methane is consistent as originating from deeper thermogenic sediments, rather than being produced biologically in near surface environments.
The Energy Institute at the University of Texas is set to conduct the first integrated study of the science, policy and environmental issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing to recover shale gas at a cost of $300,000, with preliminary findings expected to be released in October. This project aims to combine an independent assessment of groundwater contamination, fugitive air emissions and seismic events for which fracking has been blamed in shale formations, and to evaluate the effectiveness of legal regulations attendant to the process, focussing on Barnett Shale, which extends under over 20 counties in North Texas . The Environmental Protection Agency is conducting its own investigation with results expected after the end of the year 2012. [ . . . ]
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5. President Obama’s Fracking Panel Unmoved By Pennsylvanians’ Water Concerns
http://www.desmogblog.com/
15 June 11 T.J. SCOLNICK
On Monday, the Natural Gas Subcommittee, from Energy Department Secretary Stephen Chu’s Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), held its second public meeting. Around 400 people packed a cramped auditorium at Washington Jefferson College in western Pennsylvania to discuss the effects of hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) on water supplies, air quality and other threats from the controversial practice.
The crowd split into two camps, those opposing and those supporting the highly contentious drilling method which has spread across Pennsylvania. Fracking opponents argued that fracking is a dangerous and destructive process that must be banned immediately, while those in favour yelled out “drill, baby, drill.”
Given the circumstances it was not surprising that the pro-frackers won the evening. This was due, in large part, to the work of gas industry front-group Energy in Depth who sent out emails to Pennsylvania and New York residents supportive of fracking, offering them airfare, hotels and meals to attend. Tickets to see the Pittsburgh Pirates play the New York Mets were even offered, although later retracted. [ . . . ]
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6. Environmental Consequences of Fossil Fuel Exploration
http://www.energy.utexas.edu/
index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=160
Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 June 2011 03:43
Examining the environmental consequences of generation of fossil fuels, with initial emphasis on fracturing shale for natural gas and groundwater.
The Problem
The recent discovery of more than 200 years of secure, domestic natural gas sources bodes well for our Nation’s energy future. These reserves, now accessible because of hydraulic fracturing shale, are predominantly found in Texas, New York, Pennsylvania – in the Barnett, Haynesville and Marcellus shale plays, respectively. The problem is that the development of these vast shale gas resources through “fracing” has been accompanied by claims of damage to groundwater and surface water. To date, however, no credible, independent research has been conducted to support or rebut these environmental concerns.
The Energy Institute Solution
The University of Texas at Austin, in partnership with Syracuse University, has developed a two-year, multi-disciplinary study of fracing in the each of the three major shale plays. In addition, the Environmental Defense Fund has agreed to assist in the design of the research agenda and monitor research protocols as the program develops.
Module I of the proposal would entail a comprehensive evaluation of the physical aspects of shale gas development, as well as an assessment of the policy, regulatory, and communications issues surrounding fracing. Module II would examine claims of contamination to local and regional water sources; review current policy and regulatory structures that control shale gas development; and evaluate additional measures proposed in response to environmental concerns. [ . . . . ]
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7. Pa. health chief wants to analyze drilling areas
http://online.wsj.com/article/
AP09a55ca592f543899e518392729a91be.html
Associated Press June 17, 2011
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Gov. Tom Corbett's top health adviser said Friday that he wants to make Pennsylvania the first state to create a registry to track illnesses in communities near heavy drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation to determine what kind of impact, if any, the activity has on public health.
Health Secretary Eli Avila told Corbett's Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission that creating such a registry is the timeliest and most important step the Department of Health could take, and that his agency is not aware of anything like it in other drilling states.
"We're really at the frontiers of this and we can make a speedy example for all the other states," Avila told the commission at its fourth meeting. [ . . . ]
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8. Health secretary wants tabs on shale
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11169/
1154672-503.stm#ixzz1PdLUPkmJ
Seeks more resources to see if gas drilling poses a health risk
Saturday, June 18, 2011
By Laura Olson, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- The state's top health official said Friday that his agency needs resources to create a registry for tracking whether spikes in illnesses could be related to shale gas drilling.
That request by Department of Health Secretary Eli Avila to the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission came as the panel starts to finalize its recommendations for a July 22 report.
Dozens have spoken during the commission's public-comment sessions, saying they're concerned about public health risks from gas drilling.
Mr. Avila said his department has received "several dozen" similar calls in the past year, often from those who believe their health condition is a result of unsafe drilling practices. The agency needs a "comprehensive and scientific approach" to evaluating those concerns, he said.
"We investigate them all individually now," Mr. Avila said. "It would be great to put them all together, to get to the root cause, if there is a root cause or linkage."
He told the panel that officials so far "have seen no linkage between drilling and the illnesses presented to us," adding that a larger sample size is needed to identify health-related trends.
"We're really at the frontiers of this, and we can make an example" for other states, he said. [ . . . ]
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9. Color me fracked: Energy industry produces coloring book to make case for gas drilling to kids
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11170/
1154547-28.stm#ixzz1PmMZxkOW
Sunday, June 19, 2011 By Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Hey kids, meet "Talisman Terry, the Friendly Fracosaurus."
When the energy industry publishes a coloring book, there is no crayon needed to see the shades of gray.
Exhibit A: "Talisman Terry's Energy Adventure," a handout for children published by Talisman Energy that explains the natural gas industry with the help of a "friendly Fracosaurus" dinosaur named Terry.
Everyone smiles in Terry's world. Mom smiles, Dad smiles, the worker smiles, the dog smiles, the cat smiles, the deer smiles, the fish smiles, the sun smiles, the moon smiles, the flower smiles, the rock smiles. Even the helium balloon -- used to demonstrate how "natural gas is lighter than air" -- smiles.
The coloring book's overt message -- drilling is smart, safe and American -- is delivered in kid-friendly fashion, glossing over the environmental and economic controversies that have surrounded drillers tapping the Marcellus Shale rock formation for lucrative pockets of gas.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pdf/201106/
201106talisman_coloringbook.pdf
And like other early education efforts by the energy industry, the coloring book is called harmless fun by the industry and dishonest propaganda by critics. [ . . . ]
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10. NBC/GE, Dylan Ratigan Show, and the Methane Gas-Media Industrial Complex
http://www.desmogblog.com/
nbcge-dylan-ratigan-show-and-methane-gas-media-industrial-complex
STEVE HORN 15 June 11
Yesterday, I published an article for the Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch titled, "MSNBC's (GE's) Dylan Ratigan Show 'Firewater?' Series: Natural Gas Industry-Media Complex Exposed."
Among other things, the article lays out the fundamental flaw with NBC's coverage of anything pertaining to methane gas drilling--they are a "player in that game," to put it bluntly, with a direct financial interest in the project occurring.
The article then proceeds to discuss, based on that troubling journalistic premise, the "Firewater?" series that took place on the Dylan Ratigan Show from Wed. June 8 through Fri., June 10, revealing all the ways that overarching premise flawed what was pitched as "in-depth coverage," but in reality, served as a three-day advertising campaign for General Electric and the methane gas industry (an industry GE is a part of). [ . . . ]
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11. MSNBC's (GE's) Dylan Ratigan Show "Firewater?" Series: Natural Gas Industry-Media Complex Exposed
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/06/10812/
msnbcs-ges-dylan-ratigan-show-firewater-series-natural-gas-industry-media-complex
Submitted by Steve Horn on June 14, 2011 - 3:24pm
The June 8 - June 10 episodes of MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show featured a three-part series titled "Firewater?" It pondered whether drilling for methane gas is a path toward a prosperous "clean energy" future for the United States, or if, to the contrary, the harms of methane gas drilling, caused by a process called fracking, nullify these oft-repeated industry claims.
While three recent scientific reports -- one by Duke University, one by Cornell University, and one by the Post Carbon Institute -- point to the latter, Ratigan's series portrayed the issue as still up for debate, with both sides' claims having equal merit.
Lest we chalk this up to a typical display of mythical "balanced reporting" by the mass media, it is also important to remember that NBC is owned, in part, by General Electric, alongside Comcast. GE, being a jack of all trades, makes electronics, produces healthcare equipment, manufactures weaponry for war, and designed the nuclear reactors that melted down in recent the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Furthermore, it maintains an energy wing called GE Energy, which among other things, is on the hunt for methane gas, under a wing called GE Oil and Gas.
Additionally, GE is a water privatizer, having recently attended the 2011 Global Water Summit, whose website's URL, appropriately enough, is
www.WaterMeetsMoney.com.
At this point, it is beyond doubt that fracking contaminates drinking water with all sorts of toxic chemicals and carcinogens, including benzene, a known carcinogen.
Yet Ratigan failed to disclose not only GE's financial interest in drilling for methane gas, but also the company's contamination of drinking water. But Ratigan's failure to disclose in his "Firewater" series went far beyond this. A day-by-day run-through of journalistic disclosure failures, thus, is in order. [ . . . .]
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12. Report: Paul Ryan May Personally Benefit From Preserving Billions In Taxpayer Oil Subsidies
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/17/247616/
paul-ryan-windfall-oil-subsidies/
By Lee Fang on Jun 17, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Paul Ryan (R-WI), the architect of the GOP budget plan, has put forth a plan that calls for ending a number of tax subsidies. However, he has hedged multiple times when asked about oil subsidies. When given the opportunity to end billions in taxpayer giveaways to big oil companies, Ryan voted to preserve the generous subsidies.
The Daily Beast’s Daniel Stone is reporting that Ryan’s protection of billions in wasteful oil subsidies may relate to his own personal fortune. Newly released personal finance disclosures reveal that Ryan and his wife “own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan.” Stone reports that those companies are among his most valuable assets:
Ryan’s father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil. [ . . . ]
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13. Leading Marcellus geologist advocates forced pooling of gas over property rights
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/06/
leading_marcellus_geologist_ad.html
Published: Friday, June 17, 2011, 7:27 PM Updated: Friday, June 17, 2011, 9:16 PM
By DONALD GILLILAND, The Patriot-News The Patriot-News
Opponents of forced pooling — and that would include Gov. Tom Corbett — should watch the movie “There Will Be Blood,”
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469494/ ) according to the state’s leading Marcellus Shale geologist.
Terry Engelder explained that the concept — whereby drillers are allowed to remove natural gas from beneath properties of owners who refuse to lease their mineral rights — originated with Upton Sinclair's expose of the oil industry, "Oil!", which forms the basis of the 2007 Academy Award-winning film.
Speaking to the governor’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission on Friday, Engelder acknowledged up front that the concept bumps squarely up against traditional property rights.
But the benefits, he said, have been determined time and again to outweigh the risk of infringing on those rights.
Pooling is a common feature in the laws of nearly all the oil and gas states, including Pennsylvania.
Yes, Pennsylvania has a forced pooling statute — 50 years old — which makes it illegal to waste gas, said Engelder. But the law only applies to gas below the Onondaga Limestone. The Marcellus — and most of the other gas-rich shale formations in the state — are all above it.
At the moment, Engelder said, the state has the worst of all worlds.
While drillers cannot lay pipe under a property that has not leased its mineral rights, they can drill immediately adjacent to it and legally fracture the shale under that property and drain gas from it — without compensating the owner. That’s the rule of capture. [ . . . ]
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14. Related Articles
Gas pipeline operators fund, shape safety studies. Pipeline operators and their trade organizations shaped, managed and provided sizable funding for numerous safety studies conducted by the federal agency that regulates the industry, a Chronicle investigation shows. San Francisco Chronicle, California.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/06/19/MNRR1JUUL0.DTL
2,000 march to halt shale gas development. A demonstration against shale gas development in Quebec drew people from villages and towns all over the province, who came by the busload to march with signs that read “Protect our drinking water” and “Charest, you give me gas!” Montreal Gazette, Quebec.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/
march%20halt%20shale%20development/4970282/story.html
Battlement Mesa may be test case on whether drilling and suburbia can coexist. As oil and gas companies begin to push into Denver suburbs, a battle 200 miles to the west may be a test case on whether drilling and suburbia can coexist. Drilling in developed areas is not only a Colorado issue, as new technologies have unlocked shale oil and gas reserves around the nation. Denver Post, Colorado.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_18304843
Energy industry produces coloring book to present the case for drilling to children. The coloring book's overt message -- drilling is smart, safe and American -- is delivered in kid-friendly fashion, glossing over the environmental and economic controversies that have surrounded Marcellus Shale fracking. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11170/1154547-28.stm
Extensive ad campaign plays up benefits, ignores hazards of shale drilling. Natural gas companies and the energy industry that set up shop in Western Pennsylvania to tap the gas-rich Marcellus shale are creating a buzz comparable to that of the U.S. Steel Corp. in the '60s, but ignoring the environmental hazards. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pennsylvania.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 42853.html
Obama administration signals higher gas royalties on public lands. The Obama administration may be readying for a fight with the energy industry as it prepares to raise royalty charges for oil and gas obtained from public lands – and tighten up practices that have allowed companies to pay less than they should. Center for Public Integrity
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/06/17/4926/
obama-administration-signals-higher-gas-royalties-public-lands-and-anticipated
Fertile plains under frack attack. Durum wheat is going head-to-head with coal seam gas in a battle that has spread from cropping and grazing communities of the Liverpool Plains to the north-west slopes and plains centred on Moree. Sydney Morning Herald, Australia. [Registration Required]
http://www.smh.com.au/business/
fertile-plains-under-frack-attack-20110617-1g7sj.html
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15. UK ministers ignored 'peak oil' warnings, report shows
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/15/
peak-oil-warning
Report reveals threat of civil unrest from energy shortages, which has been played down as 'alarmist' by ministers
Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 June 2011 11.20 BST
The government was warned by its own civil servants two years ago that there could be "significant negative economic consequences" to the UK posed by near-term "peak oil" energy shortages.
Ministers were told it was impossible to know exactly when production might fail to meet supply but when it did there could be global consequences, including "civil unrest".
Yet ministers consistently played down the threat with the contemporaneous Wicks review into energy security (PDF)
(http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/what%20we%20do/
global%20climate%20change%20and%20energy/international%20energy/energy%20security/1_20100407102352_e_@@_wicksreviewgovresponse.pdf )
effectively dismissing peak oil as alarmist and irrelevant.
The report on the risks and impacts of a potential future decline in oil production has just been published – but only after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) was repeatedly threatened under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act with forced disclosure. [ . . . .]
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16. Is greed fuelling the land grab in Africa?
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/
1006002--is-greed-fuelling-the-land-grab-in-africa
June 09, 2011 Debra Black
A U.S. think-tank is calling for a moratorium on the sale of land in Africa to hedge funds, investment firms and bio-energy companies until they begin to use ethical and fair negotiations when dealing with local farmers and villages.
The California-based Oakland Institute says that largely unregulated land purchases by hedge funds and foreign speculators result in virtually none of the “promised benefits” for native populations in a recently released report.
“We are finding these are false promises for Africa,” said Frederic Mousseau, policy director for the think-tank, in an interview with the Star.
Millions of local farmers are being forced off their land to make room for agribusiness, backed by bio-fuel companies, investment firms and hedge funds, Mousseau said. And the deals lack any transparency.
These groups are sometimes paying very little to use the land, paying in some cases in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia as little as $2 per hectare to rent land. And in other cases, the population is being forced off the land without any compensation.
In one land transfer, witnessed by the institute’s executive director Anuradha Mittal, a poor tribal chief was given a bottle of Johnny Walker in exchange for land in Zambia, Mousseau said.
Many of the land contracts run for 99 years, with no clauses specifying when any of the promised benefits like schools or health services will be delivered, he added. “We have many instances where the local population feels misled.”
The institute says that in 2009 alone nearly 60 million hectares of land — an area the size of France — was purchased or leased in what they describe as “land grabs.”
And while promises of new infrastructure, investment dollars, jobs and tax revenues for cash-strapped African nations are made, they often fail to materialize, according to the report. [ . . . ]
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17. This is Ecocide
http://countylive.ca/blog/?p=14605
June 12, 2011
Here’s the thing. You see yourself as basically a good person who would like to make the world a better place. But after Copenhagen you also feel that you’re losing ground in a globalized world where corporate interests reign supreme, your voice is marginalized, and the environment continues to be trashed with impunity. Welcome to the club.
But things may be about to change. Dramatically.
A London barrister, Polly Higgins, has proposed to the UN Law Commission that Ecocide become a fifth Crime Against Peace under the mandate of the International Criminal Court. The four other crimes are Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Crimes of Aggression.
At the same time, Higgins has written a new book, Eradicating Ecocide, that may prove to be the most important environmental insight since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Both the book and her companion website,(http://www.thisisecocide.com) flush out her proposal and serve as a springboard for an international campaign to carry it forward.
[ . . . ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: July 3, 2011
by Oscar » Sun Jul 03, 2011 11:38 am
FRACKING/ENERGY NEWS: July 3, 2011
1. PREBBLE: Climate change a serious threat
2. SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE
3. SASKATCHEWAN BEST PLACE IN CANADA TO INVEST IN OIL AND GAS
4. Severe flooding dampens Sask. oil and gas drilling
5. Conference: Shale Gas Water Management Canada 2011 – Sept. 21-22 – Calgary – AGENDA
6. NEWS: Kent’s inaction on fracking threatens Canada’s water
7. An Open Letter to Albertans - Information Bulletin Number One
8. MUST READ!!! Peer-Review: Wolves Not To Blame For Alberta Caribou Extirpation, But Guess Who Is?
9. BC First Nations aren’t dupes of US green movement: Chiefs
10. Canada spent $1M to lobby American lawmakers on carbon capture and storage
11. Koreans Eye Mackenzie Valley Gas
12. Montreal man arrested for threats against gas industry
13. South Africans Tour American Fracking Hot Spots As Natural Gas Debate Goes Global
14. ExxonMobil pipe spills oil into Yellowstone River
15. MUST READ: Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Shale Gas compared to Coal - An Analysis of Two Studies by J. David Hughes, July 2011
16. Buried Secrets: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
17. Fracking gives Texas another oil boom, but at huge water cost
18. Shale hype - High hopes for deep wells coming back to earth
19. Oil and Gas Drilling Surges Despite Increased Oversight
20. New York Proposes Permanent Ban on Fracking Near Watershed and State Land
21. Cuomo Will Seek to Lift Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing
22. What They’re Saying: 36 Hours Later
23. Hydrofracking Under Fire: Federal and State Lawmakers Turn Up Heat on Natural Gas Industry and NY Attorney General Issues Subpoenas to Five Companies
24. New Recommendations Issued in Hydraulic Fracturing Review
25. 'Sowing the Oil'
26. U.S. Drilling Companies Stand to Earn Billions in Iraq Oil Deals
27. Climate Skeptic Willie Soon Received $1m from Oil Companies, Papers Show
28. NEWS: Republicans seek decision on Keystone pipeline by Nov. 1
29. The Combined Power Plant - 100% from renewable energy
30. Related Articles
===============
1. PREBBLE: Climate change a serious threat
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Climate+change+serious+threat/4955340/story.html
BY PETER PREBBLE, THE STAR PHOENIX JUNE 16, 2011
Following is the viewpoint of the writer, an environmental activist in Saskatoon and a former NDP cabinet minister who is seeking re-election in November.
In her column, Hard evidence needed on climate change (SP, June 11)
(http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/
COLUMN+Hard+evidence+needed+climate+change/4931047/story.html)
Bronwyn Eyre claims that climate change is not a threat to the world.
Referring to the scientific community she says: "They've gotta do better than a few polar bears and show us the unadulterated, empirical evidence." [ . . . ]
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2. SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE
www.systemchange.ca
The Council of Canadians is launching an exciting new multimedia education project, System Change not Climate Change this September. We’re happy to announce the website is now live, so check it out at
www.systemchange.ca!
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3. SASKATCHEWAN BEST PLACE IN CANADA TO INVEST IN OIL AND GAS
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=cf4ffe36-941f-4f0c-9fa5-3abbe03dd371
News Release - June 27, 2011
Saskatchewan is ranked best in Canada as the place for oil and gas investment, according to the 2011 Global Petroleum Survey released today by the Fraser Institute.
The Institute noted Saskatchewan offers investors confidence in a stable, competitive royalty and regulatory structure.
Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said the Fraser Institute's findings show the results of Saskatchewan's commitment to sound fiscal policy.
"A stable, predictable royalty and taxation framework is key to attracting new investment and maintaining the robust growth of our economy," Boyd said. "Saskatchewan's rank as Canada's preferred province to invest is testament to the importance of that stability. Our government is committed to moving Saskatchewan forward, and we will continue to offer the business climate that is essential to keep our province growing."
Saskatchewan moved up from second place last year to be ranked the best in the country out of the ten provinces and territories rated this year.
Internationally, Saskatchewan was ranked 11th best in the world out of the 136 different provinces, states and countries that the Fraser Institute assessed worldwide. That also is up from Saskatchewan's 17th place ranking last year.
Of Saskatchewan's main competitors for investment capital, Alberta was ranked sixth in Canada and 51st worldwide, while British Columbia was ranked eighth in Canada and 69th in the world. Newfoundland and Labrador was ranked fifth in Canada and 50th in the world.
This year's survey evaluated 136 different jurisdictions across Canada and around the world. The exploration and development budgets of companies who participated in the survey account for more than 60 per cent of annual spending on a global basis. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis, Energy and Resources, Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
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4. Severe flooding dampens Sask. oil and gas drilling
http://regina.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110623/
sask-flood-drilling-110623/20110623/?hub=Regina
The Canadian Press Date: Thursday Jun. 23, 2011 3:48 PM CST
Severe flooding in southern Saskatchewan is causing headaches for the province's oil and gas industry.
Saskatchewan Energy Minister Bill Boyd says companies can't drill when their leases are covered in nearly two metres of water.
He says at least 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of daily production have been shut in because of the one-in-500-year flooding event.
Boyd says it's tough to tell what the exact economic impact could be, but he says it could be hundreds of millions of dollars.
His ministry aims to speed up approvals for companies to drill on properties that aren't under water.
Saskatchewan's agriculture sector has also taken a hit, with as many as two million hectares going unseeded. [ . . . ]
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5. Conference: Shale Gas Water Management Canada 2011 – Sept. 21-22 – Calgary - AGENDA
http://www.shale-gas-water-management-canada.com/
4/agenda/23/agenda/?dm_i=SRO,GNEW,3TZ882,1CUMU,1
DAY ONE: EXAMINING BEST PRACTICES FOR SOURCING, TREATING, RE-USING, AND DISPOSING OF WATER RESOURCES FOR SHALE GAS COMPLETIONS IN CANADA
08.30 Chair’s Opening Remarks
EXPLAINING STRATEGIES FROM CANADIAN E&P COMPANIES FOR COST-EFFECTIVELY SOURCING WATER FOR HYDRAULIC FRACTURING & MINIMIZING THE AMOUNT OF FRESH WATER USED
8.40 Opening Address
Minister Rob Renner, Minister of Alberta Environment, Alberta Government
KEYNOTE OPENING PANEL
09.00 Understanding How A Leading Canadian Shale Gas Operator Is Sourcing The Large Volumes Of Water Required For Hydraulic Fracturing In The Most Timely & Cost-Effective Way
Explaining how operators in the Horn River, Montney & other Canadian plays are sourcing water in the large volumes required for hydraulic fracturing whilst minimizing cost Understanding where operators are sourcing their water from and how much is available from these sources Analyzing what factors Canadian shale gas operators are using to make decisions on where to source water from Determining strategies for reducing the amount of freshwater used in Canadian shale gas operations
Roy Stadlwieser, Manager New Gas Team, Shell Canada, Shad Watts, Director CCRA Shale Gas, Nexen Inc.
MORE:
http://www.shale-gas-water-management-canada.com/
4/agenda/23/agenda/?dm_i=SRO,GNEW,3TZ882,1CUMU,1
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6. NEWS: Kent’s inaction on fracking threatens Canada’s water
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=8403
The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports, "Responding to questions from NDP environment critic Megan Leslie (about fracking), environment minister Peter Kent noted that regulations for the sector were mainly a provincial and territorial responsibility, but acknowledged that there could be an emerging federal role."
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7. An Open Letter to Albertans - Information Bulletin Number One
Livingstone Landowners Group
http://www.livingstonelandowners.net/hot-news-1/
benefitconcert
Alberta’s Electricity Controversy Comes to the Porcupine Hills, Old Man River Basin and the Livingstone Range
Issue One: “Abuse of Process”
Most Albertan have heard about Alberta’s electricity transmission controversy. The scale of the $13.5 upgrade (a seven fold increase) has been criticized as extravagant. Even industry calls the plan an uneconomic “overbuild.” And landowners have protested draconian legislation to support the scheme.
That controversy now threatens to unsettle one of Alberta’s famous landscapes too. One big issue concerns “abuse of process.”
Now, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), which plans the province’s contested transmission upgrades, says that it conducts its business with “integrity” and “responsiveness.”
But that’s not how AESO has treated southern Alberta landowners, provincial taxpayers (yes, citizens will pay 100 percent for the overbuild) or the Alberta Utility Commission, the province’s new transmission watchdog,
In fact this month AESO told the regulator that it could interpret its highly contentious plans any way it likes, and if the regulator doesn’t approve of such arbitrary behavior than AESO will retroactively amend its plans to avoid a public hearing.
“We are deeply concerned that AESO’s request to amend…is being advanced solely to defeat” the purposes of a public hearing and “it ought to be rejected as an abuse of the Commission’s process,” said LLG lawyer Gavin Fitch in a letter to the AUC.
Last year the Livingstone Landowners Group (LLG), which represents more than 100 landowners, respectfully asked AESO two basic questions: Why did it deviate from its approved Southern Alberta Transmission Reinforcement plan? And then why didn’t it tell landowners that it was going to industrialize the region without fair and public notification?
That Southern Alberta plan acknowledged the need for a new 240 KV line from the Pincher Creek (Goose Lake) to the Crowsnest Pass to accommodate new wind farms in the region. (Standard policy encourages AtlaLink to use existing corridors.)
That document showed that most proposed lines would stay within existing corridors. At AESO open houses not one engineer discussed or raised the possibility of one or several 240 KV lines fragmenting the Porcupine Hills, the Old Man River Basin or the Livingstone Range which make up one of Alberta’s most iconic landscapes. (Just drive along the Cowboy Trail on Highway 22.)
But land men working for AltaLink, a transmission builder solely owned by Montreal-based SNC Lavalin, shocked ranchers, farmers and landowners with that real possibility last year. Their route maps included a several different lines that could industrialize the Porcupine Hills as far north as Maycroft or 40 km away from the Crowsnest Pass.
As a consequence the LLG, which supports transparent public needs assessments for all transmission lines to protect taxpayer’s money, asked the AUC what the hell was going on?
Last October the AUC asked AESO the same question noting that “the system configuration in the AESO’s application is not as described” in the original plan for the Pincher Creek area. In simple terms AESO arbitrarily reconfigured its plans so much, that the original system studies may no longer be applicable said the AUC. The AUC also asked whether “potentially affected parties” had been fairly noticed as required by law in a democracy.
When AESO’s answers didn’t satisfy the AUC, the regulator ordered a public hearing for August 23rd to 25th in Pincher Creek to sort things out.
In reply AESO sent off a flippant and disrespectful letter on June 8th to the AUC claiming that amendments to its plans “are not required” but that it will still prepare an amendment even though it doesn’t have to do so. It also claims that hearings will cause “undue delay” in connecting wind farms to grid. But that’s false. There would never have been any delay had AESO and AltaLink stuck to the original AUC plan.
AESO’s behavior in the Pincher Creek area raises more serious questions about the need, integrity and fairness of a $13.5 billion transmission overbuild that will industrialize landscapes, devalue property, raise electricity rates and subsidize transmission for corporate wind power farms.
An Information Bulletin Provided by the Livingstone Landowners Group
Visit our website:
http://www.livingstonelandowners.net/hot-news-1/
benefitconcert
Contact:
Andrew Nikiforuk 403-270-2995
Bruce Mowat: 403-628-2116
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8. MUST READ!!! Peer-Review: Wolves Not To Blame For Alberta Caribou Extirpation, But Guess Who Is?
http://growingwolves.blogspot.com/2011/06/
must-read-peer-review-wolves-not-to.html
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Extirpation of woodland caribou is predicted within 70 years in Alberta.
A peer-reviewed study entitled, The Influences Of Wolf Predation, Habitat Loss, And Human Activity On Caribou And Moose In The Alberta Oilsands, (Wasser, Keim, Taper, Lele - Front Ecol Environ 2011; doi:10.1890/100071) was released today by The Ecological Society of America and is summarized as follows:
Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) and moose (Alces alces) populations in the Alberta oil sands region of western Canada are influenced by wolf (Canis lupus) predation, habitat degradation and loss, and anthropogenic activities. Trained domestic dogs were used to locate scat from caribou, moose, and wolves during winter surges in petroleum development. Evidence obtained from collected scat was then used to estimate resource selection, measure physiological stress, and provide individual genetic identification for precise mark–recapture abundance estimates of caribou, moose, and wolves. Strong impacts of human activity were indicated by changes in resource selection and in stress and nutrition hormone levels as human-use measures were added to base resource selection models (including ecological variables, provincial highways, and pre-existing linear features with no human activity) for caribou. Wolf predation and resource selection so heavily targeted deer (Odocoileus virginiana or O hemionus) that wolves appeared drawn away from prime caribou habitat. None of the three examined species showed a significant population change over 4 years. However, caribou population estimates were more than double those of previous approximations for this area. Our findings suggest that modifying landscape-level human-use patterns may be more effective at managing this ecosystem than intentional removal of wolves. [ . . .]
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9. BC First Nations aren’t dupes of US green movement: Chiefs
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2011/06/14/
green-movement-dupes-chiefs/?
utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=150611
By Geoff Dembicki June 14, 2011 11:44 am
First Nations groups oppose Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project because it poses real risks to their territories, five chiefs argue, not because they’re being duped by U.S. environmentalists.
“The lands and rivers which the proposed Enbridge pipeline would cross are habitat for moose, grizzly bears, salmon, deer, migratory birds, and other wildlife,” reads a First Nations-penned editorial in the Vancouver Sun. “Our food, stories, ceremonies, and our entire culture is tied to the land and the wildlife it supports – a spill could devastate our way of life.”
Their editorial was a response to a late-May Postmedia opinion column – published in several major Canadian media outlets – which questioned the financial motivations behind First Nations resistance. [ . . . ]
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10. Canada spent $1M to lobby American lawmakers on carbon capture and storage
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168EF25:6D244622054605D0744FC2EB775707948F7D795DAFB9E650&
By The Canadian Press Monday, June 20, 2011
OTTAWA -- Canada has spent $1 million on a travelling salesman peddling a fledgling, still unproven technology that has been a darling of the Conservative government, internal documents show.
The federal government hired a special adviser on climate change and energy to lobby key players in the United States over energy and environmental issues. The job description includes promoting a made-in-Canada technique of pumping greenhouse gas deep underground.
The adviser is also tasked with gathering intelligence on developments in the U.S. to report to officials back home. [ . . . ]
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11. Koreans Eye Mackenzie Valley Gas
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168F7EA:6D244622054605D0B5AC27DF2AB300A48F7D795DAFB9E650&
Short on fuels, their LNG tankers are ready to fetch BC gas. Will they spark a latent NWT gas boom, too?
By Michael Byers Monday, June 27, 2011
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12. Montreal man arrested for threats against gas industry
http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Montreal+arrested+threats+against+industry/5030741/story.html#ixzz1QmmjBnhc
BY MAX HARROLD, POSTMEDIA NEWS JUNE 30, 2011 10:16 AM
MONTREAL — A 61-year-old Montreal man was arrested early Thursday for making threats against the shale gas industry in Quebec and Alberta.
The man's arrest shortly after midnight in Montreal by members of the Quebec provincial police, Montreal police and RCMP followed several letters he allegedly sent, said Sgt. Christine Coulombe from the provincial force.
"The threat was deemed to be serious and so were others he sent," Coulombe said.
The man was released on a promise to appear in court at a later date, and has to obey strict conditions. She would not provide his name since he has not yet been formally charged.
La Presse, the Montreal-based French-language newspaper, published a story on June 10 about a letter received by columnist Patrick Lagace. He said he got a phone call telling him an envelope was left for him in a phone booth.
The letter, drafted and glued with newspaper and magazine clippings, threatened "serious consequences for any industrial activity starting July 1" and talked of "destruction of sites."
The article said the letter was from a group claiming to be the Quebec militia for the protection of the territory, a group unheard of until then.
The letter's author complained about the Quebec government's refusal to impose a moratorium on shale gas exploration.
Certain Alberta and Quebec companies were named in the letter, but the newspaper said it contacted the companies and were told no threats were received. The names of the companies were not revealed in the article. [ . . . ]
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13. South Africans Tour American Fracking Hot Spots As Natural Gas Debate Goes Global
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/
south-africa-karoo-natural-gas-fracking_n_886793.html
Updated: 06/29/11 05:30 PM ET
CALLICOON, N.Y. -- Late last Sunday morning, Doug Stern and Lukie Strydom, farmers from South Africa, shuffled quietly in the parking lot of Lander's River Mart, a combination gas station, convenience store and restaurant situated along the banks of the Delaware River in this western Catskill hamlet.
They'd come to talk to locals about natural gas and a thing called hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking.
"We need to learn as much as we possibly can," Strydom said.
Back home in South Africa, Stern and Strydom live on what's known as the Karoo, a vast, semi-arid, ecologically sensitive region that has lately become the target of prospecting natural gas companies -- Falcoln, Sasol, and Shell among them.
But after awarding permits last year for preliminary gas exploration in the Karoo, stiff opposition from local residents -- their fears stoked by the documentary "Gasland" and an endless stream of news reports out of the United States detailing environmental concerns surrounding fracking -- forced the South African government in April to issue a moratorium on gas activities in the region until the potential impacts could be better understood.
- - - - SNIP - - -
"If there are really no problems with gas drilling, why are there so many problems with gas drilling?" Wiener said, echoing a common refrain among opponents of the process.
Later in the afternoon, as this reporter was preparing to leave, Stern offered that he was frustrated that, despite numerous attempts to reach out to gas drillers with operations in Pennsylvania and New York, he and his fellow visitors had had little luck finding any industry representatives willing to meet them and perhaps offer them a tour of a well site and an explanation of their operations.
But he also said he wasn't surprised.
"I'm not totally blacked out to the idea that they might have to do this drilling in South Africa," he said. "But we want guarantees that it will be done safely. We want each well inspected and properly reclaimed before companies are allowed to move on to a new one, so they don't go willy nilly."
"I would love to talk to the oil and gas companies themselves," he added. "But they put everything under a cloud."
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14. ExxonMobil pipe spills oil into Yellowstone River
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43619388/ns/
us_news-environment/
NBC News and news services
updated 7/2/2011 9:17:21 PM ET 2011-07-03T01:17:21
LAUREL, Mont. — An ExxonMobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River near Billings in south-central Montana ruptured and dumped up to 1,000 barrels of oil, fouling the riverbank and forcing water intakes downstream to be closed.
Company spokeswoman Pam Malek said the pipe broke about 11:30 p.m. Friday and leaked for about a half-hour.
The cause of the rupture in the pipe carrying crude oil from Belfry, Mont., to the company's refinery in Billings wasn't known. But Duane Winslow, disaster and emergency services coordinator for Yellowstone County, told NBC station KULR8 that erosion from high water this spring likely played a role.
- - - - -
Oil spill on Montana’s Yellowstone River forces evacuations
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/
oil-spill-on-montantas-yellowstone-river-forces-evacuations/
Posted on July 3, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol
July 3, 2011 – LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – An undetermined amount of crude oil spilled from an ExxonMobil pipeline into the Yellowstone River in Montana, prompting evacuations of nearby residents on Saturday, authorities said. The spill that was detected early Saturday came from a crude oil pipeline that runs from Silver Tip to Billings, Montana, the ExxonMobil Pipeline Company said in a statement. The pipe was subsequently shut down and state and federal authorities were alerted, the company said. Nearby residents in Laurel, Montana, were evacuated in the wee hours of the morning but were able to return to their homes by 6 a.m., said a spokesman for Laurel City Fire and Ambulance. "Evacuation orders for all of Yellowstone County have been lifted," the emergency services spokesman said. Exxon said the cause of the rupture was not yet known and it was unclear how much oil had been released. "We recognize the seriousness of this incident and are working hard to address it," the company said in a statement. "Our principal focus is on protecting the safety and health of the public and our employees." –Yahoo News
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15. MUST READ: Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Shale Gas compared to Coal - An Analysis of Two Studies by J. David Hughes, July 2011
http://www.postcarbon.org/reports/
PCI-Hughes-NETL-Cornell-Comparison.pdf
QUOTE: “On April 14, 2011, Cornell scientists Robert Howarth, Renee Santoro and Anthony Ingraffea published a peer-reviewed paper entitled “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations”1 which concluded, among other things, that: “The [greenhouse gas] footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years.” This proved to be a very controversial conclusion, particularly among proponents of natural gas as a “transition” fuel from oil and coal.””
Abstract
Two studies with conflicting conclusions have recently been produced on full-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shale gas production, one from scientists at Cornell University and another from a scientist at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The Cornell study, published in a peer-reviewed journal, suggests that lifecycle GHG emissions from shale gas are 20%-100% higher than coal on a 20-year timeframe basis, especially considering that 70% of natural gas consumption is not used for electricity generation. The NETL study, presented in a talk at Cornell University and later posted on the NETL website, suggests, on an electricity-generation comparison basis, that natural gas base load has 48% lower GHG emissions than coal on a 20-year timeframe basis. The NETL comparison, however, does not single out shale gas, which is projected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to be the major source of natural gas supply growth going forward, nor does it consider the overall emissions from natural gas-fired electricity generation, focusing instead on the more efficient base load combined cycle component.
When the assumptions of the NETL study are examined in detail and compared to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2009 emissions inventory for natural gas, as well as to the likely ultimate production from shale gas wells, the resulting conclusions are not significantly different than the Cornell study. Shale gas full-cycle GHG emissions are higher than those of coal when comparing both the existing electricity generating fleets and best-in-class electricity generation technologies for both fuels over a 20-year timeframe basis, but are lower than those of coal on a 100-year timeframe basis. This has significant policy implications for utilizing natural gas as a “transition” fuel to a low carbon future in mitigating near-term GHG emissions.
About the Author
J. David Hughes is a geoscientist who has studied the energy resources of Canada for nearly four decades, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada as a scientist and research manager. He developed the National Coal Inventory to determine the availability and environmental constraints associated with Canada’s coal resources. As team leader for unconventional gas on the Canadian Gas Potential Committee, he coordinated the recent publication of a comprehensive assessment of Canada’s unconventional natural gas potential.
Over the past decade he has researched, published, and lectured widely on global energy and sustainability issues in North America and internationally. He is a board member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas–Canada and is a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. He recently contributed to Carbon Shift, an anthology edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon on the twin issues of peak energy and climate change, and his work has been featured in Canadian Business, Walrus, and other magazines, as well as through the popular press, radio, television, and the Internet. He is currently president of a consultancy dedicated to research on energy and sustainability issues.
This publication is a supplement to the report “Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st
Century?” by J. David Hughes (Post Carbon Institute, May 2011), available online at
www.postcarbon.org/naturalgas
Copyright © 2011 by Post Carbon Institute. All rights reserved.
Post Carbon Institute
Santa Rosa, California, USA
www.postcarbon.org
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16. Buried Secrets: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
http://www.propublica.org/series/
buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
(Check this site often for the ongoing fracking assault on the USA ....115 articles currently posted. Ed.)
The Story So Far
The country’s push to find clean domestic energy has zeroed in on natural gas, but cases of water contamination have raised serious questions about the primary drilling method being used. Vast deposits of natural gas, large enough to supply the country for decades, have brought a drilling boom stretching across 31 states. The drilling technique being used, called hydraulic fracturing, shoots water, sand and toxic chemicals into the ground to break up rock and release the gas.
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17. Fracking gives Texas another oil boom, but at huge water cost
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/
frack-drought062911/frack-drought062911/
By KIAH COLLIER - Scripps Howard News Service
Last Updated: June 29, 2011 - 10:10 am
CROCKETT COUNTY, Texas - Plastic-lined pits holding millions of gallons of blue-green water are tucked away in fields chock-full of withering mesquite trees.
After the driest eight-month period in Texas' recorded history, this barren ranch land has become inhospitable to even the most drought-resistant vegetation.
So where, amid the severe dry spell, did all this pristine water come from?
The query probably would not have been raised in non-drought times in this oil-friendly community.
But as West Texas' reservoirs run dry, cities are scouring the region for their next water supply, and farmers are becoming more desperate for rainfall, oil companies here and elsewhere are pumping out millions of gallons of freshwater from underground aquifers.
The purpose: To break loose rocks to get at trapped underground oil. The water is mixed with toxic chemicals and sand, and pumped into wells at high pressure to fracture the rock to expose the oil.
It can take millions of gallons of fluid to hydraulically fracture, or "frack," a single well. Only about 20 percent to 25 percent on average of the water is recovered, while the rest disappears underground, never to be seen again. [ . . ]
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18. Shale hype - High hopes for deep wells coming back to earth
http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20 ... OPINION01/
706309953/Shale-hype
Article Last Updated: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 10:35pm
As the United States struggles to address the two-pronged problem of encouraging economic activity and increasing domestic energy supplies, it is no wonder that the search for energy resources has looked ever wider – and with rosier visions of the potential yield. The exuberance that has led to various gas and oil booms through the ages has a new(ish) target: shale gas. The trouble is, like many that have come before it, the shale mania that is sweeping the nation may be more hype than hydrocarbons.
In massive formations from the Barnett in Texas to the Fayetteville in Arkansas to Marcellus in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland, shale gas for the last several years has figured prominently in the constant quest to find new domestic sources of petroleum. Smaller formations, including the Gothic near Dolores, have drawn interest and exploration, as well.
It is turning out, though, that much of the promise that industry had hoped these formations held is being obscured by a number of factors, including reserves that are less plentiful than projected, as well as the growing complication and cost of accessing the deeply trapped gas. More and more, the industry is finding that the wells are not producing according to projections, and when they are, the amount of water it takes to release the gas – as well as the investment of time and money it takes to conduct more hydraulic fracturing than originally anticipated – is making developing shale projects less of a sure thing. As a result, The New York Times reported Sunday, investors are shying away from the endeavor. [ . . . ]
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19. Oil and Gas Drilling Surges Despite Increased Oversight
http://www.propublica.org/article/
oil-and-gas-drilling-surges-despite-increased-oversight
by Nicholas Kusnetz ProPublica, June 30, 2011, 12:15 p.m.
Energy companies have spent the last couple of years fighting off added government regulation, saying red tape is slowing development.
But recent data show that the pace of drilling is just short of the 20-year high it reached before the recession. Gas drilling has dropped off as the price of natural gas has stayed low, but high oil prices (and the widening price gap between oil and gas) have spurred enough oil drilling to more than make up the difference. [ . . . ]
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20. New York Proposes Permanent Ban on Fracking Near Watershed and State Land
http://www.propublica.org/article/
fracking-still-on-hold-in-new-york-pending-environmental-review
by Nicholas Kusnetz ProPublica, June 30, 2011, 4:53 p.m.
5:31 p.m.: This post has been updated [1].
The New York Times reported today that New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning to lift a "ban" on hydraulic fracturing [2]. But whatever the governor announces tomorrow, it's unlikely to change the de facto moratorium on drilling in the state that began nearly three years ago, when the state committed to a fresh environmental review.
New York Department of Environment Conservation officials have repeatedly said they cannot issue any new drilling permits until the state completes the environmental review, ordered in 2008 by Cuomo's predecessor, David Paterson. The final review will not be complete for a few months at the earliest.
Despite the department's assurances, Paterson signed an executive order last year stating that large-volume hydraulic fracturing will not be allowed until the review is complete. As we reported at the time, Patterson's move was largely symbolic [3]. His executive order never used the word "moratorium," and the law requiring environmental review was already in place. It appears as though it's that symbolic ban that is at play now.
[ . . . ]
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21. Cuomo Will Seek to Lift Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/nyregion/
cuomo-will-seek-to-lift-drilling-ban.html
By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: June 30, 2011
The Cuomo administration is seeking to lift what has effectively been a moratorium in New York State on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technique used to extract natural gas from shale, state environmental regulators said on Thursday. [ . . . ]
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22. What They’re Saying: 36 Hours Later
http://www.energyindepth.org/2011/06/
what-they%E2%80%99re-saying-36-hours-later/
28.June.2011
Rounding-up the best and most colorful comments in response to NYT’s latest hit piece on natural gas
WASHINGTON, DC – Say this about The New York Times and its ongoing attack series targeting natural gas: These guys sure know how to elicit a reaction. In his latest piece, Times reporter Ian Urbina turns the page over to well-known opponents of the industry, who argue that shale is too expensive to produce and will therefore disappoint investors. Urbina targets the Barnett, Haynesville, and Fayeteville shales in particular – but forgets to mention that natural gas production from each continue to defy even the most optimistic expectations, even with fewer rigs in service and historically low natural gas prices.
The first reactions to The Times’ story started rolling in about 18 seconds after it was posted. EID’s rebuttal was sent around the next day. Thirty-six hours after first contact, here’s just a brief sampling of what folks are saying about the piece: [ . . . ]
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23. Hydrofracking Under Fire: Federal and State Lawmakers Turn Up Heat on Natural Gas Industry and NY Attorney General Issues Subpoenas to Five Companies
http://www.insurereinsure.com/blog.aspx?entry=3492
June 29, 2011 10:02 AM Gregory Hoffnagle Federal Investigation
Federal lawmakers recently called on several agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to investigate whether the natural gas industry has provided an accurate picture to investors of the long-term profitability of their wells and the amount of gas these wells can produce.
"Given the rapid growth of the shale gas industry and its growing importance for our country’s energy portfolio, I urge the S.E.C. to quickly investigate whether investors have been intentionally misled,” wrote Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York, in one of three letters sent to the commission by four federal lawmakers. For a complete copy of Rep. Hinchey’s letters to the SEC and EIA, click here and here.
The calls for investigations came amid growing questions about the environmental and financial risks surrounding natural gas drilling, especially a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, used to release gas trapped deep underground in shale formations.
According to an article in The New York Times, members of the House Committee on Natural Resources said they hoped to hold a hearing in the next several weeks to discuss natural gas drilling.
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, recently sent a letter to the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in which he asked it to investigate the environmental impacts of hydrofracking, the accuracy of reserves estimates and industry regulation.
[ . . . ]
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24. New Recommendations Issued in Hydraulic Fracturing Review
http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/75403.html
For Release: Thursday, June 30, 2011
In Reversal of 2009 Report, High-Volume Fracturing Would be Prohibited in NYC and Syracuse Watersheds
Drilling Banned Within All Primary Aquifers and on State-Owned Land Including State Forest and Wildlife Management Areas
Drilling Permitted on Other Private Land with Rigorous and Effective Protections
Advisory Panel on Implementation to Be Appointed
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) tomorrow will release its revised recommendations on mitigating the environmental impacts of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (high-volume fracturing).
The recommendations contain these major revisions:
High-volume fracturing would be prohibited in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds, including a buffer zone;
Drilling would be prohibited within primary aquifers and within 500 feet of their boundaries;
Surface drilling would be prohibited on state-owned land including parks, forest areas and wildlife management areas;
High-volume fracturing will be permitted on privately held lands under rigorous and effective controls; and
DEC will issue regulations to codify these recommendations into state law. [ . . . ]
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25. 'Sowing the Oil'
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/24/SowingTheOil/
Canada, heed the nation-building dream of Venezuelan Arturo Uslar Pietri. Latest in Andrew Nikiforuk's ENERGY & EQUITY series.
By Andrew Nikiforuk Friday, June 24, 2011
QUOTE: “But Pietri had more to say. "I tell you, I am in a very bad state of mind, I have no hopes, I exist as though I'm in Dante's Inferno. We have nothing to hold on to here. It's sad to see a country without a managerial class. An improvised and improvisational country. To think what this country might have been like with its mountain of resources, if only the government had had a bit of common sense."”
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26. U.S. Drilling Companies Stand to Earn Billions in Iraq Oil Deals
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/20/headlines/
us_drilling_companies_stand_to_earn_billions_in_iraq_oil_deals
June 20, 2011
A group of U.S. drilling companies, including Halliburton, stand to make tens of billions of dollars in Iraq under new oil deals. International oil companies have signed contracts with four largely American oil service companies to drill for oil and build wells. The four companies are Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International and Schlumberger. [ . . . ]
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27. Climate Skeptic Willie Soon Received $1m from Oil Companies, Papers Show
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/28-12
by John Vidal Published on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 by The Guardian/UK
Documents obtained by Greenpeace show prominent opponent of climate change was funded by ExxonMobil, among others
One of the world's most prominent scientific figures to be sceptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1m in the past decade by major US oil and coal companies.
Dr Willie Soon, an astrophysicist at the Solar, Stellar and Planetary Sciences Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, is known for his view that global warming and the melting of the arctic sea ice is caused by solar variation rather than human-caused CO2 emissions, and that polar bears are not primarily threatened by climate change. [ . . . .]
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28. NEWS: Republicans seek decision on Keystone pipeline by Nov. 1
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=8274
Reuters reports, "A Congressional panel approved legislation on Wednesday aimed at speeding permitting for a proposed $7 billion pipeline project that would transport Canadian oil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf coast."
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29. The Combined Power Plant - 100% from renewable energy
http://www.unendlich-viel-energie.de
The secure and constant provision of power anywhere and at anytime by renewable energies is now made possible thanks to the Combined Power Plant. The Combined Power Plant links and controls 36 wind, solar, biomass and hydropower installations spread throughout Germany. It is just as reliable and powerful as a conventional large-scale power station.
The Combined Renewable Energy Power Plant shows how, through joint control of small and decentralised plants, it is possible to provide reliable electricity in accordance with needs. The Combined Power Plant optimally combines the advantages of various renewable energy sources. Wind turbines and solar modules help generate electricity in accordance with how much wind and sun is available. Biogas and hydropower are used to make up the difference: they are converted into electricity as needed in order to balance out short-term fluctuations, or are temporarily stored. Technically, there is no... more
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30. Related Articles:
Ohio taking in flood of Pennsylvania brine for disposal.
Millions of barrels of salty, toxic wastewater from natural-gas wells in Pennsylvania are coming into Ohio despite efforts to keep it at bay. In June 2010, Ohio quadrupled the fees that out-of-state haulers must pay to dump brine into 170 disposal wells. Columbus Dispatch, Ohio.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/
stories/2011/06/19/ohio-disposal-of-pennsylvania-drilling-brine.html
'Fracking' disclosure to rise.
The natural-gas industry, bowing to longtime pressure, will disclose more information about the chemicals it uses in the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing. Wall Street Journal [Subscription Required]
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052702304887904576395630839520062.html
Water-withdrawal bill passes Senate, heads to Cuomo's desk.
The state Senate has unanimously passed a bill that gives the state permission to build a permitting system for large withdrawals from many of the state's lakes, rivers and streams. Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, New York.
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110619/NEWS10/
106190341/Water-withdrawal-bill-passes-Senate-heads-Cuomo-s-desk
Big Oil's big man in Washington.
Lobbyist Jack Gerard wants to make the oil industry seem kinder and friendlier. His largest obstacle? Oil companies. CNN Money
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/20/
big-oils-big-man-in-washington/
Carbon Markets Are Not Cooling the Planet
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/23-7
1. PREBBLE: Climate change a serious threat
2. SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE
3. SASKATCHEWAN BEST PLACE IN CANADA TO INVEST IN OIL AND GAS
4. Severe flooding dampens Sask. oil and gas drilling
5. Conference: Shale Gas Water Management Canada 2011 – Sept. 21-22 – Calgary – AGENDA
6. NEWS: Kent’s inaction on fracking threatens Canada’s water
7. An Open Letter to Albertans - Information Bulletin Number One
8. MUST READ!!! Peer-Review: Wolves Not To Blame For Alberta Caribou Extirpation, But Guess Who Is?
9. BC First Nations aren’t dupes of US green movement: Chiefs
10. Canada spent $1M to lobby American lawmakers on carbon capture and storage
11. Koreans Eye Mackenzie Valley Gas
12. Montreal man arrested for threats against gas industry
13. South Africans Tour American Fracking Hot Spots As Natural Gas Debate Goes Global
14. ExxonMobil pipe spills oil into Yellowstone River
15. MUST READ: Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Shale Gas compared to Coal - An Analysis of Two Studies by J. David Hughes, July 2011
16. Buried Secrets: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
17. Fracking gives Texas another oil boom, but at huge water cost
18. Shale hype - High hopes for deep wells coming back to earth
19. Oil and Gas Drilling Surges Despite Increased Oversight
20. New York Proposes Permanent Ban on Fracking Near Watershed and State Land
21. Cuomo Will Seek to Lift Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing
22. What They’re Saying: 36 Hours Later
23. Hydrofracking Under Fire: Federal and State Lawmakers Turn Up Heat on Natural Gas Industry and NY Attorney General Issues Subpoenas to Five Companies
24. New Recommendations Issued in Hydraulic Fracturing Review
25. 'Sowing the Oil'
26. U.S. Drilling Companies Stand to Earn Billions in Iraq Oil Deals
27. Climate Skeptic Willie Soon Received $1m from Oil Companies, Papers Show
28. NEWS: Republicans seek decision on Keystone pipeline by Nov. 1
29. The Combined Power Plant - 100% from renewable energy
30. Related Articles
===============
1. PREBBLE: Climate change a serious threat
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/
Climate+change+serious+threat/4955340/story.html
BY PETER PREBBLE, THE STAR PHOENIX JUNE 16, 2011
Following is the viewpoint of the writer, an environmental activist in Saskatoon and a former NDP cabinet minister who is seeking re-election in November.
In her column, Hard evidence needed on climate change (SP, June 11)
(http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/
COLUMN+Hard+evidence+needed+climate+change/4931047/story.html)
Bronwyn Eyre claims that climate change is not a threat to the world.
Referring to the scientific community she says: "They've gotta do better than a few polar bears and show us the unadulterated, empirical evidence." [ . . . ]
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2. SYSTEM CHANGE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE
www.systemchange.ca
The Council of Canadians is launching an exciting new multimedia education project, System Change not Climate Change this September. We’re happy to announce the website is now live, so check it out at
www.systemchange.ca!
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3. SASKATCHEWAN BEST PLACE IN CANADA TO INVEST IN OIL AND GAS
http://www.gov.sk.ca/
news?newsId=cf4ffe36-941f-4f0c-9fa5-3abbe03dd371
News Release - June 27, 2011
Saskatchewan is ranked best in Canada as the place for oil and gas investment, according to the 2011 Global Petroleum Survey released today by the Fraser Institute.
The Institute noted Saskatchewan offers investors confidence in a stable, competitive royalty and regulatory structure.
Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said the Fraser Institute's findings show the results of Saskatchewan's commitment to sound fiscal policy.
"A stable, predictable royalty and taxation framework is key to attracting new investment and maintaining the robust growth of our economy," Boyd said. "Saskatchewan's rank as Canada's preferred province to invest is testament to the importance of that stability. Our government is committed to moving Saskatchewan forward, and we will continue to offer the business climate that is essential to keep our province growing."
Saskatchewan moved up from second place last year to be ranked the best in the country out of the ten provinces and territories rated this year.
Internationally, Saskatchewan was ranked 11th best in the world out of the 136 different provinces, states and countries that the Fraser Institute assessed worldwide. That also is up from Saskatchewan's 17th place ranking last year.
Of Saskatchewan's main competitors for investment capital, Alberta was ranked sixth in Canada and 51st worldwide, while British Columbia was ranked eighth in Canada and 69th in the world. Newfoundland and Labrador was ranked fifth in Canada and 50th in the world.
This year's survey evaluated 136 different jurisdictions across Canada and around the world. The exploration and development budgets of companies who participated in the survey account for more than 60 per cent of annual spending on a global basis. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis, Energy and Resources, Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
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4. Severe flooding dampens Sask. oil and gas drilling
http://regina.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110623/
sask-flood-drilling-110623/20110623/?hub=Regina
The Canadian Press Date: Thursday Jun. 23, 2011 3:48 PM CST
Severe flooding in southern Saskatchewan is causing headaches for the province's oil and gas industry.
Saskatchewan Energy Minister Bill Boyd says companies can't drill when their leases are covered in nearly two metres of water.
He says at least 20,000 to 30,000 barrels of daily production have been shut in because of the one-in-500-year flooding event.
Boyd says it's tough to tell what the exact economic impact could be, but he says it could be hundreds of millions of dollars.
His ministry aims to speed up approvals for companies to drill on properties that aren't under water.
Saskatchewan's agriculture sector has also taken a hit, with as many as two million hectares going unseeded. [ . . . ]
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5. Conference: Shale Gas Water Management Canada 2011 – Sept. 21-22 – Calgary - AGENDA
http://www.shale-gas-water-management-canada.com/
4/agenda/23/agenda/?dm_i=SRO,GNEW,3TZ882,1CUMU,1
DAY ONE: EXAMINING BEST PRACTICES FOR SOURCING, TREATING, RE-USING, AND DISPOSING OF WATER RESOURCES FOR SHALE GAS COMPLETIONS IN CANADA
08.30 Chair’s Opening Remarks
EXPLAINING STRATEGIES FROM CANADIAN E&P COMPANIES FOR COST-EFFECTIVELY SOURCING WATER FOR HYDRAULIC FRACTURING & MINIMIZING THE AMOUNT OF FRESH WATER USED
8.40 Opening Address
Minister Rob Renner, Minister of Alberta Environment, Alberta Government
KEYNOTE OPENING PANEL
09.00 Understanding How A Leading Canadian Shale Gas Operator Is Sourcing The Large Volumes Of Water Required For Hydraulic Fracturing In The Most Timely & Cost-Effective Way
Explaining how operators in the Horn River, Montney & other Canadian plays are sourcing water in the large volumes required for hydraulic fracturing whilst minimizing cost Understanding where operators are sourcing their water from and how much is available from these sources Analyzing what factors Canadian shale gas operators are using to make decisions on where to source water from Determining strategies for reducing the amount of freshwater used in Canadian shale gas operations
Roy Stadlwieser, Manager New Gas Team, Shell Canada, Shad Watts, Director CCRA Shale Gas, Nexen Inc.
MORE:
http://www.shale-gas-water-management-canada.com/
4/agenda/23/agenda/?dm_i=SRO,GNEW,3TZ882,1CUMU,1
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6. NEWS: Kent’s inaction on fracking threatens Canada’s water
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=8403
The Halifax Chronicle-Herald reports, "Responding to questions from NDP environment critic Megan Leslie (about fracking), environment minister Peter Kent noted that regulations for the sector were mainly a provincial and territorial responsibility, but acknowledged that there could be an emerging federal role."
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7. An Open Letter to Albertans - Information Bulletin Number One
Livingstone Landowners Group
http://www.livingstonelandowners.net/hot-news-1/
benefitconcert
Alberta’s Electricity Controversy Comes to the Porcupine Hills, Old Man River Basin and the Livingstone Range
Issue One: “Abuse of Process”
Most Albertan have heard about Alberta’s electricity transmission controversy. The scale of the $13.5 upgrade (a seven fold increase) has been criticized as extravagant. Even industry calls the plan an uneconomic “overbuild.” And landowners have protested draconian legislation to support the scheme.
That controversy now threatens to unsettle one of Alberta’s famous landscapes too. One big issue concerns “abuse of process.”
Now, the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), which plans the province’s contested transmission upgrades, says that it conducts its business with “integrity” and “responsiveness.”
But that’s not how AESO has treated southern Alberta landowners, provincial taxpayers (yes, citizens will pay 100 percent for the overbuild) or the Alberta Utility Commission, the province’s new transmission watchdog,
In fact this month AESO told the regulator that it could interpret its highly contentious plans any way it likes, and if the regulator doesn’t approve of such arbitrary behavior than AESO will retroactively amend its plans to avoid a public hearing.
“We are deeply concerned that AESO’s request to amend…is being advanced solely to defeat” the purposes of a public hearing and “it ought to be rejected as an abuse of the Commission’s process,” said LLG lawyer Gavin Fitch in a letter to the AUC.
Last year the Livingstone Landowners Group (LLG), which represents more than 100 landowners, respectfully asked AESO two basic questions: Why did it deviate from its approved Southern Alberta Transmission Reinforcement plan? And then why didn’t it tell landowners that it was going to industrialize the region without fair and public notification?
That Southern Alberta plan acknowledged the need for a new 240 KV line from the Pincher Creek (Goose Lake) to the Crowsnest Pass to accommodate new wind farms in the region. (Standard policy encourages AtlaLink to use existing corridors.)
That document showed that most proposed lines would stay within existing corridors. At AESO open houses not one engineer discussed or raised the possibility of one or several 240 KV lines fragmenting the Porcupine Hills, the Old Man River Basin or the Livingstone Range which make up one of Alberta’s most iconic landscapes. (Just drive along the Cowboy Trail on Highway 22.)
But land men working for AltaLink, a transmission builder solely owned by Montreal-based SNC Lavalin, shocked ranchers, farmers and landowners with that real possibility last year. Their route maps included a several different lines that could industrialize the Porcupine Hills as far north as Maycroft or 40 km away from the Crowsnest Pass.
As a consequence the LLG, which supports transparent public needs assessments for all transmission lines to protect taxpayer’s money, asked the AUC what the hell was going on?
Last October the AUC asked AESO the same question noting that “the system configuration in the AESO’s application is not as described” in the original plan for the Pincher Creek area. In simple terms AESO arbitrarily reconfigured its plans so much, that the original system studies may no longer be applicable said the AUC. The AUC also asked whether “potentially affected parties” had been fairly noticed as required by law in a democracy.
When AESO’s answers didn’t satisfy the AUC, the regulator ordered a public hearing for August 23rd to 25th in Pincher Creek to sort things out.
In reply AESO sent off a flippant and disrespectful letter on June 8th to the AUC claiming that amendments to its plans “are not required” but that it will still prepare an amendment even though it doesn’t have to do so. It also claims that hearings will cause “undue delay” in connecting wind farms to grid. But that’s false. There would never have been any delay had AESO and AltaLink stuck to the original AUC plan.
AESO’s behavior in the Pincher Creek area raises more serious questions about the need, integrity and fairness of a $13.5 billion transmission overbuild that will industrialize landscapes, devalue property, raise electricity rates and subsidize transmission for corporate wind power farms.
An Information Bulletin Provided by the Livingstone Landowners Group
Visit our website:
http://www.livingstonelandowners.net/hot-news-1/
benefitconcert
Contact:
Andrew Nikiforuk 403-270-2995
Bruce Mowat: 403-628-2116
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8. MUST READ!!! Peer-Review: Wolves Not To Blame For Alberta Caribou Extirpation, But Guess Who Is?
http://growingwolves.blogspot.com/2011/06/
must-read-peer-review-wolves-not-to.html
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Extirpation of woodland caribou is predicted within 70 years in Alberta.
A peer-reviewed study entitled, The Influences Of Wolf Predation, Habitat Loss, And Human Activity On Caribou And Moose In The Alberta Oilsands, (Wasser, Keim, Taper, Lele - Front Ecol Environ 2011; doi:10.1890/100071) was released today by The Ecological Society of America and is summarized as follows:
Woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) and moose (Alces alces) populations in the Alberta oil sands region of western Canada are influenced by wolf (Canis lupus) predation, habitat degradation and loss, and anthropogenic activities. Trained domestic dogs were used to locate scat from caribou, moose, and wolves during winter surges in petroleum development. Evidence obtained from collected scat was then used to estimate resource selection, measure physiological stress, and provide individual genetic identification for precise mark–recapture abundance estimates of caribou, moose, and wolves. Strong impacts of human activity were indicated by changes in resource selection and in stress and nutrition hormone levels as human-use measures were added to base resource selection models (including ecological variables, provincial highways, and pre-existing linear features with no human activity) for caribou. Wolf predation and resource selection so heavily targeted deer (Odocoileus virginiana or O hemionus) that wolves appeared drawn away from prime caribou habitat. None of the three examined species showed a significant population change over 4 years. However, caribou population estimates were more than double those of previous approximations for this area. Our findings suggest that modifying landscape-level human-use patterns may be more effective at managing this ecosystem than intentional removal of wolves. [ . . .]
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9. BC First Nations aren’t dupes of US green movement: Chiefs
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2011/06/14/
green-movement-dupes-chiefs/?
utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=150611
By Geoff Dembicki June 14, 2011 11:44 am
First Nations groups oppose Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project because it poses real risks to their territories, five chiefs argue, not because they’re being duped by U.S. environmentalists.
“The lands and rivers which the proposed Enbridge pipeline would cross are habitat for moose, grizzly bears, salmon, deer, migratory birds, and other wildlife,” reads a First Nations-penned editorial in the Vancouver Sun. “Our food, stories, ceremonies, and our entire culture is tied to the land and the wildlife it supports – a spill could devastate our way of life.”
Their editorial was a response to a late-May Postmedia opinion column – published in several major Canadian media outlets – which questioned the financial motivations behind First Nations resistance. [ . . . ]
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10. Canada spent $1M to lobby American lawmakers on carbon capture and storage
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168EF25:6D244622054605D0744FC2EB775707948F7D795DAFB9E650&
By The Canadian Press Monday, June 20, 2011
OTTAWA -- Canada has spent $1 million on a travelling salesman peddling a fledgling, still unproven technology that has been a darling of the Conservative government, internal documents show.
The federal government hired a special adviser on climate change and energy to lobby key players in the United States over energy and environmental issues. The job description includes promoting a made-in-Canada technique of pumping greenhouse gas deep underground.
The adviser is also tasked with gathering intelligence on developments in the U.S. to report to officials back home. [ . . . ]
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11. Koreans Eye Mackenzie Valley Gas
http://goto.thetyee.ca/
t?ctl=168F7EA:6D244622054605D0B5AC27DF2AB300A48F7D795DAFB9E650&
Short on fuels, their LNG tankers are ready to fetch BC gas. Will they spark a latent NWT gas boom, too?
By Michael Byers Monday, June 27, 2011
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12. Montreal man arrested for threats against gas industry
http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Montreal+arrested+threats+against+industry/5030741/story.html#ixzz1QmmjBnhc
BY MAX HARROLD, POSTMEDIA NEWS JUNE 30, 2011 10:16 AM
MONTREAL — A 61-year-old Montreal man was arrested early Thursday for making threats against the shale gas industry in Quebec and Alberta.
The man's arrest shortly after midnight in Montreal by members of the Quebec provincial police, Montreal police and RCMP followed several letters he allegedly sent, said Sgt. Christine Coulombe from the provincial force.
"The threat was deemed to be serious and so were others he sent," Coulombe said.
The man was released on a promise to appear in court at a later date, and has to obey strict conditions. She would not provide his name since he has not yet been formally charged.
La Presse, the Montreal-based French-language newspaper, published a story on June 10 about a letter received by columnist Patrick Lagace. He said he got a phone call telling him an envelope was left for him in a phone booth.
The letter, drafted and glued with newspaper and magazine clippings, threatened "serious consequences for any industrial activity starting July 1" and talked of "destruction of sites."
The article said the letter was from a group claiming to be the Quebec militia for the protection of the territory, a group unheard of until then.
The letter's author complained about the Quebec government's refusal to impose a moratorium on shale gas exploration.
Certain Alberta and Quebec companies were named in the letter, but the newspaper said it contacted the companies and were told no threats were received. The names of the companies were not revealed in the article. [ . . . ]
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13. South Africans Tour American Fracking Hot Spots As Natural Gas Debate Goes Global
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/
south-africa-karoo-natural-gas-fracking_n_886793.html
Updated: 06/29/11 05:30 PM ET
CALLICOON, N.Y. -- Late last Sunday morning, Doug Stern and Lukie Strydom, farmers from South Africa, shuffled quietly in the parking lot of Lander's River Mart, a combination gas station, convenience store and restaurant situated along the banks of the Delaware River in this western Catskill hamlet.
They'd come to talk to locals about natural gas and a thing called hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking.
"We need to learn as much as we possibly can," Strydom said.
Back home in South Africa, Stern and Strydom live on what's known as the Karoo, a vast, semi-arid, ecologically sensitive region that has lately become the target of prospecting natural gas companies -- Falcoln, Sasol, and Shell among them.
But after awarding permits last year for preliminary gas exploration in the Karoo, stiff opposition from local residents -- their fears stoked by the documentary "Gasland" and an endless stream of news reports out of the United States detailing environmental concerns surrounding fracking -- forced the South African government in April to issue a moratorium on gas activities in the region until the potential impacts could be better understood.
- - - - SNIP - - -
"If there are really no problems with gas drilling, why are there so many problems with gas drilling?" Wiener said, echoing a common refrain among opponents of the process.
Later in the afternoon, as this reporter was preparing to leave, Stern offered that he was frustrated that, despite numerous attempts to reach out to gas drillers with operations in Pennsylvania and New York, he and his fellow visitors had had little luck finding any industry representatives willing to meet them and perhaps offer them a tour of a well site and an explanation of their operations.
But he also said he wasn't surprised.
"I'm not totally blacked out to the idea that they might have to do this drilling in South Africa," he said. "But we want guarantees that it will be done safely. We want each well inspected and properly reclaimed before companies are allowed to move on to a new one, so they don't go willy nilly."
"I would love to talk to the oil and gas companies themselves," he added. "But they put everything under a cloud."
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14. ExxonMobil pipe spills oil into Yellowstone River
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43619388/ns/
us_news-environment/
NBC News and news services
updated 7/2/2011 9:17:21 PM ET 2011-07-03T01:17:21
LAUREL, Mont. — An ExxonMobil pipeline that runs under the Yellowstone River near Billings in south-central Montana ruptured and dumped up to 1,000 barrels of oil, fouling the riverbank and forcing water intakes downstream to be closed.
Company spokeswoman Pam Malek said the pipe broke about 11:30 p.m. Friday and leaked for about a half-hour.
The cause of the rupture in the pipe carrying crude oil from Belfry, Mont., to the company's refinery in Billings wasn't known. But Duane Winslow, disaster and emergency services coordinator for Yellowstone County, told NBC station KULR8 that erosion from high water this spring likely played a role.
- - - - -
Oil spill on Montana’s Yellowstone River forces evacuations
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/
oil-spill-on-montantas-yellowstone-river-forces-evacuations/
Posted on July 3, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol
July 3, 2011 – LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – An undetermined amount of crude oil spilled from an ExxonMobil pipeline into the Yellowstone River in Montana, prompting evacuations of nearby residents on Saturday, authorities said. The spill that was detected early Saturday came from a crude oil pipeline that runs from Silver Tip to Billings, Montana, the ExxonMobil Pipeline Company said in a statement. The pipe was subsequently shut down and state and federal authorities were alerted, the company said. Nearby residents in Laurel, Montana, were evacuated in the wee hours of the morning but were able to return to their homes by 6 a.m., said a spokesman for Laurel City Fire and Ambulance. "Evacuation orders for all of Yellowstone County have been lifted," the emergency services spokesman said. Exxon said the cause of the rupture was not yet known and it was unclear how much oil had been released. "We recognize the seriousness of this incident and are working hard to address it," the company said in a statement. "Our principal focus is on protecting the safety and health of the public and our employees." –Yahoo News
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15. MUST READ: Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Shale Gas compared to Coal - An Analysis of Two Studies by J. David Hughes, July 2011
http://www.postcarbon.org/reports/
PCI-Hughes-NETL-Cornell-Comparison.pdf
QUOTE: “On April 14, 2011, Cornell scientists Robert Howarth, Renee Santoro and Anthony Ingraffea published a peer-reviewed paper entitled “Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations”1 which concluded, among other things, that: “The [greenhouse gas] footprint for shale gas is greater than that for conventional gas or oil when viewed on any time horizon, but particularly so over 20 years. Compared to coal, the footprint of shale gas is at least 20% greater and perhaps more than twice as great on the 20-year horizon and is comparable when compared over 100 years.” This proved to be a very controversial conclusion, particularly among proponents of natural gas as a “transition” fuel from oil and coal.””
Abstract
Two studies with conflicting conclusions have recently been produced on full-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shale gas production, one from scientists at Cornell University and another from a scientist at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The Cornell study, published in a peer-reviewed journal, suggests that lifecycle GHG emissions from shale gas are 20%-100% higher than coal on a 20-year timeframe basis, especially considering that 70% of natural gas consumption is not used for electricity generation. The NETL study, presented in a talk at Cornell University and later posted on the NETL website, suggests, on an electricity-generation comparison basis, that natural gas base load has 48% lower GHG emissions than coal on a 20-year timeframe basis. The NETL comparison, however, does not single out shale gas, which is projected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) to be the major source of natural gas supply growth going forward, nor does it consider the overall emissions from natural gas-fired electricity generation, focusing instead on the more efficient base load combined cycle component.
When the assumptions of the NETL study are examined in detail and compared to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 2009 emissions inventory for natural gas, as well as to the likely ultimate production from shale gas wells, the resulting conclusions are not significantly different than the Cornell study. Shale gas full-cycle GHG emissions are higher than those of coal when comparing both the existing electricity generating fleets and best-in-class electricity generation technologies for both fuels over a 20-year timeframe basis, but are lower than those of coal on a 100-year timeframe basis. This has significant policy implications for utilizing natural gas as a “transition” fuel to a low carbon future in mitigating near-term GHG emissions.
About the Author
J. David Hughes is a geoscientist who has studied the energy resources of Canada for nearly four decades, including 32 years with the Geological Survey of Canada as a scientist and research manager. He developed the National Coal Inventory to determine the availability and environmental constraints associated with Canada’s coal resources. As team leader for unconventional gas on the Canadian Gas Potential Committee, he coordinated the recent publication of a comprehensive assessment of Canada’s unconventional natural gas potential.
Over the past decade he has researched, published, and lectured widely on global energy and sustainability issues in North America and internationally. He is a board member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas–Canada and is a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. He recently contributed to Carbon Shift, an anthology edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon on the twin issues of peak energy and climate change, and his work has been featured in Canadian Business, Walrus, and other magazines, as well as through the popular press, radio, television, and the Internet. He is currently president of a consultancy dedicated to research on energy and sustainability issues.
This publication is a supplement to the report “Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st
Century?” by J. David Hughes (Post Carbon Institute, May 2011), available online at
www.postcarbon.org/naturalgas
Copyright © 2011 by Post Carbon Institute. All rights reserved.
Post Carbon Institute
Santa Rosa, California, USA
www.postcarbon.org
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16. Buried Secrets: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
http://www.propublica.org/series/
buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat
(Check this site often for the ongoing fracking assault on the USA ....115 articles currently posted. Ed.)
The Story So Far
The country’s push to find clean domestic energy has zeroed in on natural gas, but cases of water contamination have raised serious questions about the primary drilling method being used. Vast deposits of natural gas, large enough to supply the country for decades, have brought a drilling boom stretching across 31 states. The drilling technique being used, called hydraulic fracturing, shoots water, sand and toxic chemicals into the ground to break up rock and release the gas.
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17. Fracking gives Texas another oil boom, but at huge water cost
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/
frack-drought062911/frack-drought062911/
By KIAH COLLIER - Scripps Howard News Service
Last Updated: June 29, 2011 - 10:10 am
CROCKETT COUNTY, Texas - Plastic-lined pits holding millions of gallons of blue-green water are tucked away in fields chock-full of withering mesquite trees.
After the driest eight-month period in Texas' recorded history, this barren ranch land has become inhospitable to even the most drought-resistant vegetation.
So where, amid the severe dry spell, did all this pristine water come from?
The query probably would not have been raised in non-drought times in this oil-friendly community.
But as West Texas' reservoirs run dry, cities are scouring the region for their next water supply, and farmers are becoming more desperate for rainfall, oil companies here and elsewhere are pumping out millions of gallons of freshwater from underground aquifers.
The purpose: To break loose rocks to get at trapped underground oil. The water is mixed with toxic chemicals and sand, and pumped into wells at high pressure to fracture the rock to expose the oil.
It can take millions of gallons of fluid to hydraulically fracture, or "frack," a single well. Only about 20 percent to 25 percent on average of the water is recovered, while the rest disappears underground, never to be seen again. [ . . ]
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18. Shale hype - High hopes for deep wells coming back to earth
http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20 ... OPINION01/
706309953/Shale-hype
Article Last Updated: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 10:35pm
As the United States struggles to address the two-pronged problem of encouraging economic activity and increasing domestic energy supplies, it is no wonder that the search for energy resources has looked ever wider – and with rosier visions of the potential yield. The exuberance that has led to various gas and oil booms through the ages has a new(ish) target: shale gas. The trouble is, like many that have come before it, the shale mania that is sweeping the nation may be more hype than hydrocarbons.
In massive formations from the Barnett in Texas to the Fayetteville in Arkansas to Marcellus in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland, shale gas for the last several years has figured prominently in the constant quest to find new domestic sources of petroleum. Smaller formations, including the Gothic near Dolores, have drawn interest and exploration, as well.
It is turning out, though, that much of the promise that industry had hoped these formations held is being obscured by a number of factors, including reserves that are less plentiful than projected, as well as the growing complication and cost of accessing the deeply trapped gas. More and more, the industry is finding that the wells are not producing according to projections, and when they are, the amount of water it takes to release the gas – as well as the investment of time and money it takes to conduct more hydraulic fracturing than originally anticipated – is making developing shale projects less of a sure thing. As a result, The New York Times reported Sunday, investors are shying away from the endeavor. [ . . . ]
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19. Oil and Gas Drilling Surges Despite Increased Oversight
http://www.propublica.org/article/
oil-and-gas-drilling-surges-despite-increased-oversight
by Nicholas Kusnetz ProPublica, June 30, 2011, 12:15 p.m.
Energy companies have spent the last couple of years fighting off added government regulation, saying red tape is slowing development.
But recent data show that the pace of drilling is just short of the 20-year high it reached before the recession. Gas drilling has dropped off as the price of natural gas has stayed low, but high oil prices (and the widening price gap between oil and gas) have spurred enough oil drilling to more than make up the difference. [ . . . ]
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20. New York Proposes Permanent Ban on Fracking Near Watershed and State Land
http://www.propublica.org/article/
fracking-still-on-hold-in-new-york-pending-environmental-review
by Nicholas Kusnetz ProPublica, June 30, 2011, 4:53 p.m.
5:31 p.m.: This post has been updated [1].
The New York Times reported today that New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning to lift a "ban" on hydraulic fracturing [2]. But whatever the governor announces tomorrow, it's unlikely to change the de facto moratorium on drilling in the state that began nearly three years ago, when the state committed to a fresh environmental review.
New York Department of Environment Conservation officials have repeatedly said they cannot issue any new drilling permits until the state completes the environmental review, ordered in 2008 by Cuomo's predecessor, David Paterson. The final review will not be complete for a few months at the earliest.
Despite the department's assurances, Paterson signed an executive order last year stating that large-volume hydraulic fracturing will not be allowed until the review is complete. As we reported at the time, Patterson's move was largely symbolic [3]. His executive order never used the word "moratorium," and the law requiring environmental review was already in place. It appears as though it's that symbolic ban that is at play now.
[ . . . ]
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21. Cuomo Will Seek to Lift Ban on Hydraulic Fracturing
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/nyregion/
cuomo-will-seek-to-lift-drilling-ban.html
By DANNY HAKIM and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: June 30, 2011
The Cuomo administration is seeking to lift what has effectively been a moratorium in New York State on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial technique used to extract natural gas from shale, state environmental regulators said on Thursday. [ . . . ]
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22. What They’re Saying: 36 Hours Later
http://www.energyindepth.org/2011/06/
what-they%E2%80%99re-saying-36-hours-later/
28.June.2011
Rounding-up the best and most colorful comments in response to NYT’s latest hit piece on natural gas
WASHINGTON, DC – Say this about The New York Times and its ongoing attack series targeting natural gas: These guys sure know how to elicit a reaction. In his latest piece, Times reporter Ian Urbina turns the page over to well-known opponents of the industry, who argue that shale is too expensive to produce and will therefore disappoint investors. Urbina targets the Barnett, Haynesville, and Fayeteville shales in particular – but forgets to mention that natural gas production from each continue to defy even the most optimistic expectations, even with fewer rigs in service and historically low natural gas prices.
The first reactions to The Times’ story started rolling in about 18 seconds after it was posted. EID’s rebuttal was sent around the next day. Thirty-six hours after first contact, here’s just a brief sampling of what folks are saying about the piece: [ . . . ]
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23. Hydrofracking Under Fire: Federal and State Lawmakers Turn Up Heat on Natural Gas Industry and NY Attorney General Issues Subpoenas to Five Companies
http://www.insurereinsure.com/blog.aspx?entry=3492
June 29, 2011 10:02 AM Gregory Hoffnagle Federal Investigation
Federal lawmakers recently called on several agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to investigate whether the natural gas industry has provided an accurate picture to investors of the long-term profitability of their wells and the amount of gas these wells can produce.
"Given the rapid growth of the shale gas industry and its growing importance for our country’s energy portfolio, I urge the S.E.C. to quickly investigate whether investors have been intentionally misled,” wrote Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York, in one of three letters sent to the commission by four federal lawmakers. For a complete copy of Rep. Hinchey’s letters to the SEC and EIA, click here and here.
The calls for investigations came amid growing questions about the environmental and financial risks surrounding natural gas drilling, especially a technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, used to release gas trapped deep underground in shale formations.
According to an article in The New York Times, members of the House Committee on Natural Resources said they hoped to hold a hearing in the next several weeks to discuss natural gas drilling.
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, recently sent a letter to the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in which he asked it to investigate the environmental impacts of hydrofracking, the accuracy of reserves estimates and industry regulation.
[ . . . ]
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24. New Recommendations Issued in Hydraulic Fracturing Review
http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/75403.html
For Release: Thursday, June 30, 2011
In Reversal of 2009 Report, High-Volume Fracturing Would be Prohibited in NYC and Syracuse Watersheds
Drilling Banned Within All Primary Aquifers and on State-Owned Land Including State Forest and Wildlife Management Areas
Drilling Permitted on Other Private Land with Rigorous and Effective Protections
Advisory Panel on Implementation to Be Appointed
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) tomorrow will release its revised recommendations on mitigating the environmental impacts of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (high-volume fracturing).
The recommendations contain these major revisions:
High-volume fracturing would be prohibited in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds, including a buffer zone;
Drilling would be prohibited within primary aquifers and within 500 feet of their boundaries;
Surface drilling would be prohibited on state-owned land including parks, forest areas and wildlife management areas;
High-volume fracturing will be permitted on privately held lands under rigorous and effective controls; and
DEC will issue regulations to codify these recommendations into state law. [ . . . ]
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25. 'Sowing the Oil'
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/06/24/SowingTheOil/
Canada, heed the nation-building dream of Venezuelan Arturo Uslar Pietri. Latest in Andrew Nikiforuk's ENERGY & EQUITY series.
By Andrew Nikiforuk Friday, June 24, 2011
QUOTE: “But Pietri had more to say. "I tell you, I am in a very bad state of mind, I have no hopes, I exist as though I'm in Dante's Inferno. We have nothing to hold on to here. It's sad to see a country without a managerial class. An improvised and improvisational country. To think what this country might have been like with its mountain of resources, if only the government had had a bit of common sense."”
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26. U.S. Drilling Companies Stand to Earn Billions in Iraq Oil Deals
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/20/headlines/
us_drilling_companies_stand_to_earn_billions_in_iraq_oil_deals
June 20, 2011
A group of U.S. drilling companies, including Halliburton, stand to make tens of billions of dollars in Iraq under new oil deals. International oil companies have signed contracts with four largely American oil service companies to drill for oil and build wells. The four companies are Halliburton, Baker Hughes, Weatherford International and Schlumberger. [ . . . ]
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27. Climate Skeptic Willie Soon Received $1m from Oil Companies, Papers Show
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/28-12
by John Vidal Published on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 by The Guardian/UK
Documents obtained by Greenpeace show prominent opponent of climate change was funded by ExxonMobil, among others
One of the world's most prominent scientific figures to be sceptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1m in the past decade by major US oil and coal companies.
Dr Willie Soon, an astrophysicist at the Solar, Stellar and Planetary Sciences Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, is known for his view that global warming and the melting of the arctic sea ice is caused by solar variation rather than human-caused CO2 emissions, and that polar bears are not primarily threatened by climate change. [ . . . .]
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28. NEWS: Republicans seek decision on Keystone pipeline by Nov. 1
http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=8274
Reuters reports, "A Congressional panel approved legislation on Wednesday aimed at speeding permitting for a proposed $7 billion pipeline project that would transport Canadian oil sands crude to the U.S. Gulf coast."
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29. The Combined Power Plant - 100% from renewable energy
http://www.unendlich-viel-energie.de
The secure and constant provision of power anywhere and at anytime by renewable energies is now made possible thanks to the Combined Power Plant. The Combined Power Plant links and controls 36 wind, solar, biomass and hydropower installations spread throughout Germany. It is just as reliable and powerful as a conventional large-scale power station.
The Combined Renewable Energy Power Plant shows how, through joint control of small and decentralised plants, it is possible to provide reliable electricity in accordance with needs. The Combined Power Plant optimally combines the advantages of various renewable energy sources. Wind turbines and solar modules help generate electricity in accordance with how much wind and sun is available. Biogas and hydropower are used to make up the difference: they are converted into electricity as needed in order to balance out short-term fluctuations, or are temporarily stored. Technically, there is no... more
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30. Related Articles:
Ohio taking in flood of Pennsylvania brine for disposal.
Millions of barrels of salty, toxic wastewater from natural-gas wells in Pennsylvania are coming into Ohio despite efforts to keep it at bay. In June 2010, Ohio quadrupled the fees that out-of-state haulers must pay to dump brine into 170 disposal wells. Columbus Dispatch, Ohio.
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/
stories/2011/06/19/ohio-disposal-of-pennsylvania-drilling-brine.html
'Fracking' disclosure to rise.
The natural-gas industry, bowing to longtime pressure, will disclose more information about the chemicals it uses in the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing. Wall Street Journal [Subscription Required]
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424052702304887904576395630839520062.html
Water-withdrawal bill passes Senate, heads to Cuomo's desk.
The state Senate has unanimously passed a bill that gives the state permission to build a permitting system for large withdrawals from many of the state's lakes, rivers and streams. Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, New York.
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110619/NEWS10/
106190341/Water-withdrawal-bill-passes-Senate-heads-Cuomo-s-desk
Big Oil's big man in Washington.
Lobbyist Jack Gerard wants to make the oil industry seem kinder and friendlier. His largest obstacle? Oil companies. CNN Money
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/20/
big-oils-big-man-in-washington/
Carbon Markets Are Not Cooling the Planet
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/23-7
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FRACKING ENERGY NEWS: July 10, 2011
by Oscar » Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:39 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS: July 10, 2011
1. NIKIFORUK: Shale Gas Gives No Emissions Edge over Coal
2. Calmar residents know the drill as company works to cap abandoned well
3. Precautionary principle should be applied to shale gas
4. France Vote Outlaws ‘Fracking’ Shale for Natural Gas, Oil Extraction
5. A Lonely Crusade – Hydrofracked - The Louis Meeks Story
6. LISTEN: How Does Fracking Impact Property Rights?
7. Water: Fracking sucks more than you think!
8. PA releases Marcellus drillers' wastewater plans
9. Company Lawyers Seek Millions for Victims For Violations of Corporate Civil Rights
10. FRACKING FLUIDS POISON A NATIONAL FOREST
11. Shell shock: Energy giant censured for 'fracking' ads
12. Gas Industry Spent "Staggering" Amount Lobbying in Pennsylvania Last Year
13. SHIELDS: Oil Spills At Epidemic Proportions!!
14. Yellowstone River Spill Update
15. Agreement Reached to Reduce Urban Oil Drilling in Los Angeles
16. KENNEDY: An Assault on Clean Water and Democracy
17. Contamination 'limited' to trial site
18. Braid: Oilsands need monitoring, not centralization fiasco
19. Solar Photovoltaics Gaining Momentum and Poised to Challenge Fossil Fuels, Say IEEE Solar Experts
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1. NIKIFORUK: Shale Gas Gives No Emissions Edge over Coal
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/07/07/ShaleEmissions/
ENERGY & EQUITY: Studies sweep away clean image of the blue flame.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, July 7, 2011 TheTyee.ca
QUOTE: “Expect a game-changing announcement any day now from the American Coal Council or the Coal Association of Canada: "Coal is cleaner than shale gas."
For years now, everyone thought that natural gas was cleaner than coal and more benevolent than oil. The blue flame just burned purely and wasn't nearly as complicated or carboniferous as a lump of, well, bituminous coal.
And so groups like the Natural Gas Supply Association advertised the blue flame as "the cleanest of all fossil fuels" and a brave climate change fighter to boot. Burning gas produced 50 per cent fewer carbon emissions and just decreased "harmful pollution levels" all around.
But shale gas, methane trapped in hellishly deep rock formations, has challenged this dated perception. In fact, the very stuff that energy experts champion as North America's new energy wunderkind may be dirtier than coal, if not as extreme as Alberta's dirty bitumen.
In other words, the so-called "bridge fuel" to renewable energy sources may be one troubled bridge, or perhaps another energy destination as perversely questionable as industrial wind farms.
Shale we or not?
The whole unbelievable shale story emerged piece meal from a series of often startling reports, all populated with unconventional facts. (Dirty energy is all about dirty numbers.)
A brief advisory: shale gas depends on a highly energy intensive technique known as hydraulic fracking to release methane trapped in rock. Fracking blasts open the pores of dense shale formations with millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure. (Just imagine an underground fireworks display.)
This brute force tool, never a precise science, can contaminate groundwater with methane and chemicals, and even cause local earthquakes. As a consequence, France and New Jersey have banned shale gas in their watersheds, while Quebec declared a moratorium to protect its farmland. The European Union is thinking about restricting the difficult resource with "an energy quality directive."
Related Articles (All Links at URL above.)
Koreans Eye Mackenzie Valley Gas
Short on fuels, their LNG tankers are ready to fetch BC gas. Will they spark a latent NWT gas boom, too?
The Gwyn Morgan File: Rise of a Shale Gas Baron
Christy Clark picked the EnCana empire builder to guide her into power, and that says volumes about who's shaping BC's future. Part one of two.
Debunking the 'Shale Gale'
Industry has 'overblown' the benefits of shale gas, according to a new report
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This is the latest of Andrew Nikiforuk's weekly Energy and Equity column for The Tyee. Nikiforuk is an award-winning author and journalist, and a contributing editor to The Tyee.
Read his previous Tyee stories:
http://thetyee.ca/Bios/Andrew_Nikiforuk/
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2. Calmar residents know the drill as company works to cap abandoned well
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
Calmar+residents+know+drill+company+works+abandoned+well/5067796/story.html
BY MARIAM IBRAHIM, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM JULY 7, 2011
QUOTE: “The well is buried beneath Centre Park, a playground surrounded by single-family homes on the western edge of the town. It was one of three leaking gas wells discovered in Calmar in 2008. The first, discovered after a developer spotted bubbles in a puddle next to an elementary school, was permanently resealed in 2009.”
CALMAR - Residents in a Calmar subdivision were introduced to a new, noisy neighbour this week: a towering drilling rig.
Imperial Oil brought the rig into town to begin re-abandonment work for a sweet gas well discovered there more than three years ago.
Residents in the area will have to contend with the constant hum of the rig until the well is permanently resealed. The rig will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week to finish the work as quickly as possible, said Imperial Oil spokeswoman Laura Bishop.
“Our objective is to minimize disturbances to residences in the area,” Bishop said. The work, which began Thursday afternoon, was scheduled to last at least one week, but could continue for as many as three, she said.
Seven families living in homes within a 50-metre radius of the well site established by Imperial were relocated and offered compensation for the duration of the project, Bishop said.
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3. Precautionary principle should be applied to shale gas
http://www.environmental-expert.com/news/
precautionary-principle-should-be-applied-to-shale-gas-245199
Source: GLOBE-Net Jun. 30, 2011
According to UK researchers, caution must be taken in the use of shale gas until more is known about its environmental impacts.
Using US data, they estimated the additional emissions associated with the extraction of gas from shale compared to that of conventional sources and highlighted concerns from the US that extraction could bring significant risks of ground and surface water contamination.
As conventional gas reserves decline, shale gas (which comes from 'fracturing' sedimentary rock beneath the surface) has emerged as a potentially new source of gas.
It has been referred to in the US as a 'bridging fuel' to help the transition from conventional fossil fuels to a low carbon economy and between 1990-2008 shale gas production expanded from 1.4 per cent of the total US gas supply to 14.3.
Whether it can live up to expectations depends on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from its extraction and other environmental impacts.
The extraction of shale gas requires hydraulic fracturing, which involves pumping liquid under high pressure, to crack the rock and release the gas trapped in the shale formation. While this technique is occasionally used in conventional drilling, it is a prerequisite for shale gas extraction and can be seen as a key reason why shale gas has a different environmental impact.
Another key concern is the potential that significant shale gas production will exacerbate the exploration and drilling treadmill (and the related environmental impacts), since average production rates for shale gas wells are deemed to decrease rapidly over the first 4 to 5 years of production.
Based on US measurements and production figures, the study indicated that the additional emissions associated with the hydraulic fracturing is equivalent to 0.14 to 1.63 tonnes of CO2 per terajoule (1012 joules) of gas energy extracted. However, the overall value depends on the total amount of gas that is extracted per well and the number of times fracturing occurs and the figure does not include methane leakage during fracturing. [ . . . ]
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4. France Vote Outlaws ‘Fracking’ Shale for Natural Gas, Oil Extraction
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-01/
france-vote-outlaws-fracking-shale-for-natural-gas-oil-extraction.html
By Tara Patel Jul 1, 2011
French senators voted to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, making France the first country to pass a law banning the technique for extracting natural gas and oil.
“We are at the end of a legislative marathon that stirred emotion from lawmakers and the public,” French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said late yesterday before the vote. Hydraulic fracturing will be illegal and parliament would have to vote for a new law to allow research using the technique, she said.
Energy companies that plan to use fracking to produce oil and gas in France will have their permits revoked and its use could lead to fines and prison, according to the law passed by a vote of 176 in favor, 151 against by the senators in Paris.
Lawmakers of the ruling UMP party voted in favor of the bill while the opposition Socialists rejected the proposal for not going far enough. Before the French vote, the ban had moved between the upper and lower houses of parliament since March.
Fracking, widely used in North America, uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals injected under high pressure to break dense rock to release trapped oil and gas. Green groups and politicians led protests across France, saying the method could cause environmental damage. Government ministers and industry representatives say it is the only method currently available to extract hydrocarbons from the rock.
Oil companies operating in France “deplore” the French ban, according to the Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres, or UFIP, which represents Total SA (FP) and other explorers and refiners. UFIP, it said in a statement, “considers that the law will prevent an evaluation of shale hydrocarbon resources and their impact on the French economy.”
The French energy ministry has already granted permits to companies including Total, Vermilion Energy Inc. (VET), Toreador Resources Corp. (TRGL) and Schuepbach Energy LLC for shale oil and gas exploration. Shares of Toreador, which has the most permits to explore for shale oil around Paris, surged 10 percent in French trading today to cut their drop to 76 percent since Jan. 1.
Kosciusko-Morizet has raised the possibility of lawsuits by oil companies facing the prospect of losing permits that have already been granted by the French government.
“We could have a court case, yes, probably there will be one,” she said on LCI television on June 22. During debate yesterday in the Senate, she said “financial and legal risks have been limited.”
Under the bill approved yesterday, companies with exploration permits will have two months to declare whether they intend to use hydraulic fracturing. If they do, their permits will be revoked.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at
tpatel2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
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5. A Lonely Crusade – Hydrofracked - The Louis Meeks Story
http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.11/a-lonely-crusade
By Ray Ring OP-ED – High Country News - June 27, 2011 Issue
In many ways, it's a sad story: The groundwater a Wyoming couple relies on to sustain their little farm suddenly turns foul. So Louis Meeks embarks on a six-year crusade to discover how it happened, suspecting that nearby natural gas wells are somehow involved. He battles corporations and governments and alienates many of his neighbors, yet today his water is still contaminated. There's no happy ending, no justice in sight.
But Meeks and other gas-patch crusaders have accomplished something important: They've drawn attention to the industry's sometimes sloppy practices, particularly when it comes to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." When a gas or oil well is fracked, chemicals and water are injected deep underground to fracture rock formations and release gas and oil. Nowadays, it's an essential part of the process. [ . . . ]
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Hydrofracked?
http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.11/
hydrofracked-one-mans-quest-for-answers-about-natural-gas-drilling
A Wyoming farmer battles industry and bureaucracy trying to find out whether hydraulic fracturing - used in natural gas drilling - polluted his drinking water.
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6. LISTEN: How Does Fracking Impact Property Rights?
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/
connect-the-dots/2011/7/1/connect-the-dots-070211.html
JULY 1, 2011 Podcast Powered By Podbean
Alison’s guest is Mike Benard, an expert on landowner issues and property rights with an organization called Spectra Energy Watch at
http://www.spectraenergywatch.com. Benard, a Pennsylvania landowner and his group have been ‘connecting the dots’ to learn that the government can actually help the gas industry take your land.
“Eminent domain is a growing issue in many communities because there are too many examples where eminent domain means someone wants your property,” Benard says, “ … and the government helps them take it.” For this week’s action to tell Governor Cuomo whether or not you support his recent decision to allow fracking in New York State, please go Alison’s action links and free ezine signup at:
www.healthjournalistblog.com
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7. Water: Fracking sucks more than you think!
http://earthblog.org/content/water-frac ... -you-think
Submitted by Sharon Wilson on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 13:26
When I was sixteen, I announced my intention to buy a new VW Beetle for a monthly payment of only $125. That’s when I first learned about associated costs. It was several years before I could finally afford a new, red, VW Beetle and all the associated costs.
Did you think that industry was telling you the whole story about the amount of water they use to frack a natural gas well?
In the Barnett Shale, estimated frack water usage ranges between 2.5 to 9 million gallons per frack. The Eagle Ford Shale average, according to the Texas Water Development Board, is 7.5 million gallons per frack. We don’t know exactly how much water they use because most of the estimates come from industry. We do have the little dab of information from the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District that revealed industry used 1,146,598,272.73 gallons of groundwater in 2009. But that only considers the metered sources. There were many cases where industry took water from unmetered sources with no enforcement action or fines.
Another estimate on frack water usage comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mywesttexas.com recently reported in their article, Gas fracturing trades one scarce resource for another, that EPA “estimates water use for fracking nationwide was 70 billion to 140 billion gallons in 2010.”
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Fun with fracking social math:
2500 tons is approximately 303 African elephants.
At 150 tons per hour, it will take 17 hours and 3,774,000 million gallons of water to process 2500 tons of frack sand. (Now you have enough sand to frack one well.)
A Barnett Shale gas well takes from 2.5 to 9 million gallons of water to frack.
There are approximately 15,000 wells in the Barnett Shale.
If each well used only the minimum amount of water, 2.5 million gallons, and only 2500 tons of frack sand, the associated water cost for fracking one well would be 6,274,000 million gallons.
That’s a minimum of 94,110,000,000 gallons of water and 3,750,000 tons of sand (454,545 African elephants) used to frack the approximately 15000 Barnett Shale gas wells.
According to the US Geological Survey, a person uses 80 to 100 gallons of water a day.
Using the higher number of 100 gallons of water a day, that is enough water for 941,100,000 people for one day.
That’s enough water for 31,370,000 people for one month.
That’s enough water for 2,578,368 people for one year.
That’s enough water for 36,834 people for an entire generation (70 years).
That’s almost enough water for all of Cooke County for 70 years.
That’s enough water for the entire 6,500,000 population of Dallas for 145 days.
That’s a whole lot of fracking water! [ . . . ]
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8. PA releases Marcellus drillers' wastewater plans
http://republicanherald.com/news/
epa-releases-marcellus-drillers-wastewater-plans-1.1171907
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer llegere@timesshamrock.com)
Published: July 7, 2011
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released excerpts of responses from Pennsylvania's six most active Marcellus Shale drillers describing how they plan to deal with their wastewater instead of discharging it through conventional treatment plants.
In April, Pennsylvania regulators gave the drillers until May 19 to voluntarily stop taking the salty, chemical-laden waste fluids to 16 treatment plants that cannot remove all of the contaminants before discharging it into state waterways.
The state is still verifying compliance, but it appears that nearly all of the state's drillers satisfied the request, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"We know we've accomplished a dramatic sea change here, having gone from millions of gallons of shale gas extraction wastewater being delivered to the 16 plants in question to a handful of operators possibly delivering virtually none," spokeswoman Katherine Gresh said. [ . . . ]
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9. Company Lawyers Seek Millions for Victims For Violations of Corporate Civil Rights
http://www.celdf.org/press-room-news
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF):
http://www.celdf.org/
Attorneys for a West Virginia Corporation threaten to sue the City of Morgantown West Virginia for violating the Civil Rights of the corporation if the City's ordinance banning natural gas drilling is upheld as legal by the Monogalia County Circuit Court.
So, even if the ban is legal, the corporation attorneys say the corporation has rights that the City has no authority to violate.
Too bad Morgantown didn't adopt a Community Rights Ordinance to ban the drilling. Then the attorneys for the City could readily make the case that the City adopted the ordinance precisely to protect rights: the legitimate rights of the residents of the City, which are under threat of violation by the North East Energy Corporation.
The Community Rights ordinances adopted by Pittsburgh, West Homestead, Balwin PA, as well as Mountain Lake Park WV and Wales NY recognize the rights of the people as superior to privileges granted to corporations in the name of the people, and those ordinance revoke such privileges from corporations that would attempt to violate the prohibition against drilling and thereby violate the rights of community residents.
So which is it? Corporations have Civil Rights, or People have Civil Rights?
Isn't it time we took a stand to clear the air? Isn't it time for your community to adopt a Community Rights Ordinance and stop letting corporate claims to superior rights for corporations over people go unchallenged?
Contact info@CELDF.org
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Original Article:
http://www.dailymail.com/News/201107070903
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10. FRACKING FLUIDS POISON A NATIONAL FOREST
New Study Details Changes in Soil Chemistry and Devastation of Trees and Plants
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1498
For Immediate Release: July 6, 2011
Contact: Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337
Washington, DC — A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West Virginia national forest quickly wiped out all ground plants, killed more than half of the trees and caused radical changes in soil chemistry. These results argue for much tighter control over disposal of these “fracking fluids,” contends Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The new study by Mary Beth Adams, a U.S. Forest Service researcher, appears in the July-August issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Quality. She looked at the effects of land application of fracking fluids on a quarter-acre section of the Fernow Experimental Forest within the Monongahela National Forest. More than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluids, which are injected deep underground to free shale gas and then return to the surface, were applied to the assigned plot over a two day period during June 2008. The following effects were reported in the study:
* Within two days all ground plants were dead;
* Within 10 days, leaves of trees began to turn brown. Within two years more than half of the approximately 150 trees were dead; and
* “Surface soil concentrations of sodium and chloride increased 50-fold as a result of the land application of hydrofracturing fluids…” These elevated levels eventually declined as chemical leached off-site. The exact chemical composition of these fluids is not known because the chemical formula is classified as confidential proprietary information.
“The explosion of shale gas drilling in the East has the potential to turn large stretches of public lands into lifeless moonscapes,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that land disposal of fracking fluids is common and in the case of the Fernow was done pursuant to a state permit. “This study suggests that these fluids should be treated as toxic waste.”
[Related Articles - All Links are at URL above. Ed.)
See abstract of the fracking study
Look at drilling problems plaguing the Monongahela NF
View lack of Forest Service oil & gas regulation on Eastern forests
See proposed ban on horizontal drilling in the George Washington National Forest
Compare National Wildlife Refuge drilling policy vacuum
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11. Shell shock: Energy giant censured for 'fracking' ads
http://mg.co.za/article/
2011-07-06-shell-shock-energy-giant-censured-for-fracking-ads/
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jul 06 2011 20:00
Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell was ordered on Wednesday to withdraw claims about controversial shale gas drilling in an advertisement carried in several South African newspapers.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the company had made claims that were unsubstantiated and likely to mislead, in a complaint brought by a lobby group that is fighting a bid by Shell to explore for gas deposits.
Shell wants to drill using hydraulic fracturing known as "fracking" in the country's vast central Karoo region and published a full-page print advertisement in several daily and weeklies in April.
"We are disappointed by the ruling," said Shell South Africa chair Bonang Mohale.
"The purpose of the advert was to provide information directly to the public to enable them to properly assess the nature of the proposed shale gas exploration in the Karoo, as well as the accompanying technology of hydraulic fracturing."
The matter was brought by the Treasure the Karoo Action Group, which welcomed the decision. The authority ruled in its favour on four counts, dismissed four complaints and withheld judgment on one matter.
The findings against Shell included claims that fracking was used in 90% of natural gas wells and that there were no documented cases of groundwater contamination from the process.
"We do not know enough about the long-term or even the short-term damage fracking could inflict on the environment," said action group chairperson Jonathan Deal.
"We should not be misled by the emotional calls and manufactured facts of such adverts."
Shell is among several companies hoping to drill for potential gas trapped in the Karoo by pumping water, sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure to force out deposits trapped in track.
South Africa's government has halted all new applications and any decisions to explore for gas in the Karoo while it carries out a study after a massive public backlash against the "fracking" process over environmental fears. -- Sapa-AFP
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12. Gas Industry Spent "Staggering" Amount Lobbying in Pennsylvania Last Year
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-spent-staggering-amount-lobbying-pennsylvania-last-year
7 July 11
The gas industry spent $3.5 million last year attempting to convince Pennsylvania lawmakers of the benefits of drilling the state’s deposits of unconventional gas. According to lobbying disclosure reports filed with the Department of State, the lobbying blitz to influence public policy was orchestrated by a collection of 22 companies, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA).
Rep. Greg Vitali of Havertown described the disclosed amounts as “staggering,” adding that, “it isn’t the type of spending you would find from fledgling companies.”
The Times-Tribune reports the figures as follows:
- Marcellus Shale Coalition: $1.1 million
- Range Resources Appalachia: $392,000
- Chesapeake Energy: $382,000
- Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association: $247,000
- East Resources Management: $225,000
- Chief Oil and Gas: $186,000
- Alpha Natural Resources: $160,000
- Dominion Transmission: $146,000
- Exco Resources: $130,000
- BG North America: $124,000
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-spent-staggering-amount-lobbying-pennsylvania-last-year
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13. SHIELDS: Oil Spills At Epidemic Proportions!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Rae.B@parl.gc.ca
Cc: Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2011 12:13 PM
Pipeline failures that wind up leaving oil in our rivers and creeks has reached epidemic proportions. Although indicated as a monster by the director of the County's Disaster Services, it does appear as Exxon Mobil have been straight-up in reporting the incident. In Canada the industry owned regulars have started under-reporting spilled volumes initially, to take the monster label off any spill, with ever larger spill volumes reported in stages later in clean-up operations. This only makes the public more interested and less trustful of the regulators who receive their budget funding from industry they attempt to regulate! Don't laugh, it's true!!!
With an "industry-suck" as Prime-Minister, Canadian developers have not the same impedance to being straight-forward or truthful in handling public information or insisting correction information as the American system that has come under change since the massive gulf spill. This huge Gulf spill shed light on the American system of industry regulation that has not crossed the 49th into Canada. The powerful industry lobby groups, like CAP in Canada, have been able to play one province against the other for industry's favor, and have the federal government remain mute and ignorant even on import and exports of petrol products. This is very popular with industry, and shows it's worth to industry in petrol developers’ financial statements!!
Although great for industry, recent changes to allow industry to use public funds in the form of royalty tax credits, without equity interests to pay for drilling costs, has proved pure hell for the owning public in Canada!
The industry and their advocates keep the focus away from the public owner and their profit take, by running comparatives on the best place for developers to invest. Never have we had a study by any government with a comparative to what the public owners receive, as their interest in the petroleum business. This is the area screaming for major change! Hardly can Canadians truthfully say their governments manage their ownership of the energy business for the public's behalf! Why do Canadians and politicians remain ignorant of the royalty regime that governs public profit from the public's biggest business? Norwegians cannot believe Alberta cannot afford its health care system or teachers for it's schools, while sell more energy product than Norway. Really why is this fact??
Canadians must demand our lazy federal government enter into a management system for the public part of the petroleum business that will pass both opposition and public scrutiny. Alberta Activism has suggested rolling the public ownership of oil and gas into a "Crown-Corporation" that will already have some guidelines in its operations due to being a Crown Corporation. Alberta has had very successful Crown Corporation to manage parts of it's energy business, this was when even with much lower oil prices, Alberta was able to sustain a host of amenities, and still put wealth into the Heritage Trust Fund!! Saskatchewan has had plenty of experience with Crown-Corporation, who in Saskatchewan can even imagine Sask-Power being manage by the same group that manage the huge public part of the petroleum energy business? The need for change is very, very evident, and must be for the public good, the day Harper leaves office.
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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ExxonMobil pipe leaks oil into Yellowstone River.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14005251
An ExxonMobil pipeline in the US state of Montana has ruptured, leaking hundreds of barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, officials say.
The company said the pipe had been shut down and the segment where the leak happened had been isolated.
Nearby residents were evacuated, but later allowed to return to their homes.
The accident happened downstream from the famed Yellowstone national park, a major tourist attraction in the US. 'Monster'
Clean-up crews have been deployed to tackle the spill, which was detected early on Saturday.
ExxonMobil spokeswoman Pam Malek told AP news agency an estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels of oil had leaked from the pipe for about a half-hour before it was shut down.
"We recognise the seriousness of this incident and are working hard to address it," the company said in a statement.
"Our principal focus is on protecting the safety and health of the public and our employees," it added.
It is unclear how far the slick will travel, but Duane Winslow, the county's director of disaster and emergency services, said it was dissipating as it moved downstream.
"We're just kind of waiting for it to move on down while Exxon is trying to figure out how to corral this monster," Mr Winslow said.
There are fears that fish will suffer because of the accident.
"If fish get oil on them, if they break the surface and get oil on them, it tends to plug up their gills and it often is fatal," said Bob Gobson, of the Billings Fish, Wildlife and Parks Program.
Exxon promised a full investigation into the spill, which occurred in a 12-inch pipeline, running from Silvertip to Billings, downstream from Yellowstone National Park.
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14. Yellowstone River Spill Update
Air, soil, wells near Montana oil spill to be tested
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/a ... id/209073/
Published July 08, 2011, 12:00 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. — Indoor air, cropland soils and residential wells downstream of a Yellowstone River oil spill will be tested for contamination after residents raised concerns about hazards from the tens of thousands of gallons of crude that poured into the watercourse, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
EPA and local officials said they do not expect to find significant health dangers but were acting as a precaution. Some residents in oil-stained areas have complained of nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath that have lingered for days.
An estimated 1,000 barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons, have fouled areas along the scenic Yellowstone since Friday after a 12-inch pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil Corp. broke near the south-central Montana town of Laurel. [ . . . ]
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Emergency Response News Release (Region 8): July 7 Update on Federal Response to Silvertip Pipeline Oil Spill Near Billings, Montana
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/
20ed1dfa1751192c8525735900400c30/cdc2cf49fe80ee77852578c700519b91!OpenDocument
July 7 Update on Federal Response to Silvertip Pipeline Oil Spill Near Billings, Montana
At approximately 11:00 PM on Friday, July 1 a break occurred in a 12-inch pipeline owned by ExxonMobil that resulted in a spill of crude oil into the Yellowstone River approximately 20 miles upstream of Billings, Montana. According to the company’s estimates, 1,000 barrels of oil entered the river, which is in flood stage, before the pipeline was cut off. [ . . . ]
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Open Letter to Montana Governor Regarding Keystone XL Pipeline
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/
open_letter_to_montana_governor_regarding_keystone_xl_pipeline/C618/L618/
Farmers and ranchers along the pipeline renew call for action in light of oil spill on the Yellowstone River.
New West online magazine
By Darrell Garoutte, Tim Hess, Doris Frost, Guest Writer July 7, 2011
Dear Governor Schweitzer:
The Exxon pipeline rupture shows that pipeline leaks can and do happen, and that it is a disaster when landowners, emergency responders and community officials are not adequately prepared for such an occurrence. We are landowners along the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route and downstream from the Missouri and Yellowstone river crossings who are concerned about the impact that another spill would have on our families’ health, water quality, and ability to make a living on the land in Montana.
The Keystone XL will be nine times the size of the Exxon pipeline which recently ruptured – with exponentially larger impacts should there be a spill. The Keystone I pipeline, which runs through North Dakota, has had 12 leaks in its first year of operation. Because the Keystone XL pipeline needs a permit from the state of Montana, we call on YOU to protect Montanans along the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers by:
· Requiring that TransCanada provide a comprehensive Emergency Response Plan for public review prior to issuance of a permit;
· Requiring that all disturbed land be reclaimed, in consultation with soil scientists familiar with the region;
· Requiring a comprehensive engineering study of pipeline pressures and worst-case spill risks specific to KXL;
· Requiring that if a person’s water supply is contaminated by construction or pipeline operation, all costs associated with finding and providing a permanent water supply of comparable quality and quantity be covered, as well as any other damages, including but not limited to any consequences, medical or otherwise, related to water contamination;
· Requiring that the pipeline bear liability for surface and water damage;
· Requiring that all hydrologically sensitive areas are identified and a plan is implemented to protect them;
· Requiring a certificate specifying which government agency will oversee all construction activities in Montana.
We have valid reasons for our concerns about the Keystone XL pipeline:
Despite its many assurances, TransCanada’s Keystone I pipeline produced 12 spills in its first year of operation.
Tar sands oil is a corrosive material. The overall Alberta pipeline system that carries tar sands oil has had approximately sixteen times as many spills due to internal corrosion than the U.S. system.
The Keystone pipeline is a 36-inch pipeline, and will have a transport capacity of up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day – 20 times more than the ExxonMobil pipeline.
The Keystone pipeline is routed to cross the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.
Governor, you have an opportunity to make TransCanada build their Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to the highest level of safety and quality standard possible. Assurances are not enough. We are glad that you have made it your cause to make Exxon fix the mess, but there is some damage that won’t ever be fixed. The best medicine is preventative and it is time to be preventative on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Farmers, ranchers, and other landowners along the route of the Keystone XL pipeline have been treated like we are just in the way. We wish it did not take a disaster like the Exxon spill on the Yellowstone River to show that our concerns are valid and should be taken seriously.
The risks are real, and the impacts of a failure are real. We need to start taking those risks seriously instead of accepting the standard reassurances that everything will be OK. The permitting process for Keystone XL is currently in progress, and you are in a position to prevent a disaster from Keystone XL. Please use your position toward that end.
Signed,
Darrell Garoutte
Chair of Northern Plains Pipeline Landowners Group
Tim Hess
Representative Committee member of Northern Plains Pipeline Landowner Group, and landowner near Yellowstone River.
Doris Frost
Member of Northern Plains Pipeline Landowners Group and landowner near Yellowstone River.
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15. Agreement Reached to Reduce Urban Oil Drilling in Los Angeles
Settlement Provides Greater Protections to Residents, Drilling Restrictions
http://www.nrdc.org/media/2011/110706a.asp
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Jessica Lass, NRDC, 310-434-2300 (office) or 202-468-6718 (cell)
LOS ANGELES (July 6, 2011) – An agreement reached by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday strengthens health and safety protections for thousands of residents living near the Baldwin Hills area of south Los Angeles who are currently affected by drilling operations by the Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP). The settlement resolves four lawsuits filed in November 2008 by Community Health Councils, Inc. (CHC) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the City of Culver City, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles (CCSCLA), and the Citizen’s Coalition for a Safe Community.
“This is a hard fought victory by residents seeking to protect themselves and their property from oil and gas drilling,” said Damon Nagami, staff attorney for NRDC. “In some cases, drilling is happening within a few hundred feet of residences. There must be better protections for people confronted by ongoing drilling operations in densely populated communities.”
In the lawsuits, the petitioners claimed that the County violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to conduct an adequate environmental impact report (EIR) before adopting the Baldwin Hills Community Standards District (CSD), which was intended to regulate 1,100 acres of oil drilling and production activities in Baldwin Hills.
Key elements of the settlement include:
• Reduced drilling of new wells
• Increased air quality monitoring
• More stringent noise limits
• Mandatory, recurring health and environmental justice assessments [ . . . ]
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16. KENNEDY: An Assault on Clean Water and Democracy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/
an-assault-on-clean-water_b_891613.html
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University Posted: 7/6/11
Like the 104th Congress when Republicans controlled the House of Representatives, the House today is swinging a sledgehammer at a cornerstone of contemporary American democracy and undermining the most extraordinary body of environmental law in the world.
Chief among the attacks is HR 2018, known as the "Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011." The bill, currently working its way through the House, hogties the federal government's role in administering the federal Clean Water Act and gives states a veto power over a host of critical water quality decisions that the Clean Water Act currently authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to make. This approach will foster a 1950s-style race to bottom as shortsighted and self-interested state politicians dismantle their clean water laws in order to recruit filthy polluters.
Corporate polluters -- through massive campaign donations and relentless fear-mongering -- can easily dominate the state political landscapes. Their indentured servants in Congress -- many flying the Tea Party banner -- are working to disrupt the existing balance between state control and federal oversight in our environmental laws by returning us to the days of limited federal supervision -- a time when local government was on the side of polluters in a partnership that was stealing people's livelihoods, their recreation, their health, safety, property values and their childhoods. [ . . . ]
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17. Contamination 'limited' to trial site
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8270529/
12:28 AEST Fri Jul 8 2011
A company that contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chemicals will be banned from any future underground coal gasification (UCG) activities in Queensland.
The state government on Thursday ordered Cougar Energy to shut down its trial UCG plant near Kingaroy in southern Queensland.
The decision was made after the company was found to have contaminated groundwater at the site with cancer-causing chemicals including benzene.
It took two months to notify government authorities of the incident, in breach of strict environmental rules.
The Department of Environment and Resource Management on Friday downplayed the risk for nearby landholders, saying the contamination was confined to the site.
Acting director general Terry Wall said the company would be forced to rehabilitate it, including decontaminating aquifers, and was facing court action over its activities.
Asked if authorities would ever again contemplate allowing Cougar to operate in Queensland, Mr Wall told the ABC: "Certainly not in respect of underground coal gasification."
Mr Wall said the department had formed a view that Cougar's risk management processes were lacking and it could not be trusted to continue operations.
He said there were no drinking water aquifers on the site, so that was not a risk, but the contamination had spread to an aquifer above the site's coal seam. [ . . . ]
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18. Braid: Oilsands need monitoring, not centralization fiasco
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Braid+Oilsands+need+monitoring+centralization+fiasco/5062958/story.html
Another big corp seen hiding the situation, kinda a trend.
BY DON BRAID, CALGARY HERALD JULY 7, 2011 6:37 AM
Suddenly there's another grand provincial plan, this one to create a central environmental agency for world-class monitoring of everything from oilsands damage in the north to gopher habitat in the south.
It was only a year ago, of course, that the province assured us we already had world-class monitoring, especially in the oilsands.
The spurious notion was exploded by two reports, including a federal one identifying serious shortcomings in monitoring.
Since then there has been a furious race to regain credibility, and retain authority, over Canada's most valuable resource.
Ottawa is already making noises about monitoring on its own.
Alberta controls the oil, yes; but the feds have legitimate concerns that provincial failures threaten not only the economy, but Canada's international reputation.
Local laxity has created a strong case for federal action.
This has raised near panic in the Stelmach government. After keeping control of resources during the open warfare of the 1980s National Energy Program, it would be ridiculous to lose jurisdiction over environmental protection. [ . . . ]
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19. Solar Photovoltaics Gaining Momentum and Poised to Challenge Fossil Fuels, Say IEEE Solar Experts
http://www.electricenergyonline.com/?pa ... &id=157195
-------------------------------------
Solar PV global installed capacity expected to dramatically increase in next decade;
electricity costs from solar may be more economical than traditional energy sources
-------------------------------------
Piscataway, NJ, June 15, 2011 - Within the next 10 years, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have the potential to be the most economical form of generating electricity, even compared to traditional fossil fuels, say solar energy experts from IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association.
To achieve this cost parity, the global industry must continue to improve the efficiency of solar PV cell technologies and create economies of scale to further decrease manufacturing costs. IEEE has several initiatives to encourage these advancements.
Solar energy is the earth's most abundant energy resource. The rate of energy from sunlight hitting the earth is of the order of 100 petawatts. Just a fraction is needed to meet the power needs of the entire globe, as it takes approximately 15 terawatts to power the earth (1 petawatt = 1,000 terawatts).
"Solar PV will be a game changer," said James Prendergast, IEEE Senior Member and IEEE Executive Director. "No other alternative source has the same potential. As the cost of electricity from solar continues to decrease compared to traditional energy sources we will see tremendous market adoption, and I suspect it will be a growth limited only by supply. I fundamentally believe that solar PV will become one of the key elements of the solution to our near- and long-term energy challenges."
According to the International Energy Association (IEA), global solar PV capacity has been increasing at an average annual growth rate of more than 40 percent since 2000. By 2050, it is expected that solar PV will provide 11 percent of global electricity production, corresponding to 3,000 gigawatts of cumulative installed capacity. That would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 2.3 gigatons, equivalent to reducing emissions from electricity use from 253 million homes per year, nearly the combined populations of Russia and Japan.
Today, however, engineering challenges remain. "For solar PV to truly compete on its own with traditional power generation, the cost and efficiency of transforming sunlight into electricity must continue to improve," said Jie Shu, IEEE member and Director of the Solar Energy Application Laboratory, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion (GIEC), Chinese Academy of Sciences. [ . . . ]
1. NIKIFORUK: Shale Gas Gives No Emissions Edge over Coal
2. Calmar residents know the drill as company works to cap abandoned well
3. Precautionary principle should be applied to shale gas
4. France Vote Outlaws ‘Fracking’ Shale for Natural Gas, Oil Extraction
5. A Lonely Crusade – Hydrofracked - The Louis Meeks Story
6. LISTEN: How Does Fracking Impact Property Rights?
7. Water: Fracking sucks more than you think!
8. PA releases Marcellus drillers' wastewater plans
9. Company Lawyers Seek Millions for Victims For Violations of Corporate Civil Rights
10. FRACKING FLUIDS POISON A NATIONAL FOREST
11. Shell shock: Energy giant censured for 'fracking' ads
12. Gas Industry Spent "Staggering" Amount Lobbying in Pennsylvania Last Year
13. SHIELDS: Oil Spills At Epidemic Proportions!!
14. Yellowstone River Spill Update
15. Agreement Reached to Reduce Urban Oil Drilling in Los Angeles
16. KENNEDY: An Assault on Clean Water and Democracy
17. Contamination 'limited' to trial site
18. Braid: Oilsands need monitoring, not centralization fiasco
19. Solar Photovoltaics Gaining Momentum and Poised to Challenge Fossil Fuels, Say IEEE Solar Experts
=======================
1. NIKIFORUK: Shale Gas Gives No Emissions Edge over Coal
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/07/07/ShaleEmissions/
ENERGY & EQUITY: Studies sweep away clean image of the blue flame.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, July 7, 2011 TheTyee.ca
QUOTE: “Expect a game-changing announcement any day now from the American Coal Council or the Coal Association of Canada: "Coal is cleaner than shale gas."
For years now, everyone thought that natural gas was cleaner than coal and more benevolent than oil. The blue flame just burned purely and wasn't nearly as complicated or carboniferous as a lump of, well, bituminous coal.
And so groups like the Natural Gas Supply Association advertised the blue flame as "the cleanest of all fossil fuels" and a brave climate change fighter to boot. Burning gas produced 50 per cent fewer carbon emissions and just decreased "harmful pollution levels" all around.
But shale gas, methane trapped in hellishly deep rock formations, has challenged this dated perception. In fact, the very stuff that energy experts champion as North America's new energy wunderkind may be dirtier than coal, if not as extreme as Alberta's dirty bitumen.
In other words, the so-called "bridge fuel" to renewable energy sources may be one troubled bridge, or perhaps another energy destination as perversely questionable as industrial wind farms.
Shale we or not?
The whole unbelievable shale story emerged piece meal from a series of often startling reports, all populated with unconventional facts. (Dirty energy is all about dirty numbers.)
A brief advisory: shale gas depends on a highly energy intensive technique known as hydraulic fracking to release methane trapped in rock. Fracking blasts open the pores of dense shale formations with millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure. (Just imagine an underground fireworks display.)
This brute force tool, never a precise science, can contaminate groundwater with methane and chemicals, and even cause local earthquakes. As a consequence, France and New Jersey have banned shale gas in their watersheds, while Quebec declared a moratorium to protect its farmland. The European Union is thinking about restricting the difficult resource with "an energy quality directive."
Related Articles (All Links at URL above.)
Koreans Eye Mackenzie Valley Gas
Short on fuels, their LNG tankers are ready to fetch BC gas. Will they spark a latent NWT gas boom, too?
The Gwyn Morgan File: Rise of a Shale Gas Baron
Christy Clark picked the EnCana empire builder to guide her into power, and that says volumes about who's shaping BC's future. Part one of two.
Debunking the 'Shale Gale'
Industry has 'overblown' the benefits of shale gas, according to a new report
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This is the latest of Andrew Nikiforuk's weekly Energy and Equity column for The Tyee. Nikiforuk is an award-winning author and journalist, and a contributing editor to The Tyee.
Read his previous Tyee stories:
http://thetyee.ca/Bios/Andrew_Nikiforuk/
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2. Calmar residents know the drill as company works to cap abandoned well
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
Calmar+residents+know+drill+company+works+abandoned+well/5067796/story.html
BY MARIAM IBRAHIM, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM JULY 7, 2011
QUOTE: “The well is buried beneath Centre Park, a playground surrounded by single-family homes on the western edge of the town. It was one of three leaking gas wells discovered in Calmar in 2008. The first, discovered after a developer spotted bubbles in a puddle next to an elementary school, was permanently resealed in 2009.”
CALMAR - Residents in a Calmar subdivision were introduced to a new, noisy neighbour this week: a towering drilling rig.
Imperial Oil brought the rig into town to begin re-abandonment work for a sweet gas well discovered there more than three years ago.
Residents in the area will have to contend with the constant hum of the rig until the well is permanently resealed. The rig will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week to finish the work as quickly as possible, said Imperial Oil spokeswoman Laura Bishop.
“Our objective is to minimize disturbances to residences in the area,” Bishop said. The work, which began Thursday afternoon, was scheduled to last at least one week, but could continue for as many as three, she said.
Seven families living in homes within a 50-metre radius of the well site established by Imperial were relocated and offered compensation for the duration of the project, Bishop said.
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3. Precautionary principle should be applied to shale gas
http://www.environmental-expert.com/news/
precautionary-principle-should-be-applied-to-shale-gas-245199
Source: GLOBE-Net Jun. 30, 2011
According to UK researchers, caution must be taken in the use of shale gas until more is known about its environmental impacts.
Using US data, they estimated the additional emissions associated with the extraction of gas from shale compared to that of conventional sources and highlighted concerns from the US that extraction could bring significant risks of ground and surface water contamination.
As conventional gas reserves decline, shale gas (which comes from 'fracturing' sedimentary rock beneath the surface) has emerged as a potentially new source of gas.
It has been referred to in the US as a 'bridging fuel' to help the transition from conventional fossil fuels to a low carbon economy and between 1990-2008 shale gas production expanded from 1.4 per cent of the total US gas supply to 14.3.
Whether it can live up to expectations depends on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from its extraction and other environmental impacts.
The extraction of shale gas requires hydraulic fracturing, which involves pumping liquid under high pressure, to crack the rock and release the gas trapped in the shale formation. While this technique is occasionally used in conventional drilling, it is a prerequisite for shale gas extraction and can be seen as a key reason why shale gas has a different environmental impact.
Another key concern is the potential that significant shale gas production will exacerbate the exploration and drilling treadmill (and the related environmental impacts), since average production rates for shale gas wells are deemed to decrease rapidly over the first 4 to 5 years of production.
Based on US measurements and production figures, the study indicated that the additional emissions associated with the hydraulic fracturing is equivalent to 0.14 to 1.63 tonnes of CO2 per terajoule (1012 joules) of gas energy extracted. However, the overall value depends on the total amount of gas that is extracted per well and the number of times fracturing occurs and the figure does not include methane leakage during fracturing. [ . . . ]
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4. France Vote Outlaws ‘Fracking’ Shale for Natural Gas, Oil Extraction
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-01/
france-vote-outlaws-fracking-shale-for-natural-gas-oil-extraction.html
By Tara Patel Jul 1, 2011
French senators voted to outlaw hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, making France the first country to pass a law banning the technique for extracting natural gas and oil.
“We are at the end of a legislative marathon that stirred emotion from lawmakers and the public,” French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said late yesterday before the vote. Hydraulic fracturing will be illegal and parliament would have to vote for a new law to allow research using the technique, she said.
Energy companies that plan to use fracking to produce oil and gas in France will have their permits revoked and its use could lead to fines and prison, according to the law passed by a vote of 176 in favor, 151 against by the senators in Paris.
Lawmakers of the ruling UMP party voted in favor of the bill while the opposition Socialists rejected the proposal for not going far enough. Before the French vote, the ban had moved between the upper and lower houses of parliament since March.
Fracking, widely used in North America, uses a mixture of water, sand and chemicals injected under high pressure to break dense rock to release trapped oil and gas. Green groups and politicians led protests across France, saying the method could cause environmental damage. Government ministers and industry representatives say it is the only method currently available to extract hydrocarbons from the rock.
Oil companies operating in France “deplore” the French ban, according to the Union Francaise des Industries Petrolieres, or UFIP, which represents Total SA (FP) and other explorers and refiners. UFIP, it said in a statement, “considers that the law will prevent an evaluation of shale hydrocarbon resources and their impact on the French economy.”
The French energy ministry has already granted permits to companies including Total, Vermilion Energy Inc. (VET), Toreador Resources Corp. (TRGL) and Schuepbach Energy LLC for shale oil and gas exploration. Shares of Toreador, which has the most permits to explore for shale oil around Paris, surged 10 percent in French trading today to cut their drop to 76 percent since Jan. 1.
Kosciusko-Morizet has raised the possibility of lawsuits by oil companies facing the prospect of losing permits that have already been granted by the French government.
“We could have a court case, yes, probably there will be one,” she said on LCI television on June 22. During debate yesterday in the Senate, she said “financial and legal risks have been limited.”
Under the bill approved yesterday, companies with exploration permits will have two months to declare whether they intend to use hydraulic fracturing. If they do, their permits will be revoked.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at
tpatel2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
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5. A Lonely Crusade – Hydrofracked - The Louis Meeks Story
http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.11/a-lonely-crusade
By Ray Ring OP-ED – High Country News - June 27, 2011 Issue
In many ways, it's a sad story: The groundwater a Wyoming couple relies on to sustain their little farm suddenly turns foul. So Louis Meeks embarks on a six-year crusade to discover how it happened, suspecting that nearby natural gas wells are somehow involved. He battles corporations and governments and alienates many of his neighbors, yet today his water is still contaminated. There's no happy ending, no justice in sight.
But Meeks and other gas-patch crusaders have accomplished something important: They've drawn attention to the industry's sometimes sloppy practices, particularly when it comes to hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." When a gas or oil well is fracked, chemicals and water are injected deep underground to fracture rock formations and release gas and oil. Nowadays, it's an essential part of the process. [ . . . ]
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Hydrofracked?
http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.11/
hydrofracked-one-mans-quest-for-answers-about-natural-gas-drilling
A Wyoming farmer battles industry and bureaucracy trying to find out whether hydraulic fracturing - used in natural gas drilling - polluted his drinking water.
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6. LISTEN: How Does Fracking Impact Property Rights?
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/
connect-the-dots/2011/7/1/connect-the-dots-070211.html
JULY 1, 2011 Podcast Powered By Podbean
Alison’s guest is Mike Benard, an expert on landowner issues and property rights with an organization called Spectra Energy Watch at
http://www.spectraenergywatch.com. Benard, a Pennsylvania landowner and his group have been ‘connecting the dots’ to learn that the government can actually help the gas industry take your land.
“Eminent domain is a growing issue in many communities because there are too many examples where eminent domain means someone wants your property,” Benard says, “ … and the government helps them take it.” For this week’s action to tell Governor Cuomo whether or not you support his recent decision to allow fracking in New York State, please go Alison’s action links and free ezine signup at:
www.healthjournalistblog.com
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7. Water: Fracking sucks more than you think!
http://earthblog.org/content/water-frac ... -you-think
Submitted by Sharon Wilson on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 13:26
When I was sixteen, I announced my intention to buy a new VW Beetle for a monthly payment of only $125. That’s when I first learned about associated costs. It was several years before I could finally afford a new, red, VW Beetle and all the associated costs.
Did you think that industry was telling you the whole story about the amount of water they use to frack a natural gas well?
In the Barnett Shale, estimated frack water usage ranges between 2.5 to 9 million gallons per frack. The Eagle Ford Shale average, according to the Texas Water Development Board, is 7.5 million gallons per frack. We don’t know exactly how much water they use because most of the estimates come from industry. We do have the little dab of information from the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District that revealed industry used 1,146,598,272.73 gallons of groundwater in 2009. But that only considers the metered sources. There were many cases where industry took water from unmetered sources with no enforcement action or fines.
Another estimate on frack water usage comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mywesttexas.com recently reported in their article, Gas fracturing trades one scarce resource for another, that EPA “estimates water use for fracking nationwide was 70 billion to 140 billion gallons in 2010.”
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Fun with fracking social math:
2500 tons is approximately 303 African elephants.
At 150 tons per hour, it will take 17 hours and 3,774,000 million gallons of water to process 2500 tons of frack sand. (Now you have enough sand to frack one well.)
A Barnett Shale gas well takes from 2.5 to 9 million gallons of water to frack.
There are approximately 15,000 wells in the Barnett Shale.
If each well used only the minimum amount of water, 2.5 million gallons, and only 2500 tons of frack sand, the associated water cost for fracking one well would be 6,274,000 million gallons.
That’s a minimum of 94,110,000,000 gallons of water and 3,750,000 tons of sand (454,545 African elephants) used to frack the approximately 15000 Barnett Shale gas wells.
According to the US Geological Survey, a person uses 80 to 100 gallons of water a day.
Using the higher number of 100 gallons of water a day, that is enough water for 941,100,000 people for one day.
That’s enough water for 31,370,000 people for one month.
That’s enough water for 2,578,368 people for one year.
That’s enough water for 36,834 people for an entire generation (70 years).
That’s almost enough water for all of Cooke County for 70 years.
That’s enough water for the entire 6,500,000 population of Dallas for 145 days.
That’s a whole lot of fracking water! [ . . . ]
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8. PA releases Marcellus drillers' wastewater plans
http://republicanherald.com/news/
epa-releases-marcellus-drillers-wastewater-plans-1.1171907
By Laura Legere (Staff Writer llegere@timesshamrock.com)
Published: July 7, 2011
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released excerpts of responses from Pennsylvania's six most active Marcellus Shale drillers describing how they plan to deal with their wastewater instead of discharging it through conventional treatment plants.
In April, Pennsylvania regulators gave the drillers until May 19 to voluntarily stop taking the salty, chemical-laden waste fluids to 16 treatment plants that cannot remove all of the contaminants before discharging it into state waterways.
The state is still verifying compliance, but it appears that nearly all of the state's drillers satisfied the request, a state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"We know we've accomplished a dramatic sea change here, having gone from millions of gallons of shale gas extraction wastewater being delivered to the 16 plants in question to a handful of operators possibly delivering virtually none," spokeswoman Katherine Gresh said. [ . . . ]
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9. Company Lawyers Seek Millions for Victims For Violations of Corporate Civil Rights
http://www.celdf.org/press-room-news
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF):
http://www.celdf.org/
Attorneys for a West Virginia Corporation threaten to sue the City of Morgantown West Virginia for violating the Civil Rights of the corporation if the City's ordinance banning natural gas drilling is upheld as legal by the Monogalia County Circuit Court.
So, even if the ban is legal, the corporation attorneys say the corporation has rights that the City has no authority to violate.
Too bad Morgantown didn't adopt a Community Rights Ordinance to ban the drilling. Then the attorneys for the City could readily make the case that the City adopted the ordinance precisely to protect rights: the legitimate rights of the residents of the City, which are under threat of violation by the North East Energy Corporation.
The Community Rights ordinances adopted by Pittsburgh, West Homestead, Balwin PA, as well as Mountain Lake Park WV and Wales NY recognize the rights of the people as superior to privileges granted to corporations in the name of the people, and those ordinance revoke such privileges from corporations that would attempt to violate the prohibition against drilling and thereby violate the rights of community residents.
So which is it? Corporations have Civil Rights, or People have Civil Rights?
Isn't it time we took a stand to clear the air? Isn't it time for your community to adopt a Community Rights Ordinance and stop letting corporate claims to superior rights for corporations over people go unchallenged?
Contact info@CELDF.org
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Original Article:
http://www.dailymail.com/News/201107070903
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10. FRACKING FLUIDS POISON A NATIONAL FOREST
New Study Details Changes in Soil Chemistry and Devastation of Trees and Plants
http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1498
For Immediate Release: July 6, 2011
Contact: Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337
Washington, DC — A new study has found that wastewater from natural gas hydrofracturing in a West Virginia national forest quickly wiped out all ground plants, killed more than half of the trees and caused radical changes in soil chemistry. These results argue for much tighter control over disposal of these “fracking fluids,” contends Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The new study by Mary Beth Adams, a U.S. Forest Service researcher, appears in the July-August issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Environmental Quality. She looked at the effects of land application of fracking fluids on a quarter-acre section of the Fernow Experimental Forest within the Monongahela National Forest. More than 75,000 gallons of fracking fluids, which are injected deep underground to free shale gas and then return to the surface, were applied to the assigned plot over a two day period during June 2008. The following effects were reported in the study:
* Within two days all ground plants were dead;
* Within 10 days, leaves of trees began to turn brown. Within two years more than half of the approximately 150 trees were dead; and
* “Surface soil concentrations of sodium and chloride increased 50-fold as a result of the land application of hydrofracturing fluids…” These elevated levels eventually declined as chemical leached off-site. The exact chemical composition of these fluids is not known because the chemical formula is classified as confidential proprietary information.
“The explosion of shale gas drilling in the East has the potential to turn large stretches of public lands into lifeless moonscapes,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that land disposal of fracking fluids is common and in the case of the Fernow was done pursuant to a state permit. “This study suggests that these fluids should be treated as toxic waste.”
[Related Articles - All Links are at URL above. Ed.)
See abstract of the fracking study
Look at drilling problems plaguing the Monongahela NF
View lack of Forest Service oil & gas regulation on Eastern forests
See proposed ban on horizontal drilling in the George Washington National Forest
Compare National Wildlife Refuge drilling policy vacuum
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11. Shell shock: Energy giant censured for 'fracking' ads
http://mg.co.za/article/
2011-07-06-shell-shock-energy-giant-censured-for-fracking-ads/
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Jul 06 2011 20:00
Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell was ordered on Wednesday to withdraw claims about controversial shale gas drilling in an advertisement carried in several South African newspapers.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the company had made claims that were unsubstantiated and likely to mislead, in a complaint brought by a lobby group that is fighting a bid by Shell to explore for gas deposits.
Shell wants to drill using hydraulic fracturing known as "fracking" in the country's vast central Karoo region and published a full-page print advertisement in several daily and weeklies in April.
"We are disappointed by the ruling," said Shell South Africa chair Bonang Mohale.
"The purpose of the advert was to provide information directly to the public to enable them to properly assess the nature of the proposed shale gas exploration in the Karoo, as well as the accompanying technology of hydraulic fracturing."
The matter was brought by the Treasure the Karoo Action Group, which welcomed the decision. The authority ruled in its favour on four counts, dismissed four complaints and withheld judgment on one matter.
The findings against Shell included claims that fracking was used in 90% of natural gas wells and that there were no documented cases of groundwater contamination from the process.
"We do not know enough about the long-term or even the short-term damage fracking could inflict on the environment," said action group chairperson Jonathan Deal.
"We should not be misled by the emotional calls and manufactured facts of such adverts."
Shell is among several companies hoping to drill for potential gas trapped in the Karoo by pumping water, sand and chemicals deep underground at high pressure to force out deposits trapped in track.
South Africa's government has halted all new applications and any decisions to explore for gas in the Karoo while it carries out a study after a massive public backlash against the "fracking" process over environmental fears. -- Sapa-AFP
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12. Gas Industry Spent "Staggering" Amount Lobbying in Pennsylvania Last Year
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-spent-staggering-amount-lobbying-pennsylvania-last-year
7 July 11
The gas industry spent $3.5 million last year attempting to convince Pennsylvania lawmakers of the benefits of drilling the state’s deposits of unconventional gas. According to lobbying disclosure reports filed with the Department of State, the lobbying blitz to influence public policy was orchestrated by a collection of 22 companies, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA).
Rep. Greg Vitali of Havertown described the disclosed amounts as “staggering,” adding that, “it isn’t the type of spending you would find from fledgling companies.”
The Times-Tribune reports the figures as follows:
- Marcellus Shale Coalition: $1.1 million
- Range Resources Appalachia: $392,000
- Chesapeake Energy: $382,000
- Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association: $247,000
- East Resources Management: $225,000
- Chief Oil and Gas: $186,000
- Alpha Natural Resources: $160,000
- Dominion Transmission: $146,000
- Exco Resources: $130,000
- BG North America: $124,000
MORE:
http://www.desmogblog.com/
gas-industry-spent-staggering-amount-lobbying-pennsylvania-last-year
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13. SHIELDS: Oil Spills At Epidemic Proportions!!
From: lagran
To: Layton, Jack - M.P. ; Rae.B@parl.gc.ca
Cc: Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2011 12:13 PM
Pipeline failures that wind up leaving oil in our rivers and creeks has reached epidemic proportions. Although indicated as a monster by the director of the County's Disaster Services, it does appear as Exxon Mobil have been straight-up in reporting the incident. In Canada the industry owned regulars have started under-reporting spilled volumes initially, to take the monster label off any spill, with ever larger spill volumes reported in stages later in clean-up operations. This only makes the public more interested and less trustful of the regulators who receive their budget funding from industry they attempt to regulate! Don't laugh, it's true!!!
With an "industry-suck" as Prime-Minister, Canadian developers have not the same impedance to being straight-forward or truthful in handling public information or insisting correction information as the American system that has come under change since the massive gulf spill. This huge Gulf spill shed light on the American system of industry regulation that has not crossed the 49th into Canada. The powerful industry lobby groups, like CAP in Canada, have been able to play one province against the other for industry's favor, and have the federal government remain mute and ignorant even on import and exports of petrol products. This is very popular with industry, and shows it's worth to industry in petrol developers’ financial statements!!
Although great for industry, recent changes to allow industry to use public funds in the form of royalty tax credits, without equity interests to pay for drilling costs, has proved pure hell for the owning public in Canada!
The industry and their advocates keep the focus away from the public owner and their profit take, by running comparatives on the best place for developers to invest. Never have we had a study by any government with a comparative to what the public owners receive, as their interest in the petroleum business. This is the area screaming for major change! Hardly can Canadians truthfully say their governments manage their ownership of the energy business for the public's behalf! Why do Canadians and politicians remain ignorant of the royalty regime that governs public profit from the public's biggest business? Norwegians cannot believe Alberta cannot afford its health care system or teachers for it's schools, while sell more energy product than Norway. Really why is this fact??
Canadians must demand our lazy federal government enter into a management system for the public part of the petroleum business that will pass both opposition and public scrutiny. Alberta Activism has suggested rolling the public ownership of oil and gas into a "Crown-Corporation" that will already have some guidelines in its operations due to being a Crown Corporation. Alberta has had very successful Crown Corporation to manage parts of it's energy business, this was when even with much lower oil prices, Alberta was able to sustain a host of amenities, and still put wealth into the Heritage Trust Fund!! Saskatchewan has had plenty of experience with Crown-Corporation, who in Saskatchewan can even imagine Sask-Power being manage by the same group that manage the huge public part of the petroleum energy business? The need for change is very, very evident, and must be for the public good, the day Harper leaves office.
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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ExxonMobil pipe leaks oil into Yellowstone River.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14005251
An ExxonMobil pipeline in the US state of Montana has ruptured, leaking hundreds of barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River, officials say.
The company said the pipe had been shut down and the segment where the leak happened had been isolated.
Nearby residents were evacuated, but later allowed to return to their homes.
The accident happened downstream from the famed Yellowstone national park, a major tourist attraction in the US. 'Monster'
Clean-up crews have been deployed to tackle the spill, which was detected early on Saturday.
ExxonMobil spokeswoman Pam Malek told AP news agency an estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels of oil had leaked from the pipe for about a half-hour before it was shut down.
"We recognise the seriousness of this incident and are working hard to address it," the company said in a statement.
"Our principal focus is on protecting the safety and health of the public and our employees," it added.
It is unclear how far the slick will travel, but Duane Winslow, the county's director of disaster and emergency services, said it was dissipating as it moved downstream.
"We're just kind of waiting for it to move on down while Exxon is trying to figure out how to corral this monster," Mr Winslow said.
There are fears that fish will suffer because of the accident.
"If fish get oil on them, if they break the surface and get oil on them, it tends to plug up their gills and it often is fatal," said Bob Gobson, of the Billings Fish, Wildlife and Parks Program.
Exxon promised a full investigation into the spill, which occurred in a 12-inch pipeline, running from Silvertip to Billings, downstream from Yellowstone National Park.
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14. Yellowstone River Spill Update
Air, soil, wells near Montana oil spill to be tested
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/a ... id/209073/
Published July 08, 2011, 12:00 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. — Indoor air, cropland soils and residential wells downstream of a Yellowstone River oil spill will be tested for contamination after residents raised concerns about hazards from the tens of thousands of gallons of crude that poured into the watercourse, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
EPA and local officials said they do not expect to find significant health dangers but were acting as a precaution. Some residents in oil-stained areas have complained of nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath that have lingered for days.
An estimated 1,000 barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons, have fouled areas along the scenic Yellowstone since Friday after a 12-inch pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil Corp. broke near the south-central Montana town of Laurel. [ . . . ]
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Emergency Response News Release (Region 8): July 7 Update on Federal Response to Silvertip Pipeline Oil Spill Near Billings, Montana
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/
20ed1dfa1751192c8525735900400c30/cdc2cf49fe80ee77852578c700519b91!OpenDocument
July 7 Update on Federal Response to Silvertip Pipeline Oil Spill Near Billings, Montana
At approximately 11:00 PM on Friday, July 1 a break occurred in a 12-inch pipeline owned by ExxonMobil that resulted in a spill of crude oil into the Yellowstone River approximately 20 miles upstream of Billings, Montana. According to the company’s estimates, 1,000 barrels of oil entered the river, which is in flood stage, before the pipeline was cut off. [ . . . ]
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Open Letter to Montana Governor Regarding Keystone XL Pipeline
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/
open_letter_to_montana_governor_regarding_keystone_xl_pipeline/C618/L618/
Farmers and ranchers along the pipeline renew call for action in light of oil spill on the Yellowstone River.
New West online magazine
By Darrell Garoutte, Tim Hess, Doris Frost, Guest Writer July 7, 2011
Dear Governor Schweitzer:
The Exxon pipeline rupture shows that pipeline leaks can and do happen, and that it is a disaster when landowners, emergency responders and community officials are not adequately prepared for such an occurrence. We are landowners along the proposed Keystone XL pipeline route and downstream from the Missouri and Yellowstone river crossings who are concerned about the impact that another spill would have on our families’ health, water quality, and ability to make a living on the land in Montana.
The Keystone XL will be nine times the size of the Exxon pipeline which recently ruptured – with exponentially larger impacts should there be a spill. The Keystone I pipeline, which runs through North Dakota, has had 12 leaks in its first year of operation. Because the Keystone XL pipeline needs a permit from the state of Montana, we call on YOU to protect Montanans along the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers by:
· Requiring that TransCanada provide a comprehensive Emergency Response Plan for public review prior to issuance of a permit;
· Requiring that all disturbed land be reclaimed, in consultation with soil scientists familiar with the region;
· Requiring a comprehensive engineering study of pipeline pressures and worst-case spill risks specific to KXL;
· Requiring that if a person’s water supply is contaminated by construction or pipeline operation, all costs associated with finding and providing a permanent water supply of comparable quality and quantity be covered, as well as any other damages, including but not limited to any consequences, medical or otherwise, related to water contamination;
· Requiring that the pipeline bear liability for surface and water damage;
· Requiring that all hydrologically sensitive areas are identified and a plan is implemented to protect them;
· Requiring a certificate specifying which government agency will oversee all construction activities in Montana.
We have valid reasons for our concerns about the Keystone XL pipeline:
Despite its many assurances, TransCanada’s Keystone I pipeline produced 12 spills in its first year of operation.
Tar sands oil is a corrosive material. The overall Alberta pipeline system that carries tar sands oil has had approximately sixteen times as many spills due to internal corrosion than the U.S. system.
The Keystone pipeline is a 36-inch pipeline, and will have a transport capacity of up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day – 20 times more than the ExxonMobil pipeline.
The Keystone pipeline is routed to cross the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.
Governor, you have an opportunity to make TransCanada build their Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to the highest level of safety and quality standard possible. Assurances are not enough. We are glad that you have made it your cause to make Exxon fix the mess, but there is some damage that won’t ever be fixed. The best medicine is preventative and it is time to be preventative on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Farmers, ranchers, and other landowners along the route of the Keystone XL pipeline have been treated like we are just in the way. We wish it did not take a disaster like the Exxon spill on the Yellowstone River to show that our concerns are valid and should be taken seriously.
The risks are real, and the impacts of a failure are real. We need to start taking those risks seriously instead of accepting the standard reassurances that everything will be OK. The permitting process for Keystone XL is currently in progress, and you are in a position to prevent a disaster from Keystone XL. Please use your position toward that end.
Signed,
Darrell Garoutte
Chair of Northern Plains Pipeline Landowners Group
Tim Hess
Representative Committee member of Northern Plains Pipeline Landowner Group, and landowner near Yellowstone River.
Doris Frost
Member of Northern Plains Pipeline Landowners Group and landowner near Yellowstone River.
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15. Agreement Reached to Reduce Urban Oil Drilling in Los Angeles
Settlement Provides Greater Protections to Residents, Drilling Restrictions
http://www.nrdc.org/media/2011/110706a.asp
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Jessica Lass, NRDC, 310-434-2300 (office) or 202-468-6718 (cell)
LOS ANGELES (July 6, 2011) – An agreement reached by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday strengthens health and safety protections for thousands of residents living near the Baldwin Hills area of south Los Angeles who are currently affected by drilling operations by the Plains Exploration and Production Company (PXP). The settlement resolves four lawsuits filed in November 2008 by Community Health Councils, Inc. (CHC) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the City of Culver City, Concerned Citizens of South Central Los Angeles (CCSCLA), and the Citizen’s Coalition for a Safe Community.
“This is a hard fought victory by residents seeking to protect themselves and their property from oil and gas drilling,” said Damon Nagami, staff attorney for NRDC. “In some cases, drilling is happening within a few hundred feet of residences. There must be better protections for people confronted by ongoing drilling operations in densely populated communities.”
In the lawsuits, the petitioners claimed that the County violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to conduct an adequate environmental impact report (EIR) before adopting the Baldwin Hills Community Standards District (CSD), which was intended to regulate 1,100 acres of oil drilling and production activities in Baldwin Hills.
Key elements of the settlement include:
• Reduced drilling of new wells
• Increased air quality monitoring
• More stringent noise limits
• Mandatory, recurring health and environmental justice assessments [ . . . ]
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16. KENNEDY: An Assault on Clean Water and Democracy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/
an-assault-on-clean-water_b_891613.html
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.President, Waterkeeper Alliance; Professor, Pace University Posted: 7/6/11
Like the 104th Congress when Republicans controlled the House of Representatives, the House today is swinging a sledgehammer at a cornerstone of contemporary American democracy and undermining the most extraordinary body of environmental law in the world.
Chief among the attacks is HR 2018, known as the "Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011." The bill, currently working its way through the House, hogties the federal government's role in administering the federal Clean Water Act and gives states a veto power over a host of critical water quality decisions that the Clean Water Act currently authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to make. This approach will foster a 1950s-style race to bottom as shortsighted and self-interested state politicians dismantle their clean water laws in order to recruit filthy polluters.
Corporate polluters -- through massive campaign donations and relentless fear-mongering -- can easily dominate the state political landscapes. Their indentured servants in Congress -- many flying the Tea Party banner -- are working to disrupt the existing balance between state control and federal oversight in our environmental laws by returning us to the days of limited federal supervision -- a time when local government was on the side of polluters in a partnership that was stealing people's livelihoods, their recreation, their health, safety, property values and their childhoods. [ . . . ]
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17. Contamination 'limited' to trial site
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8270529/
12:28 AEST Fri Jul 8 2011
A company that contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chemicals will be banned from any future underground coal gasification (UCG) activities in Queensland.
The state government on Thursday ordered Cougar Energy to shut down its trial UCG plant near Kingaroy in southern Queensland.
The decision was made after the company was found to have contaminated groundwater at the site with cancer-causing chemicals including benzene.
It took two months to notify government authorities of the incident, in breach of strict environmental rules.
The Department of Environment and Resource Management on Friday downplayed the risk for nearby landholders, saying the contamination was confined to the site.
Acting director general Terry Wall said the company would be forced to rehabilitate it, including decontaminating aquifers, and was facing court action over its activities.
Asked if authorities would ever again contemplate allowing Cougar to operate in Queensland, Mr Wall told the ABC: "Certainly not in respect of underground coal gasification."
Mr Wall said the department had formed a view that Cougar's risk management processes were lacking and it could not be trusted to continue operations.
He said there were no drinking water aquifers on the site, so that was not a risk, but the contamination had spread to an aquifer above the site's coal seam. [ . . . ]
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18. Braid: Oilsands need monitoring, not centralization fiasco
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/
Braid+Oilsands+need+monitoring+centralization+fiasco/5062958/story.html
Another big corp seen hiding the situation, kinda a trend.
BY DON BRAID, CALGARY HERALD JULY 7, 2011 6:37 AM
Suddenly there's another grand provincial plan, this one to create a central environmental agency for world-class monitoring of everything from oilsands damage in the north to gopher habitat in the south.
It was only a year ago, of course, that the province assured us we already had world-class monitoring, especially in the oilsands.
The spurious notion was exploded by two reports, including a federal one identifying serious shortcomings in monitoring.
Since then there has been a furious race to regain credibility, and retain authority, over Canada's most valuable resource.
Ottawa is already making noises about monitoring on its own.
Alberta controls the oil, yes; but the feds have legitimate concerns that provincial failures threaten not only the economy, but Canada's international reputation.
Local laxity has created a strong case for federal action.
This has raised near panic in the Stelmach government. After keeping control of resources during the open warfare of the 1980s National Energy Program, it would be ridiculous to lose jurisdiction over environmental protection. [ . . . ]
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19. Solar Photovoltaics Gaining Momentum and Poised to Challenge Fossil Fuels, Say IEEE Solar Experts
http://www.electricenergyonline.com/?pa ... &id=157195
-------------------------------------
Solar PV global installed capacity expected to dramatically increase in next decade;
electricity costs from solar may be more economical than traditional energy sources
-------------------------------------
Piscataway, NJ, June 15, 2011 - Within the next 10 years, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have the potential to be the most economical form of generating electricity, even compared to traditional fossil fuels, say solar energy experts from IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association.
To achieve this cost parity, the global industry must continue to improve the efficiency of solar PV cell technologies and create economies of scale to further decrease manufacturing costs. IEEE has several initiatives to encourage these advancements.
Solar energy is the earth's most abundant energy resource. The rate of energy from sunlight hitting the earth is of the order of 100 petawatts. Just a fraction is needed to meet the power needs of the entire globe, as it takes approximately 15 terawatts to power the earth (1 petawatt = 1,000 terawatts).
"Solar PV will be a game changer," said James Prendergast, IEEE Senior Member and IEEE Executive Director. "No other alternative source has the same potential. As the cost of electricity from solar continues to decrease compared to traditional energy sources we will see tremendous market adoption, and I suspect it will be a growth limited only by supply. I fundamentally believe that solar PV will become one of the key elements of the solution to our near- and long-term energy challenges."
According to the International Energy Association (IEA), global solar PV capacity has been increasing at an average annual growth rate of more than 40 percent since 2000. By 2050, it is expected that solar PV will provide 11 percent of global electricity production, corresponding to 3,000 gigawatts of cumulative installed capacity. That would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 2.3 gigatons, equivalent to reducing emissions from electricity use from 253 million homes per year, nearly the combined populations of Russia and Japan.
Today, however, engineering challenges remain. "For solar PV to truly compete on its own with traditional power generation, the cost and efficiency of transforming sunlight into electricity must continue to improve," said Jie Shu, IEEE member and Director of the Solar Energy Application Laboratory, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion (GIEC), Chinese Academy of Sciences. [ . . . ]
- Oscar
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9125
- Joined: Wed May 03, 2006 3:23 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS: August 01, 2011
by Oscar » Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:24 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS: August 01, 2011
1. Thoughts on Norway, Oil and the Berserker Affluence, the tragedy reminds us, is no defence against extremism.
2. ACTION ALERT!!! Get the SHELL out of the Sacred HEADWATERS!
3. Northern B.C. fracking licence concerns critics
4. Industry's use of fracking has spawned complaints
5. FRACKING CANADA - check this site often . . . .frequent updates
6. Fracking Operations Cause Thousands of Earthquakes in Arkansas
7. Fracking at drinking water source for 80,000 Pennsylvanians raises alarms.
8. WATCH: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction (Video)
9. 4 Emmy nominations + Dallas proclamation for Josh Fox/Gasland
10. Green Party of Saskatchewan alarmed by outcome of Canada's annual energy & mines ministers' conference
11. Mixed reaction to energy plan
12. Quebec drives a wedge into national energy plan
13. Former Tory staffer now promoting 'ethical oil'
14. Why oil sands monitoring is still a long way off
15. Questions raised about new oilsands monitoring plan
16. Oil-sands monitoring regime aims to protect air and water quality
17. Canada readies new plan for monitoring oil sands.
18. A Sacred Land, Tarred Black
19. CFFO Commentary - Ontario election and Energy
20. Canada 'could be competitive' in LNG
21. Enbridge Northern Gateway Project – Newsletter
22. Alberta politicians pipe up the volume
23. Oil spill was 'catastrophic'
24. How to lead a more transparent government
25. Montana still keen on Keystone pipeline despite recent spill
26. ExxonMobil not cooperating on oil spill cleanup, Montana governor says.
27. US Keeps Commitment To Decide Keystone Pipeline Approval By Year-End
28. EPA targets air pollution from gas drilling boom.
29. Pembina shuts pipeline after leak
30. COAL . . . again! – Related Articles
31. Climate change skeptic steps down as state climatologist.
32. OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted
33. Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and Violence
34. Report Reveals America Now Receives More Power From Renewable Sources Than Nuclear
35. Renewable Energy Now Neck and Neck with Nuclear in the US
36. World’s Biggest Producer of Wind Energy Records $4 Billion in Profits in 2010
37. Sweden Aims for 2000 New Wind Turbines, 50% Renewable Energy by 2020
38. Pushing Death
39. Quebec asbestos mine could close.
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1. Thoughts on Norway, Oil and the Berserker Affluence, the tragedy reminds us, is no defence against extremism.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/07/27/No ... edyAndOil/
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 27 Jul 2011, TheTyee.ca
I grew up in a Nordic household and I am a Son of Norway. So when I learned of the bombing in Oslo and the massacre of young Norwegians, a part of me felt as numb as frostbite. Horror does that to a parent: it freezes the soul.
I also immediately knew that only a Norwegian could be the author of something so dark and cold. And Steig Larson, the Swedish journalist and thriller writer, would have known it too, if he still lived. He understood how comfort and self-satisfaction can write bloody disasters and spawn Nordic monsters.
Now everyone has heard the cliché: Norway is a small and peaceful country inhabited by a generous people with Lutheran reading habits and a sense of humor that could, as the Swedes say, benefit from a massive dose of Vitamin D therapy. It's the sort of treed place where people pay big taxes so that everyone can live well. Or at least not suffer much.
It is also a small nation (five million people) both blessed and cursed by oil. In 1969 the discovery of large offshore reserves dramatically changed Norway's fortunes and character. Despite the best of intentions and some of the world's most thoughtful public policy, petro dollars bedeviled and softened the place as only oil can do.
And in a strange sort of way, it was oil money and easy living that set the scene for the bloody drama that brought thousands of immigrants from Iraq, Somalia and Pakistan to Norway's shores. And it was this migration, sometimes motivated by the search for cheap labour and sometimes by do-gooderism, that led 20 per cent of the Norwegian electorate to vote for the right-wing Progress Party last election. And it was these very developments that ultimately served as an excuse for the fatherless and affluent video-game player Anders Breivik, a member of the Progress Party and a climate change denier to boot, to behave like some berserker. (Berserkers, "tasters of blood," were Viking warriors who fought combatants or slaughtered innocents in a trance-like state.) [ . . . ]
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2. ACTION ALERT!!! Get the SHELL out of the Sacred HEADWATERS!
Choose your postcard and send it today:
http://gettheshellout.org/
Save North America's Wild Salmon Rivers
http://gettheshellout.org/
Shell's destructive drilling plans put salmon, caribou, bears, and local communities at risk
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3. Northern B.C. fracking licence concerns critics
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/
2011/07/29/bc-talisman-fracking.html?ref=rss
Posted: Jul 29, 2011 11:41 AM PT Last Updated: Jul 29, 2011 4:28 PM PT Critics are concerned that the B.C. government is allowing a natural gas company to draw water from a northern BC Hydro reservoir to use in a controversial technique called fracking.
The government has approved a long-term water licence for Talisman Energy to draw water from Williston Lake, a BC Hydro reservoir in northern B.C. for the next 20 years.
The water will be piped out of the Williston Reservoir, mixed with sand and chemicals and used to fracture shale rock underground to release natural gas. [ . . . ]
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4. Industry's use of fracking has spawned complaints
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Industry+fracking+spawned+complaints/5015626/story.html
BY C. GENTIS, VANCOUVER SUN JUNE 28, 2011
Re: Ottawa maintains right to intervene in shale-gas industry, June 24
The article is about studying the long term environmental effects on the controversial gas extraction method called fracking and how the government says it could "intervene in the shale gas industry if it sees an environmental threat."
The article states "So far, no water contamination complaints have arisen as a consequence."
But complaints have risen in Alberta.
The CBC documentary Burning Water is one example of a complaint resulting from fracking.
Fiona Lauridsen and her family got skin burns in the shower. She claims Encana contaminated their land's aquifer by fracking for coal bed methane.
Jessica Ernst from Alberta is another. She has filed a multimilliondollar lawsuit against EnCana and Alberta Environment for negligence. Ernst blames her water problems on shallow gas wells drilled by the fracking method as well.
Let's get the full picture of the reality surrounding fracking and the shalegas industry in Canada.
C. Gentis
White Rock
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5. FRACKING CANADA - check this site often . . . . frequent updates
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/
...clearinghouse information concerning the practice of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') and the call for social justice for the Canadian environment as well as the cultures, mental health, and physical welfare of the peoples of Canada.
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6. Fracking Operations Cause Thousands of Earthquakes in Arkansas
http://www.truth-out.org/
fracking-operations-cause-thousands-earthquakes-arkansas/1311877041
by: Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report Thursday 28 July 2011
Geologists say fracking wastewater disposal wells in central Arkansas caused an outbreak of thousands of minor earthquakes.
The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission placed a ban on fracking wastewater wells in the area yesterday. A moratorium on well activity had been in place for months as geologists investigated a possible link between fracking activity and the outbreak of more than 1,200 earthquakes that measured lower than 4.7 in magnitude.
Fracking is a common term for hydraulic fracturing, a controversial gas drilling method that involves pumping water and chemicals deep underground to break up rock and free natural gas.
Fracking produces millions of gallons of wastewater, and the gas industry has been experimenting with different ways to dispose of it.
At least three gas companies were injecting fracking wastewater in the area of the earthquake outbreak, including BHP Billiton Petroleum, Clarita Operating LLC and Chesapeake Operating. The companies were injecting fracking wastewater near an active fault.
Steve Horton, an earthquake expert from the University of Memphis, told Truthout that continued fracking activity near the fault could have caused an earthquake strong enough to cause property damage.
At least one resident in the area is suing the gas companies over damage an earthquake caused to his home. [ . . . ]
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7. Fracking at drinking water source for 80,000 Pennsylvanians raises alarms.
http://bit.ly/rnxBbW
Documents and interviews reveal that one Pennsylvania water utility, outside Pittsburgh, has already leased its watershed to gas drillers using fracking — and many others are being courted. Solve Climate News
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8. WATCH: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction (Video)
http://www.pathslesstravelled.com/2011/06/
watch-dangers-of-natural-gas-extraction.html
Saturday, 18 June, 2011
Fracking is a burgeoning technology being used to extract natural gas locked within rock formations. Fluid is pumped into natural or man made fractures under high pressure to open up cracks and access hard to reach reservoirs.
Critics are calling for a moratorium on fracking, saying it poses serious health risks to nearby residents, damages the environment and could even cause small earthquakes. Supporters say those claims are overblown, and fracking is essential to Alberta's natural gas industry. Is fracking dangerous? Is it critical to our economic future? How should Alberta proceed? Joining us for this discussion is Jessica Ernst, Rosebud resident and former energy sector consultant is now suing Encana; Tim Marchant, Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Energy Geopolitics at the University of Calgary; and Ben Parfitt, Resource Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Watch video here.
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Stories.aspx?pd=2455
"Although no complete list of the cocktail of chemicals used in this process exists, information obtained from environmental clean-up sites demonstrates that known toxins are routinely being used, including hydrochloric acid, diesel fuel (which contains benzene, tuolene, and xylene) as well as formaldehyde, polyacrylimides, arsenic, and chromates." Sourcewatch.org
=====
COMMENT: "I wish, just once, these corporations would admit to what they are doing, instead of always denying the obvious." Margaret Romak
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9. 4 Emmy nominations + Dallas proclamation for Josh Fox/Gasland
HTTP://DALLASDRILLING.WORDPRESS.COM/
2011/07/14/4-EMMY-NOMINATIONSDALLAS-PROCLAMATION-FOR-JOSH-FOXGASLAND/
JULY 14, 2011
Big news from Hollywood. Gasland, has been gifted with 4 Emmy nominations for the upcoming awards ceremony in September.
Details:
http://www.emmys.com/shows/gasland
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10. Green Party of Saskatchewan alarmed by outcome of Canada's annual energy & mines ministers' conference
http://www.greenpartysask.ca/
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 20, 2011
The Green Party of Saskatchewan today expressed "profound disappointment" in the outcome of Canada's annual energy and mines ministers' conference, held on Monday and Tuesday in Kananaskis, Alberta.
Party leader Larissa Shasko said, "Instead of planning for an economically and ecologically sustainable green energy future in Canada where jobs will be created and pollution reduced, the energy and mines ministers have irresponsibly chosen to go the route of increased tar sands extraction that will take Canada and the rest of the world past the tipping point of climate change."
"In describing the Alberta tar sands as a 'sustainable major supplier of energy to the world', the ministers' communiqué distorts the English language to the breaking point. Non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels are by their very nature unsustainable," continues Shasko.
We are already seeing the early impacts of climate change globally in record floods, record droughts, record temperatures, increasingly severe storms, the steady decline of arctic pack ice, and the melting of glaciers worldwide. Weather is becoming more extreme - and not only in rainfall and temperatures in the prairies. This year so far has seen 900 new temperature records in the USA alone and serious drought throughout the US southwest, as well as prolonged and unprecedented floods in Colombia and the developing tragedy of drought in the horn of Africa.
Professional energy consultant Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, who ran for the Green Party in the federal election, pointed out that a graph used in the ministers' report to emphasise "growing global energy demand" describes the International Energy Agency's "current policies scenario", in which increased carbon dioxide emissions would result in a 6 degrees Celsius rise in global average surface temperatures by the end of the century. This would mean, amongst other things, irreversible loss of the polar icecaps, the loss to fire and die-back of most of the world's great forests, and the loss of much oceanic life through acidification. "It is unlikely", says Bigland-Pritchard, "that human civilization could continue for long in such an environment, because of unpredictable and extreme weather, the massive loss of agricultural land, the flooding of major centres of population, the inevitable wars over scarce basic resources, and the destructive impact of failed states."
The Green Party of Saskatchewan insists that such a global catastrophe is not inevitable, and that as a province we have much to gain by doing our fair share to avoid it. Bigland-Pritchard notes the 300 thousand jobs created so far in the green energy sector in Germany. "By making a radical shift to energy efficiency and clean safe renewable energy sources," said Shasko, "we could create local jobs, strengthen local economies and build local communities throughout Saskatchewan." Saskatchewan has the best solar characteristics and the best usable inland wind resource in Canada, good hydroelectric resources, substantial potential for sustainable biomass and deep geothermal energy, and massive scope for energy efficiency savings.
"Given the real enduring long-term opportunities which a green energy economy would bring," said Bigland-Pritchard, "I cannot help wondering why Brad Wall and Bill Boyd choose to pursue policies which privilege oil executives in the short term and cockroaches and mosquitoes in the longer term. They could instead be building a truly sustainable society in which our children can be proud to be citizens."
"A Green government", said Shasko, "would place value on providing for our children, not stealing from them." - 30 –
For more information, contact
Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, Professional Energy Consultant,
Mobile: 306.827.7431, Home: 306.997.5721
mark@lowenergydesign.com
Larissa Shasko, Green Party of Saskatchewan Party Leader,
Mobile: 306.690.1404, Home: 306.692.7925
Larissa.Shasko@gmail.com
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11. Mixed reaction to energy plan
http://www.leaderpost.com/business/
Mixed+reaction+energy+plan/5142029/story.html
By Bruce Johnstone, Leader-Post July 22, 2011
While some business groups are applauding the proposed national energy strategy that emerged from the twoday meeting of energy ministers in Kananaskis, Alta., earlier this week, one environmental group is not.
On Tuesday, the federal, provincial and territorial energy ministers issued a communique calling for a national energy strategy that recognizes provincial jurisdiction, market pricing and streamlined regulations for resources, while reaffirming the need to increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said the proposed strategy meets the objectives of both energy producing and consuming provinces, while promoting energy conservation and environmental protection for all Canadians.
The communique was quickly endorsed by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which represents businesses with $4.5 trillion in assets and 1.4 million employees.
"We were pleased to see broad agreement on the need for Canada to seek out new export opportunities for our energy resources, to encourage more publicprivate sector co-operation in the development of innovative energy technologies, and to improve the resiliency of the country's electricity transmission infrastructure,'' said John Manley, CEO of the CCCE.
"The priorities they identified for further collaboration are the right ones, including the need to make regulatory processes more efficient, transparent and timely. This is critical to ensure that major energy projects that will benefit all Canadians proceed on a timely basis."
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But Larissa Shasko, leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, expressed "profound disappointment'' with the outcome of the energy ministers' meeting.
"Instead of planning for economically and ecologically sustainable green energy future in Canada ... the energy and mines ministers have irresponsibly chosen to go the route of increased tarsands extraction that will take Canada and the rest of the world past the tipping point of climate change.''
Specifically, Shasko blasted the communique's description of the Alberta tarsands as "a sustainable major supplier of energy to the world.'' "Non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels are by their very nature unsustainable.''
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12. Quebec drives a wedge into national energy plan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/quebec-drives-a-wedge-into-national-energy-plan/article2105580/
nathan vanderklippe Last updated Thursday, Jul. 21, 2011 6:29PM EDT
CALGARY— Just days after energy ministers met in Alberta to lay the foundations for a national energy strategy, an accord is already running into roadblocks.
Quebec is pledging its opposition to a national plan, while Ontario and Alberta openly bicker about endorsing the oil sands as a sustainable supplier of energy.
Quebec’s defiance is likely to slow momentum that has been building over the past few years, with corporate and politic leaders increasingly making the case for a co-ordinated national effort on energy. A national approach is needed, supporters say, to streamline regulations, pursue Asian oil and gas exports and support energy research.
Federal, provincial and territorial energy ministers met in Kananaskis, Alta., this week to begin work on a unified energy plan. The goal of those meetings, Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said, was to “set in place some general principles, goals and objectives that will ultimately lead us to a national energy strategy.”
But it has not taken long for cracks to appear in that nascent effort. The day an initial “action plan” was released, Ontario said it did not support language describing the “responsible and sustainable” development of the oil sands.
Now Quebec is saying it wants no part of such a plan.
“Quebec doesn’t want a federal energy strategy because first of all, energy is a provincial competence,” said Marie-France Boulay, director of communications for Nathalie Normandeau, Quebec’s Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife.
The province will support some collaboration on energy, but does “not want a coast to coast” plan, Ms. Boulay said in an e-mail, pointing out that Quebec already has its own strategy emphasizing hydro, wind and energy efficiency. [ . . . ]
More related to this story (All Links on URL above)
Ontario refuses to call Alberta's oil sands 'sustainable and responsible'
Why a national energy strategy makes sense
Industry urges national framework for energy policy
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13. Former Tory staffer now promoting 'ethical oil'
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2011/07/28/
ethical-oil-tory-staffer/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=290711
By Geoff Dembicki July 28, 2011 10:55 am
A former communications director for Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is now creating provocative online ads describing Alberta’s oil sands as "ethical."
"When petroleum reserves were deposited around the world, it is unfortunate that they were all given to the world's bastards," the 27-year-old Alykhan Velshi told the Globe and Mail. "With the exception of Canada, most of them are with the world's bastards. You need to recognize that when you are buying oil."
The ads key off a phrase, "ethical oil", popularized last year by right-wing commentator Ezra Levant, a former tobacco lobbyist who now works for Sun TV. [ . . . ]
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14. Why oil sands monitoring is still a long way off
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
why-oil-sands-monitoring-is-still-a-long-way-off/article2105867/
By JOSH WINGROVE July 21, 2011
Governments agree there is a problem, but are at odds about who should solve it or how
The findings have trickled out for months - report after report, panel after panel - all in an effort to turn around public perception after 40 years of lax environmental monitoring of the oil sands.
And finally, on Thursday, came a federal plan to monitor the air, water, flora and fauna surrounding the development of one of Canada's critical economic resources.
The comprehensive plan, which says the existing framework is simply inadequate," was put together with recommendations from an independent committee and will measure impacts downwind and downstream of the oil sands. At an estimated cost of $50-million a year, it is endorsed by dozens of credible, independent scientists.
In the eyes of many, it's long overdue. Neither Alberta nor Canada currently have a way to assess the cumulative effect development has had throughout Northern Alberta. Meanwhile, heavy metals have been found in a major local river, and hundreds of fish have been found with deformities - raising questions that require monitoring data for conclusive answers.
Although a plan is in place, many problems persist.
- - - - SNIP - - - -
Outspoken University of Alberta researcher David Schindler, who has authored key studies on the region and was one of the scientists involved in the federal plan, said the province is "meddling." One leadership hopeful for Alberta's governing party panned its "weakness" on the file, while the opposition Liberals likened the federal intervention to how an "unruly child would be scolded by its parents."
A second problem, universally acknowledged, is one of implementation. The federal plan will take years to put into action. Until then, it won't be able to provide data that academics say should be considered before projects are approved. Meanwhile, new mines continue to get the go-ahead, with oil production projected to double by 2020. [ . . . ]
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15. Questions raised about new oilsands monitoring plan
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Questions+raised+about+oilsands+monitoring+plan/5142664/story.html
'Premature' to say industry will pick up tab for 'world-class' program
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald; Postmedia News July 22, 2011
Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent unveiled a sweeping oilsands monitoring plan on Thursday, but there were quick calls for development to slow while the environmental results are tabulated - and some question who will be picking up the $50 million yearly tab for the program.
As Kent formally announced his "world-class" federal monitoring system for water, air and biodiversity - to be jointly administered with Alberta scientists and bureaucrats - the minister assured reporters that industry is prepared to cover the costs of the program. He added that's what his government expects.
"Fifty million dollars to most of us represents a very large amount of money. But against an industry that is expected to generate $80 billion next year, it's a very small price to pay," the minister said in Ottawa.
However, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president David Collyer said shortly afterwards that it's "premature to indicate that industry would be happy to pick up the cost." Collyer said better scientific information is good for everyone involved, and he hopes to see the proposed monitoring systems both Alberta and Ottawa blended into one program.
However, he noted industry already picks up many environmental monitoring costs. And while it expects to pick up a portion of costs for future programs "one has to be realistic as well. There are other parties in the mix. There are other environmental impacts in the Athabasca region that extend beyond oilsands activity."
Meanwhile, Greenpeace oilsands activist Mike Hudema released a statement saying such a monitoring system should have been in place decades ago, before oilsands development fully ramped up.
"The question is, will the federal government actually reduce pollution or only track it better?" Hudema said of the federal plan. [ . . . ]
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16. Oil-sands monitoring regime aims to protect air and water quality
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
ottawa-notebook/oil-sands-monitoring-regime-aims-to-protect-air-and-water-quality/article2104903/
Gloria Galloway Ottawa— Globe and Mail Update July 21, 2011 11:24AM EDT
Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent has unveiled a new monitoring plan for the Alberta oil sands that is aimed at protecting air and water quality as well as biodiversity.
Announced at an Ottawa news conference Thursday, the plan was developed in consultation with more than 200 scientists from the provinces and territories and Canadian universities. [ . . . ]
More related to this story (All Links on URL above)
Ontario refuses to call Alberta's oil sands 'sustainable and responsible'
Canada's energy future
Ottawa energy strategy targets diverse marketplace
Why a national energy strategy makes sense
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17. Canada readies new plan for monitoring oil sands.
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424053111904233404576460401563037870.html
In an effort to clean up the international reputation of its oil sands, Canada's federal government said Thursday it will launch a new air- and water-monitoring program for the industry. Wall Street Journal [Subscription Required]
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18. A Sacred Land, Tarred Black
http://www.sacredland.org/home/films/in-production/
Suncor Energy's tar sands refinery in Alberta, Canada, generates more than oil to fuel American cars. Millions of tons of finely ground tailings waste have piled up along the Athabasca River, bleeding toxins into groundwater. Air pollution turns the snow black for miles around. Fish deformities and rising cancer rates downstream reveal the hidden costs of our energy consumption. Earth Island's Sacred Land Film Project will tell the story of how tar sands mining is affecting the First Nations of Canada in Losing Sacred Ground, an eight-part documentary series that tells stories of Indigenous communities fighting to protect nature and culture around the world. Find more about the series and help SLFP complete their valuable project.
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19. CFFO Commentary - Ontario election and Energy
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/
?u=0cbdc664ae1245371e539f582&id=fd457e0f4b&e=c124fa3c9e
By Nathan Stevens July 22, 2011
Please direct correspondance on the CFFO Commentary to John Clement, General Manager at clement@christianfarmers.org
The Ontario election is looming for Ontario’s politicians and the voting public. Energy is emerging as “the” hot button topic for many voters. The big question is how we are going to organize a sustainable energy system that truly considers the economic, environmental and social consequences.
There is a need for broad deliberations regarding this province’s energy policy. In particular, balance needs to be struck to accommodate both long and short term needs in our energy policy. Ontario’s manufacturing sector was built on affordable energy, which means that minimizing shocks to the system is very important in a time where the global economy is weak. At the same time, in the long-term, diversifying our energy base and channeling resources into tomorrow’s technology is important for a sustainable future.
At the core of the Ontario energy matrix are the traditional sources of energy: coal, nuclear, and hydro. The first two are non-renewable resources that carry heavy environmental risks. Yet there are steps that can be taken to reduce these impacts and mitigate the risks. Is it possible that stopping the use of coal cold turkey is not the best move for the entire economy? Is it possible that a better triple-bottom line answer is to gradually reduce our coal use by blending it with increasing amounts of biomass over time and improving smokestack scrubbers to reduce emissions?
There is no doubt that renewable energy can and should be a part of the mix. [ . . .]
-------
Nathan Stevens is the Research and Policy Advisor for the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. The CFFO Commentary represents the opinions of the writer and does not necessarily represent CFFO policy. The CFFO Commentary is heard weekly on CFCO Chatham, CKNX Wingham, and UCB Canada radio stations in Chatham, Belleville, Bancroft, Brockville and Kingston. It is also archived on the CFFO website: www.christianfarmers.org. CFFO is supported by 4,200 family farmers across Ontario
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20. Canada 'could be competitive' in LNG
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Canada+could+competitive/5148689/story.html
Prices for liquefied natural gas expected to be comparable to Asia Pacific going rate, report says
By Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal July 23, 2011
Until a few years ago, the big players in the global natural gas exporting business were busy planning tanker terminals to supply what they saw as a huge new market - North America.
But major discoveries of gas in northern British Columbia and the explosion of shale gas projects across the continent have turned the tables. And the temptation is obvious. Natural gas can be compressed and liquefied, basically shrinking 600 times by volume, then piped into LNG ships and transported to Asia and Europe where gas prices track the oil market - and gas sells for three times the North American price.
A new report by energy-research firm Wood Mackenzie this week suggests Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports "could be competitive into Asia Pacific markets on a cost basis against some LNG projects that have recently been sanctioned and some that are seeking sanction in Australia." [ . . . ]
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21. Enbridge Northern Gateway Project - Newsletter
www.gatewaypanel.review.gc.ca.
July 20, 2011
The Joint Review Panel (Panel) for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project (Project) has issued its first newsletter to help keep you informed about the joint review process and share advice about how to participate. This first newsletter includes information on an upcoming workshop for registered Intervenors and Government Participants and information on the difference between oral statements and oral evidence.
The newsletter is available on the Panel’s website:
www.gatewaypanel.review.gc.ca.
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22. Alberta politicians pipe up the volume
http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/
ministers?utm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=E-News&org=354&lvl=100&ite=2233&lea=56276&ctr=0&par=1
Posted by Emma Gilchrist at Jul 19, 2011 01:45 PM | Permalink
Filed under: Oil Sands
B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have both been deferring to the National Energy Board review process when the reality is that it is not equipped to make this kind of decision. The question of whether or not Canada plows a pipeline to the West Coast to increase oil exports to China is entirely a political one.
A couple of Alberta ministers have been keeping us incredibly entertained for the past few weeks with their non-stop pressure on the feds to support Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, which would bring hundreds of oil supertankers to B.C.’s north coast each year to export raw bitumen to Asia.
Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert got things started when he called for the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline to go ahead during a speech at an oilsands conference in Edmonton. He told the conference that Chinese investors have “difficulty understanding why we don’t just plow a line to the West Coast and start shipping more products by tanker tomorrow.” [ . . . ]
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23. Oil spill was 'catastrophic'
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/spill+catastrophic/
5151231/story.html
One year after a huge leak of Alberta crude into a Michigan river, the cleanup continues and a safety debate rages
By Sheldon Alberts, Postmedia News July 24, 2011 3:12 AM
Durk Dunham was having lunch with the Calhoun County sheriff when Dunham's dispatcher called with the news: "We have an oil spill and we need you to respond immediately."
Dunham, the county's director of emergency management, thought it might be something routine - maybe a tractor-trailer had flipped and dumped a couple of hundred gallons of diesel fuel along a back road. How bad could it be?
The awful answer came on a helicopter ride that evening as Dunham flew over the Kalamazoo River with executives from Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.
Below, a sprawling landscape of environmental ruin caused by one of the largest inland freshwater oil spills in American history.
"I saw black liquid flowing where the river used to be. It was just black. It wasn't like a black, watery thing. It was pure black," says Dunham.
"At that point, it was silent in the helicopter. I knew this was catastrophic. Frankly, I was teary-eyed for the whole trip."
It was early on July 26, 2010, that Enbridge detected its Line 6B had ruptured near Talmadge Creek, a meandering stream just outside the city limits of this city of 7,000 in south Central Michigan.
The violent force from the 76-centimetre pipeline sent a gusher of Canadian crude down three kilometres of creek and into a section of the Kalamazoo teeming with turtles, muskrats, fish and Canada geese.
By the time the 41-year-old pipeline was shut down and the spill contained, more than 3.8 million litres of Alberta crude had been dumped into the Michigan wetlands, fouling a 65-kilometre stretch of the Kalamazoo River.
Now, one year later, local residents and U.S. authorities are taking stock of the toll. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation into what caused the two-metre gash in the pipeline is ongoing, with its conclusion perhaps months away. [ . . . ]
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24. How to lead a more transparent government
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/
Work+lead+more+transparent+government/5070617/story.html#ixzz1RcjezNGB
BY FRANK WORK, CALGARY HERALD JULY 8, 2011
There have been calls by some Tory leadership hopefuls for more government transparency in Alberta. Since I am on my way out as information and privacy commissioner of this province, and I will not be in a position to officially advise whomever becomes leader of the Conservatives or the next government, I thought I would offer some suggestions on how to actually implement a more transparent government. Having been at this for 15 years, I believe I have some solid ideas.
First, don't say it unless you mean it. Don't toy with us. Don't toss "open," "accountable," "transparent" at us unless you intend to follow through. Someone might actually remember that you promised it and they might call you on it.
I think most of the leadership hopefuls know this, but if you are truly transparent, interest groups, other politicians, the media and the public will take the information you have disclosed and use it. They may use it to attack your policies, they may use it to make you look bad and they may not even understand it in the first place. You must expect this. This reality is not a justification to withhold information. Nor are concerns that "they might not get it right" or "they won't understand" justification for not being transparent.
Remember, the whole idea of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is to ensure the public has access to information held by government. This information does not belong to government, it belongs to the people who elected you and they deserve to know what you are doing and how you are doing it. [ . . . ]
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25. Montana still keen on Keystone pipeline despite recent spill
http://www.canada.com/travel/
Montana+still+keen+Keystone+pipeline+despite+recent+spill/5073471/story.html
By Sheldon Albert's, Postmedia News July 8, 2011
WASHINGTON — From the moment Exxon Mobil's ruptured Silvertip pipeline dumped 191,000 litres of oil into the Yellowstone River, Montana Gov. Brian Scwheitzer has been after the giant U.S. energy company like "smell on a skunk" — accusing it of a laggard response and inaccurate spill reporting.
But the disaster on one of America's most iconic rivers has done nothing to dull Schweitzer's enthusiasm for Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
The Democratic governor, if anything, has doubled down on his support for the $7-billion oilsands pipeline, which would run under the Yellowstone on its 2,700-kilometre route from Hardisty, Alta., to Port Arthur, Texas.
"I don't think one ought to confuse what happens with this particular old technology, Silvertip, with what will occur in the future," Schweitzer told the Platts news service, in one of several interviews he's given on Keystone XL.
"Unless people are willing to park their cars and move into a cave and live naked and eat nuts, we're going to continue to produce energy and that energy needs to be moved to the source of consumption." [ . . . ]
More on This Story (All Links at URL above)
Pipeline expansion debate creates resource battlefield
Star power pushing back against controversial Keystone pipeline
Canadian oilsands pipeline upsets Nebraskan land owners
Pipeline project from Canada raises concerns for U.S. agency
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26. ExxonMobil not cooperating on oil spill cleanup, Montana governor says.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/
article_262c9051-e429-5ce8-ae64-3bab3ea71432.html
Three weeks after polluting the Yellowstone River, ExxonMobil continues to withhold information key to cleaning up the mess, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Thursday. Billings Gazette, Montana.
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27. US Keeps Commitment To Decide Keystone Pipeline Approval By Year-End
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/
stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201107221612dowjonesdjonline000477&title=updateus-keeps-commitment-to-decide-keystone-pipeline-approval-by-year-end
By Tennille Tracy Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES July 22, 2011
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. officials will release an environmental review in August of TransCanada Corp.'s proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline, putting the federal government on track to stick to a plan to decide whether to approve the controversial project by the end of the year.
In a conference call with reporters Friday, a top State Department official said the release of the environmental review will start a 90-day clock during which other federal agencies will be able to comment on the review.
After that, the State Department will decide whether to approve the Keystone XL project, said Daniel Clune, principal deputy assistant secretary in the department's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline proposal would extend an existing pipeline that the company operates in the U.S. The extension would pass through several U.S. states, including Montana and Oklahoma.
TransCanada spokesman James Millar said the company is "glad to see a thorough review is being done," but noted the approval process for the pipeline expansion is set to take almost twice as long as the review of the original line.
"The main thing for us is them making a decision on the presidential permit by the end of this year," Millar said.
Environmental groups, which have been vocal critics of the project, said the timeline doesn't give the State Department enough time to examine environmental concerns.
"The State Department cannot possibly address the many glaring gaps in its environmental analysis in the next few weeks, let alone consider lessons from the worrying string of recent pipeline spills," said Damon Moglen, Friends of the Earth's climate and energy director. [ . . . ]
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28. EPA targets air pollution from gas drilling boom.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/
state-and-regional/wyoming/article_f3d7c170-b96b-11e0-b1c1-001cc4c002e0.html
Faced with a natural gas drilling boom that has sullied the air in some parts of the country, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed for the first time to control air pollution at oil and gas wells, particularly those drilled using a method called hydraulic fracturing. Associated Press
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29. Pembina shuts pipeline after leak
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/pembina-shuts-pipeline-after-leak/article2103738/
Carrie tait CALGARY— From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Jul. 20, 2011 2:09PM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Jul. 20, 2011 7:14PM EDT
The pipeline industry’s reputation – which energy companies need to safeguard to expand oil sands activity – was further dented after another pipeline leaked oil into an Alberta creek.
Pembina Pipeline Corp. shut its line near Slave Lake after discovering a spill that reached to muskeg and an unnamed creek, the company said Wednesday. The line leaked about 1,300 barrels of oil, and Pembina has installed booms and weirs to “reduce any further potential impact.” The company shuttered the line Tuesday morning
A string of leaks is hitting the industry hard, with two high-profile North American projects needing government approval. Enbridge Inc. wants to build a pipeline to the B.C. West Coast from the Alberta oil sands, and TransCanada Corp. is trying to persuade U.S. regulators to approve its proposed line extension to the Gulf of Mexico coast.
If both proposals were to die, oil sands companies will be forced to scale back their ambitious expansion plans. TransCanada’s project is further along in the regulatory process than Enbridge’s, but both face intense political and public scrutiny. Major operators including Exxon Mobil Corp., Enbridge, and TransCanada have all had recent leaks, and each new spill heightens criticism. [ . . . ]
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30. COAL . . . again! – Related Articles
Study maps mercury fallout from Indianapolis power plant.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/ ... 0075/1001/
Study-maps-mercury-fallout-from-Indianapolis-power-plant
An Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis study has found mercury contamination in soil downwind from a coal-fired power plant in Indianapolis, supporting the notion of localized mercury hot spots. Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky.
Cap and trade, once backed by power companies, has an uncertain future.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/07/19/
19greenwire-wrapped-up-in-politics-granddaddy-of-cap-and-tr-2653.html
As the Obama administration tries to cobble back together its signature cap-and-trade program under the Clean Air Act, it faces a daunting array of lawsuits, political pressures and regulatory snags. Greenwire
Apology issued for coalfields birth defects statement.
http://www.register-herald.com/local/x1241068519/
Apology-issued-for-coalfields-birth-defects-statement
Crowell & Moring, a law firm representing the National Mining Association, apologized for a statement indicating birth defects in the coalfields may be caused by inbreeding as opposed to mountaintop mining. Beckley Register-Herald, West Virginia.
Gillard accelerates climate effort; coal industry counters with TV blitz.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/07/19 ... 31638.html
The Australian government is pointing to the coal sector's $70 billion investment in new projects as proof that the powerful coal industry isn't as spooked by Prime Minister Julia Gillard's carbon tax as it claims. ClimateWire
Coal Mine At World Heritage Site Approved
http://www.care2.com/causes/
coal-mine-at-world-heritage-site-approved.html
by Andreas S. July 19, 2011
The fight is over and a great park is in danger. Some time ago, I wrote about the threat to South Africa’s unique Mapungubwe National Park from a proposed new coal mine and power station. That threat has now become a reality! After initial delays because the mining company, Australian-owned Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL), had contravened various environmental regulations, South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs last week granted permission for the project to go ahead.
CoAL’s CEO John Wallington has confirmed that construction of the Vele Colliery, a short distance from the national park, would go ahead and should be completed within six to nine months. While Albi Modise, a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Affairs notes that CoAL had entered into a “biodiversity offset agreement” (whatever that entails), these latest developments bode ill for the future preservation of the rich natural and cultural heritage of Mapungubwe.
The area is not only rich in biodiversity and part of a planned future transfrontier park straddling the borders of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, but it also holds remarkable archaeological evidence of a long history of human inhabitation dating back thousands of years. [ . . . ]
Millions of Great Lakes fish killed in power plant intakes.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/
la-na-great-lakes-fish-kills-20110722,0,1444182.story
Despite decades of efforts to restore and protect the Great Lakes, dozens of old power plants still are allowed to kill hundreds of millions of fish each year by sucking in massive amounts of water to cool their equipment. Chicago Tribune, Illinois.
Tough measures for coal industry unveiled.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/
tough-measures-for-coal-industry-unveiled-20110721-1hqzu.html
The state government has detailed new environmental and community consultation conditions for the coal and coal seam gas industry in what it has described as a watershed for mining in New South Wales. Sydney Morning Herald, Australia. [Registration Required]
EPA finalizes guidance to limit mining impacts.
http://wvgazette.com/News/201107210720
Despite strong pressure from the coal industry and its political allies, the Obama administration on Thursday finalized new guidance aimed at reducing the environmental and public health impacts of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. Charleston Gazette, West Virginia.
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31. Climate change skeptic steps down as state climatologist.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110719/NEWS03/
107190357/Climate-change-skeptic-steps-down-state-climatologist
A University of Delaware professor known for his controversial view that people do not contribute to global climate change has stepped down as the state's official climatologist. David R. Legates, a geography professor, will continue to serve on UD's faculty, and university officials said his position on climate change had nothing to do with the move. Wilmington News Journal, Delaware.
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32. OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted
http://www.newscientist.com/article/
dn20739-ok-climate-sceptics-heres-the-raw-data-you-wanted.html
By ANDY COGHLAN - NEW SCIENTIST
Added: Thursday, 28 July 2011 at 1:22 PM
More info:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/
climate-monitoring/land-and-atmosphere/surface-station-records
Anyone can now view for themselves the raw data that was at the centre of last year's "climategate" scandal.
Temperature records going back 150 years from 5113 weather stations around the world were yesterday released to the public by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. The only records missing are from 19 stations in Poland, which refused to allow them to be made public.
"We released [the dataset] to dispel the myths that the data have been inappropriately manipulated, and that we are being secretive," says Trevor Davies, the university's pro-vice-chancellor for research. "Some sceptics argue we must have something to hide, and we've released the data to pull the rug out from those who say there isn't evidence that the global temperature is increasing." Hand it over
The university were ordered to release data by the UK Information Commissioner's Office, following a freedom-of-information request for the raw data from researchers Jonathan Jones of the University of Oxford and Don Keiller of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK.
Davies says that the university initially refused on the grounds that the data is not owned by the CRU but by the national meteorological organisations that collect the data and share it with the CRU.
When the CRU's refusal was overruled by the information commissioner, the UK Met Office was recruited to act as a go-between and obtain permission to release all the data.
Read more
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33. Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and Violence
http://www.alternet.org/story/151599/
tropic_of_chaos%3A_climate_change_and_violence?akid=7279.23437.G5gPLC&rd=1&t=18
Christian Parenti's new book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence, explores this dangerous intersection. By Christian Parenti / Nation Books
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34. Report Reveals America Now Receives More Power From Renewable Sources Than Nuclear
http://tinyurl.com/3zl8lwa
by Tafline Laylin, inhabitat.com, July 6 2011
A recent report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration reveals that America now receives more of its energy from renewable sources than it does from nuclear generation plants. In the first three months of 2011, the country’s biomass/biofuel, hydropower, wind, geothermal, and solar energy generation plants produced a combined 2.245 quadrillion Btus of energy or 11.73 percent of U.S. energy production. During the same period, nuclear energy plants produced 2.125 quadrillion Btus.
According to data taken from the Monthly Energy Review, renewable energy production in the United States has increased by 25 percent since the first quarter of 2009. Biomass/biofuel production makes up a whopping 48 percent of this total. Hydropower contributes 35.41 percent to overall production, while wind, geothermal, and solar account for 12.87, 2.45, and 1.16 percent respectively.
Although it seems that solar production is particularly low, the study found that solar energy generation has increased by 104.8 percent since early 2010, while wind power has increased by 40.3 percent during the same time frame. This renewable thrust bodes well for the United States, particularly given the continued environmental and health impacts expected following the Fukushima disaster in Japan earlier this year. [ . . . ]
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35. Renewable Energy Now Neck and Neck with Nuclear in the US
http://inhabitat.com/
renewable-energy-now-neck-and-neck-with-nuclear-in-the-us/
New renewable energy projects are popping up left and right and we’re stoked to report that in 2010, the amount of green energy generation was finally on . . .
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36. World’s Biggest Producer of Wind Energy Records $4 Billion in Profits in 2010
http://inhabitat.com/
worlds-biggest-producer-of-wind-energy-records-4-billion-in-profits-in-2010/
The world’s largest producer of wind energy, Spain-based Iberdrola SA, blew way analysts’ expectations last year with a whopping $4 billion in profits – analysts . . .
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37. Sweden Aims for 2000 New Wind Turbines, 50% Renewable Energy by 2020
http://inhabitat.com/
sweden-aims-for-2000-new-wind-turbines-50-renewable-energy-by-2020/
John McConnico for The New York Times Maud Olofsson, Sweden’s Enterprise and Energy Minister, announced recently the addition of 2,000 wind turbines to the country’s alternative . . . .
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38. Pushing Death
http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/
pushingdeath?utm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=E-News&org=354&lvl=100&ite=2233&lea=56276&ctr=0&par=1
Posted by Will Horter at Jul 11, 2011 01:05 PM | Permalink
Filed under: Oil Sands, Stephen Harper
Canada: International pariah on climate change and asbestos.
Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s control, Canada has gone from being a leader in global environmental and health negotiations to being an international pariah. Unlike previous Canadian governments that were praised for their leadership in peacekeeping and reducing landmines, Canada is now the international bad boy.
Harper’s policies on cancer-causing asbestos and heavily climate-polluting oilsands are undermining progress on international health and climate agreements, such as the Rotterdam Convention and Kyoto Protocol. Canada’s embarrassing positions could affect the health and survival of millions of people worldwide.
Canada’s recent action to block asbestos from being listed as a hazardous chemical under an international convention is just the latest in what is becoming an undistinguished track record. Canada has been drawing fire for blocking mandatory warnings around the dangers of asbestos to be required under an international convention. Environment Canada recommended that Canada support listing asbestos as a dangerous carcinogen, but Harper’s government decide to overrule them and stand alone as the only industrialized country against mandatory disclosure of significant health impacts. Only Canada, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan opposed the United Nations declaration last week. [ . . . ]
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39. Quebec asbestos mine could close.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/
2011/07/19/asbestos-could-close.html
Canada's last fully operational asbestos mine says it could be on the verge of shutting down, a closure that would deliver a major blow to the country's controversial industry. Canadian Press
1. Thoughts on Norway, Oil and the Berserker Affluence, the tragedy reminds us, is no defence against extremism.
2. ACTION ALERT!!! Get the SHELL out of the Sacred HEADWATERS!
3. Northern B.C. fracking licence concerns critics
4. Industry's use of fracking has spawned complaints
5. FRACKING CANADA - check this site often . . . .frequent updates
6. Fracking Operations Cause Thousands of Earthquakes in Arkansas
7. Fracking at drinking water source for 80,000 Pennsylvanians raises alarms.
8. WATCH: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction (Video)
9. 4 Emmy nominations + Dallas proclamation for Josh Fox/Gasland
10. Green Party of Saskatchewan alarmed by outcome of Canada's annual energy & mines ministers' conference
11. Mixed reaction to energy plan
12. Quebec drives a wedge into national energy plan
13. Former Tory staffer now promoting 'ethical oil'
14. Why oil sands monitoring is still a long way off
15. Questions raised about new oilsands monitoring plan
16. Oil-sands monitoring regime aims to protect air and water quality
17. Canada readies new plan for monitoring oil sands.
18. A Sacred Land, Tarred Black
19. CFFO Commentary - Ontario election and Energy
20. Canada 'could be competitive' in LNG
21. Enbridge Northern Gateway Project – Newsletter
22. Alberta politicians pipe up the volume
23. Oil spill was 'catastrophic'
24. How to lead a more transparent government
25. Montana still keen on Keystone pipeline despite recent spill
26. ExxonMobil not cooperating on oil spill cleanup, Montana governor says.
27. US Keeps Commitment To Decide Keystone Pipeline Approval By Year-End
28. EPA targets air pollution from gas drilling boom.
29. Pembina shuts pipeline after leak
30. COAL . . . again! – Related Articles
31. Climate change skeptic steps down as state climatologist.
32. OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted
33. Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and Violence
34. Report Reveals America Now Receives More Power From Renewable Sources Than Nuclear
35. Renewable Energy Now Neck and Neck with Nuclear in the US
36. World’s Biggest Producer of Wind Energy Records $4 Billion in Profits in 2010
37. Sweden Aims for 2000 New Wind Turbines, 50% Renewable Energy by 2020
38. Pushing Death
39. Quebec asbestos mine could close.
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1. Thoughts on Norway, Oil and the Berserker Affluence, the tragedy reminds us, is no defence against extremism.
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/07/27/No ... edyAndOil/
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 27 Jul 2011, TheTyee.ca
I grew up in a Nordic household and I am a Son of Norway. So when I learned of the bombing in Oslo and the massacre of young Norwegians, a part of me felt as numb as frostbite. Horror does that to a parent: it freezes the soul.
I also immediately knew that only a Norwegian could be the author of something so dark and cold. And Steig Larson, the Swedish journalist and thriller writer, would have known it too, if he still lived. He understood how comfort and self-satisfaction can write bloody disasters and spawn Nordic monsters.
Now everyone has heard the cliché: Norway is a small and peaceful country inhabited by a generous people with Lutheran reading habits and a sense of humor that could, as the Swedes say, benefit from a massive dose of Vitamin D therapy. It's the sort of treed place where people pay big taxes so that everyone can live well. Or at least not suffer much.
It is also a small nation (five million people) both blessed and cursed by oil. In 1969 the discovery of large offshore reserves dramatically changed Norway's fortunes and character. Despite the best of intentions and some of the world's most thoughtful public policy, petro dollars bedeviled and softened the place as only oil can do.
And in a strange sort of way, it was oil money and easy living that set the scene for the bloody drama that brought thousands of immigrants from Iraq, Somalia and Pakistan to Norway's shores. And it was this migration, sometimes motivated by the search for cheap labour and sometimes by do-gooderism, that led 20 per cent of the Norwegian electorate to vote for the right-wing Progress Party last election. And it was these very developments that ultimately served as an excuse for the fatherless and affluent video-game player Anders Breivik, a member of the Progress Party and a climate change denier to boot, to behave like some berserker. (Berserkers, "tasters of blood," were Viking warriors who fought combatants or slaughtered innocents in a trance-like state.) [ . . . ]
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2. ACTION ALERT!!! Get the SHELL out of the Sacred HEADWATERS!
Choose your postcard and send it today:
http://gettheshellout.org/
Save North America's Wild Salmon Rivers
http://gettheshellout.org/
Shell's destructive drilling plans put salmon, caribou, bears, and local communities at risk
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3. Northern B.C. fracking licence concerns critics
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/
2011/07/29/bc-talisman-fracking.html?ref=rss
Posted: Jul 29, 2011 11:41 AM PT Last Updated: Jul 29, 2011 4:28 PM PT Critics are concerned that the B.C. government is allowing a natural gas company to draw water from a northern BC Hydro reservoir to use in a controversial technique called fracking.
The government has approved a long-term water licence for Talisman Energy to draw water from Williston Lake, a BC Hydro reservoir in northern B.C. for the next 20 years.
The water will be piped out of the Williston Reservoir, mixed with sand and chemicals and used to fracture shale rock underground to release natural gas. [ . . . ]
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4. Industry's use of fracking has spawned complaints
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/
Industry+fracking+spawned+complaints/5015626/story.html
BY C. GENTIS, VANCOUVER SUN JUNE 28, 2011
Re: Ottawa maintains right to intervene in shale-gas industry, June 24
The article is about studying the long term environmental effects on the controversial gas extraction method called fracking and how the government says it could "intervene in the shale gas industry if it sees an environmental threat."
The article states "So far, no water contamination complaints have arisen as a consequence."
But complaints have risen in Alberta.
The CBC documentary Burning Water is one example of a complaint resulting from fracking.
Fiona Lauridsen and her family got skin burns in the shower. She claims Encana contaminated their land's aquifer by fracking for coal bed methane.
Jessica Ernst from Alberta is another. She has filed a multimilliondollar lawsuit against EnCana and Alberta Environment for negligence. Ernst blames her water problems on shallow gas wells drilled by the fracking method as well.
Let's get the full picture of the reality surrounding fracking and the shalegas industry in Canada.
C. Gentis
White Rock
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5. FRACKING CANADA - check this site often . . . . frequent updates
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/
...clearinghouse information concerning the practice of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') and the call for social justice for the Canadian environment as well as the cultures, mental health, and physical welfare of the peoples of Canada.
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6. Fracking Operations Cause Thousands of Earthquakes in Arkansas
http://www.truth-out.org/
fracking-operations-cause-thousands-earthquakes-arkansas/1311877041
by: Mike Ludwig, Truthout | Report Thursday 28 July 2011
Geologists say fracking wastewater disposal wells in central Arkansas caused an outbreak of thousands of minor earthquakes.
The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission placed a ban on fracking wastewater wells in the area yesterday. A moratorium on well activity had been in place for months as geologists investigated a possible link between fracking activity and the outbreak of more than 1,200 earthquakes that measured lower than 4.7 in magnitude.
Fracking is a common term for hydraulic fracturing, a controversial gas drilling method that involves pumping water and chemicals deep underground to break up rock and free natural gas.
Fracking produces millions of gallons of wastewater, and the gas industry has been experimenting with different ways to dispose of it.
At least three gas companies were injecting fracking wastewater in the area of the earthquake outbreak, including BHP Billiton Petroleum, Clarita Operating LLC and Chesapeake Operating. The companies were injecting fracking wastewater near an active fault.
Steve Horton, an earthquake expert from the University of Memphis, told Truthout that continued fracking activity near the fault could have caused an earthquake strong enough to cause property damage.
At least one resident in the area is suing the gas companies over damage an earthquake caused to his home. [ . . . ]
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7. Fracking at drinking water source for 80,000 Pennsylvanians raises alarms.
http://bit.ly/rnxBbW
Documents and interviews reveal that one Pennsylvania water utility, outside Pittsburgh, has already leased its watershed to gas drillers using fracking — and many others are being courted. Solve Climate News
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8. WATCH: Dangers of Natural Gas Extraction (Video)
http://www.pathslesstravelled.com/2011/06/
watch-dangers-of-natural-gas-extraction.html
Saturday, 18 June, 2011
Fracking is a burgeoning technology being used to extract natural gas locked within rock formations. Fluid is pumped into natural or man made fractures under high pressure to open up cracks and access hard to reach reservoirs.
Critics are calling for a moratorium on fracking, saying it poses serious health risks to nearby residents, damages the environment and could even cause small earthquakes. Supporters say those claims are overblown, and fracking is essential to Alberta's natural gas industry. Is fracking dangerous? Is it critical to our economic future? How should Alberta proceed? Joining us for this discussion is Jessica Ernst, Rosebud resident and former energy sector consultant is now suing Encana; Tim Marchant, Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Energy Geopolitics at the University of Calgary; and Ben Parfitt, Resource Policy Analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Watch video here.
http://www.albertaprimetime.com/Stories.aspx?pd=2455
"Although no complete list of the cocktail of chemicals used in this process exists, information obtained from environmental clean-up sites demonstrates that known toxins are routinely being used, including hydrochloric acid, diesel fuel (which contains benzene, tuolene, and xylene) as well as formaldehyde, polyacrylimides, arsenic, and chromates." Sourcewatch.org
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COMMENT: "I wish, just once, these corporations would admit to what they are doing, instead of always denying the obvious." Margaret Romak
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9. 4 Emmy nominations + Dallas proclamation for Josh Fox/Gasland
HTTP://DALLASDRILLING.WORDPRESS.COM/
2011/07/14/4-EMMY-NOMINATIONSDALLAS-PROCLAMATION-FOR-JOSH-FOXGASLAND/
JULY 14, 2011
Big news from Hollywood. Gasland, has been gifted with 4 Emmy nominations for the upcoming awards ceremony in September.
Details:
http://www.emmys.com/shows/gasland
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10. Green Party of Saskatchewan alarmed by outcome of Canada's annual energy & mines ministers' conference
http://www.greenpartysask.ca/
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 20, 2011
The Green Party of Saskatchewan today expressed "profound disappointment" in the outcome of Canada's annual energy and mines ministers' conference, held on Monday and Tuesday in Kananaskis, Alberta.
Party leader Larissa Shasko said, "Instead of planning for an economically and ecologically sustainable green energy future in Canada where jobs will be created and pollution reduced, the energy and mines ministers have irresponsibly chosen to go the route of increased tar sands extraction that will take Canada and the rest of the world past the tipping point of climate change."
"In describing the Alberta tar sands as a 'sustainable major supplier of energy to the world', the ministers' communiqué distorts the English language to the breaking point. Non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels are by their very nature unsustainable," continues Shasko.
We are already seeing the early impacts of climate change globally in record floods, record droughts, record temperatures, increasingly severe storms, the steady decline of arctic pack ice, and the melting of glaciers worldwide. Weather is becoming more extreme - and not only in rainfall and temperatures in the prairies. This year so far has seen 900 new temperature records in the USA alone and serious drought throughout the US southwest, as well as prolonged and unprecedented floods in Colombia and the developing tragedy of drought in the horn of Africa.
Professional energy consultant Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, who ran for the Green Party in the federal election, pointed out that a graph used in the ministers' report to emphasise "growing global energy demand" describes the International Energy Agency's "current policies scenario", in which increased carbon dioxide emissions would result in a 6 degrees Celsius rise in global average surface temperatures by the end of the century. This would mean, amongst other things, irreversible loss of the polar icecaps, the loss to fire and die-back of most of the world's great forests, and the loss of much oceanic life through acidification. "It is unlikely", says Bigland-Pritchard, "that human civilization could continue for long in such an environment, because of unpredictable and extreme weather, the massive loss of agricultural land, the flooding of major centres of population, the inevitable wars over scarce basic resources, and the destructive impact of failed states."
The Green Party of Saskatchewan insists that such a global catastrophe is not inevitable, and that as a province we have much to gain by doing our fair share to avoid it. Bigland-Pritchard notes the 300 thousand jobs created so far in the green energy sector in Germany. "By making a radical shift to energy efficiency and clean safe renewable energy sources," said Shasko, "we could create local jobs, strengthen local economies and build local communities throughout Saskatchewan." Saskatchewan has the best solar characteristics and the best usable inland wind resource in Canada, good hydroelectric resources, substantial potential for sustainable biomass and deep geothermal energy, and massive scope for energy efficiency savings.
"Given the real enduring long-term opportunities which a green energy economy would bring," said Bigland-Pritchard, "I cannot help wondering why Brad Wall and Bill Boyd choose to pursue policies which privilege oil executives in the short term and cockroaches and mosquitoes in the longer term. They could instead be building a truly sustainable society in which our children can be proud to be citizens."
"A Green government", said Shasko, "would place value on providing for our children, not stealing from them." - 30 –
For more information, contact
Dr Mark Bigland-Pritchard, Professional Energy Consultant,
Mobile: 306.827.7431, Home: 306.997.5721
mark@lowenergydesign.com
Larissa Shasko, Green Party of Saskatchewan Party Leader,
Mobile: 306.690.1404, Home: 306.692.7925
Larissa.Shasko@gmail.com
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11. Mixed reaction to energy plan
http://www.leaderpost.com/business/
Mixed+reaction+energy+plan/5142029/story.html
By Bruce Johnstone, Leader-Post July 22, 2011
While some business groups are applauding the proposed national energy strategy that emerged from the twoday meeting of energy ministers in Kananaskis, Alta., earlier this week, one environmental group is not.
On Tuesday, the federal, provincial and territorial energy ministers issued a communique calling for a national energy strategy that recognizes provincial jurisdiction, market pricing and streamlined regulations for resources, while reaffirming the need to increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact.
Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd said the proposed strategy meets the objectives of both energy producing and consuming provinces, while promoting energy conservation and environmental protection for all Canadians.
The communique was quickly endorsed by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, which represents businesses with $4.5 trillion in assets and 1.4 million employees.
"We were pleased to see broad agreement on the need for Canada to seek out new export opportunities for our energy resources, to encourage more publicprivate sector co-operation in the development of innovative energy technologies, and to improve the resiliency of the country's electricity transmission infrastructure,'' said John Manley, CEO of the CCCE.
"The priorities they identified for further collaboration are the right ones, including the need to make regulatory processes more efficient, transparent and timely. This is critical to ensure that major energy projects that will benefit all Canadians proceed on a timely basis."
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But Larissa Shasko, leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, expressed "profound disappointment'' with the outcome of the energy ministers' meeting.
"Instead of planning for economically and ecologically sustainable green energy future in Canada ... the energy and mines ministers have irresponsibly chosen to go the route of increased tarsands extraction that will take Canada and the rest of the world past the tipping point of climate change.''
Specifically, Shasko blasted the communique's description of the Alberta tarsands as "a sustainable major supplier of energy to the world.'' "Non-renewable, high-carbon fossil fuels are by their very nature unsustainable.''
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12. Quebec drives a wedge into national energy plan
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/quebec-drives-a-wedge-into-national-energy-plan/article2105580/
nathan vanderklippe Last updated Thursday, Jul. 21, 2011 6:29PM EDT
CALGARY— Just days after energy ministers met in Alberta to lay the foundations for a national energy strategy, an accord is already running into roadblocks.
Quebec is pledging its opposition to a national plan, while Ontario and Alberta openly bicker about endorsing the oil sands as a sustainable supplier of energy.
Quebec’s defiance is likely to slow momentum that has been building over the past few years, with corporate and politic leaders increasingly making the case for a co-ordinated national effort on energy. A national approach is needed, supporters say, to streamline regulations, pursue Asian oil and gas exports and support energy research.
Federal, provincial and territorial energy ministers met in Kananaskis, Alta., this week to begin work on a unified energy plan. The goal of those meetings, Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said, was to “set in place some general principles, goals and objectives that will ultimately lead us to a national energy strategy.”
But it has not taken long for cracks to appear in that nascent effort. The day an initial “action plan” was released, Ontario said it did not support language describing the “responsible and sustainable” development of the oil sands.
Now Quebec is saying it wants no part of such a plan.
“Quebec doesn’t want a federal energy strategy because first of all, energy is a provincial competence,” said Marie-France Boulay, director of communications for Nathalie Normandeau, Quebec’s Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife.
The province will support some collaboration on energy, but does “not want a coast to coast” plan, Ms. Boulay said in an e-mail, pointing out that Quebec already has its own strategy emphasizing hydro, wind and energy efficiency. [ . . . ]
More related to this story (All Links on URL above)
Ontario refuses to call Alberta's oil sands 'sustainable and responsible'
Why a national energy strategy makes sense
Industry urges national framework for energy policy
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13. Former Tory staffer now promoting 'ethical oil'
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Environment/2011/07/28/
ethical-oil-tory-staffer/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=290711
By Geoff Dembicki July 28, 2011 10:55 am
A former communications director for Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is now creating provocative online ads describing Alberta’s oil sands as "ethical."
"When petroleum reserves were deposited around the world, it is unfortunate that they were all given to the world's bastards," the 27-year-old Alykhan Velshi told the Globe and Mail. "With the exception of Canada, most of them are with the world's bastards. You need to recognize that when you are buying oil."
The ads key off a phrase, "ethical oil", popularized last year by right-wing commentator Ezra Levant, a former tobacco lobbyist who now works for Sun TV. [ . . . ]
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14. Why oil sands monitoring is still a long way off
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
why-oil-sands-monitoring-is-still-a-long-way-off/article2105867/
By JOSH WINGROVE July 21, 2011
Governments agree there is a problem, but are at odds about who should solve it or how
The findings have trickled out for months - report after report, panel after panel - all in an effort to turn around public perception after 40 years of lax environmental monitoring of the oil sands.
And finally, on Thursday, came a federal plan to monitor the air, water, flora and fauna surrounding the development of one of Canada's critical economic resources.
The comprehensive plan, which says the existing framework is simply inadequate," was put together with recommendations from an independent committee and will measure impacts downwind and downstream of the oil sands. At an estimated cost of $50-million a year, it is endorsed by dozens of credible, independent scientists.
In the eyes of many, it's long overdue. Neither Alberta nor Canada currently have a way to assess the cumulative effect development has had throughout Northern Alberta. Meanwhile, heavy metals have been found in a major local river, and hundreds of fish have been found with deformities - raising questions that require monitoring data for conclusive answers.
Although a plan is in place, many problems persist.
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Outspoken University of Alberta researcher David Schindler, who has authored key studies on the region and was one of the scientists involved in the federal plan, said the province is "meddling." One leadership hopeful for Alberta's governing party panned its "weakness" on the file, while the opposition Liberals likened the federal intervention to how an "unruly child would be scolded by its parents."
A second problem, universally acknowledged, is one of implementation. The federal plan will take years to put into action. Until then, it won't be able to provide data that academics say should be considered before projects are approved. Meanwhile, new mines continue to get the go-ahead, with oil production projected to double by 2020. [ . . . ]
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15. Questions raised about new oilsands monitoring plan
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Questions+raised+about+oilsands+monitoring+plan/5142664/story.html
'Premature' to say industry will pick up tab for 'world-class' program
By Kelly Cryderman, Calgary Herald; Postmedia News July 22, 2011
Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent unveiled a sweeping oilsands monitoring plan on Thursday, but there were quick calls for development to slow while the environmental results are tabulated - and some question who will be picking up the $50 million yearly tab for the program.
As Kent formally announced his "world-class" federal monitoring system for water, air and biodiversity - to be jointly administered with Alberta scientists and bureaucrats - the minister assured reporters that industry is prepared to cover the costs of the program. He added that's what his government expects.
"Fifty million dollars to most of us represents a very large amount of money. But against an industry that is expected to generate $80 billion next year, it's a very small price to pay," the minister said in Ottawa.
However, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers president David Collyer said shortly afterwards that it's "premature to indicate that industry would be happy to pick up the cost." Collyer said better scientific information is good for everyone involved, and he hopes to see the proposed monitoring systems both Alberta and Ottawa blended into one program.
However, he noted industry already picks up many environmental monitoring costs. And while it expects to pick up a portion of costs for future programs "one has to be realistic as well. There are other parties in the mix. There are other environmental impacts in the Athabasca region that extend beyond oilsands activity."
Meanwhile, Greenpeace oilsands activist Mike Hudema released a statement saying such a monitoring system should have been in place decades ago, before oilsands development fully ramped up.
"The question is, will the federal government actually reduce pollution or only track it better?" Hudema said of the federal plan. [ . . . ]
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16. Oil-sands monitoring regime aims to protect air and water quality
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/
ottawa-notebook/oil-sands-monitoring-regime-aims-to-protect-air-and-water-quality/article2104903/
Gloria Galloway Ottawa— Globe and Mail Update July 21, 2011 11:24AM EDT
Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent has unveiled a new monitoring plan for the Alberta oil sands that is aimed at protecting air and water quality as well as biodiversity.
Announced at an Ottawa news conference Thursday, the plan was developed in consultation with more than 200 scientists from the provinces and territories and Canadian universities. [ . . . ]
More related to this story (All Links on URL above)
Ontario refuses to call Alberta's oil sands 'sustainable and responsible'
Canada's energy future
Ottawa energy strategy targets diverse marketplace
Why a national energy strategy makes sense
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17. Canada readies new plan for monitoring oil sands.
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB10001424053111904233404576460401563037870.html
In an effort to clean up the international reputation of its oil sands, Canada's federal government said Thursday it will launch a new air- and water-monitoring program for the industry. Wall Street Journal [Subscription Required]
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18. A Sacred Land, Tarred Black
http://www.sacredland.org/home/films/in-production/
Suncor Energy's tar sands refinery in Alberta, Canada, generates more than oil to fuel American cars. Millions of tons of finely ground tailings waste have piled up along the Athabasca River, bleeding toxins into groundwater. Air pollution turns the snow black for miles around. Fish deformities and rising cancer rates downstream reveal the hidden costs of our energy consumption. Earth Island's Sacred Land Film Project will tell the story of how tar sands mining is affecting the First Nations of Canada in Losing Sacred Ground, an eight-part documentary series that tells stories of Indigenous communities fighting to protect nature and culture around the world. Find more about the series and help SLFP complete their valuable project.
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19. CFFO Commentary - Ontario election and Energy
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/
?u=0cbdc664ae1245371e539f582&id=fd457e0f4b&e=c124fa3c9e
By Nathan Stevens July 22, 2011
Please direct correspondance on the CFFO Commentary to John Clement, General Manager at clement@christianfarmers.org
The Ontario election is looming for Ontario’s politicians and the voting public. Energy is emerging as “the” hot button topic for many voters. The big question is how we are going to organize a sustainable energy system that truly considers the economic, environmental and social consequences.
There is a need for broad deliberations regarding this province’s energy policy. In particular, balance needs to be struck to accommodate both long and short term needs in our energy policy. Ontario’s manufacturing sector was built on affordable energy, which means that minimizing shocks to the system is very important in a time where the global economy is weak. At the same time, in the long-term, diversifying our energy base and channeling resources into tomorrow’s technology is important for a sustainable future.
At the core of the Ontario energy matrix are the traditional sources of energy: coal, nuclear, and hydro. The first two are non-renewable resources that carry heavy environmental risks. Yet there are steps that can be taken to reduce these impacts and mitigate the risks. Is it possible that stopping the use of coal cold turkey is not the best move for the entire economy? Is it possible that a better triple-bottom line answer is to gradually reduce our coal use by blending it with increasing amounts of biomass over time and improving smokestack scrubbers to reduce emissions?
There is no doubt that renewable energy can and should be a part of the mix. [ . . .]
-------
Nathan Stevens is the Research and Policy Advisor for the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario. The CFFO Commentary represents the opinions of the writer and does not necessarily represent CFFO policy. The CFFO Commentary is heard weekly on CFCO Chatham, CKNX Wingham, and UCB Canada radio stations in Chatham, Belleville, Bancroft, Brockville and Kingston. It is also archived on the CFFO website: www.christianfarmers.org. CFFO is supported by 4,200 family farmers across Ontario
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20. Canada 'could be competitive' in LNG
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/
Canada+could+competitive/5148689/story.html
Prices for liquefied natural gas expected to be comparable to Asia Pacific going rate, report says
By Dave Cooper, Edmonton Journal July 23, 2011
Until a few years ago, the big players in the global natural gas exporting business were busy planning tanker terminals to supply what they saw as a huge new market - North America.
But major discoveries of gas in northern British Columbia and the explosion of shale gas projects across the continent have turned the tables. And the temptation is obvious. Natural gas can be compressed and liquefied, basically shrinking 600 times by volume, then piped into LNG ships and transported to Asia and Europe where gas prices track the oil market - and gas sells for three times the North American price.
A new report by energy-research firm Wood Mackenzie this week suggests Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports "could be competitive into Asia Pacific markets on a cost basis against some LNG projects that have recently been sanctioned and some that are seeking sanction in Australia." [ . . . ]
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21. Enbridge Northern Gateway Project - Newsletter
www.gatewaypanel.review.gc.ca.
July 20, 2011
The Joint Review Panel (Panel) for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Project (Project) has issued its first newsletter to help keep you informed about the joint review process and share advice about how to participate. This first newsletter includes information on an upcoming workshop for registered Intervenors and Government Participants and information on the difference between oral statements and oral evidence.
The newsletter is available on the Panel’s website:
www.gatewaypanel.review.gc.ca.
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22. Alberta politicians pipe up the volume
http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/
ministers?utm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=E-News&org=354&lvl=100&ite=2233&lea=56276&ctr=0&par=1
Posted by Emma Gilchrist at Jul 19, 2011 01:45 PM | Permalink
Filed under: Oil Sands
B.C. Premier Christy Clark and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have both been deferring to the National Energy Board review process when the reality is that it is not equipped to make this kind of decision. The question of whether or not Canada plows a pipeline to the West Coast to increase oil exports to China is entirely a political one.
A couple of Alberta ministers have been keeping us incredibly entertained for the past few weeks with their non-stop pressure on the feds to support Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline, which would bring hundreds of oil supertankers to B.C.’s north coast each year to export raw bitumen to Asia.
Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert got things started when he called for the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline to go ahead during a speech at an oilsands conference in Edmonton. He told the conference that Chinese investors have “difficulty understanding why we don’t just plow a line to the West Coast and start shipping more products by tanker tomorrow.” [ . . . ]
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23. Oil spill was 'catastrophic'
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/spill+catastrophic/
5151231/story.html
One year after a huge leak of Alberta crude into a Michigan river, the cleanup continues and a safety debate rages
By Sheldon Alberts, Postmedia News July 24, 2011 3:12 AM
Durk Dunham was having lunch with the Calhoun County sheriff when Dunham's dispatcher called with the news: "We have an oil spill and we need you to respond immediately."
Dunham, the county's director of emergency management, thought it might be something routine - maybe a tractor-trailer had flipped and dumped a couple of hundred gallons of diesel fuel along a back road. How bad could it be?
The awful answer came on a helicopter ride that evening as Dunham flew over the Kalamazoo River with executives from Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.
Below, a sprawling landscape of environmental ruin caused by one of the largest inland freshwater oil spills in American history.
"I saw black liquid flowing where the river used to be. It was just black. It wasn't like a black, watery thing. It was pure black," says Dunham.
"At that point, it was silent in the helicopter. I knew this was catastrophic. Frankly, I was teary-eyed for the whole trip."
It was early on July 26, 2010, that Enbridge detected its Line 6B had ruptured near Talmadge Creek, a meandering stream just outside the city limits of this city of 7,000 in south Central Michigan.
The violent force from the 76-centimetre pipeline sent a gusher of Canadian crude down three kilometres of creek and into a section of the Kalamazoo teeming with turtles, muskrats, fish and Canada geese.
By the time the 41-year-old pipeline was shut down and the spill contained, more than 3.8 million litres of Alberta crude had been dumped into the Michigan wetlands, fouling a 65-kilometre stretch of the Kalamazoo River.
Now, one year later, local residents and U.S. authorities are taking stock of the toll. A National Transportation Safety Board investigation into what caused the two-metre gash in the pipeline is ongoing, with its conclusion perhaps months away. [ . . . ]
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24. How to lead a more transparent government
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/
Work+lead+more+transparent+government/5070617/story.html#ixzz1RcjezNGB
BY FRANK WORK, CALGARY HERALD JULY 8, 2011
There have been calls by some Tory leadership hopefuls for more government transparency in Alberta. Since I am on my way out as information and privacy commissioner of this province, and I will not be in a position to officially advise whomever becomes leader of the Conservatives or the next government, I thought I would offer some suggestions on how to actually implement a more transparent government. Having been at this for 15 years, I believe I have some solid ideas.
First, don't say it unless you mean it. Don't toy with us. Don't toss "open," "accountable," "transparent" at us unless you intend to follow through. Someone might actually remember that you promised it and they might call you on it.
I think most of the leadership hopefuls know this, but if you are truly transparent, interest groups, other politicians, the media and the public will take the information you have disclosed and use it. They may use it to attack your policies, they may use it to make you look bad and they may not even understand it in the first place. You must expect this. This reality is not a justification to withhold information. Nor are concerns that "they might not get it right" or "they won't understand" justification for not being transparent.
Remember, the whole idea of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is to ensure the public has access to information held by government. This information does not belong to government, it belongs to the people who elected you and they deserve to know what you are doing and how you are doing it. [ . . . ]
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25. Montana still keen on Keystone pipeline despite recent spill
http://www.canada.com/travel/
Montana+still+keen+Keystone+pipeline+despite+recent+spill/5073471/story.html
By Sheldon Albert's, Postmedia News July 8, 2011
WASHINGTON — From the moment Exxon Mobil's ruptured Silvertip pipeline dumped 191,000 litres of oil into the Yellowstone River, Montana Gov. Brian Scwheitzer has been after the giant U.S. energy company like "smell on a skunk" — accusing it of a laggard response and inaccurate spill reporting.
But the disaster on one of America's most iconic rivers has done nothing to dull Schweitzer's enthusiasm for Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
The Democratic governor, if anything, has doubled down on his support for the $7-billion oilsands pipeline, which would run under the Yellowstone on its 2,700-kilometre route from Hardisty, Alta., to Port Arthur, Texas.
"I don't think one ought to confuse what happens with this particular old technology, Silvertip, with what will occur in the future," Schweitzer told the Platts news service, in one of several interviews he's given on Keystone XL.
"Unless people are willing to park their cars and move into a cave and live naked and eat nuts, we're going to continue to produce energy and that energy needs to be moved to the source of consumption." [ . . . ]
More on This Story (All Links at URL above)
Pipeline expansion debate creates resource battlefield
Star power pushing back against controversial Keystone pipeline
Canadian oilsands pipeline upsets Nebraskan land owners
Pipeline project from Canada raises concerns for U.S. agency
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26. ExxonMobil not cooperating on oil spill cleanup, Montana governor says.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/
article_262c9051-e429-5ce8-ae64-3bab3ea71432.html
Three weeks after polluting the Yellowstone River, ExxonMobil continues to withhold information key to cleaning up the mess, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Thursday. Billings Gazette, Montana.
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27. US Keeps Commitment To Decide Keystone Pipeline Approval By Year-End
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/
stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201107221612dowjonesdjonline000477&title=updateus-keeps-commitment-to-decide-keystone-pipeline-approval-by-year-end
By Tennille Tracy Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES July 22, 2011
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. officials will release an environmental review in August of TransCanada Corp.'s proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline, putting the federal government on track to stick to a plan to decide whether to approve the controversial project by the end of the year.
In a conference call with reporters Friday, a top State Department official said the release of the environmental review will start a 90-day clock during which other federal agencies will be able to comment on the review.
After that, the State Department will decide whether to approve the Keystone XL project, said Daniel Clune, principal deputy assistant secretary in the department's Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline proposal would extend an existing pipeline that the company operates in the U.S. The extension would pass through several U.S. states, including Montana and Oklahoma.
TransCanada spokesman James Millar said the company is "glad to see a thorough review is being done," but noted the approval process for the pipeline expansion is set to take almost twice as long as the review of the original line.
"The main thing for us is them making a decision on the presidential permit by the end of this year," Millar said.
Environmental groups, which have been vocal critics of the project, said the timeline doesn't give the State Department enough time to examine environmental concerns.
"The State Department cannot possibly address the many glaring gaps in its environmental analysis in the next few weeks, let alone consider lessons from the worrying string of recent pipeline spills," said Damon Moglen, Friends of the Earth's climate and energy director. [ . . . ]
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28. EPA targets air pollution from gas drilling boom.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/
state-and-regional/wyoming/article_f3d7c170-b96b-11e0-b1c1-001cc4c002e0.html
Faced with a natural gas drilling boom that has sullied the air in some parts of the country, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed for the first time to control air pollution at oil and gas wells, particularly those drilled using a method called hydraulic fracturing. Associated Press
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29. Pembina shuts pipeline after leak
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/pembina-shuts-pipeline-after-leak/article2103738/
Carrie tait CALGARY— From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Jul. 20, 2011 2:09PM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, Jul. 20, 2011 7:14PM EDT
The pipeline industry’s reputation – which energy companies need to safeguard to expand oil sands activity – was further dented after another pipeline leaked oil into an Alberta creek.
Pembina Pipeline Corp. shut its line near Slave Lake after discovering a spill that reached to muskeg and an unnamed creek, the company said Wednesday. The line leaked about 1,300 barrels of oil, and Pembina has installed booms and weirs to “reduce any further potential impact.” The company shuttered the line Tuesday morning
A string of leaks is hitting the industry hard, with two high-profile North American projects needing government approval. Enbridge Inc. wants to build a pipeline to the B.C. West Coast from the Alberta oil sands, and TransCanada Corp. is trying to persuade U.S. regulators to approve its proposed line extension to the Gulf of Mexico coast.
If both proposals were to die, oil sands companies will be forced to scale back their ambitious expansion plans. TransCanada’s project is further along in the regulatory process than Enbridge’s, but both face intense political and public scrutiny. Major operators including Exxon Mobil Corp., Enbridge, and TransCanada have all had recent leaks, and each new spill heightens criticism. [ . . . ]
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30. COAL . . . again! – Related Articles
Study maps mercury fallout from Indianapolis power plant.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/ ... 0075/1001/
Study-maps-mercury-fallout-from-Indianapolis-power-plant
An Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis study has found mercury contamination in soil downwind from a coal-fired power plant in Indianapolis, supporting the notion of localized mercury hot spots. Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky.
Cap and trade, once backed by power companies, has an uncertain future.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/07/19/
19greenwire-wrapped-up-in-politics-granddaddy-of-cap-and-tr-2653.html
As the Obama administration tries to cobble back together its signature cap-and-trade program under the Clean Air Act, it faces a daunting array of lawsuits, political pressures and regulatory snags. Greenwire
Apology issued for coalfields birth defects statement.
http://www.register-herald.com/local/x1241068519/
Apology-issued-for-coalfields-birth-defects-statement
Crowell & Moring, a law firm representing the National Mining Association, apologized for a statement indicating birth defects in the coalfields may be caused by inbreeding as opposed to mountaintop mining. Beckley Register-Herald, West Virginia.
Gillard accelerates climate effort; coal industry counters with TV blitz.
http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/07/19 ... 31638.html
The Australian government is pointing to the coal sector's $70 billion investment in new projects as proof that the powerful coal industry isn't as spooked by Prime Minister Julia Gillard's carbon tax as it claims. ClimateWire
Coal Mine At World Heritage Site Approved
http://www.care2.com/causes/
coal-mine-at-world-heritage-site-approved.html
by Andreas S. July 19, 2011
The fight is over and a great park is in danger. Some time ago, I wrote about the threat to South Africa’s unique Mapungubwe National Park from a proposed new coal mine and power station. That threat has now become a reality! After initial delays because the mining company, Australian-owned Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL), had contravened various environmental regulations, South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs last week granted permission for the project to go ahead.
CoAL’s CEO John Wallington has confirmed that construction of the Vele Colliery, a short distance from the national park, would go ahead and should be completed within six to nine months. While Albi Modise, a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Affairs notes that CoAL had entered into a “biodiversity offset agreement” (whatever that entails), these latest developments bode ill for the future preservation of the rich natural and cultural heritage of Mapungubwe.
The area is not only rich in biodiversity and part of a planned future transfrontier park straddling the borders of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, but it also holds remarkable archaeological evidence of a long history of human inhabitation dating back thousands of years. [ . . . ]
Millions of Great Lakes fish killed in power plant intakes.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/
la-na-great-lakes-fish-kills-20110722,0,1444182.story
Despite decades of efforts to restore and protect the Great Lakes, dozens of old power plants still are allowed to kill hundreds of millions of fish each year by sucking in massive amounts of water to cool their equipment. Chicago Tribune, Illinois.
Tough measures for coal industry unveiled.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/
tough-measures-for-coal-industry-unveiled-20110721-1hqzu.html
The state government has detailed new environmental and community consultation conditions for the coal and coal seam gas industry in what it has described as a watershed for mining in New South Wales. Sydney Morning Herald, Australia. [Registration Required]
EPA finalizes guidance to limit mining impacts.
http://wvgazette.com/News/201107210720
Despite strong pressure from the coal industry and its political allies, the Obama administration on Thursday finalized new guidance aimed at reducing the environmental and public health impacts of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. Charleston Gazette, West Virginia.
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31. Climate change skeptic steps down as state climatologist.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110719/NEWS03/
107190357/Climate-change-skeptic-steps-down-state-climatologist
A University of Delaware professor known for his controversial view that people do not contribute to global climate change has stepped down as the state's official climatologist. David R. Legates, a geography professor, will continue to serve on UD's faculty, and university officials said his position on climate change had nothing to do with the move. Wilmington News Journal, Delaware.
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32. OK, climate sceptics: here's the raw data you wanted
http://www.newscientist.com/article/
dn20739-ok-climate-sceptics-heres-the-raw-data-you-wanted.html
By ANDY COGHLAN - NEW SCIENTIST
Added: Thursday, 28 July 2011 at 1:22 PM
More info:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/
climate-monitoring/land-and-atmosphere/surface-station-records
Anyone can now view for themselves the raw data that was at the centre of last year's "climategate" scandal.
Temperature records going back 150 years from 5113 weather stations around the world were yesterday released to the public by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. The only records missing are from 19 stations in Poland, which refused to allow them to be made public.
"We released [the dataset] to dispel the myths that the data have been inappropriately manipulated, and that we are being secretive," says Trevor Davies, the university's pro-vice-chancellor for research. "Some sceptics argue we must have something to hide, and we've released the data to pull the rug out from those who say there isn't evidence that the global temperature is increasing." Hand it over
The university were ordered to release data by the UK Information Commissioner's Office, following a freedom-of-information request for the raw data from researchers Jonathan Jones of the University of Oxford and Don Keiller of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK.
Davies says that the university initially refused on the grounds that the data is not owned by the CRU but by the national meteorological organisations that collect the data and share it with the CRU.
When the CRU's refusal was overruled by the information commissioner, the UK Met Office was recruited to act as a go-between and obtain permission to release all the data.
Read more
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33. Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and Violence
http://www.alternet.org/story/151599/
tropic_of_chaos%3A_climate_change_and_violence?akid=7279.23437.G5gPLC&rd=1&t=18
Christian Parenti's new book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence, explores this dangerous intersection. By Christian Parenti / Nation Books
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34. Report Reveals America Now Receives More Power From Renewable Sources Than Nuclear
http://tinyurl.com/3zl8lwa
by Tafline Laylin, inhabitat.com, July 6 2011
A recent report published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration reveals that America now receives more of its energy from renewable sources than it does from nuclear generation plants. In the first three months of 2011, the country’s biomass/biofuel, hydropower, wind, geothermal, and solar energy generation plants produced a combined 2.245 quadrillion Btus of energy or 11.73 percent of U.S. energy production. During the same period, nuclear energy plants produced 2.125 quadrillion Btus.
According to data taken from the Monthly Energy Review, renewable energy production in the United States has increased by 25 percent since the first quarter of 2009. Biomass/biofuel production makes up a whopping 48 percent of this total. Hydropower contributes 35.41 percent to overall production, while wind, geothermal, and solar account for 12.87, 2.45, and 1.16 percent respectively.
Although it seems that solar production is particularly low, the study found that solar energy generation has increased by 104.8 percent since early 2010, while wind power has increased by 40.3 percent during the same time frame. This renewable thrust bodes well for the United States, particularly given the continued environmental and health impacts expected following the Fukushima disaster in Japan earlier this year. [ . . . ]
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35. Renewable Energy Now Neck and Neck with Nuclear in the US
http://inhabitat.com/
renewable-energy-now-neck-and-neck-with-nuclear-in-the-us/
New renewable energy projects are popping up left and right and we’re stoked to report that in 2010, the amount of green energy generation was finally on . . .
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36. World’s Biggest Producer of Wind Energy Records $4 Billion in Profits in 2010
http://inhabitat.com/
worlds-biggest-producer-of-wind-energy-records-4-billion-in-profits-in-2010/
The world’s largest producer of wind energy, Spain-based Iberdrola SA, blew way analysts’ expectations last year with a whopping $4 billion in profits – analysts . . .
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37. Sweden Aims for 2000 New Wind Turbines, 50% Renewable Energy by 2020
http://inhabitat.com/
sweden-aims-for-2000-new-wind-turbines-50-renewable-energy-by-2020/
John McConnico for The New York Times Maud Olofsson, Sweden’s Enterprise and Energy Minister, announced recently the addition of 2,000 wind turbines to the country’s alternative . . . .
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38. Pushing Death
http://dogwoodinitiative.org/blog/
pushingdeath?utm_source=AdaptiveMailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=E-News&org=354&lvl=100&ite=2233&lea=56276&ctr=0&par=1
Posted by Will Horter at Jul 11, 2011 01:05 PM | Permalink
Filed under: Oil Sands, Stephen Harper
Canada: International pariah on climate change and asbestos.
Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s control, Canada has gone from being a leader in global environmental and health negotiations to being an international pariah. Unlike previous Canadian governments that were praised for their leadership in peacekeeping and reducing landmines, Canada is now the international bad boy.
Harper’s policies on cancer-causing asbestos and heavily climate-polluting oilsands are undermining progress on international health and climate agreements, such as the Rotterdam Convention and Kyoto Protocol. Canada’s embarrassing positions could affect the health and survival of millions of people worldwide.
Canada’s recent action to block asbestos from being listed as a hazardous chemical under an international convention is just the latest in what is becoming an undistinguished track record. Canada has been drawing fire for blocking mandatory warnings around the dangers of asbestos to be required under an international convention. Environment Canada recommended that Canada support listing asbestos as a dangerous carcinogen, but Harper’s government decide to overrule them and stand alone as the only industrialized country against mandatory disclosure of significant health impacts. Only Canada, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan opposed the United Nations declaration last week. [ . . . ]
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39. Quebec asbestos mine could close.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/
2011/07/19/asbestos-could-close.html
Canada's last fully operational asbestos mine says it could be on the verge of shutting down, a closure that would deliver a major blow to the country's controversial industry. Canadian Press
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- Site Admin
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FRACKING ENERGY NEWS - August 25, 2011
by Oscar » Thu Aug 25, 2011 7:58 pm
FRACKING ENERGY NEWS - August 25, 2011
1. Urgent - we’re not letting Minister Kent pretend nothing’s wrong
2. BRIEFING NOTE: SUBJECT: New West Partnership and project charter – "Collaboration and Information Sharing, Industry Water Use and Hydraulic Fracture Technology"
3. Fracking Resources
4. Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. – Fracking east central SK & other areas
5. (Saskatchewan) AUGUST LAND SALE BRINGS IN $21.7 MILLION
6. Alward hopes to raise comfort levels over fracking - N.B. government plans to explain new regulations
7. U of A team coaxes bugs to produce gas - Methane-producing bacteria may be key to new resources
8. The Problem with the Pipeline
9. With Emotions High and Evidence Low, Corrosion Questions Hound Canada-To-U.S. Oil Pipeline
10. NIKIFORUK: Documents Reveal Industry and Gov't Collude on Shale Gas
11. Quebec Superior Court rejects SLAPP against Ugo Lapointe of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine
12. (2006) Corridor Resources BJ Services radioactive frac fluid spill Penobsquis, NB ** Plus: How to handle radioactive fracking sand
13. Feds Say Major New York Gas Pipeline Poses Safety Risk
14. SHIELDS: Now Watch For American Synthetic Crude Oil Exports!!
15. SHIELDS: Bitumen Slurry Shipments Unnecessary!
16. SHIELDS: Why Is This Happening Now?
17. Earthquakes, Earthquakes! And Drilling?
18. Largest Colorado quake in nearly 40 years rattles homes
19. Alberta fears green 'misinformation' on fracking: documents
20. SHIELDS: The Old EnCana Still Acting Against Alberta's Best Interests
21. REPORT: Drilling Below the Surface: Groundwater Risks and In Situ Oil Sands Development
22. The Documents Chesapeake Energy Doesn’t Want You To See
23. Dozens arrested at protest of oil pipeline.
24. In warmer Greenland, shoot the dogs, drill for oil.
25. (April 2011) Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
26. Getting ready for a wave of coal-plant shutdowns.
27. Quake in Japan is causing a costly shift to fossil fuels.
28. Field Reports from the Caribbean: Mapping Renewable Energy Options
29. Guatemala defies human rights body, refuses to suspend Marlin mine
30. Earth's systems in rapid decline
31. U.S. espionage investigation against WikiLeaks: Patriot Act order unsealed
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1. Urgent - we’re not letting Minister Kent pretend nothing’s wrong
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Urgent - we’re not letting Minister Kent pretend nothing’s wrong
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:08:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Matthew Carroll, Leadnow.ca matthew@leadnow.ca
Environment Minister Kent just announced the new coal power regulations at a press conference in Saskatchewan. *Thousands of us told Kent that Maxim Coal getting a free pass to pollute is unacceptable, but Kent is
trying to dodge the issue, and pretend that nothing is wrong. We need you to pick up the phone, right now, to flood his office with phone calls.*
*This morning Minister Kent left the "Maxim Power loophole" completely open* -- the draft regulations say that if Maxim gets their dirty and dangerous coal plant into operation before July 1st 2015, it will count as an "existing" plant and not be regulated. That’s exactly why Maxim Power, and the Alberta regulators, have been rushing the project forward to slide their dirty coal plant in under the wire.
Remember that former Environment Minister Jim Prentice made a very clear commitment to Canadians: “We will guard against any rush to build non-compliant coal plants on the interim.”
*We need your help - right now - to tell Kent that we’re not going to let him quietly break his own government’s promise.*
Minister Kent is counting on being able to let Maxim get away with this without a political cost, he’s counting on the fact that it’s a Friday in August and Canadians wont be paying attention. *Let's flood his offices with phone calls right now, to make sure he gets the message that Canadians aren't going to let him hand Maxim Power a free pass to pollute.*
*Here's how - it only takes a couple of minutes:*
1. Call one of the numbers below - if it's busy, try a different number
2. Say you're calling about Minister Kent's coal announcement this morning, and want to leave a message for Minister Kent
3. Say you want minister Kent to tell Canadians: *Is he going to keep his government's promise, and make sure Maxim Power doesn't cheat the new rules?*
4. When you're done, please thank the staff person who takes your call (they're good people)
*Environment Canada Office (direct):* 819-997-1441
*Environment Canada (toll free):* 1-800-668-6767 (ask to be transferred
to Minister Kent's office)
*Ottawa Office:* 613-992-0253
*Constituency Office:* 905-886-9911
*Sources:*
Canada moves ahead with new coal-fired power rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/19/
canada-environment-electricity-idAFN1E77I0S120110819
Environment Canada News Release
http://www.ec.gc.ca/
default.asp?lang=En&n=714D9AAE-1&news=2E5D45F6-E0A4-45C4-A49D-A3514E740296
--
Matthew Carroll
Campaigns Director - Leadnow.ca
cell: 289.244.9930 | skype: matthew.f.carroll
www.leadnow.ca
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2. BRIEFING NOTE: SUBJECT: New West Partnership and project charter – "Collaboration and Information Sharing, Industry Water Use and Hydraulic Fracture Technology"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62597277/Frac ... efing-Note
DATE: August 3, 2011
ISSUE: The Minister’s of Energy for British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan signed a Memorandum of Understanding December 16, 2010 to provide for collaboration and joint action on issues related to unconventional shale gas development. One of several priority initiatives of the partnership is to work together to address fracture technology and water issues.
This briefing includes information on the water and technology collaboration working group that has been assembled from the three provinces, including staff from the Water Policy Branch of Alberta Environment.
Support for the project charter is requested from the Assistant Deputy Minister for Environmental Policy. [ . . . ]
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3. Fracking Resources
Ernst vs Encana case:[/b]
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/news-multimedia
Links & Resources:
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/links-resources
Fracking Canada:
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/2011/08/
workshop-albertans-intent-on-protecting.html
OTHER:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/
viewforum.php?f=31&sid=f54e4471d0b5f6c7281d9cf346e94131
New West Partnership Charter:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62597277/Frac ... efing-Note
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4. Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. – fracking east central SK & other areas in Western Canada
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
QUOTE: "We may also consider undertaking a frack of the well" (Land Description: 4-11-35-4 W2)
Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. (NOG:TSX) announced on August 22nd that the recent attempt in undertaking its scheduled acidizing on the company's 4-11-35-4 W2 situated in east central Saskatchewan well was unsuccessful due to settling tool failure. (Emphasis added. Ed.)
CEO of Nordic Oil states, "The intention of the setting tool was to isolate the perfs individually and separately squeeze the acid into each formation. When we realized the setting tool was not going to work properly, we had no choice but to attempt the wash in some alternative manner, as the acid had to be used and the day rate was there regardless for all the other services.
- - - - SNIP - - -
Of particular significance is the fact that when the tool was removed form the hole, there was clear evidence of oil which further confirms the Company's belief that the well has penetrated either a new, or the edge of a new oil pool in the Red River Formation.
Furthermore, we also plan on conducting additional exploration activities in the area, including shooting new seismic, and acquiring some satellite imagery and soil gas analysis. We may also consider undertaking a frack of the well."
Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. is a junior oil and gas company engaged in the exploration and development of oil, natural gas and Coal Bed Methane in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Company has a market cap of $8.4 million and 93.1 million shares outstanding.
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Lower Shaunavon – Saskatchewan’s stealth oil play
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
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QUOTE: "In 2010, the Saskatchewan government extended favorable royalty and regulatory practices. New horizontal wells are exempt from royalties on the first 100,000 barrels (2.5% mineral tax applies and must be paid). Drilling permits are done promptly and turnaround time is expeditious."
- - - - -
August 22, 2011
Higher oil prices, smaller land base choice and overheated land sales in Alberta are driving back oil companies seeking highly prospective oil plays into Saskatchewan. Last three provincial land sales indicate that southern Saskatchewan and in particular lower Shaunavon is the prime choice.
The Shaunavon formation is composed of two members with different properties. Both members were formed in the Bathonian age and are situated in Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The upper unit is composed of sandstone, limestone or dolomite. The lower member is made up of microcrystalline limestone situated below sedimentary bedrock of oolite (egg stones).
The Shaunavon formation presently consists of 131 discovered oil pools and has a current assessment of 2 billion barrels of discovered oil in place. Canada’s National Energy Board estimates that there are an another 896 undiscovered oil pools and an additional 3.3 billion barrels of crude oil in place. [ . . . ]
By J. Klemchuk
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Drilling activity in Western Canada gaining momentum and signs of a robust future
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
Drilling activity has made a dramatic and unexpected recovery during the past two weeks. Field conditions are beginning to improve following above normal rainfall during spring and early summer months. There are still several pockets in southwestern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan which are very wet. These will return to normal if present drying conditions prevail.
This week’s rig count as reported by Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (COADC) has soared by 111 active rigs above the five year average and 98 rigs more than were drilling at this time last year. Total active rigs throughout western Canada topped at 476. Five year average is 365 active rigs during the first week in August.
Alberta leads with a total of 309 rigs which are drilling. Saskatchewan’s rig activity is up to 101. British Columbia follows with 53 rigs in operation and Manitoba is regaining its previous momentum with 13 active rigs. This past spring Manitoba set several 10 year drilling records. [. . . . . ]
By Allan Pierce, for Canadian Insight
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Note from the Editor :
Summer is quickly slipping by and days are getting shorter. This year’s reality is beginning to sink in.
What looked as a somewhat promising year to invest has turned rather sour. Many investors have been turned off by the murky atmosphere and buried their interests elsewhere.
Some may have acted in desperation and packed it in. We have all been hit for the second time in three years. Total global market losses for 2008 meltdown and 2011 August market collapse is estimated by some to be 22.6 trillion dollars.
The luster of rising gold and silver prices is very attractive. Gold surge to new record highs of $1800/ounce and silver at $40/ounce.
Oil, on the other hand, has plummeted by $25 per barrel and is hovering at $85/bbl. Optimism in our oilsands is beginning to look lackluster.
Some investors are searching for a quick fix to their sinking portfolio. Precious metals and gold mining companies look like a great place to be in.
You may be asking, "Is this the right time for making some bold moves to your investments?"
We are taking a close look at the growing ‘gold bubble’, the risks involved, and whether you should be making some big changes.
Remember, "It’s always the darkest just before dawn."
Here’s to better times,
J. Klemchuk
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Priming the pump for Manitoba sweet crude
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
QUOTE: "Drilling interest in Manitoba’s oil patch is red hot."
Competition amongst Canada’s western provinces has always been keen in the oil patch. Every province has its own royalties and incentive programs structured to entice and maintain new developing reserves. One slip up and companies will leave in droves into neighboring provinces. Luring back lost interest can be costly and difficult.
Smaller players like Manitoba have to be vigilant to maintain and lure new exploration and development. Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan are well noted beyond the borders for their large oil and natural gas reserves. Frequently, their scheduled crown land sales play an important role in attracting oil companies into prospective and renowned plays.
By J. Klemchuk
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The reality behind Alberta southern basin — ‘Exshaw Bakken Play’
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
Most of our readers are well acquainted with the Bakken and associate it to southeastern Saskatchewan, southwestern Manitoba and northern half of the state of North Dakota. This region is well noted for its high quality crude oil and its large reserves.
News during the past year has spread that southern Alberta and northern Montana may have been blessed with an extension of the famous Bakken. It’s an area which has eluded the buzz and excitement of oil exploration. This new discovery has been dubbed the Exshaw Bakken but is it really an extension of the Bakken?
J. Klemchuk
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Some uncertainties remain in the oil markets
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
Canadian Insight’s annual in-depth look at crude oil markets, determining factors, associated problems and oil price expectations for the remaining months in 2011.
The single largest consumer of crude oil is still the U.S. In 2011, American weekly imports are continuing to average near 9 million barrels per day. This is equal to the output of Saudi Arabia. Current U.S. oil imports are 9.5% of the total daily global consumption. America depends on more than half its oil requirements on imports. [ . . . ]
By J. Klemchuk
Author is a well experienced oil and gas analyst, writer of a variety of articles for "Oil-Price.net", "JeriCan on Oil" and "Canadian Insight".
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5. (Saskatchewan) AUGUST LAND SALE BRINGS IN $21.7 MILLION
http://gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=1b675631-4 ... 86e5daa091
News Release - August 11, 2011
The August sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights has generated $21.7 million in revenue for the province. This brings land sale revenues for the 2011 calendar year to $214.9 million.
While the August revenue numbers were down from those for recent sales, Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd was pleased with the overall result.
"We were expecting a smaller sale after two years of intense land acquisition by our oil industry," Boyd said. "The sale numbers demonstrate continuing and sustained interest in our oil patch, but I believe what we're also seeing now is an evaluation by companies of the properties they currently have, plus a budgetary focus on coordinating drilling programs in areas that had been affected by the wet conditions this year."
"Drilling continues to be ahead of last year, with a record number of rigs working in the province. And clearly the industry has confidence in Saskatchewan, as evidenced by our province's number one investment ranking for Canada in the Fraser Institute's 2011 Global Petroleum Survey."
August's sale included 186 lease parcels that attracted the $21.7 million in bonus bids.
The Weyburn-Estevan area received the most bids with sales of $11 million. The Lloydminster area was next at $5.7 million, followed by the Swift Current area at $2.8 million and the Kindersley-Kerrobert area at $2.2 million.
The highest price for a single parcel was $1.1 million. Prairie Land & Investment Services Ltd. acquired this 518-hectare lease parcel southwest of Estevan.
The highest price on a per-hectare basis was $8,889. Highrock Energy Ltd. and Villanova Oil Corp. cost-shared a bid of $779,911 for an 88-hectare lease parcel between Manor and Redvers.
The next sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas and oil shale dispositions will be held on October 3, 2011. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis
Energy and Resources
Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
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6. Alward hopes to raise comfort levels over fracking - N.B. government plans to explain new regulations
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/
2011/08/24/nb-alward-swn-fracking-education-527.html
CBC News Posted: Aug 24, 2011 6:43 AM AT Last Updated: Aug 24, 2011 11:13 AM AT
Alward plans education campaign on hydro-fracking
Related Links (Links are on original URL)
Fracking will lead to more protests: Green leader
SWN to stop N.B. seismic testing
Premier David Alward is promising his Progressive Conservative government will keep trying to persuade New Brunswickers that hydro-fracking is safe despite the simmering public opposition.
Alward was responding to a decision by SWN Resources Canada to suspend seismic testing for the rest of the year.
The company blamed the decision on the vandalism, theft and threats it has experienced in recent months.
Alward told reporters on Tuesday that he's focused on putting regulations in place for the shale gas industry and letting people know they're there.
SWN Resources Canada announced it has halted its seismic testing in New Brunswick for the remainder of 2011.
"You know the most important thing we can do is make sure we understand the development, to ensure that we put in place the necessary regulations so people can feel comfortable and confident, and then get that information out. And that's what we'll do," Alward said.
The premier also downplayed the impact of the decision by SWN Resources to halt its seismic testing.
Alward said that doesn't necessarily mean the search for natural gas in New Brunswick will be delayed. [ . . . ]
-- - - -
LISTEN: CBC New Brunswick's political podcast discuss the issue of hydro-fracking.
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/spin ... _44299.mp3
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7. U of A team coaxes bugs to produce gas - Methane-producing bacteria may be key to new resources
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/
team+coaxes+bugs+produce/5298218/story.html
BY DAVE COOPER, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM AUGUST 24, 2011
EDMONTON - Bacteria that feed on coal seams and create methane gas could be coaxed to produce more of the clean-burning fuel, a new source of energy locked in the world’s vast coal deposits.
That’s one of the goals of a major project begun this summer at the University of Alberta, part of a three-year national study which aims to shed some light on the little understood microscopic world of anaerobic bacteria that live in coal and produce the gas which is recovered though coal bed methane extraction. Methane is the same gas that causes deadly explosions in coal mines. [ . . . ]
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8. The Problem with the Pipeline
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/
2011/08/tar-sands-xl-keystone-pipeline-protest.html
News Desk Notes on Washington and the world by the staff of The New Yorker.
* August 23, 2011 Posted by Elizabeth Kolbert
The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would start in the town of Hardisty, which about a hundred and twenty-eight miles southeast of Edmonton. It would cross the Canadian-U.S. border in Montana, jog through western South Dakota, then head down through Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma all the way to refiners on the Gulf Coast. The pipeline, a thousand seven hundred and two miles long, would carry crude from what supporters call the oil sands and critics the tar sands—a huge deposit of very heavy hydrocarbons in central Alberta. (I wrote about the Alberta tar sands for The New Yorker in 2007.) Today is Day 4 of a “Stop the Pipeline” sit-in at the White House, and so far two hundred and twenty-two people have been arrested, including, just this morning, the actress Margot Kidder. The sit-in is being billed as “the biggest act of civil disobedience in the history of the climate movement.” In a phone interview from D.C., Bill McKibben, the moving force behind the protests (and a former staff writer for The New Yorker) described it as “very civil” disobedience. [ . . . ]
- - - - -
Jailed Over Big Oil's Latest Attempt to Kill the Planet
http://www.alternet.org/environment/152171/
jailed_over_big_oil's_latest_attempt_to_kill_the_planet
After being arrested protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, activist Bill McKibben shares what he learned.
August 25, 2011
- - - -
QUOTE: "First, it made Keystone XL -- the new, 1,700-mile-long pipeline we’re trying to block that will vastly increase the flow of “dirty” tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico -- into a national issue. A few months ago, it was mainly people along the route of the prospective pipeline who were organizing against it. (And with good reason: tar sands mining has already wrecked huge swaths of native land in Alberta, and endangers farms, wild areas, and aquifers all along its prospective route.)”
- - - - - -
I didn’t think it was possible, but my admiration for Martin Luther King, Jr., grew even stronger these past days.
As I headed to jail as part of the first wave of what is turning into the biggest civil disobedience action in the environmental movement for many years, I had the vague idea that I would write something. Not an epic like King's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” but at least, you know, a blog post. Or a tweet.
But frankly, I wasn’t up to it. The police, surprised by how many people turned out on the first day of two weeks of protests at the White House, decided to teach us a lesson. As they told our legal team, they wanted to deter anyone else from coming -- and so with our first crew they were… kind of harsh. [ . . . . ]
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9. With Emotions High and Evidence Low, Corrosion Questions Hound Canada-To-U.S. Oil Pipeline
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/08/23/
23greenwire-with-emotions-high-and-evidence-low-corrosion-11949.html
By ELANA SCHOR of Greenwire Published: August 23, 2011
OUTSIDE FORT McMURRAY, Alberta -- Hold a vial of pumped and processed oil to the light here, just before it enters the pipeline that one executive jokingly calls "the cash register," and you can see a layer of watery sediment settled at the bottom.
The vial contains diluted bitumen. What happens to it inside pipelines, 0.5 percent sediment content and all, is powering a controversy that spans the continent.
Environmental and safety groups warn that diluted bitumen poses a greater risk of pipeline corrosion and spills than conventional fuel or the synthetic crude also produced from the Canadian oil sands. The oil and gas industry, bolstered by Canadian regulators and policymakers, blasts this claim as hyperbolic fearmongering.
"The challenge we have is combating emotion with facts," Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said during an interview this month when asked about the safety charges leveled by critics of oil sands development, particularly the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline.
Liepert readily acknowledged, however, that few if any targeted studies of diluted bitumen's corrosion risks are available to help him make the case for more oil sands development.
"I guess we could" gather specific facts to help beat back conservationist attacks, he added. "It wouldn't seem to me like a difficult thing to do."
Yet at the Calgary headquarters of the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), the independent (Emphasis Added. Ed.) regulator of Alberta's vast and lucrative oil sands resources, the very notion of studying how diluted bitumen affects pipeline safety struck senior officials as unnecessary. [ . . . ]
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10. NIKIFORUK: Documents Reveal Industry and Gov't Collude on Shale Gas
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/08/19/
Government-Industry-Collude-on-Shale-Gas/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=220811
Alberta New Dems release secret agreements about handling public opinion.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 19 Aug 2011, TheTyee.ca
Alberta's New Democrats have called for a special provincial investigation of controversial shale gas drilling following the release of two leaked government documents showing strong collusion between industry and government on resource development in three western provinces.
A government of Alberta cabinet briefing note dated Aug. 3, 2011 says, "Shale gas environmental concerns in the media and in the public in other jurisdictions are potentially problematic for energy development and environmental management in Alberta."
The note also reveals that one of Canada's most powerful lobby group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, has approached the Alberta government about shale gas issues in order "to enhance public communication."
"It's another example of Alberta's Conservatives working behind closed doors with industry and keeping it as secret as possible," charged New Democrat MLA and environment critic Rachel Notley. She wants an independent investigation on the technology. [ . . . ]
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11. Quebec Superior Court rejects SLAPP against Ugo Lapointe of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine.
http://www.miningwatch.ca/news/rejet-de ... e-lapointe
MiningWatch Canada FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(see below for release in French from Coalition Québec meilleure mine)
Ottawa, August 3, 2011. MiningWatch Canada was pleased to learn of the Superior Court of Quebec's recent rejection of a suit considered to be a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), filed against Ugo Lapointe of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine. Petrolia, a natural gas exploration company, had charged Lapointe with defaming it in comments made to a journalist and quoted in the Quebec newspaper Le Soleil. The company was seeking $350,000 in damages. Lapointe and his supporters, including MiningWatch, had maintained that the comments were a criticism of Quebec's mineral extraction laws, not the individual company.
SLAPP suits are used by some corporations to intimidate and punish critical voices. Tying up critics in court challenges taps their resources and means others may think twice about speaking out. Fortunately, Quebec has an anti-SLAPP law that helped have this case thrown out after only one hearing.
The judge agreed that the comments were general and not directed at Petrolia. She noted the importance of the public participation and free speach of citizens like Mr. Lapointe around important public issues, such as the management of Quebec's mineral and gas resources.
Mr. Lapointe has been an important voice on policy issues in Quebec providing critical and constructive commentary on the mining and gas sectors. Ramsey Hart of MiningWatch commented that "We share Ugo's relief that the burden of a SLAPP suit has been lifted and that he has been vindicated by the court." - 30 -
Contact, Ramsey Hart 613-569-3439
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Links
A PDF of the full court judgment (French)
http://www.naturequebec.org/ressources/fichiers/
Energie_climat/Poursuite/JugementCourSuperieure_AffairePetroliaUgoLapointe.pdf
MiningWatch's comment on suit from February 2011http://www.miningwatch.ca/news/
oil-and-gas-company-tries-stifle-debate-sues-quebec-mining-coalition-spokesperson
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12. (2006) Corridor Resources BJ Services radioactive frac fluid spill Penobsquis, NB
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/fracspillfirst101.pdf
In 2006 there was a Frack spill in Penobsquis, with radio active tracer. The following links will connect you to the PDF’s of the document that Corridor Resources put in the mailboxes of local Landowners and concerned Community members:
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Frackspillsecond101.pdf
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Frackspillthird10pgs.pdf
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/fracspilllast10pages1.pdf
- Concerned Citizens of Penobsquis, New Brunswick
A few key quotes from the company documents linked above:
"On August 23, 2006, Corridor had an accidental release of frac fluid (water, methanol, and small amounts of various environmentally friendly chemicals) and sand that included trace amounts of low level, short half-life radioactive material...."
"...the Protechnics engineer who works with this radioactive material for a living is exposed to less radiation than an individual who smokes 11/2 packs of cigarettes per day. It is also important to note that the engineer requires no additional protection clothing...."
"...there is no chance of contamination of any fluids, including groundwater." - in my view, that is mighty arrogant, and impossible for anyone to truthfully claim, even a frac'er
"The BJ Services frac'ing equipment was in the final stages of the stimulation operation when a washout of a segment of the frac iron occurred (piping between the pump trucks and the wellhead - see attached pictures)."
"There were no RA tracer beads found outside the lease area." - ah, but did they look, and if they did, how did they look? the radioactive material is tiny, and would not be easy to find. did the company use looking techniques to ensure not finding any? That seems to be the Frac'ing Way.
"It was estimated that 2-4 m3 of frac fluid and 600 - 1200 kg (200 - 400 litres) frac sand was released...." - estimated, and by the company no less.
"The main cause for the incident was the erosion of the "Y" on the frac iron at the point of high velocity and a change in direction of the sand laden fluid stream. The root cause for the failure of this piece of equipment was the frequency of inspection on this equipment."
HANDLING OF RADIOACTIVE FRAC SAND REGULATIONS
http://www.ratracer.ca/frac_sand.htm
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulations for disposal of sand labeled with a radioactive prescribed substance are as follows:
"Contaminated sand to be buried at the worksite under at least 30 centimeters of soil provided that the specific activity is less than 370 kBq per kilogram of sand."
"Any other waste disposal method will require specific written approval to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission."
INTERPRETATION
The above regulation refers to "370 kBq of activity" which is the equivalent of 10 microcuries (uCi) of Iridium 192, Scandium 46 and Antimony 124 per kilogram of frac sand. This amount translates into 10 millicuries per tonne of sand which is considerably higher than the amount injected per tonne (1 mCi/Tonne).
CONTAMINATION MONITORING
Returned sand can be assumed to be contaminated and buried as per instructions below under "Burial of Sand"
R.A. Tracer will return to the location to monitor returned frac sand, prepare a contamination survey report and provide instructions on the steps that must be followed to safely satisfy regulation requirements. An additional fee will apply for this service.
All monitoring performed by R,A, Tracer will be with the use of a Ludlum pancake monitor. The following calculations have been made for this specific instrument to correspond with necessary actions that need to be taken. The recorded level and action required are as follows:
LEVEL RECORDED ACTION REQUIRED
0-200 counts per minute Normal disposal method
200-15000 counts per minute Burial of sand on lease
Over 15000 counts per minute R. A. Tracer will contact C.N.S.C. for instructions
BURIAL OF SAND
Once the sand has been recovered in it’s entirety, the oil company must request that R.A. Tracer monitor the returns to establish the level of contamination and supervise the cleanup to satisfy CNSC regulations.
The following actions should be taken to limit the amount of hydrocarbons in the sand to be buried:
Pump a sufficient amount of water into the tank to displace the hydrocarbons out of the sand.
With the use of a vacuum truck, skim the hydrocarbons out of the tank. Care should be taken to ensure that none of the sand is inadvertently picked up.
Dispose of the hydrocarbons in normal fashion.
The sand/water mixture can now be removed from the tank and buried on the lease. The pit for burial should be excavated first and be deep enough to allow a minimum of 30 cm. of soil cover. The sand can be removed with the use of a vacuum truck or manually shovelled into a pit. The following safety tips should be adhered to during this operation:
During clean-out:
Wear protective clothing (gloves, coveralls and boots).
Cover all open skin, abrasions and cuts.
Keep hands away from mouth and nose (no smoking/eating).
Avoid spreading contaminated sand around lease.
Following clean-out:
a. Rinse tools used in clean-out with water.
b. Dispose of gloves used in clean-out.
c. Wash hands in warm soapy water.
(2006) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES CAN THE CONTAMINATED SAND BE TAKEN TO A RECYCLING FACILITY.
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(2006) Spill site is free of radioactive waste, says Corridor Resources
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2006/
10/02/nb-spill.html
Last Updated: Monday, October 2, 2006 | 9:24 AM AT CBC News
QUOTE: "A spokesman for the commission said the company stated that it had disposed of the substance properly, but it hasn't verified this claim by visiting the site."
A resource company says it has cleaned up 3,000 litres of material containing a low-level radioactive substance it spilled while drilling for natural gas in the Sussex area in August.
The material that Corridor spilled is called frac sand and is used to fill rock fissures when drilling for natural gas. Frac sand contains some low-level radioactive isotopes.
The spill occurred Aug. 23 at a drill site on land belonging to a family in Penobsquis, said Corridor president Norm Miller.
"It was cleaned up immediately under strict supervision by the Environment Department and no risk of any significance to any personnel," said Miller.
The company buried the material temporarily on another landowner's property, he said.
According to federal regulations, the frac sand must be buried under at least 30 centimetres of soil to be neutralized. [ . . . ]
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WELCOME TO CORRIDOR RESOURCES INC.
http://www.corridor.ca/
Corridor Resources Inc. is a junior resource company engaged in the exploration for and development and production of petroleum and natural gas onshore in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Québec and offshore in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Corridor currently has natural gas reserves and production in the McCully Field near Sussex, New Brunswick and discovered crude oil reserves in the Caledonia Field, near Sussex, New Brunswick in 2008.
In addition, Corridor has contingent resources and discovered shale gas resources in Elgin, New Brunswick.
Corridor's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX"), under the symbol "CDH".
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13. Feds Say Major New York Gas Pipeline Poses Safety Risk
http://www.propublica.org/article/
feds-say-major-new-york-gas-pipeline-poses-safety-risk
by Nicholas Kusnetz | @nkus August 5, 2011
A recent inspection of a natural gas pipeline stretching across New York found that sections may have been installed without proper evaluation. Without changes, the pipeline could be at risk of rupturing.
More coverage:
Fracking: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking
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14. SHIELDS: Now Watch For American Synthetic Crude Oil Exports!!
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P. ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Cc: rd ; Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2011 11:16 AM
Subject: Now Watch For American Synthetic Crude Oil Exports!!
With United States going to export with natural gas, where does Canada's export market lay? Are we about to allow the American buyer to obtain cheap Canadian natural gas, upgrade it for world exports and profit nicely and further on Canadian stupidity? How long will it take the American's to put Canada in the same position with bitumen exports? With the demand for crude oil dropping in United States and Canada anxious to sell increasingly larger volumes of raw bitumen for extremely low prices into that market, we have the same scenario as natural gas 10 years ago. Canada may at some down the road date be able to move small amounts of LNG to world markets, but the lack of enthusiasms displayed by Canada and the control "big-Inch" pipeline companies have through NEB over natural gas, indicates the main flow of product from Canada will be through the low priced NAFTA market.
How wonderful we have not committed our Arctic natural gas supplies to this markets through paying the construction tab for the richest CARTEL in the free world to build the Mackenzie pipeline! Allowing a foreign CARTEL to control our Arctic region through control and movement of Arctic riches could have been as devastating as Mulroney's "Free-Trade" and degulation on mainland natural gas prices. Canada seems incapable under Tory governments to break free of American domination in the resource sector. Fear of work by Canada's Tory governments seems to allow the ambitious Americans marvelous opportunism to score finaniacially using a little effort and Canadian products!!
The big scare for Canadians comes however from the export of raw bitumen to United states destinations. The loss of the huge profits involved in upgrading to a light synthetic crude will become missing in Canada when the time comes to pay the environmental bill for bitumen production. Although upgrading at source makes much more sense than pushing a slurry thousands of miles only to do the same thing, Canadian Tory governments not wanting to become involved, would sooner take the much lower price for their owning public, and let the Americans have top profits and jobs from a Canadian resource! Watch for the announcements of light synthetic crude oil being exported from United states. we have already surrendered the LNG issue!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - -
A long-term play on the LNG boom
http://www.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2011/August/3/
A-long-term-play-on-the-LNG-boom
But the best opportunities for natural gas lie ahead for the United States. Those will come from the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
I’ve written extensively about the glut of natural gas in the United States on numerous occasions.
Our overabundance of supply has come about largely from the explosion of horizontal drilling, fracking and extraction of gas from America’s abundant shale gas formations.
Over the last two years, we’ve added hundreds of trillions of cubic feet to our reserves. They now stand north of 2,000 trillion cubic feet. That’s more than a 100-year supply.
As technological advances continue to be applied to shale drilling and fracking processes, that reserve number is bound to jump even further. I believe it could double in the next five years. And there’s another great way to invest in this boom… [ . . . ]
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15. SHIELDS: Bitumen Slurry Shipments Unnecessary!
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: minister.energy@gtov.ab.ca ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 12:11 PM
Subject: Bitumen Slurry Shipments Unnecessary!
It's about time the environmentalist used what is the important difference between shipping upgraded synthetic crude and bitumen slurry!! Show any landowner or emergency response captain a sample of both, and ask them which of the two they would prefer to clean-up after a spill. The question of trying to push this bitumen slurry need not go any further, as it is not necessary to try to push a slurry thousands of miles only to do what can be accomplished at source! Just why our Tory politician's are breaking their backs to cost Canadian's 35,000,000 million dollars per day for every million bibles of bitumen exported is a question opposition parties should be asking of the Harper and Alberta Tories. The fact that bitumen must be made a slurry before it can be pumped should itself send warnings that the pressure differential to move bitumen slurry is going to be greater than to push than light synthetic crude oil! That the newly licensed Keystone pipeline carrying slurry has had over 25 spill incidents is solid evidence that should get regulators attention.
The facts that over twice the volume of slurry must be moved as synthetic crude, for the same end result, along with twice the needed pipelines and twice the dangers of spill incidents. Also slurry is a sour product while synthetic crude is a light sweet crude that according to Suncor commands a price of $35 dollars per bbl. over the price of bitumen. Environments must start questioning the straight business reasons for moving bitumen as a slurry to United States, rather than shipping the far easier to clean synthetic crude that returns so much more money to Canadian coffers? Why indeed is our Alberta and Federal governments so anxious to move the more environmentally unfriendly, and lowest priced product to export? Should the Environmental movement start to accuse the Tory governments of supporting industry in ducking their environmental responsibilities by exporting the problem to another jurisdiction? What other reason would have Canada exporting a product in it's cheapest and lowest price form while surrendering so much more with respect to jobs, royalties, taxes, and spin-off industries?
The petroleum industry have never been open or honest with the owning public of petroleum resources. Insisting they needed subsidizes only to report quadruple earning in some instances, and slowing industrial growth by the greedy pump prices for transportation vehicles! Crown Corporations should be struck to handle the "Public-Part" and ownership of petroleum resources. The bevy of methods that have been developed to move funds designed for the public treasurer back to industry profits, would have to clear a knowledgeable leadership of the C.C. intent on the public good! Exporting jobs, Taxes, Royalties, spin off industries, never mind profits, of a publicly owned resource, would be much harder to get past even a "Low-Brow" public with a C.C. mandated to perform in the public interest. Environments have every right to use what they can to stop the very stupid idea of moving a bitumen slurry thousands of miles when that action is unnecessary and against the best interests of the Canadian public.
The United States will be unable to refuse the stupid deal Alberta and Canadian Tory governments are offering in the long run! Ignoring the environmental and business costs of pushing a slurry thousands of miles only to do what could have been done at source, has the advantages of having the Americans again control both the development and price of a Canadian publicly owned resource. This has already happen with natural gas, but we have leant nothing from that experience. The temptation of gaining $ 35,000,000 dollars every day for each million bbls.of bitumen Canada exports will prove too much for the Americans to turn down, notwithstanding the jobs, spin-off industries, on and on!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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Oil sands critics target a new concern – pipelines
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-sands-critics-target-a-new-concern-pipelines/article2116408/
nathan vanderklippe
CALGARY— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published Monday, Aug. 01, 2011 7:00PM EDT
The crude oil that is pulled from Canada’s oil sands is thick and heavy, a black tar-like substance that takes large amounts of energy and effort to make into end products like gasoline and diesel. Even some people in the Alberta energy industry describe it as “nasty” stuff. But is it also dangerous?
More related to this story (Links at URL above)
The oil-diamond analogy
Ethical Oil ad campaign
Ex-Tory message maven tailors his spin to oil sands
A world with $100 oil
Over the past few months, critics of the oil sands have taken a new tack. They are now arguing that oil sands crude, which contains more contaminants than traditional sources of crude, poses a risk to pipeline safety – and they’ve linked the recent spate of North American oil pipeline spills to what they say is the corrosive content of oil sands products. [ . . . ]
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16. SHIELDS: Why Is This Happening Now?
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre
Cc: jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 4:57 PM
Subject: Why Is This Happening Now?
Facts are hard to find with respect to exporting bitumen slurry over upgraded synthetic crude oil. One outstanding fact is that the NEB in approving the first phase of the Keystone pipeline, did not in anyway take into consideration the difference in upgrading at source, over upgrading thousands of miles from source!! The provincial help in getting a bitumen business going in Alberta never ever considered the sale of raw bitumen to foreign destinations! As both Suncor and Canadian Oilsand Producers prove is the intention for bitumen production in Alberta was to take bitumen and change it into a useful and useable crude oil product. Never were Albertans told after allowing the "penny on the dollar" royalty deal, that companies allowed Alberta's generosity would be able to ship bitumen along with jobs, taxes, spin-off industries, and royalties, be allowed and indeed encouraged to upgrade bitumen for value added gain in other than Alberta!! Why is this now happening??
The recent quarter report from Suncor indicated that company gained $35 dollars per bbl better price for synthetic crude oil over their bitumen price, and a $11 dollar premium to West Texas Crude!! This means our Tory governments in both Alberta and Ottawa are prepared to cost Canadians $35,000,000 million dollars per day for every million bbls of bitumen exported, by supporting raw bitumen exports!! Other possibilities with bitumen exports is the fact that Canada will loose any price control over a publicly owned resource much like we did with Natural gas, once a single importer is established.
The opposition to the Enbridge plan has as much to do with the product contained within the pipeline as the pipeline itself. The return 16-inch pipeline contained within the Enbridge plan, to carry the very dangerous condensate diluents into Canada, is not at all needed if upgrading at source is the principal export method adopted, and was the wish of all Alberta's premiers at one time------what happened? Is it possible our weak Tory governments have caved into supporting raw bitumen exports to help "Big-Industry" dodge their environmental responsibilities here in Alberta? Are our governments really supporting exporting a environmental problem? Do our governments know the price to the public they are willing to ignore to satisfy their desire to have Big-Oil onside in upcoming elections?
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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The Big Pipe: Enbridge’s plan to connect the oilsands and China divides locals
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
rob-magazine/the-big-pipe-enbridges-plan-to-connect-the-oilsands-and-china-divides-locals/article1847726/
Nathan VanderKlippe Published Monday, Jan. 03, 2011 11:32AM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 11:29AM EDT
Behind a stack of stripped timber piled like a giant’s game of pick-up sticks, a log cabin is taking shape in the backwoods of northwestern British Columbia. A sawhorse stands on a mat of sawdust next to walls that have reached about halfway to their intended height. The ends of the logs, not yet trimmed, stick out at uneven lengths from the corners.
The allure of building a cabin here, some 50 kilometres by slushy gravel forest road from the nearest highway, seems obvious. A hole cut for an entrance door perfectly frames a view of the swift green waters of the Morice River. The riverbank is populated by flyfishers casting for steelhead and hunters bleeding out massive moose carcasses. The dark evergreen forest is quiet. It is an outdoor idyll.
But it’s not the setting that has brought construction here. And it may be a mistake to call this a cabin when it is, in fact, a fortress. It has been built against a line on a map, a narrow yellow stroke that starts near Edmonton and ends at the Pacific. The line marks the future location of Northern Gateway, a massive 1,172-kilometre crude oil pipeline that may one day deliver Alberta crude to Asia. The cabin overlooks kilometre post 1,038, the spot where Gateway’s engineers plan to cross the Morice before tunnelling through the Coastal Range to reach tidewater at Kitimat, B.C.
They will, that is, if Calgary’s Enbridge Inc. can prevail against this restive part of the country, where the cabin has been built by a clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation as a brazen protest. Gateway remains years from being built—or even approved by federal authorities. But already, dozens of First Nations are linking arms with the federal NDP and Liberals to stop it, in part by bidding to ban the tankers that would take away the crude. And in the wilds of B.C., blockades are already being erected. “The clan,” says David de Wit, the natural resources manager for the Wet’suwet’en, “wants to make a stand.” [ . . . ]
- - - - -
Enbridge’s proposed pipeline stirs strong emotions along the route
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
rob-magazine/enbridges-proposed-pipeline-stirs-strong-emotions-along-the-route/article1864560/?from=1847726
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More related to this story (Links are on original URL)
Oil prices hold near 2-year high
B.C. Indian bands give thumbs-down to Enbridge pipeline
Mackenzie pipeline approved
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17. Earthquakes, Earthquakes! And Drilling?
http://blog.skytruth.org/2011/08/
earthquakes-earthquakes-and-drilling.html
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
We had some action here in the mid-Atlantic yesterday that would make the folks in California yawn, but is pretty unusual around these parts - a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered in Virginia, that was felt far and wide. There have even been a couple of small aftershocks. Paul and Teri report that the shaking was obvious in Shepherdstown, and my wife Amy said it seemed to last for a long time:
I was terrified - I thought a tree was coming down and would hit the house, or a truck was running into the house. I ran to the open door to try to figure things out. Then I thought it was a military aircraft. But it went on for a long time time (or so it seemed) and I figured it was an earthquake.
And just a day earlier, there was a similarly moderate quake (5.3) that struck along the Colorado-New Mexico state line near Trinidad. There has been a swarm of small, shallow earthquakes in this area in recent years; because this swarm sits right in the middle of a very active coalbed methane drilling play (known as the Raton Basin, including drilling on the nearby Vermejo Park Ranch property owned by Ted Turner), there is some speculation that these earthquakes are actually being triggered by either the withdrawal of natural gas from the rocks, or the injection of water produced from the CBM wells back into the ground for disposal.
It's not as wacky as it sounds. Disposal of fracking fluids by deep injection was implicated in an unusual earthquake swarm in Arkansas earlier this year; and similar quakes in 2005 happened here in the Raton Basin. This USGS report on a 2001 earthquake swarm also raises the possibility of seismic activity induced by the injection of fluids for disposal (note: fluid disposal by deep injection is NOT the same thing as fracking; but it is a consequence of natural-gas production in some places).
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18. Largest Colorado quake in nearly 40 years rattles homes
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/
largest-colorado-quake-in-nearly-40-years-rattles-homes/article2138489/
TRINIDAD, Colo.— The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 8:38AM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 2:32PM EDT
The largest earthquake to strike Colorado in almost 40 years has shaken hundreds of people near the New Mexico border and caused minor damage to a few homes.
The magnitude 5.3 earthquake was recorded at about 11:46 p.m. MDT Monday about nine miles southwest of Trinidad, Colo., and about 180 miles south of Denver, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. The quake followed two smaller ones that hit the area earlier in the day.
The quake is the largest in Colorado since a magnitude 5.7 was recorded in 1973, U.S. Geological Service geophysicist Amy Vaughn said. That one was centreed in the northwestern part of the state — about 50 miles north of Grand Junction, she said. [ . . ]
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19. Alberta fears green 'misinformation' on fracking: documents
http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/
Alberta+fears+green+misinformation+fracking+documents/5277515/story.html
POSTMEDIA NEWS AUGUST 19, 2011
Leaked Alberta cabinet documents suggest the province is worried environmental groups will undermine public support for shale gas development by spreading "misinformation" about health and environmental effects of chemical fracking.
The records show the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has offered to work with the government to "enhance" public relations efforts. CAPP, a powerful industry lobby group, is the only non-governmental organization that will be consulted during inter-governmental talks.
The documents were leaked to the NDP on Thursday, one week after federal documents obtained under access to information laws revealed CAPP helped organize the Alberta government's public relations strategy to polish the image of the oilsands.
A draft project outline attached to the Aug. 3 briefing note elaborates on government concerns, saying the public is being exposed to a "mixed package" of information and may not be able to come to an informed decision.
"Environmental non-government organization are supporting an ill-informed campaign on hydraulic fracturing and water-related issues in British Columbia and this is expected to grow as shale gas development expands into Alberta and Saskatchewan," the outline says. [ . . . ]
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SEE: BRIEFING NOTE: SUBJECT: New West Partnership and project charter – "Collaboration and Information Sharing, Industry Water Use and Hydraulic Fracture Technology"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62597277/Frac ... efing-Note
DATE: August 3, 2011
ISSUE: The Minister’s of Energy for British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan signed a Memorandum of Understanding December 16, 2010 to provide for collaboration and joint action on issues related to unconventional shale gas development. One of several priority initiatives of the partnership is to work together to address fracture technology and water issues. [ . . . ]
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20. SHIELDS: The Old EnCana Still Acting Against Alberta's Best Interests
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P.
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 5:59 PM
Subject: The Old EnCana Still Acting Against Alberta's Best Interests
Suncor's published quarter results are the proof we searched for to show Canadians that exporting synthetic crude from a bitumen base was still the best method of developing our bitumen resources. The selling of a raw bitumen slurry on the world market was never in the original plans for developing the bitumen properties. Cenovus who's predecessor is the troubled EnCana organization started the idea of massive bitumen exports by trading facilities and property it gained from the Alberta public for upgrading facilities in United States. Harper allowed these deals that goes directly against the best interests of the owning Canadian public. Synthetic crude that commands a 35 dollar premium to bitumen will cost Canadians $35,000,000 dollars per day for every million bbls of bitumen exported. Certainly Cenovus should be considering refinery issues going forward, should Cenovus be successful in moving to 500,000 bbls. of bitumen production per day by 2021, this would cost Cenovus 500,000x35= 15,000,000 million dollars per day, cool cash.
The tremendous rush to get the Keystone extension approved is the direct result of the possibilities of information that proves the sense of upgrading at source, making industry profits, leaving Tory governments in Canada with the question of the pollution at source, rather than exporting that problem to other jurisdictions!! Supporting industries endeavors to duck their environmental responsibilities is the job of a very weak and deceitful governments. Canada will need every penny gained from the proper export of upgraded synthetic crude oil to afford bitumen production and exports. Anything less than gaining for the Canadian public the maximum from this business should be a call to shut down completely, this massive polluter giving Canada a black eye!! Canada and Alberta Tories are structurally wrong to be investing efforts to have industry upgrading at trails end rather than spending public dollars to promote upgrading at source to lose the "dirty oil" name properly associated with bitumen slurry exports!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - - - -
Cenovus banking on Keystone XL pipeline
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
cenovus-banking-on-keystone-xl-pipeline/article2109761/
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE CALGARY— The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, Jul. 26, 2011 8:00AM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Jul. 26, 2011 7:31PM EDT
As U.S. legislators attempted to speed approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a major Canadian energy producer underscored the high stakes for the oil sands if the controversial project is not built.
The TransCanada Corp. pipeline proposal would bring Canadian crude to refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast. It has stirred substantial debate in the U.S., with critics suggesting it will raise gasoline prices and create the risk of spills in areas that are important water sources. [ . . . ]
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21. REPORT: Drilling Below the Surface: Groundwater Risks and In Situ Oil Sands Development
http://www.water-matters.org/story/445
The large majority of oil sands in Alberta are not accessible via mining and must be developed via in situ wells that use vast quantities of steam to heat and liquefy bitumen found in deep deposits. The management of groundwater in the oil sands region has received little attention, despite the fact it will have to support in situ development that is expected to produce three times as much oil as surface mines. [ . . . ]
- - - - -
DOWNLOAD REPORT: Drilling Down: Groundwater Risks Imposed by In Situ Oil Sands Development
http://www.water-matters.org/docs/drilling-down.pdf
By JULIA KO AND WILLIAM F. DONAHUE (WATER MATTERS) — JUL 21, 2011
Drilling Down: Groundwater Risks Imposed by In Situ Oil Sands Development provides clear, achievable recommendations for improving groundwater management, assessment and monitoring in the oil sands region.
In Drilling Down, Water Matters recommends scientifically rigorous monitoring and assessment of groundwater resources by the provincial and federal governments, and perhaps most importantly the eradication of technical and regulatory uncertainties inherent to the in situ oil sands industry that pose huge risks to groundwater in the region.
"Simply put, underground doesn't mean under control unless groundwater protection is taken as seriously as surface water protection."
William F. Donahue, Water Matters
* * * * * *
PLEASE NOTE: There is an error in the figure labeled "Total Water Used by In Situ Oil Sands Projects 2009" 44% of water saline groundwater use should read "Groundwater (saline) above 4000 mg/L TDS" not "Groundwater (saline) below 4000 mg/L TDS." Updated July 29, 2011.
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22. The Documents Chesapeake Energy Doesn’t Want You To See
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=800
Aug 11th, 2011 | By admin | Category: Fracking, Lead Articles
Chesapeake Energy pumped more than 1.4 million gallons of fluid to a depth of more than 2 miles at a natural gas well in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, before a blowout sent tens of thousands of gallons of the toxic liquid coursing over fertile farmland and into a nearby creek, according to documents obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org.
The documents, obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org from the federal Environmental Protection Agency under a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request, show that the fluid Chesapeake used in operations at the well contained more than two dozen chemicals, including methanol, glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde, 2-butoxyethanol and hydrocloric acid. They also specify the amounts used and detail the role each substance played in the hydraulic fracturing process.
In addition, a schematic diagram of the the Chesapeake well shows how deep into the earth the fluids were injected and how much natural gas was recovered at each depth, as well as the materials used to construct the well and its
1. Urgent - we’re not letting Minister Kent pretend nothing’s wrong
2. BRIEFING NOTE: SUBJECT: New West Partnership and project charter – "Collaboration and Information Sharing, Industry Water Use and Hydraulic Fracture Technology"
3. Fracking Resources
4. Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. – Fracking east central SK & other areas
5. (Saskatchewan) AUGUST LAND SALE BRINGS IN $21.7 MILLION
6. Alward hopes to raise comfort levels over fracking - N.B. government plans to explain new regulations
7. U of A team coaxes bugs to produce gas - Methane-producing bacteria may be key to new resources
8. The Problem with the Pipeline
9. With Emotions High and Evidence Low, Corrosion Questions Hound Canada-To-U.S. Oil Pipeline
10. NIKIFORUK: Documents Reveal Industry and Gov't Collude on Shale Gas
11. Quebec Superior Court rejects SLAPP against Ugo Lapointe of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine
12. (2006) Corridor Resources BJ Services radioactive frac fluid spill Penobsquis, NB ** Plus: How to handle radioactive fracking sand
13. Feds Say Major New York Gas Pipeline Poses Safety Risk
14. SHIELDS: Now Watch For American Synthetic Crude Oil Exports!!
15. SHIELDS: Bitumen Slurry Shipments Unnecessary!
16. SHIELDS: Why Is This Happening Now?
17. Earthquakes, Earthquakes! And Drilling?
18. Largest Colorado quake in nearly 40 years rattles homes
19. Alberta fears green 'misinformation' on fracking: documents
20. SHIELDS: The Old EnCana Still Acting Against Alberta's Best Interests
21. REPORT: Drilling Below the Surface: Groundwater Risks and In Situ Oil Sands Development
22. The Documents Chesapeake Energy Doesn’t Want You To See
23. Dozens arrested at protest of oil pipeline.
24. In warmer Greenland, shoot the dogs, drill for oil.
25. (April 2011) Bruce Carson Scandal Greased by Harper's Oil Sands Agenda
26. Getting ready for a wave of coal-plant shutdowns.
27. Quake in Japan is causing a costly shift to fossil fuels.
28. Field Reports from the Caribbean: Mapping Renewable Energy Options
29. Guatemala defies human rights body, refuses to suspend Marlin mine
30. Earth's systems in rapid decline
31. U.S. espionage investigation against WikiLeaks: Patriot Act order unsealed
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1. Urgent - we’re not letting Minister Kent pretend nothing’s wrong
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Urgent - we’re not letting Minister Kent pretend nothing’s wrong
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:08:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Matthew Carroll, Leadnow.ca matthew@leadnow.ca
Environment Minister Kent just announced the new coal power regulations at a press conference in Saskatchewan. *Thousands of us told Kent that Maxim Coal getting a free pass to pollute is unacceptable, but Kent is
trying to dodge the issue, and pretend that nothing is wrong. We need you to pick up the phone, right now, to flood his office with phone calls.*
*This morning Minister Kent left the "Maxim Power loophole" completely open* -- the draft regulations say that if Maxim gets their dirty and dangerous coal plant into operation before July 1st 2015, it will count as an "existing" plant and not be regulated. That’s exactly why Maxim Power, and the Alberta regulators, have been rushing the project forward to slide their dirty coal plant in under the wire.
Remember that former Environment Minister Jim Prentice made a very clear commitment to Canadians: “We will guard against any rush to build non-compliant coal plants on the interim.”
*We need your help - right now - to tell Kent that we’re not going to let him quietly break his own government’s promise.*
Minister Kent is counting on being able to let Maxim get away with this without a political cost, he’s counting on the fact that it’s a Friday in August and Canadians wont be paying attention. *Let's flood his offices with phone calls right now, to make sure he gets the message that Canadians aren't going to let him hand Maxim Power a free pass to pollute.*
*Here's how - it only takes a couple of minutes:*
1. Call one of the numbers below - if it's busy, try a different number
2. Say you're calling about Minister Kent's coal announcement this morning, and want to leave a message for Minister Kent
3. Say you want minister Kent to tell Canadians: *Is he going to keep his government's promise, and make sure Maxim Power doesn't cheat the new rules?*
4. When you're done, please thank the staff person who takes your call (they're good people)
*Environment Canada Office (direct):* 819-997-1441
*Environment Canada (toll free):* 1-800-668-6767 (ask to be transferred
to Minister Kent's office)
*Ottawa Office:* 613-992-0253
*Constituency Office:* 905-886-9911
*Sources:*
Canada moves ahead with new coal-fired power rules
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/19/
canada-environment-electricity-idAFN1E77I0S120110819
Environment Canada News Release
http://www.ec.gc.ca/
default.asp?lang=En&n=714D9AAE-1&news=2E5D45F6-E0A4-45C4-A49D-A3514E740296
--
Matthew Carroll
Campaigns Director - Leadnow.ca
cell: 289.244.9930 | skype: matthew.f.carroll
www.leadnow.ca
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2. BRIEFING NOTE: SUBJECT: New West Partnership and project charter – "Collaboration and Information Sharing, Industry Water Use and Hydraulic Fracture Technology"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62597277/Frac ... efing-Note
DATE: August 3, 2011
ISSUE: The Minister’s of Energy for British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan signed a Memorandum of Understanding December 16, 2010 to provide for collaboration and joint action on issues related to unconventional shale gas development. One of several priority initiatives of the partnership is to work together to address fracture technology and water issues.
This briefing includes information on the water and technology collaboration working group that has been assembled from the three provinces, including staff from the Water Policy Branch of Alberta Environment.
Support for the project charter is requested from the Assistant Deputy Minister for Environmental Policy. [ . . . ]
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3. Fracking Resources
Ernst vs Encana case:[/b]
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/news-multimedia
Links & Resources:
http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/links-resources
Fracking Canada:
http://frackingcanada.blogspot.com/2011/08/
workshop-albertans-intent-on-protecting.html
OTHER:
http://forum.stopthehogs.com/phpBB2/
viewforum.php?f=31&sid=f54e4471d0b5f6c7281d9cf346e94131
New West Partnership Charter:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62597277/Frac ... efing-Note
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4. Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. – fracking east central SK & other areas in Western Canada
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
QUOTE: "We may also consider undertaking a frack of the well" (Land Description: 4-11-35-4 W2)
Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. (NOG:TSX) announced on August 22nd that the recent attempt in undertaking its scheduled acidizing on the company's 4-11-35-4 W2 situated in east central Saskatchewan well was unsuccessful due to settling tool failure. (Emphasis added. Ed.)
CEO of Nordic Oil states, "The intention of the setting tool was to isolate the perfs individually and separately squeeze the acid into each formation. When we realized the setting tool was not going to work properly, we had no choice but to attempt the wash in some alternative manner, as the acid had to be used and the day rate was there regardless for all the other services.
- - - - SNIP - - -
Of particular significance is the fact that when the tool was removed form the hole, there was clear evidence of oil which further confirms the Company's belief that the well has penetrated either a new, or the edge of a new oil pool in the Red River Formation.
Furthermore, we also plan on conducting additional exploration activities in the area, including shooting new seismic, and acquiring some satellite imagery and soil gas analysis. We may also consider undertaking a frack of the well."
Nordic Oil and Gas Ltd. is a junior oil and gas company engaged in the exploration and development of oil, natural gas and Coal Bed Methane in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Company has a market cap of $8.4 million and 93.1 million shares outstanding.
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Lower Shaunavon – Saskatchewan’s stealth oil play
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
- - - - -
QUOTE: "In 2010, the Saskatchewan government extended favorable royalty and regulatory practices. New horizontal wells are exempt from royalties on the first 100,000 barrels (2.5% mineral tax applies and must be paid). Drilling permits are done promptly and turnaround time is expeditious."
- - - - -
August 22, 2011
Higher oil prices, smaller land base choice and overheated land sales in Alberta are driving back oil companies seeking highly prospective oil plays into Saskatchewan. Last three provincial land sales indicate that southern Saskatchewan and in particular lower Shaunavon is the prime choice.
The Shaunavon formation is composed of two members with different properties. Both members were formed in the Bathonian age and are situated in Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The upper unit is composed of sandstone, limestone or dolomite. The lower member is made up of microcrystalline limestone situated below sedimentary bedrock of oolite (egg stones).
The Shaunavon formation presently consists of 131 discovered oil pools and has a current assessment of 2 billion barrels of discovered oil in place. Canada’s National Energy Board estimates that there are an another 896 undiscovered oil pools and an additional 3.3 billion barrels of crude oil in place. [ . . . ]
By J. Klemchuk
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Drilling activity in Western Canada gaining momentum and signs of a robust future
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
Drilling activity has made a dramatic and unexpected recovery during the past two weeks. Field conditions are beginning to improve following above normal rainfall during spring and early summer months. There are still several pockets in southwestern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan which are very wet. These will return to normal if present drying conditions prevail.
This week’s rig count as reported by Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (COADC) has soared by 111 active rigs above the five year average and 98 rigs more than were drilling at this time last year. Total active rigs throughout western Canada topped at 476. Five year average is 365 active rigs during the first week in August.
Alberta leads with a total of 309 rigs which are drilling. Saskatchewan’s rig activity is up to 101. British Columbia follows with 53 rigs in operation and Manitoba is regaining its previous momentum with 13 active rigs. This past spring Manitoba set several 10 year drilling records. [. . . . . ]
By Allan Pierce, for Canadian Insight
-- - - - - -
Note from the Editor :
Summer is quickly slipping by and days are getting shorter. This year’s reality is beginning to sink in.
What looked as a somewhat promising year to invest has turned rather sour. Many investors have been turned off by the murky atmosphere and buried their interests elsewhere.
Some may have acted in desperation and packed it in. We have all been hit for the second time in three years. Total global market losses for 2008 meltdown and 2011 August market collapse is estimated by some to be 22.6 trillion dollars.
The luster of rising gold and silver prices is very attractive. Gold surge to new record highs of $1800/ounce and silver at $40/ounce.
Oil, on the other hand, has plummeted by $25 per barrel and is hovering at $85/bbl. Optimism in our oilsands is beginning to look lackluster.
Some investors are searching for a quick fix to their sinking portfolio. Precious metals and gold mining companies look like a great place to be in.
You may be asking, "Is this the right time for making some bold moves to your investments?"
We are taking a close look at the growing ‘gold bubble’, the risks involved, and whether you should be making some big changes.
Remember, "It’s always the darkest just before dawn."
Here’s to better times,
J. Klemchuk
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Priming the pump for Manitoba sweet crude
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
QUOTE: "Drilling interest in Manitoba’s oil patch is red hot."
Competition amongst Canada’s western provinces has always been keen in the oil patch. Every province has its own royalties and incentive programs structured to entice and maintain new developing reserves. One slip up and companies will leave in droves into neighboring provinces. Luring back lost interest can be costly and difficult.
Smaller players like Manitoba have to be vigilant to maintain and lure new exploration and development. Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan are well noted beyond the borders for their large oil and natural gas reserves. Frequently, their scheduled crown land sales play an important role in attracting oil companies into prospective and renowned plays.
By J. Klemchuk
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The reality behind Alberta southern basin — ‘Exshaw Bakken Play’
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
Most of our readers are well acquainted with the Bakken and associate it to southeastern Saskatchewan, southwestern Manitoba and northern half of the state of North Dakota. This region is well noted for its high quality crude oil and its large reserves.
News during the past year has spread that southern Alberta and northern Montana may have been blessed with an extension of the famous Bakken. It’s an area which has eluded the buzz and excitement of oil exploration. This new discovery has been dubbed the Exshaw Bakken but is it really an extension of the Bakken?
J. Klemchuk
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Some uncertainties remain in the oil markets
http://www.canadianinsight.com/
August 22, 2011
Canadian Insight’s annual in-depth look at crude oil markets, determining factors, associated problems and oil price expectations for the remaining months in 2011.
The single largest consumer of crude oil is still the U.S. In 2011, American weekly imports are continuing to average near 9 million barrels per day. This is equal to the output of Saudi Arabia. Current U.S. oil imports are 9.5% of the total daily global consumption. America depends on more than half its oil requirements on imports. [ . . . ]
By J. Klemchuk
Author is a well experienced oil and gas analyst, writer of a variety of articles for "Oil-Price.net", "JeriCan on Oil" and "Canadian Insight".
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5. (Saskatchewan) AUGUST LAND SALE BRINGS IN $21.7 MILLION
http://gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=1b675631-4 ... 86e5daa091
News Release - August 11, 2011
The August sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights has generated $21.7 million in revenue for the province. This brings land sale revenues for the 2011 calendar year to $214.9 million.
While the August revenue numbers were down from those for recent sales, Energy and Resources Minister Bill Boyd was pleased with the overall result.
"We were expecting a smaller sale after two years of intense land acquisition by our oil industry," Boyd said. "The sale numbers demonstrate continuing and sustained interest in our oil patch, but I believe what we're also seeing now is an evaluation by companies of the properties they currently have, plus a budgetary focus on coordinating drilling programs in areas that had been affected by the wet conditions this year."
"Drilling continues to be ahead of last year, with a record number of rigs working in the province. And clearly the industry has confidence in Saskatchewan, as evidenced by our province's number one investment ranking for Canada in the Fraser Institute's 2011 Global Petroleum Survey."
August's sale included 186 lease parcels that attracted the $21.7 million in bonus bids.
The Weyburn-Estevan area received the most bids with sales of $11 million. The Lloydminster area was next at $5.7 million, followed by the Swift Current area at $2.8 million and the Kindersley-Kerrobert area at $2.2 million.
The highest price for a single parcel was $1.1 million. Prairie Land & Investment Services Ltd. acquired this 518-hectare lease parcel southwest of Estevan.
The highest price on a per-hectare basis was $8,889. Highrock Energy Ltd. and Villanova Oil Corp. cost-shared a bid of $779,911 for an 88-hectare lease parcel between Manor and Redvers.
The next sale of Crown petroleum and natural gas and oil shale dispositions will be held on October 3, 2011. -30-
For more information, contact:
Bob Ellis
Energy and Resources
Regina
Phone: 306-787-1691
Email: robert.ellis@gov.sk.ca
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6. Alward hopes to raise comfort levels over fracking - N.B. government plans to explain new regulations
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/
2011/08/24/nb-alward-swn-fracking-education-527.html
CBC News Posted: Aug 24, 2011 6:43 AM AT Last Updated: Aug 24, 2011 11:13 AM AT
Alward plans education campaign on hydro-fracking
Related Links (Links are on original URL)
Fracking will lead to more protests: Green leader
SWN to stop N.B. seismic testing
Premier David Alward is promising his Progressive Conservative government will keep trying to persuade New Brunswickers that hydro-fracking is safe despite the simmering public opposition.
Alward was responding to a decision by SWN Resources Canada to suspend seismic testing for the rest of the year.
The company blamed the decision on the vandalism, theft and threats it has experienced in recent months.
Alward told reporters on Tuesday that he's focused on putting regulations in place for the shale gas industry and letting people know they're there.
SWN Resources Canada announced it has halted its seismic testing in New Brunswick for the remainder of 2011.
"You know the most important thing we can do is make sure we understand the development, to ensure that we put in place the necessary regulations so people can feel comfortable and confident, and then get that information out. And that's what we'll do," Alward said.
The premier also downplayed the impact of the decision by SWN Resources to halt its seismic testing.
Alward said that doesn't necessarily mean the search for natural gas in New Brunswick will be delayed. [ . . . ]
-- - - -
LISTEN: CBC New Brunswick's political podcast discuss the issue of hydro-fracking.
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/spin ... _44299.mp3
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7. U of A team coaxes bugs to produce gas - Methane-producing bacteria may be key to new resources
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/
team+coaxes+bugs+produce/5298218/story.html
BY DAVE COOPER, EDMONTONJOURNAL.COM AUGUST 24, 2011
EDMONTON - Bacteria that feed on coal seams and create methane gas could be coaxed to produce more of the clean-burning fuel, a new source of energy locked in the world’s vast coal deposits.
That’s one of the goals of a major project begun this summer at the University of Alberta, part of a three-year national study which aims to shed some light on the little understood microscopic world of anaerobic bacteria that live in coal and produce the gas which is recovered though coal bed methane extraction. Methane is the same gas that causes deadly explosions in coal mines. [ . . . ]
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8. The Problem with the Pipeline
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/
2011/08/tar-sands-xl-keystone-pipeline-protest.html
News Desk Notes on Washington and the world by the staff of The New Yorker.
* August 23, 2011 Posted by Elizabeth Kolbert
The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline would start in the town of Hardisty, which about a hundred and twenty-eight miles southeast of Edmonton. It would cross the Canadian-U.S. border in Montana, jog through western South Dakota, then head down through Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma all the way to refiners on the Gulf Coast. The pipeline, a thousand seven hundred and two miles long, would carry crude from what supporters call the oil sands and critics the tar sands—a huge deposit of very heavy hydrocarbons in central Alberta. (I wrote about the Alberta tar sands for The New Yorker in 2007.) Today is Day 4 of a “Stop the Pipeline” sit-in at the White House, and so far two hundred and twenty-two people have been arrested, including, just this morning, the actress Margot Kidder. The sit-in is being billed as “the biggest act of civil disobedience in the history of the climate movement.” In a phone interview from D.C., Bill McKibben, the moving force behind the protests (and a former staff writer for The New Yorker) described it as “very civil” disobedience. [ . . . ]
- - - - -
Jailed Over Big Oil's Latest Attempt to Kill the Planet
http://www.alternet.org/environment/152171/
jailed_over_big_oil's_latest_attempt_to_kill_the_planet
After being arrested protesting the Keystone XL pipeline, activist Bill McKibben shares what he learned.
August 25, 2011
- - - -
QUOTE: "First, it made Keystone XL -- the new, 1,700-mile-long pipeline we’re trying to block that will vastly increase the flow of “dirty” tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico -- into a national issue. A few months ago, it was mainly people along the route of the prospective pipeline who were organizing against it. (And with good reason: tar sands mining has already wrecked huge swaths of native land in Alberta, and endangers farms, wild areas, and aquifers all along its prospective route.)”
- - - - - -
I didn’t think it was possible, but my admiration for Martin Luther King, Jr., grew even stronger these past days.
As I headed to jail as part of the first wave of what is turning into the biggest civil disobedience action in the environmental movement for many years, I had the vague idea that I would write something. Not an epic like King's “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” but at least, you know, a blog post. Or a tweet.
But frankly, I wasn’t up to it. The police, surprised by how many people turned out on the first day of two weeks of protests at the White House, decided to teach us a lesson. As they told our legal team, they wanted to deter anyone else from coming -- and so with our first crew they were… kind of harsh. [ . . . . ]
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9. With Emotions High and Evidence Low, Corrosion Questions Hound Canada-To-U.S. Oil Pipeline
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/08/23/
23greenwire-with-emotions-high-and-evidence-low-corrosion-11949.html
By ELANA SCHOR of Greenwire Published: August 23, 2011
OUTSIDE FORT McMURRAY, Alberta -- Hold a vial of pumped and processed oil to the light here, just before it enters the pipeline that one executive jokingly calls "the cash register," and you can see a layer of watery sediment settled at the bottom.
The vial contains diluted bitumen. What happens to it inside pipelines, 0.5 percent sediment content and all, is powering a controversy that spans the continent.
Environmental and safety groups warn that diluted bitumen poses a greater risk of pipeline corrosion and spills than conventional fuel or the synthetic crude also produced from the Canadian oil sands. The oil and gas industry, bolstered by Canadian regulators and policymakers, blasts this claim as hyperbolic fearmongering.
"The challenge we have is combating emotion with facts," Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert said during an interview this month when asked about the safety charges leveled by critics of oil sands development, particularly the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline.
Liepert readily acknowledged, however, that few if any targeted studies of diluted bitumen's corrosion risks are available to help him make the case for more oil sands development.
"I guess we could" gather specific facts to help beat back conservationist attacks, he added. "It wouldn't seem to me like a difficult thing to do."
Yet at the Calgary headquarters of the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), the independent (Emphasis Added. Ed.) regulator of Alberta's vast and lucrative oil sands resources, the very notion of studying how diluted bitumen affects pipeline safety struck senior officials as unnecessary. [ . . . ]
= = = = = =
10. NIKIFORUK: Documents Reveal Industry and Gov't Collude on Shale Gas
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/08/19/
Government-Industry-Collude-on-Shale-Gas/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=220811
Alberta New Dems release secret agreements about handling public opinion.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, 19 Aug 2011, TheTyee.ca
Alberta's New Democrats have called for a special provincial investigation of controversial shale gas drilling following the release of two leaked government documents showing strong collusion between industry and government on resource development in three western provinces.
A government of Alberta cabinet briefing note dated Aug. 3, 2011 says, "Shale gas environmental concerns in the media and in the public in other jurisdictions are potentially problematic for energy development and environmental management in Alberta."
The note also reveals that one of Canada's most powerful lobby group, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, has approached the Alberta government about shale gas issues in order "to enhance public communication."
"It's another example of Alberta's Conservatives working behind closed doors with industry and keeping it as secret as possible," charged New Democrat MLA and environment critic Rachel Notley. She wants an independent investigation on the technology. [ . . . ]
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11. Quebec Superior Court rejects SLAPP against Ugo Lapointe of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine.
http://www.miningwatch.ca/news/rejet-de ... e-lapointe
MiningWatch Canada FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(see below for release in French from Coalition Québec meilleure mine)
Ottawa, August 3, 2011. MiningWatch Canada was pleased to learn of the Superior Court of Quebec's recent rejection of a suit considered to be a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP), filed against Ugo Lapointe of the Coalition Québec meilleure mine. Petrolia, a natural gas exploration company, had charged Lapointe with defaming it in comments made to a journalist and quoted in the Quebec newspaper Le Soleil. The company was seeking $350,000 in damages. Lapointe and his supporters, including MiningWatch, had maintained that the comments were a criticism of Quebec's mineral extraction laws, not the individual company.
SLAPP suits are used by some corporations to intimidate and punish critical voices. Tying up critics in court challenges taps their resources and means others may think twice about speaking out. Fortunately, Quebec has an anti-SLAPP law that helped have this case thrown out after only one hearing.
The judge agreed that the comments were general and not directed at Petrolia. She noted the importance of the public participation and free speach of citizens like Mr. Lapointe around important public issues, such as the management of Quebec's mineral and gas resources.
Mr. Lapointe has been an important voice on policy issues in Quebec providing critical and constructive commentary on the mining and gas sectors. Ramsey Hart of MiningWatch commented that "We share Ugo's relief that the burden of a SLAPP suit has been lifted and that he has been vindicated by the court." - 30 -
Contact, Ramsey Hart 613-569-3439
- - - - -
Links
A PDF of the full court judgment (French)
http://www.naturequebec.org/ressources/fichiers/
Energie_climat/Poursuite/JugementCourSuperieure_AffairePetroliaUgoLapointe.pdf
MiningWatch's comment on suit from February 2011http://www.miningwatch.ca/news/
oil-and-gas-company-tries-stifle-debate-sues-quebec-mining-coalition-spokesperson
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12. (2006) Corridor Resources BJ Services radioactive frac fluid spill Penobsquis, NB
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/fracspillfirst101.pdf
In 2006 there was a Frack spill in Penobsquis, with radio active tracer. The following links will connect you to the PDF’s of the document that Corridor Resources put in the mailboxes of local Landowners and concerned Community members:
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Frackspillsecond101.pdf
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Frackspillthird10pgs.pdf
http://www.penobsquis.ca/
wp-content/uploads/2011/07/fracspilllast10pages1.pdf
- Concerned Citizens of Penobsquis, New Brunswick
A few key quotes from the company documents linked above:
"On August 23, 2006, Corridor had an accidental release of frac fluid (water, methanol, and small amounts of various environmentally friendly chemicals) and sand that included trace amounts of low level, short half-life radioactive material...."
"...the Protechnics engineer who works with this radioactive material for a living is exposed to less radiation than an individual who smokes 11/2 packs of cigarettes per day. It is also important to note that the engineer requires no additional protection clothing...."
"...there is no chance of contamination of any fluids, including groundwater." - in my view, that is mighty arrogant, and impossible for anyone to truthfully claim, even a frac'er
"The BJ Services frac'ing equipment was in the final stages of the stimulation operation when a washout of a segment of the frac iron occurred (piping between the pump trucks and the wellhead - see attached pictures)."
"There were no RA tracer beads found outside the lease area." - ah, but did they look, and if they did, how did they look? the radioactive material is tiny, and would not be easy to find. did the company use looking techniques to ensure not finding any? That seems to be the Frac'ing Way.
"It was estimated that 2-4 m3 of frac fluid and 600 - 1200 kg (200 - 400 litres) frac sand was released...." - estimated, and by the company no less.
"The main cause for the incident was the erosion of the "Y" on the frac iron at the point of high velocity and a change in direction of the sand laden fluid stream. The root cause for the failure of this piece of equipment was the frequency of inspection on this equipment."
HANDLING OF RADIOACTIVE FRAC SAND REGULATIONS
http://www.ratracer.ca/frac_sand.htm
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission regulations for disposal of sand labeled with a radioactive prescribed substance are as follows:
"Contaminated sand to be buried at the worksite under at least 30 centimeters of soil provided that the specific activity is less than 370 kBq per kilogram of sand."
"Any other waste disposal method will require specific written approval to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission."
INTERPRETATION
The above regulation refers to "370 kBq of activity" which is the equivalent of 10 microcuries (uCi) of Iridium 192, Scandium 46 and Antimony 124 per kilogram of frac sand. This amount translates into 10 millicuries per tonne of sand which is considerably higher than the amount injected per tonne (1 mCi/Tonne).
CONTAMINATION MONITORING
Returned sand can be assumed to be contaminated and buried as per instructions below under "Burial of Sand"
R.A. Tracer will return to the location to monitor returned frac sand, prepare a contamination survey report and provide instructions on the steps that must be followed to safely satisfy regulation requirements. An additional fee will apply for this service.
All monitoring performed by R,A, Tracer will be with the use of a Ludlum pancake monitor. The following calculations have been made for this specific instrument to correspond with necessary actions that need to be taken. The recorded level and action required are as follows:
LEVEL RECORDED ACTION REQUIRED
0-200 counts per minute Normal disposal method
200-15000 counts per minute Burial of sand on lease
Over 15000 counts per minute R. A. Tracer will contact C.N.S.C. for instructions
BURIAL OF SAND
Once the sand has been recovered in it’s entirety, the oil company must request that R.A. Tracer monitor the returns to establish the level of contamination and supervise the cleanup to satisfy CNSC regulations.
The following actions should be taken to limit the amount of hydrocarbons in the sand to be buried:
Pump a sufficient amount of water into the tank to displace the hydrocarbons out of the sand.
With the use of a vacuum truck, skim the hydrocarbons out of the tank. Care should be taken to ensure that none of the sand is inadvertently picked up.
Dispose of the hydrocarbons in normal fashion.
The sand/water mixture can now be removed from the tank and buried on the lease. The pit for burial should be excavated first and be deep enough to allow a minimum of 30 cm. of soil cover. The sand can be removed with the use of a vacuum truck or manually shovelled into a pit. The following safety tips should be adhered to during this operation:
During clean-out:
Wear protective clothing (gloves, coveralls and boots).
Cover all open skin, abrasions and cuts.
Keep hands away from mouth and nose (no smoking/eating).
Avoid spreading contaminated sand around lease.
Following clean-out:
a. Rinse tools used in clean-out with water.
b. Dispose of gloves used in clean-out.
c. Wash hands in warm soapy water.
(2006) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES CAN THE CONTAMINATED SAND BE TAKEN TO A RECYCLING FACILITY.
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(2006) Spill site is free of radioactive waste, says Corridor Resources
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2006/
10/02/nb-spill.html
Last Updated: Monday, October 2, 2006 | 9:24 AM AT CBC News
QUOTE: "A spokesman for the commission said the company stated that it had disposed of the substance properly, but it hasn't verified this claim by visiting the site."
A resource company says it has cleaned up 3,000 litres of material containing a low-level radioactive substance it spilled while drilling for natural gas in the Sussex area in August.
The material that Corridor spilled is called frac sand and is used to fill rock fissures when drilling for natural gas. Frac sand contains some low-level radioactive isotopes.
The spill occurred Aug. 23 at a drill site on land belonging to a family in Penobsquis, said Corridor president Norm Miller.
"It was cleaned up immediately under strict supervision by the Environment Department and no risk of any significance to any personnel," said Miller.
The company buried the material temporarily on another landowner's property, he said.
According to federal regulations, the frac sand must be buried under at least 30 centimetres of soil to be neutralized. [ . . . ]
- - - - -
WELCOME TO CORRIDOR RESOURCES INC.
http://www.corridor.ca/
Corridor Resources Inc. is a junior resource company engaged in the exploration for and development and production of petroleum and natural gas onshore in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Québec and offshore in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Corridor currently has natural gas reserves and production in the McCully Field near Sussex, New Brunswick and discovered crude oil reserves in the Caledonia Field, near Sussex, New Brunswick in 2008.
In addition, Corridor has contingent resources and discovered shale gas resources in Elgin, New Brunswick.
Corridor's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX"), under the symbol "CDH".
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13. Feds Say Major New York Gas Pipeline Poses Safety Risk
http://www.propublica.org/article/
feds-say-major-new-york-gas-pipeline-poses-safety-risk
by Nicholas Kusnetz | @nkus August 5, 2011
A recent inspection of a natural gas pipeline stretching across New York found that sections may have been installed without proper evaluation. Without changes, the pipeline could be at risk of rupturing.
More coverage:
Fracking: Gas Drilling's Environmental Threat
http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking
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14. SHIELDS: Now Watch For American Synthetic Crude Oil Exports!!
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P. ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Cc: rd ; Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2011 11:16 AM
Subject: Now Watch For American Synthetic Crude Oil Exports!!
With United States going to export with natural gas, where does Canada's export market lay? Are we about to allow the American buyer to obtain cheap Canadian natural gas, upgrade it for world exports and profit nicely and further on Canadian stupidity? How long will it take the American's to put Canada in the same position with bitumen exports? With the demand for crude oil dropping in United States and Canada anxious to sell increasingly larger volumes of raw bitumen for extremely low prices into that market, we have the same scenario as natural gas 10 years ago. Canada may at some down the road date be able to move small amounts of LNG to world markets, but the lack of enthusiasms displayed by Canada and the control "big-Inch" pipeline companies have through NEB over natural gas, indicates the main flow of product from Canada will be through the low priced NAFTA market.
How wonderful we have not committed our Arctic natural gas supplies to this markets through paying the construction tab for the richest CARTEL in the free world to build the Mackenzie pipeline! Allowing a foreign CARTEL to control our Arctic region through control and movement of Arctic riches could have been as devastating as Mulroney's "Free-Trade" and degulation on mainland natural gas prices. Canada seems incapable under Tory governments to break free of American domination in the resource sector. Fear of work by Canada's Tory governments seems to allow the ambitious Americans marvelous opportunism to score finaniacially using a little effort and Canadian products!!
The big scare for Canadians comes however from the export of raw bitumen to United states destinations. The loss of the huge profits involved in upgrading to a light synthetic crude will become missing in Canada when the time comes to pay the environmental bill for bitumen production. Although upgrading at source makes much more sense than pushing a slurry thousands of miles only to do the same thing, Canadian Tory governments not wanting to become involved, would sooner take the much lower price for their owning public, and let the Americans have top profits and jobs from a Canadian resource! Watch for the announcements of light synthetic crude oil being exported from United states. we have already surrendered the LNG issue!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
- - - -
A long-term play on the LNG boom
http://www.stockhouse.com/Columnists/2011/August/3/
A-long-term-play-on-the-LNG-boom
But the best opportunities for natural gas lie ahead for the United States. Those will come from the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
I’ve written extensively about the glut of natural gas in the United States on numerous occasions.
Our overabundance of supply has come about largely from the explosion of horizontal drilling, fracking and extraction of gas from America’s abundant shale gas formations.
Over the last two years, we’ve added hundreds of trillions of cubic feet to our reserves. They now stand north of 2,000 trillion cubic feet. That’s more than a 100-year supply.
As technological advances continue to be applied to shale drilling and fracking processes, that reserve number is bound to jump even further. I believe it could double in the next five years. And there’s another great way to invest in this boom… [ . . . ]
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15. SHIELDS: Bitumen Slurry Shipments Unnecessary!
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: minister.energy@gtov.ab.ca ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 12:11 PM
Subject: Bitumen Slurry Shipments Unnecessary!
It's about time the environmentalist used what is the important difference between shipping upgraded synthetic crude and bitumen slurry!! Show any landowner or emergency response captain a sample of both, and ask them which of the two they would prefer to clean-up after a spill. The question of trying to push this bitumen slurry need not go any further, as it is not necessary to try to push a slurry thousands of miles only to do what can be accomplished at source! Just why our Tory politician's are breaking their backs to cost Canadian's 35,000,000 million dollars per day for every million bibles of bitumen exported is a question opposition parties should be asking of the Harper and Alberta Tories. The fact that bitumen must be made a slurry before it can be pumped should itself send warnings that the pressure differential to move bitumen slurry is going to be greater than to push than light synthetic crude oil! That the newly licensed Keystone pipeline carrying slurry has had over 25 spill incidents is solid evidence that should get regulators attention.
The facts that over twice the volume of slurry must be moved as synthetic crude, for the same end result, along with twice the needed pipelines and twice the dangers of spill incidents. Also slurry is a sour product while synthetic crude is a light sweet crude that according to Suncor commands a price of $35 dollars per bbl. over the price of bitumen. Environments must start questioning the straight business reasons for moving bitumen as a slurry to United States, rather than shipping the far easier to clean synthetic crude that returns so much more money to Canadian coffers? Why indeed is our Alberta and Federal governments so anxious to move the more environmentally unfriendly, and lowest priced product to export? Should the Environmental movement start to accuse the Tory governments of supporting industry in ducking their environmental responsibilities by exporting the problem to another jurisdiction? What other reason would have Canada exporting a product in it's cheapest and lowest price form while surrendering so much more with respect to jobs, royalties, taxes, and spin-off industries?
The petroleum industry have never been open or honest with the owning public of petroleum resources. Insisting they needed subsidizes only to report quadruple earning in some instances, and slowing industrial growth by the greedy pump prices for transportation vehicles! Crown Corporations should be struck to handle the "Public-Part" and ownership of petroleum resources. The bevy of methods that have been developed to move funds designed for the public treasurer back to industry profits, would have to clear a knowledgeable leadership of the C.C. intent on the public good! Exporting jobs, Taxes, Royalties, spin off industries, never mind profits, of a publicly owned resource, would be much harder to get past even a "Low-Brow" public with a C.C. mandated to perform in the public interest. Environments have every right to use what they can to stop the very stupid idea of moving a bitumen slurry thousands of miles when that action is unnecessary and against the best interests of the Canadian public.
The United States will be unable to refuse the stupid deal Alberta and Canadian Tory governments are offering in the long run! Ignoring the environmental and business costs of pushing a slurry thousands of miles only to do what could have been done at source, has the advantages of having the Americans again control both the development and price of a Canadian publicly owned resource. This has already happen with natural gas, but we have leant nothing from that experience. The temptation of gaining $ 35,000,000 dollars every day for each million bbls.of bitumen Canada exports will prove too much for the Americans to turn down, notwithstanding the jobs, spin-off industries, on and on!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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Oil sands critics target a new concern – pipelines
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
industry-news/energy-and-resources/oil-sands-critics-target-a-new-concern-pipelines/article2116408/
nathan vanderklippe
CALGARY— From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published Monday, Aug. 01, 2011 7:00PM EDT
The crude oil that is pulled from Canada’s oil sands is thick and heavy, a black tar-like substance that takes large amounts of energy and effort to make into end products like gasoline and diesel. Even some people in the Alberta energy industry describe it as “nasty” stuff. But is it also dangerous?
More related to this story (Links at URL above)
The oil-diamond analogy
Ethical Oil ad campaign
Ex-Tory message maven tailors his spin to oil sands
A world with $100 oil
Over the past few months, critics of the oil sands have taken a new tack. They are now arguing that oil sands crude, which contains more contaminants than traditional sources of crude, poses a risk to pipeline safety – and they’ve linked the recent spate of North American oil pipeline spills to what they say is the corrosive content of oil sands products. [ . . . ]
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16. SHIELDS: Why Is This Happening Now?
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Prime Minister/Premier ministre
Cc: jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca ; gaeton.caron@neb-one.gc.ca ; minister.energy@gov.ab.ca
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 4:57 PM
Subject: Why Is This Happening Now?
Facts are hard to find with respect to exporting bitumen slurry over upgraded synthetic crude oil. One outstanding fact is that the NEB in approving the first phase of the Keystone pipeline, did not in anyway take into consideration the difference in upgrading at source, over upgrading thousands of miles from source!! The provincial help in getting a bitumen business going in Alberta never ever considered the sale of raw bitumen to foreign destinations! As both Suncor and Canadian Oilsand Producers prove is the intention for bitumen production in Alberta was to take bitumen and change it into a useful and useable crude oil product. Never were Albertans told after allowing the "penny on the dollar" royalty deal, that companies allowed Alberta's generosity would be able to ship bitumen along with jobs, taxes, spin-off industries, and royalties, be allowed and indeed encouraged to upgrade bitumen for value added gain in other than Alberta!! Why is this now happening??
The recent quarter report from Suncor indicated that company gained $35 dollars per bbl better price for synthetic crude oil over their bitumen price, and a $11 dollar premium to West Texas Crude!! This means our Tory governments in both Alberta and Ottawa are prepared to cost Canadians $35,000,000 million dollars per day for every million bbls of bitumen exported, by supporting raw bitumen exports!! Other possibilities with bitumen exports is the fact that Canada will loose any price control over a publicly owned resource much like we did with Natural gas, once a single importer is established.
The opposition to the Enbridge plan has as much to do with the product contained within the pipeline as the pipeline itself. The return 16-inch pipeline contained within the Enbridge plan, to carry the very dangerous condensate diluents into Canada, is not at all needed if upgrading at source is the principal export method adopted, and was the wish of all Alberta's premiers at one time------what happened? Is it possible our weak Tory governments have caved into supporting raw bitumen exports to help "Big-Industry" dodge their environmental responsibilities here in Alberta? Are our governments really supporting exporting a environmental problem? Do our governments know the price to the public they are willing to ignore to satisfy their desire to have Big-Oil onside in upcoming elections?
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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The Big Pipe: Enbridge’s plan to connect the oilsands and China divides locals
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
rob-magazine/the-big-pipe-enbridges-plan-to-connect-the-oilsands-and-china-divides-locals/article1847726/
Nathan VanderKlippe Published Monday, Jan. 03, 2011 11:32AM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011 11:29AM EDT
Behind a stack of stripped timber piled like a giant’s game of pick-up sticks, a log cabin is taking shape in the backwoods of northwestern British Columbia. A sawhorse stands on a mat of sawdust next to walls that have reached about halfway to their intended height. The ends of the logs, not yet trimmed, stick out at uneven lengths from the corners.
The allure of building a cabin here, some 50 kilometres by slushy gravel forest road from the nearest highway, seems obvious. A hole cut for an entrance door perfectly frames a view of the swift green waters of the Morice River. The riverbank is populated by flyfishers casting for steelhead and hunters bleeding out massive moose carcasses. The dark evergreen forest is quiet. It is an outdoor idyll.
But it’s not the setting that has brought construction here. And it may be a mistake to call this a cabin when it is, in fact, a fortress. It has been built against a line on a map, a narrow yellow stroke that starts near Edmonton and ends at the Pacific. The line marks the future location of Northern Gateway, a massive 1,172-kilometre crude oil pipeline that may one day deliver Alberta crude to Asia. The cabin overlooks kilometre post 1,038, the spot where Gateway’s engineers plan to cross the Morice before tunnelling through the Coastal Range to reach tidewater at Kitimat, B.C.
They will, that is, if Calgary’s Enbridge Inc. can prevail against this restive part of the country, where the cabin has been built by a clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation as a brazen protest. Gateway remains years from being built—or even approved by federal authorities. But already, dozens of First Nations are linking arms with the federal NDP and Liberals to stop it, in part by bidding to ban the tankers that would take away the crude. And in the wilds of B.C., blockades are already being erected. “The clan,” says David de Wit, the natural resources manager for the Wet’suwet’en, “wants to make a stand.” [ . . . ]
- - - - -
Enbridge’s proposed pipeline stirs strong emotions along the route
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/
rob-magazine/enbridges-proposed-pipeline-stirs-strong-emotions-along-the-route/article1864560/?from=1847726
- - - - -
More related to this story (Links are on original URL)
Oil prices hold near 2-year high
B.C. Indian bands give thumbs-down to Enbridge pipeline
Mackenzie pipeline approved
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17. Earthquakes, Earthquakes! And Drilling?
http://blog.skytruth.org/2011/08/
earthquakes-earthquakes-and-drilling.html
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
We had some action here in the mid-Atlantic yesterday that would make the folks in California yawn, but is pretty unusual around these parts - a magnitude 5.8 earthquake centered in Virginia, that was felt far and wide. There have even been a couple of small aftershocks. Paul and Teri report that the shaking was obvious in Shepherdstown, and my wife Amy said it seemed to last for a long time:
I was terrified - I thought a tree was coming down and would hit the house, or a truck was running into the house. I ran to the open door to try to figure things out. Then I thought it was a military aircraft. But it went on for a long time time (or so it seemed) and I figured it was an earthquake.
And just a day earlier, there was a similarly moderate quake (5.3) that struck along the Colorado-New Mexico state line near Trinidad. There has been a swarm of small, shallow earthquakes in this area in recent years; because this swarm sits right in the middle of a very active coalbed methane drilling play (known as the Raton Basin, including drilling on the nearby Vermejo Park Ranch property owned by Ted Turner), there is some speculation that these earthquakes are actually being triggered by either the withdrawal of natural gas from the rocks, or the injection of water produced from the CBM wells back into the ground for disposal.
It's not as wacky as it sounds. Disposal of fracking fluids by deep injection was implicated in an unusual earthquake swarm in Arkansas earlier this year; and similar quakes in 2005 happened here in the Raton Basin. This USGS report on a 2001 earthquake swarm also raises the possibility of seismic activity induced by the injection of fluids for disposal (note: fluid disposal by deep injection is NOT the same thing as fracking; but it is a consequence of natural-gas production in some places).
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18. Largest Colorado quake in nearly 40 years rattles homes
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/
largest-colorado-quake-in-nearly-40-years-rattles-homes/article2138489/
TRINIDAD, Colo.— The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 8:38AM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2011 2:32PM EDT
The largest earthquake to strike Colorado in almost 40 years has shaken hundreds of people near the New Mexico border and caused minor damage to a few homes.
The magnitude 5.3 earthquake was recorded at about 11:46 p.m. MDT Monday about nine miles southwest of Trinidad, Colo., and about 180 miles south of Denver, according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. The quake followed two smaller ones that hit the area earlier in the day.
The quake is the largest in Colorado since a magnitude 5.7 was recorded in 1973, U.S. Geological Service geophysicist Amy Vaughn said. That one was centreed in the northwestern part of the state — about 50 miles north of Grand Junction, she said. [ . . ]
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19. Alberta fears green 'misinformation' on fracking: documents
http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/
Alberta+fears+green+misinformation+fracking+documents/5277515/story.html
POSTMEDIA NEWS AUGUST 19, 2011
Leaked Alberta cabinet documents suggest the province is worried environmental groups will undermine public support for shale gas development by spreading "misinformation" about health and environmental effects of chemical fracking.
The records show the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers has offered to work with the government to "enhance" public relations efforts. CAPP, a powerful industry lobby group, is the only non-governmental organization that will be consulted during inter-governmental talks.
The documents were leaked to the NDP on Thursday, one week after federal documents obtained under access to information laws revealed CAPP helped organize the Alberta government's public relations strategy to polish the image of the oilsands.
A draft project outline attached to the Aug. 3 briefing note elaborates on government concerns, saying the public is being exposed to a "mixed package" of information and may not be able to come to an informed decision.
"Environmental non-government organization are supporting an ill-informed campaign on hydraulic fracturing and water-related issues in British Columbia and this is expected to grow as shale gas development expands into Alberta and Saskatchewan," the outline says. [ . . . ]
- - - -
SEE: BRIEFING NOTE: SUBJECT: New West Partnership and project charter – "Collaboration and Information Sharing, Industry Water Use and Hydraulic Fracture Technology"
http://www.scribd.com/doc/62597277/Frac ... efing-Note
DATE: August 3, 2011
ISSUE: The Minister’s of Energy for British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan signed a Memorandum of Understanding December 16, 2010 to provide for collaboration and joint action on issues related to unconventional shale gas development. One of several priority initiatives of the partnership is to work together to address fracture technology and water issues. [ . . . ]
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20. SHIELDS: The Old EnCana Still Acting Against Alberta's Best Interests
----- Original Message -----
From: lagran
To: Prime Minister/Premier ministre ; Layton, Jack - M.P.
Cc: Rae.B@parl.gc.ca ; Minister, EMPR EMPR:EX ; jmorales@neb-one.gc.ca ; goodale ; flaherty ; bill boyd ; Alberta Activism ; acameron@neb-one.gc.ca
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 5:59 PM
Subject: The Old EnCana Still Acting Against Alberta's Best Interests
Suncor's published quarter results are the proof we searched for to show Canadians that exporting synthetic crude from a bitumen base was still the best method of developing our bitumen resources. The selling of a raw bitumen slurry on the world market was never in the original plans for developing the bitumen properties. Cenovus who's predecessor is the troubled EnCana organization started the idea of massive bitumen exports by trading facilities and property it gained from the Alberta public for upgrading facilities in United States. Harper allowed these deals that goes directly against the best interests of the owning Canadian public. Synthetic crude that commands a 35 dollar premium to bitumen will cost Canadians $35,000,000 dollars per day for every million bbls of bitumen exported. Certainly Cenovus should be considering refinery issues going forward, should Cenovus be successful in moving to 500,000 bbls. of bitumen production per day by 2021, this would cost Cenovus 500,000x35= 15,000,000 million dollars per day, cool cash.
The tremendous rush to get the Keystone extension approved is the direct result of the possibilities of information that proves the sense of upgrading at source, making industry profits, leaving Tory governments in Canada with the question of the pollution at source, rather than exporting that problem to other jurisdictions!! Supporting industries endeavors to duck their environmental responsibilities is the job of a very weak and deceitful governments. Canada will need every penny gained from the proper export of upgraded synthetic crude oil to afford bitumen production and exports. Anything less than gaining for the Canadian public the maximum from this business should be a call to shut down completely, this massive polluter giving Canada a black eye!! Canada and Alberta Tories are structurally wrong to be investing efforts to have industry upgrading at trails end rather than spending public dollars to promote upgrading at source to lose the "dirty oil" name properly associated with bitumen slurry exports!!
Stewart Shields
Lacombe, Alberta
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Cenovus banking on Keystone XL pipeline
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/
cenovus-banking-on-keystone-xl-pipeline/article2109761/
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE CALGARY— The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, Jul. 26, 2011 8:00AM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Jul. 26, 2011 7:31PM EDT
As U.S. legislators attempted to speed approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a major Canadian energy producer underscored the high stakes for the oil sands if the controversial project is not built.
The TransCanada Corp. pipeline proposal would bring Canadian crude to refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast. It has stirred substantial debate in the U.S., with critics suggesting it will raise gasoline prices and create the risk of spills in areas that are important water sources. [ . . . ]
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21. REPORT: Drilling Below the Surface: Groundwater Risks and In Situ Oil Sands Development
http://www.water-matters.org/story/445
The large majority of oil sands in Alberta are not accessible via mining and must be developed via in situ wells that use vast quantities of steam to heat and liquefy bitumen found in deep deposits. The management of groundwater in the oil sands region has received little attention, despite the fact it will have to support in situ development that is expected to produce three times as much oil as surface mines. [ . . . ]
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DOWNLOAD REPORT: Drilling Down: Groundwater Risks Imposed by In Situ Oil Sands Development
http://www.water-matters.org/docs/drilling-down.pdf
By JULIA KO AND WILLIAM F. DONAHUE (WATER MATTERS) — JUL 21, 2011
Drilling Down: Groundwater Risks Imposed by In Situ Oil Sands Development provides clear, achievable recommendations for improving groundwater management, assessment and monitoring in the oil sands region.
In Drilling Down, Water Matters recommends scientifically rigorous monitoring and assessment of groundwater resources by the provincial and federal governments, and perhaps most importantly the eradication of technical and regulatory uncertainties inherent to the in situ oil sands industry that pose huge risks to groundwater in the region.
"Simply put, underground doesn't mean under control unless groundwater protection is taken as seriously as surface water protection."
William F. Donahue, Water Matters
* * * * * *
PLEASE NOTE: There is an error in the figure labeled "Total Water Used by In Situ Oil Sands Projects 2009" 44% of water saline groundwater use should read "Groundwater (saline) above 4000 mg/L TDS" not "Groundwater (saline) below 4000 mg/L TDS." Updated July 29, 2011.
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22. The Documents Chesapeake Energy Doesn’t Want You To See
http://www.naturalgaswatch.org/?p=800
Aug 11th, 2011 | By admin | Category: Fracking, Lead Articles
Chesapeake Energy pumped more than 1.4 million gallons of fluid to a depth of more than 2 miles at a natural gas well in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, before a blowout sent tens of thousands of gallons of the toxic liquid coursing over fertile farmland and into a nearby creek, according to documents obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org.
The documents, obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org from the federal Environmental Protection Agency under a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request, show that the fluid Chesapeake used in operations at the well contained more than two dozen chemicals, including methanol, glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde, 2-butoxyethanol and hydrocloric acid. They also specify the amounts used and detail the role each substance played in the hydraulic fracturing process.
In addition, a schematic diagram of the the Chesapeake well shows how deep into the earth the fluids were injected and how much natural gas was recovered at each depth, as well as the materials used to construct the well and its
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