Big Oil, Bad Air Fracking the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas

[Disir]

Our investigation and records obtained from Texas regulatory agencies reveal a system that does more to protect the industry than the public. Among the findings:

Texas’ air monitoring system is so flawed that the state knows almost nothing about the extent of the pollution in the Eagle Ford. Only five permanent air monitors are installed in the 20,000-square-mile region, and all are at the fringes of the shale play, far from the heavy drilling areas where emissions are highest.
Thousands of oil and gas facilities, including six of the nine production sites near the Buehrings’ house, are allowed to self-audit their emissions without reporting them to the state. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which regulates most air emissions, doesn’t even know some of these facilities exist. An internal agency document acknowledges that the rule allowing this practice “[c]annot be proven to be protective.”
Companies that break the law are rarely fined. Of the 284 oil and gas industry-related complaints filed with the TCEQ by Eagle Ford residents between Jan. 1, 2010, and Nov. 19, 2013 , only two resulted in fines despite 164 documented violations. The largest was just $14,250. (Pending enforcement actions could lead to six more fines.)
The Texas legislature has cut the TCEQ’s budget by a third since the Eagle Ford boom began, from $555 million in 2008 to $372 million in 2014. At the same time, the amount allocated for air monitoring equipment dropped from $1.2 million to $579,000.
The Eagle Ford boom is feeding an ominous trend: A 100-percent statewide increase in unplanned toxic air releases associated with oil and gas production since 2009. Known as emission events, these releases are usually caused by human error or faulty equipment.
Residents of the mostly rural Eagle Ford counties are at a disadvantage even in Texas because they haven’t been given air quality protections, such as more permanent monitors, provided to the wealthier, more suburban Barnett Shale region near Dallas-Fort Worth.

Texas officials tasked with overseeing the industry are often its strongest defenders, leaving the Buehrings and other families

http://eagleford.publicintegrity.org/

One would think that the state regulators would be all over this simply to prove that they got this.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Progressives hate America's robust energy industry and will kill themselves to destroy it

 

[Disir]

Progressives hate America's robust energy industry and will kill themselves to destroy it

I just want to make sure that I heard you correctly. You said that you had no idea but, never turn down an opportunity to throw a lame attempt at an insult out there. Got it.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Progressives hate America's robust energy industry and will kill themselves to destroy it

I just want to make sure that I heard you correctly. You said that you had no idea but, never turn down an opportunity to throw a lame attempt at an insult out there. Got it.

No, I'm pointing out Progressives Jihad on US energy industry

 

[Disir]

Progressives hate America's robust energy industry and will kill themselves to destroy it

I just want to make sure that I heard you correctly. You said that you had no idea but, never turn down an opportunity to throw a lame attempt at an insult out there. Got it.

No, I'm pointing out Progressives Jihad on US energy industry

Yawn.
You got nothing. Anything on the actual topic?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Yeah, we got it. Fracking is bad and it's melting the polar ice caps.

Lead by example and take yourself off the energy grid

 

[chikenwing]

I just want to make sure that I heard you correctly. You said that you had no idea but, never turn down an opportunity to throw a lame attempt at an insult out there. Got it.

No, I'm pointing out Progressives Jihad on US energy industry

Yawn.
You got nothing. Anything on the actual topic?

Do you feel we should be exploiting our NG resources?

 

[Disir]

Yeah, we got it. Fracking is bad and it's melting the polar ice caps.

Lead by example and take yourself off the energy grid

No. Apparently you don't have it.

People who live close to oil and gas development — whether in Texas’ Eagle Ford, Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale or Wyoming’s Green River Basin — tend to report the same symptoms: nausea, nosebleeds, headaches, body rashes and respiratory problems. Public health experts say these shared experiences point to a pressing need for improved air monitoring.

“If you have pockets of communities with the same symptoms downwind of similar sources, then there is a body of evidence,” said Isobel Simpson, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Irvine, who studies air pollution around the world.

Studies show that, depending on the concentration and length of exposure, these chemicals can cause a range of ailments, from minor headaches to neurological damage and cancer. People in the Eagle Ford face an added layer of risk: hydrogen sulfide, also known as H2S or sour gas, a naturally occurring component of crude oil and natural gas that lurks underground.

Like asbestos entombed in a 50-year-old ceiling, H2S usually isn’t a problem if left undisturbed. Once liberated, however, it becomes a formidable threat, capable even in miniscule doses — a few parts per million or less — of aggravating asthma and causing nausea, headaches and eye irritation. It gives off a rotten-egg odor in lower concentrations but at around 100 parts per million the chemical knocks out the sense of smell and begins to act as an asphyxiant. At 1,000 ppm it kills within minutes.

But, then there is this:

State legislators who enact the laws that regulate the industry are often tied to it. Nearly one in four state legislators, or his or her spouse, has a financial interest in at least one energy company active in the Eagle Ford, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of personal financial disclosure forms shows.

 

[chikenwing]

Yeah, we got it. Fracking is bad and it's melting the polar ice caps.

Lead by example and take yourself off the energy grid

No. Apparently you don't have it.

People who live close to oil and gas development — whether in Texas’ Eagle Ford, Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale or Wyoming’s Green River Basin — tend to report the same symptoms: nausea, nosebleeds, headaches, body rashes and respiratory problems. Public health experts say these shared experiences point to a pressing need for improved air monitoring.

“If you have pockets of communities with the same symptoms downwind of similar sources, then there is a body of evidence,” said Isobel Simpson, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Irvine, who studies air pollution around the world.

Studies show that, depending on the concentration and length of exposure, these chemicals can cause a range of ailments, from minor headaches to neurological damage and cancer. People in the Eagle Ford face an added layer of risk: hydrogen sulfide, also known as H2S or sour gas, a naturally occurring component of crude oil and natural gas that lurks underground.

Like asbestos entombed in a 50-year-old ceiling, H2S usually isn’t a problem if left undisturbed. Once liberated, however, it becomes a formidable threat, capable even in miniscule doses — a few parts per million or less — of aggravating asthma and causing nausea, headaches and eye irritation. It gives off a rotten-egg odor in lower concentrations but at around 100 parts per million the chemical knocks out the sense of smell and begins to act as an asphyxiant. At 1,000 ppm it kills within minutes.

But, then there is this:

State legislators who enact the laws that regulate the industry are often tied to it. Nearly one in four state legislators, or his or her spouse, has a financial interest in at least one energy company active in the Eagle Ford, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of personal financial disclosure forms shows.

Funny thing,you hear nothing like this from the locals,that are living it daily.

 

[Disir]

Yeah, we got it. Fracking is bad and it's melting the polar ice caps.

Lead by example and take yourself off the energy grid

No. Apparently you don't have it.



But, then there is this:

State legislators who enact the laws that regulate the industry are often tied to it. Nearly one in four state legislators, or his or her spouse, has a financial interest in at least one energy company active in the Eagle Ford, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of personal financial disclosure forms shows.

Funny thing,you hear nothing like this from the locals,that are living it daily.

'We want out of here': Landowners blame ailments on fracking fumes | kens5.com San Antonio

 

[Disir]

No, I'm pointing out Progressives Jihad on US energy industry

Yawn.
You got nothing. Anything on the actual topic?

Do you feel we should be exploiting our NG resources?

Can it be done without harming the people? Apparently not.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Our investigation and records obtained from Texas regulatory agencies reveal a system that does more to protect the industry than the public. Among the findings:

Texas’ air monitoring system is so flawed that the state knows almost nothing about the extent of the pollution in the Eagle Ford. Only five permanent air monitors are installed in the 20,000-square-mile region, and all are at the fringes of the shale play, far from the heavy drilling areas where emissions are highest.
Thousands of oil and gas facilities, including six of the nine production sites near the Buehrings’ house, are allowed to self-audit their emissions without reporting them to the state. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which regulates most air emissions, doesn’t even know some of these facilities exist. An internal agency document acknowledges that the rule allowing this practice “[c]annot be proven to be protective.”
Companies that break the law are rarely fined. Of the 284 oil and gas industry-related complaints filed with the TCEQ by Eagle Ford residents between Jan. 1, 2010, and Nov. 19, 2013 , only two resulted in fines despite 164 documented violations. The largest was just $14,250. (Pending enforcement actions could lead to six more fines.)
The Texas legislature has cut the TCEQ’s budget by a third since the Eagle Ford boom began, from $555 million in 2008 to $372 million in 2014. At the same time, the amount allocated for air monitoring equipment dropped from $1.2 million to $579,000.
The Eagle Ford boom is feeding an ominous trend: A 100-percent statewide increase in unplanned toxic air releases associated with oil and gas production since 2009. Known as emission events, these releases are usually caused by human error or faulty equipment.
Residents of the mostly rural Eagle Ford counties are at a disadvantage even in Texas because they haven’t been given air quality protections, such as more permanent monitors, provided to the wealthier, more suburban Barnett Shale region near Dallas-Fort Worth.

Texas officials tasked with overseeing the industry are often its strongest defenders, leaving the Buehrings and other families

http://eagleford.publicintegrity.org/

One would think that the state regulators would be all over this simply to prove that they got this.

Note: An idiotgram is defined as any post by, or resembling, every post submitted by CrusaderFrank. He's really not an idiot, he simply appears to be a slow three year old.

 

[Disir]

Our investigation and records obtained from Texas regulatory agencies reveal a system that does more to protect the industry than the public. Among the findings:

Texas’ air monitoring system is so flawed that the state knows almost nothing about the extent of the pollution in the Eagle Ford. Only five permanent air monitors are installed in the 20,000-square-mile region, and all are at the fringes of the shale play, far from the heavy drilling areas where emissions are highest.
Thousands of oil and gas facilities, including six of the nine production sites near the Buehrings’ house, are allowed to self-audit their emissions without reporting them to the state. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), which regulates most air emissions, doesn’t even know some of these facilities exist. An internal agency document acknowledges that the rule allowing this practice “[c]annot be proven to be protective.”
Companies that break the law are rarely fined. Of the 284 oil and gas industry-related complaints filed with the TCEQ by Eagle Ford residents between Jan. 1, 2010, and Nov. 19, 2013 , only two resulted in fines despite 164 documented violations. The largest was just $14,250. (Pending enforcement actions could lead to six more fines.)
The Texas legislature has cut the TCEQ’s budget by a third since the Eagle Ford boom began, from $555 million in 2008 to $372 million in 2014. At the same time, the amount allocated for air monitoring equipment dropped from $1.2 million to $579,000.
The Eagle Ford boom is feeding an ominous trend: A 100-percent statewide increase in unplanned toxic air releases associated with oil and gas production since 2009. Known as emission events, these releases are usually caused by human error or faulty equipment.
Residents of the mostly rural Eagle Ford counties are at a disadvantage even in Texas because they haven’t been given air quality protections, such as more permanent monitors, provided to the wealthier, more suburban Barnett Shale region near Dallas-Fort Worth.

Texas officials tasked with overseeing the industry are often its strongest defenders, leaving the Buehrings and other families

http://eagleford.publicintegrity.org/

One would think that the state regulators would be all over this simply to prove that they got this.

Note: An idiotgram is defined as any post by, or resembling, every post submitted by CrusaderFrank. He's really not an idiot, he simply appears to be a slow three year old.

Gotcha.

 

[martybegan]

Yawn.
You got nothing. Anything on the actual topic?

Do you feel we should be exploiting our NG resources?

Can it be done without harming the people? Apparently not.

When you define harm as "maybe causing, or could cause, or may be related to" then of course not. What you are doing is setting parameters designed to be unreachable.

The fact is you can't find proof of harm, so you move the goalposts to claim the chance of harm is what should stop this from happening.

 

[Disir]

Do you feel we should be exploiting our NG resources?

Can it be done without harming the people? Apparently not.

When you define harm as "maybe causing, or could cause, or may be related to" then of course not. What you are doing is setting parameters designed to be unreachable.

The fact is you can't find proof of harm, so you move the goalposts to claim the chance of harm is what should stop this from happening.

Did you read it?

 

[martybegan]

Can it be done without harming the people? Apparently not.

When you define harm as "maybe causing, or could cause, or may be related to" then of course not. What you are doing is setting parameters designed to be unreachable.

The fact is you can't find proof of harm, so you move the goalposts to claim the chance of harm is what should stop this from happening.

Did you read it?

When a site starts with the term "Big Oil, Bad Air" you can assume they are as biased as shit. Using a woman on the cover on oxygen is just the icing.

Find an ubiased source and I will spend my time to read it.

In 2011, Politico called into question CPI's collaboration with advocacy organizations. Politico reported that CPI had coordinated the release of a report on Koch Industries with Greenpeace. Politico also reported that Pew Charitable Trusts, a funder of the Looting the Seas report, hosted a screening of a CPI documentary and then organized a call to action with other NGOs for the protection of bluefin tuna. In 2008, CPI published a report on tobacco that was both funded by and promoted by an advocacy group called Tobacco Free Kids.

The only thing they found was there weren't enough air monitors, according to them. The rest is conjecture.

 

[Disir]

When you define harm as "maybe causing, or could cause, or may be related to" then of course not. What you are doing is setting parameters designed to be unreachable.

The fact is you can't find proof of harm, so you move the goalposts to claim the chance of harm is what should stop this from happening.

Did you read it?

When a site starts with the term "Big Oil, Bad Air" you can assume they are as biased as shit. Using a woman on the cover on oxygen is just the icing.

Find an ubiased source and I will spend my time to read it.

In 2011, Politico called into question CPI's collaboration with advocacy organizations. Politico reported that CPI had coordinated the release of a report on Koch Industries with Greenpeace. Politico also reported that Pew Charitable Trusts, a funder of the Looting the Seas report, hosted a screening of a CPI documentary and then organized a call to action with other NGOs for the protection of bluefin tuna. In 2008, CPI published a report on tobacco that was both funded by and promoted by an advocacy group called Tobacco Free Kids.

The only thing they found was there weren't enough air monitors, according to them. The rest is conjecture.

Oh, dear. I find Politico to be biased.

And I am trying to find the top reasons that I should trust anything associated with the Albritton family. You know, they would so readily put people before profit.
About Us ? Perpetual Capital Partners

 

[martybegan]

Did you read it?

When a site starts with the term "Big Oil, Bad Air" you can assume they are as biased as shit. Using a woman on the cover on oxygen is just the icing.

Find an ubiased source and I will spend my time to read it.

In 2011, Politico called into question CPI's collaboration with advocacy organizations. Politico reported that CPI had coordinated the release of a report on Koch Industries with Greenpeace. Politico also reported that Pew Charitable Trusts, a funder of the Looting the Seas report, hosted a screening of a CPI documentary and then organized a call to action with other NGOs for the protection of bluefin tuna. In 2008, CPI published a report on tobacco that was both funded by and promoted by an advocacy group called Tobacco Free Kids.

The only thing they found was there weren't enough air monitors, according to them. The rest is conjecture.

Oh, dear. I find Politico to be biased.

And I am trying to find the top reasons that I should trust anything associated with the Albritton family. You know, they would so readily put people before profit.
About Us ? Perpetual Capital Partners

And back to the standard tired progressive "people above profit" bullshit. Go off grid and shut up.

 

[Disir]

When a site starts with the term "Big Oil, Bad Air" you can assume they are as biased as shit. Using a woman on the cover on oxygen is just the icing.

Find an ubiased source and I will spend my time to read it.



The only thing they found was there weren't enough air monitors, according to them. The rest is conjecture.

Oh, dear. I find Politico to be biased.

And I am trying to find the top reasons that I should trust anything associated with the Albritton family. You know, they would so readily put people before profit.
About Us ? Perpetual Capital Partners

And back to the standard tired progressive "people above profit" bullshit. Go off grid and shut up.

No.


You have nothing. But, there should be a law that provides for all medical expenses paid and those that knowingly, willingly, and consciously either directly or indirectly physically harm a population (in what amounts to poison) for prison time.

 

[martybegan]

Oh, dear. I find Politico to be biased.

And I am trying to find the top reasons that I should trust anything associated with the Albritton family. You know, they would so readily put people before profit.
About Us ? Perpetual Capital Partners

And back to the standard tired progressive "people above profit" bullshit. Go off grid and shut up.

No.


You have nothing. But, there should be a law that provides for all medical expenses paid and those that knowingly, willingly, and consciously either directly or indirectly physical harm to occur to a population in what amounts to poison for prison time.

Based on what evidence? So lack of monitoring up to some rediculous standard created by people who want to stop petro extraction now equals poisoning?

Prove that this poisioning is happening, then come back. until then stop using petro products you hypocrite.