U.S. Fracking's Larger Implications

[KissMy]

Looks like their planting rows of crab-grass under there.

A telling graphic. Many wells from a single footprint. The industry is leaner and greener than ever before.

Are you drilling wells like those?

 

[Mr. H.]

Looks like their planting rows of crab-grass under there.

A telling graphic. Many wells from a single footprint. The industry is leaner and greener than ever before.

Are you drilling wells like those?

LOL, I wish. That's way out of my league.
I'm small taters.

However, I'm on the PR front line in Illinois trying to beat back the idiots that are spreading lies about hydraulic fracturing. Legislation is being written by fools that don't know jack shit about the industry.

 

[RGR]

Legislation is being written by fools that don't know jack shit about the industry.

Hardly a surprise in nearly any field, considering the quality (or lack thereof) of the people voted into office nowadays.

 

[Mr. H.]

The economic bounty of shale oil & gas - Oil & Gas Financial Journal

Using Bureau of Labor quarterly census data the report provides a summary of state and national benefits attributed to growing US oil and gas production during 2012. For example, TIPRO reports that oil and gas industry employment increased by 65,000 to 971,000 in 2012. But the benefits of increased production are not just confined to the oil and gas industry. According to a presentation by the Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy (ITCE) the shale revolution provided $237B of growth to the US economy in 2012. Today we look at how huge changes taking place in US energy supplies impact the wider economy.

 

[Mr. H.]

Fracking revolutionized American energy as green energy failed

Conn Carroll: Fracking revolutionized American energy as green energy failed | WashingtonExaminer.com

No union/environmentalist central planner set out to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs by perfecting new methods of extracting shale oil and gas from rocks thousands of feet beneath the surface. But that is exactly what the private sector has done.

 

[Underhill]

I'm no expert. And I probably would benefit greatly from fracking since my property (all 170 acres of it) would be prime for fracking.

But I live 10 miles form the PA border. Just over the border a few miles, people I know are seeing there water quality turn to shit within weeks of fracking operations beginning. This in wells that have been fine for decades.

One, I might believe coincidence. But we aren't talking about one. I know of at least 2 personally, and read about more in the local papers.

So I'm okay with NYS blocking fracking.

But I'm a realist. At some point the prices will start going up again and NYS will be pushed into lifting their ban. Then I might just be in the money...

 

[Mr. H.]

Thanks for the input. I hope those folks have contacted the PA DNR or whoever oversees such incidents.
I don't say it couldn't happen or never has happened, but such things are few and far between. And it has been proven as much.

Every industrial process and application has inherent risks. Risk is much more easily managed than rampant unemployment and bankrupt state economies.

 

[Underhill]

I just don't know about that.

As a percentage of the population, yes it is rare to have fracking affect your water supply. But if they are putting a new rig within a half mile of your house, I don't think it's all that rare. It may be 10%, maybe even 5%. But it seems to happen enough that I don't want them in my back yard.

 

[Mr. H.]

I hope you also own your mineral rights. That is your prerogative to deny access.

 

[Underhill]

I hope you also own your mineral rights. That is your prerogative to deny access.

I do on my land. But 100 yards from my house the land is owned by someone else...

 

[RGR]

One, I might believe coincidence. But we aren't talking about one. I know of at least 2 personally, and read about more in the local papers.

It is called "deep pockets". Oil companies have them. They show up, and well water which was good enough to drink since it was drilled suddenly becomes cloudy, gassy, infested with mice, you name it.

And then the landowners go after those with the deep pockets. Happens during house construction as well. You cracked my foundation when you ran that bulldozer past my house! (says the person with the cracked foundation stretching back to WWII).

And I am an expert. Or at least thats what the Pennsylvania regulators told me when they asked me to explain just how some of these issues could supposedly happen along the northern end of the state.

But I'm a realist. At some point the prices will start going up again and NYS will be pushed into lifting their ban. Then I might just be in the money...

Good for you. It is a free country, and you can choose to sell, or keep, those rights.

 

[RGR]

I hope you also own your mineral rights. That is your prerogative to deny access.

I do on my land. But 100 yards from my house the land is owned by someone else...

This being a free country, you have the right to buy his mineral rights to protect yourself from fears of...well...anything really. The system works really well that way, offer them more than the oil company does and sit back, secure in the knowledge that you have protected yourself from imagined harm for as long as you are alive.

 

[Mr. H.]

I just got an email from the office of our non-profit industry coalition. We recently started airing informational commercials in the Chicago area on the facts of hydraulic fracturing.

An anonymous caller left a message on the answering machine... WOW! You guys actually put an ad on the inter……..an ad on public television! ( ‘smirking or sneering’ under his breath….&#8221
I Will Fight You to the Death! Bye….”

 

[Underhill]

I hope you also own your mineral rights. That is your prerogative to deny access.

I do on my land. But 100 yards from my house the land is owned by someone else...

This being a free country, you have the right to buy his mineral rights to protect yourself from fears of...well...anything really. The system works really well that way, offer them more than the oil company does and sit back, secure in the knowledge that you have protected yourself from imagined harm for as long as you are alive.

Brilliant thinking. Problem solved. Fucking people just need to get off their asses and buy up 300 acres each and put their house in the middle. Then they never have to worry.

Why the fuck didn't I think of that?

 

[RGR]

This being a free country, you have the right to buy his mineral rights to protect yourself from fears of...well...anything really.

Brilliant thinking. Problem solved. Fucking people just need to get off their asses and buy up 300 acres each and put their house in the middle. Then they never have to worry.

Why the fuck didn't I think of that?

Perhaps because it is quite an obvious solution in the world we live in, within the rules we have created for ourselves. Don't like them? Feel free to dream up another solution, but on this planet, this stuff is obvious, and the ignorance was yours, in even needing to ask the question in the first place as though you weren't aware of the answer in the first place.

May I recommend thinking prior to whining next time?

 

[Underhill]

One, I might believe coincidence. But we aren't talking about one. I know of at least 2 personally, and read about more in the local papers.

It is called "deep pockets". Oil companies have them. They show up, and well water which was good enough to drink since it was drilled suddenly becomes cloudy, gassy, infested with mice, you name it.

And then the landowners go after those with the deep pockets. Happens during house construction as well. You cracked my foundation when you ran that bulldozer past my house! (says the person with the cracked foundation stretching back to WWII).

And I am an expert. Or at least thats what the Pennsylvania regulators told me when they asked me to explain just how some of these issues could supposedly happen along the northern end of the state.

Then you know what I am talking about. As I live just the other side of that northern border.

I also notice you never said that it wasn't the drilling company (or construction companies) fault, only that they have deep pockets.

And of course, that would be why people sue.

That is not why multiple people watch their water quality go to shit immediately after the fracking begins.

 

[RGR]

One, I might believe coincidence. But we aren't talking about one. I know of at least 2 personally, and read about more in the local papers.

It is called "deep pockets". Oil companies have them. They show up, and well water which was good enough to drink since it was drilled suddenly becomes cloudy, gassy, infested with mice, you name it.

And then the landowners go after those with the deep pockets. Happens during house construction as well. You cracked my foundation when you ran that bulldozer past my house! (says the person with the cracked foundation stretching back to WWII).

And I am an expert. Or at least thats what the Pennsylvania regulators told me when they asked me to explain just how some of these issues could supposedly happen along the northern end of the state.

Then you know what I am talking about. As I live just the other side of that northern border.

Of course I do. I drank well water on the farm for nearly a decade after the local gas company fracked two wells on my grandmothers property. I then went on to become a petroleum engineer in charge of doing frack jobs back in the late-80's/early 90's.

I also notice you never said that it wasn't the drilling company (or construction companies) fault, only that they have deep pockets.

Of course it isn't always the drilling companies fault. They put down layers of concrete and steel for a reason, and then when someone getting their drinking water from a fresh water aquifer which also happens to be a gas producing formation suddenly discovers that it might have methane in it, that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the gas company. Don't want to drink water with methane in it? Don't live near coal mines, that is how most methane gets into drinking water in the first place, followed closely by well water coming from shales where methane is already present.

That is not why multiple people watch their water quality go to shit immediately after the fracking begins.

The proper response would be, "That is not why multiple people CLAIM their water quality goes to shit immediately after the fracking begins".

That's where the deep pockets part comes in.

What those people obviously don't understand are the reservoir dynamics of hydraulic fracturing. No problem as far as I'm concerned, part of my job nowadays is explaining the geoengineering obvious to the uninformed, so it is a form of job security.

 

[Mr. H.]

Update on that anonymous anti-fracking caller mentioned above ("I'll fight you to the death!"): our exec. director contacted the Carol Stream, IL (from whence the call originated) police who referred him to the local police. I don't think we're going to file an official complaint. We just want to put the fear in him.

I'd rather drink frac fluid than the kool aid some of these folks are swilling. It's sure as hell less toxic.

 

[Mr. H.]

Cheaper Power Bills? You Have NatGas to Thank - Yahoo! Finance

If consumers have noticed their utility bills falling, it may not be a figment of their imagination. Although surging natural gas production in the U.S. has yet to result in lower gasoline prices, it has had one benefit already: curbing or even cutting power costs.

 

[Underhill]

It is called "deep pockets". Oil companies have them. They show up, and well water which was good enough to drink since it was drilled suddenly becomes cloudy, gassy, infested with mice, you name it.

And then the landowners go after those with the deep pockets. Happens during house construction as well. You cracked my foundation when you ran that bulldozer past my house! (says the person with the cracked foundation stretching back to WWII).

And I am an expert. Or at least thats what the Pennsylvania regulators told me when they asked me to explain just how some of these issues could supposedly happen along the northern end of the state.

Then you know what I am talking about. As I live just the other side of that northern border.

Of course I do. I drank well water on the farm for nearly a decade after the local gas company fracked two wells on my grandmothers property. I then went on to become a petroleum engineer in charge of doing frack jobs back in the late-80's/early 90's.

I also notice you never said that it wasn't the drilling company (or construction companies) fault, only that they have deep pockets.

Of course it isn't always the drilling companies fault. They put down layers of concrete and steel for a reason, and then when someone getting their drinking water from a fresh water aquifer which also happens to be a gas producing formation suddenly discovers that it might have methane in it, that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the gas company. Don't want to drink water with methane in it? Don't live near coal mines, that is how most methane gets into drinking water in the first place, followed closely by well water coming from shales where methane is already present.

That is not why multiple people watch their water quality go to shit immediately after the fracking begins.

The proper response would be, "That is not why multiple people CLAIM their water quality goes to shit immediately after the fracking begins".

That's where the deep pockets part comes in.

What those people obviously don't understand are the reservoir dynamics of hydraulic fracturing. No problem as far as I'm concerned, part of my job nowadays is explaining the geoengineering obvious to the uninformed, so it is a form of job security.

The difference is, I actually know these people, or some of them. They are not just looking for a pay day.

But your position is not surprising since you admittedly work for them.