The perfect storm:
High unemployment - people hurting
Oil companies - corporate greed
This leads to states and cities opening up their states
to the unknown dangers of fracking because of the financial opportunities – to
hell with the environmental issues.
Most of the time – most people associate fracking with
gas exploration – but I think it’s important to bring this up also:
March 2, 2011
The technique called hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) that is increasingly being used to extract natural gas
is drawing widespread attention, concern, and media coverage across the
country. Next up: oil fracking.
As fracking for gas has proven
successful from an industry perspective, companies extracting oil are jumping
on the fracking bandwagon. Their method is very similar to that used for
natural gas, and therefore may pose some of the same health and environmental
risks.
The other thing that people think is that this fracking
is necessary for the US Energy market.
WRONG.
A statement from an interview this week regarding the
fracking in North Dakota (my emphasis):
He said North Dakota is a learning laboratory for oil development here and in other states.
“What we need is pipeline to get oil to water
so we can export it. People ask me which pipeline I support and I say I’m going
to support all the pipelines to get rid of that differential,” Hamm said.
I’m guessing they aren’t talking about Lake Superior – so
the nearest water to EXPORT the North Dakota fuel – would be the Gulf of
Mexico.
To read some more about the Bakken fracking issues I
would strongly suggest this blog.
Reason being, is that other cities in North Dakota (and
outside of North Dakota) want to get in to the oil greed as noted in this article (my emphasis):
May 01--A three-man committee of
the Grand Forks City Council quickly approved a plan Monday to spend $75,000 in
unspent city sales tax collections to woo businesses in the Oil Patch to expand
to Grand Forks.
Snip
The first spending of the Bakken
Initiative's funds -- about $17,000 -- will be to send several city officials
and local business leaders to the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in
Bismarck on May 22-24, Gershman said.
Already, the city has leased a
booth at the conference for $10,000, using money from city administrator Rick
Duquette's budget.
"We are not talking
re-location, we are talking expansion," Gershman said, emphasizing Grand
Forks is not trying to "cannibalize" business from western North
Dakota.
The potential is much greater to
create jobs here for business rooted in the oil boom, he said.
As of Monday, a record 210 rigs
were drilling new oil wells in North Dakota, according to state officials. Oil
production has been setting records every month for three years and is expected
to match Alaska's output this spring and make North Dakota the nation's
second-leading crude-producing state behind Texas.
The Williston Basin is the hottest
oil play in North America and expected to last 20 years or more, oil company
officials and state regulators say.
"These companies can expand
into Montana or Canada," Gershman said. "We want to keep them in
North Dakota."
I’m probably pretty sure that the residents of the City of Grand Forks
could have found any other way to spend that "$75,000 in unspent city sales tax
collections".
Which companies is he talking about?
A little more about the Williston Basin Petroleum
Conference in Bismarck [my notes]:
Top executives from Continental
Resources [ALEC member], Whiting Oil and Gas and Marathon Oil [ALEC member],
were headliners Thursday the final of the three-day Williston Basin Petroleum
Conference.
A little bit about ALEC member Continental Resources:
Continental Resources is a
multi-billion dollar company that is involved in a huge fracking operation in
North Dakota.
And this little piece is another example of tax payer
money being used to increase corporate profit.
According to Ed Shadid,
Continental Resources grew 40% in 2010.
“These jobs are going to be created anyway,”
Shadid insisted.
The state is also giving economic
incentives to Continental Resources.
Shadid stated that this economic
incentive had nothing to do with this move from Enid to Oklahoma City.
“This $7.2 million is just a token,” he said
State Economic incentives - eh?
For a company that saw 40% growth in 2010?
Not bad!!!!
Only $7,2 million that Oklahoma probably needs for their roads or schools.
And a little bit about Whiting:
Whiting Petroleum Corporation is a
Denver-based, independent oil and gas company that explores for, develops and
acquires crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids primarily in the Rocky
Mountain, Permian Basin, Mid-Continent, Michigan and Gulf Coast regions of the
United States. The Company’s largest projects are in the Bakken and Three Forks
plays in North Dakota and its Enhanced Oil Recovery (“EOR”) fields in Oklahoma
and Texas.
And from the literature of ALEC member Marathon Oil
Hydraulic fracturing, or"fracking," has been safely used to stimulate production in more than
one million oil and gas wells over the past 60 years. Recent advances in the
method have helped free oil and gas locked in tight shale rock formations
across the U.S. These include the Bakken (North Dakota), Eagle Ford (South
Texas), Haynesville (East Texas) and Anadarko Woodford (Oklahoma) shale
formations where Marathon has operations.
North Dakota is our neighbor to the west.
I wonder if Minnesota is now stepping into line for the
fracking greed.
I wonder what Minnesota and fracking will have in common.
I wonder what Minnesota, fracking and the American
Legislative Exchange Council will have in common.
ALEC has several pieces of legislation either supporting fracking or
then – may favorite - legislating keeping the chemical makeup of the fracking
substance secret.
Some of the chemicals in fracking mixtures are known or suspected carcinogens. In order to protect the industry
from disclosure, ALEC has crafted legislation that would provide large
loopholes for companies wanting to protect “trade secrets.”
Another thing related to fracking is - fracking sand
mines - which look like this on the landscape of Minnesota - The beautiful "Land of 10,000 Lakes":
For more great info on fracking sand mines and the issues
associated with them – check out this story, and be sure to watch the video at
the bottom.
And then you have this:
I see the Minnesota Senate has
turned down the anti-local control bill, which would have prevented local
governments from enacting moratoria on proposed development in their
locales. If the bill had been approved,
recent county decisions by Goodhue, Wabasha and Winona to pass moratoriums on
silica sand fracking until they studied options would no longer be allowed if
the Governor had signed the bill into law
That snip is talking about:
House File 389 is authored by Reps. Beard (R-Shakopee),
Quam (R-Byron), Nelson (DFL-Brooklyn Park), Sanders (R-Blaine)
That legislation might be considered unimportant, since it didn't pass - BUT :
I wonder how long it will be before ALEC member Beard resubmits that piece of legislation?
AND
Minnesota State Rep. Michael Beard was in to attendance
of the Bismarck Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck.
AND
Rep. Michael L. Beard (R-35A), ALEC Commerce, Insurance
and Economic Development Task Force Member
AND
Snips from Beards legislative news webpage:
For my part, I have introduced two
de-regulatory reforms
At the end of the day, the
Legislature’s prime concern is to provide our private sector job creators with
a competitive business climate.
Now that Beard is back from the oil conference, I wonder
when we will hear Beard (MN-ALEC) say:
What we need is pipeline to get
oil to water so we can export it. People ask me which pipeline I support and I
say I’m going to support all the pipelines
"We are not talking
re-location, we are talking expansion,"
"These companies can expand
into Montana or Canada," - . "We want to keep them in Minnesota."
Oh, my……………………
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