Apparently, too much public exposure to corrup… er, um… to how policy is made is detrimental to the process.
In a stunning break with First Amendment policy, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Republicans also denied the entrance of a credentialed ABC News news team that was attempting to film the event.
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Once the grease money is exchanged in ‘private negotiations’, Teapublicans will resume the open but scripted dialogue.
Yeah, you should knock off the partisan bullshit brother. You are really starting to look like a fool.
Sweety, the article is very specific!
Meanwhile, Democrat run OWS have over 400 acts of violence and the media says: ?
Cue the crickets
Ho hum, business as usual.
http://goo.gl/6wmkJ
Well, at least its nice to see JB (Jack Boot) Bensom make a loose equivalence between 400 acts of violence and the exclusion of the press from public government business.
Seems to me the valid complaint is lack of coverage of either==not one supposed violation to justify another.
Just how Jack Boot stupid are you JB? Can’t even tell what is in your own best interest or to your great harm? Got your wires all crossed up. Eat your own shit JB–don’t try to pretend it is ice cream for the rest of us.
JB.
When a government arrests it’s journalists… one can’t tell a free country apart from another condemned for not being free.
http://nytimes.com/2012/01/26/world/middleeast/iran-steps-up-arrests-of-journalists-and-bloggers.html?pagewanted=all
“Gasland” received strong critical acclaim and takes a critical eye toward the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a process in which several tons of highly pressurized water and chemicals are injected into the ground, allowing valuable natural gas to escape. The practice is decried by ecological experts for destroying ecosystems and polluting groundwater. The energy industry keeps the actual content of fracking chemicals secret.
I worked as a geologist in the natural gas industry here in Texas, so I am very familiar with the practice of hydraulic fracturing in natural gas wells.
The process is applied deep underground, far below the formations where ground water is located. The wells are cased in cement far below the ground water strata because of environmental regulations in Texas.
A properly cased well will not allow seepage of natural gas into the groundwater strata. The events where this might occurr are the result of improperly cased wells. The process is safe for groundwater if the well is completed according to regulations.
The chemicals that are used in the process includes a surfactant, among other ingredients, that helps the water permeate the fractured gas formation and prevents the fractures from closing up, thereby releasing the gas from the formation. The surfactant and other chemicals are very low concentrations in the mixture.
In a nutshell, the surfactants and other chemicals are very similar to soaps that every household uses to wash dishes and clothes. There is far more soap that gets into the groundwater from washing dishes and clothes than could ever get into the groundwater because of natural gas fracking processes.
The problem with natural gas fracking processes has nothing to do with the chemicals that are used. The real problem arises from the enormous quantity of water that is pumped down each of the wells. Millions of gallons of water are pumped down each of these wells. There are thousands of wells drilled each year. We are taking groundwater and pumping trillions of gallons below the groundwater strata where it will never be recovered.
If groundwater becomes scarce, as it is in Texas because of a very long drought season, then there is less water available for households and industry. If this trend continues, there will be water wars between the natural gas industry and other consumers of groundwater. As the population increases and water sources dry up, this will put a crimp in everybody’s lifestyle.
We need our natural gas, and we need our groundwater. Who will win this war? We will see how it plays out.
Class dismissed.
Thanks for the data.
Could be worse. You could be the President of the U.S. and promised the American people full transparency on the Health Care debate but not actually let the public in on the House and Senate debates.
If documentary crew wants in, perhaps some of these could be developed for spying purposes (if they already haven’t been): http://tinyurl.com/7d7c7ff
Orchidcup: I know, you say that the chemicals aren’t harmful, but it has been proven that even after saying they weren’t using diesel as one of the chemicals, companies doing fracking were using diesel. For those of you that don’t know, diesel is carcinogenic. Maybe the company you were working for wasn’t being unethical, but too many of the companies fracking _are_ being unethical or there wouldn’t be so many people with flammable drinking water.
Even if you dump diesel down a natural gas well that is say, 6,000 feet below the groundwater strata, the diesel will not rise up through non-porous formations and pollute the groundwater strata.
Tap water that catches on fire is not caused by fracking pollutants, even if it were diesel. Mix some diesel in water and try to catch it on fire.
I am sure there are some occurrences where a natural gas well is not properly cased and gas could migrate into the groundwater formation, but then airplanes crash when they are not supposed to crash. Stuff happens.
There are also occurrences where methane naturally leaks into the groundwater strata depending on the geology of the area. Petroleum also leaks up out of the ground in some areas. Stuff happens that we don’t have any control over, and geology is one of those things.
Rosebud!
Well that is what you get in an oligarchy.
The elites are elite and the rest are peons.
Cursor_
Not to worry, with luck, they’ll all be charged with treason before the end of the year, -for all the other crap they’ve pulled during their careers.. (and that goes for both sides of the isle)
-this year, the Universe demands the truth be finally known to all..
-s
Take the partisan blinders off. Crooks do not follow party lines. Ignoring one party means ignoring half the problem.
You might want to read this:http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/1/hbo-crew-briefly-shuts-down-hill-hearing/
It isn’t actually clear who did what on whose back porch or how many cookies they charged for doing it.
Orchi==I’m not a science guy, but how about a little common sense? Listening to Engineers: the Titanic could not sink, Deep Ocean Wells pose no risk do due backup systems, and Nuclear Power Plants are the safest greenest form of energy known to man. Now you want to add to the list that fracking will not cause fresh water pollution? “NOT” as in zero per cent?
As an agreed upon expert, please don’t play Dvorak Uncensored Readers as dupes and fools. Don’t tell us it can’t happen: TELL US HOW OFTEN IT WILL HAPPEN——rare as you think it might be. Your percentage will equal my belief in your willingness to share your expertise. If you maintain zero percent, then its obvious to all you have no expertise.
Know what I mean?
Josh Fox, the guy the Republicans had arrested for trying to film our elected Congresscreeeps in action will be on msnbc “The Ed Show” sometime in the next hour==all our questions about fracking will be answered of course.
Say Orchi===Human Caused Global Warming: whats your position?
How can you tell when the Jack Boots have had their way for way too long? I’m thinking maybe their secret deals are becoming too well known so to continue to make those deals, censorship and exclusion is used by the government to keep the press/public out of the process and in the dark.
Fracking appears to be one such example.
SOPA and the RIAA are doing the same thing as revealed here:
http://cagematch.dvorak.org/index.php/topic,10424.msg44205.html#new
Giving validity to the old saw that no matter how bad something is, it can always get worse IF steps aren’t taken to make it get better?
The Jack Boots are marching!!!!
What is this BS that your website doesn’t even allow linking to your other owned website?
How silly can you be?
The belief that fracking won’t negatively affect ground water is right up there with smog is good for kids because it weeds out the ones with weak lungs.
Fracking will not negatively affect ground water.
People who know absolutely nothing about natural gas drilling and geology might believe it because they are ignorant.
Natural gas is recovered in formations that are far below the groundwater strata, usually thousands of feet below groundwater.
There is a reason to be concerned about hydraulic fracturing that does not involve the pollution of groundwater.
That reason is the consumption of the groundwater itself. Millions of gallons of fresh water are pumped down a natural gas well to induce production. Imagine thousands of olympic-size swimming pools of water being drained and dumped down a hole in order to produce millions of cubic feet of natural gas.
The groundwater that goes down the hole never comes back, it is absorbed into the formation that contains the gas. The water is gone forever because it will not magically rise back to the groundwater strata where it can be used again. It is not recyclable.
Natural gas fracking does not cause flaming faucets or groundwater pollution.
Flaming faucets are caused by the infiltration of the gas into the groundwater system. Gas infiltration can be due to natural seepage from gas-bearing formations beneath the groundwater strata, or it could be caused by a natural gas well that was abandoned and allowed to deteriorate, or it could be caused by a producing well that was not cased properly.
The end result is the same, undrinkable ground water that is too expensive to purify.
No, the end result of hydraulic fracturing is the groundwater goes down the hole and it never comes back. Groundwater that is used by households is treated and recycled or it evaporates and returns as rainwater.
Natural gas infiltration into groundwater is a separate issue. Some water wells may be drilled through sandstone formations that contain gas. Or gas may seep through natural fractures into the groundwater strata. Those are natural causes that do not involve natural gas drilling and production.
Actually the water is replaced. Burning natural gas produces CO2 and H2O.
incorrect. Fracking involves millions of drinking / surface water being pressurized to cause the fracking to occur, after which there is a substantial flow back thousands of gallons. Flow back is contaminated to a point which can not be sanitized for drinking process except by natural evaporation. Natural evaporation also evaporates many of the harmful chemicals involved in fracking, and puts them into the air we breath. The chemicals which don’t evaporate are not properly disposed of, and when they are disposed, where do they go? The chemicals are typically not re-used. One other disposal use is hauling it to waste facilities (also long distances away) and diluted them into rivers, lakes, and streams. Bad news for downstream drinking water municipalities. Fracking flow back also contains radioactive materials from far below the surface, and the waste facilities are not regulated or properly equipped to handle the radioactive materials. The solid which precipitate in flow back are often sold by these waste facilities to local farmers to be spread on fields as a fertilizer (chemicals and radioactive materials included and unregulated). There goes the organic and local farms. There is also another disposal that gas companies have started using in which they sell it to local municipalities and spread on roads public roads for dust suppression (dirt roads) and icing inhibitor (paved roads). Again carcinogenic materials included.
With surface water being contaminated by all the above processes (not including traffic accidents, industrial accidents, illegal dumping, etc.) there leaves only ground water as a drinkable source.
Groundwater is often contaminated as in Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, etc. by faulty casings in the wells. 40 % of well casings fail in short term, and an even higher percentages are failing in long term (those numbers have yet to be analyzed). When the casings fail ground water is contaminated by the fracking chemicals used, and by migration of deep methane into water wells. When the methane reaches an explosive level in the wells, and a spark is generated, boom. Methane isn’t unsafe to have in drinking water but its not wanted either, just like sulfur (rotten egg smell), iron, lime (hard water), etc. Often the migrating methane finds its release into the atmosphere primarily undetected. Methane is 12 times the greenhouse gas that carbon dioxide is and it doesn’t break down in 5 years time like carbon dioxide does.
99.7% of the earths water is not usable for human consumption (Washington University study), its vital to protect the dwindling sources of clean water we have left. Wasting it for gas fracking by millions of a gallon per well, and up to 12 wells per pad (sometimes more), and one pad per square mile, for an estimated 6 years of supply over a 30 year collection period, is entirely ignorant and irresponsible.
I don’t have to know anything about natural gas drilling. I have spent 22 years running drinking water treatment facilities and the last 7 teaching people how. Cup your either just fucking delusional or an idiot if you think it won’t as it already has. Chemical from frakking have already been found in ground water aquifers. The chemicals are also showing up at surface water plants down stream of frakking locations when those facilities fail to comply with their NPDES permits.
Failure to comply with regulations will indeed result in groundwater pollution.
That is why there are regulations.
A natural gas well that complies with regulations will not pollute groundwater.
That’s right they follow the rules so well that we are seeing increases in the last two years for TDS, VOC, TOC, salinity, chlorides and chlorides on several municipal drinking water wells that have remained constant for decades and the only difference between past and present values is the presence of companies doing fracking. Kinda make you go hmmm.
” caused by a producing well that was not cased properly”
Exactly. Look at the record of industry in the environment. No thank you. BP swore their deep rig in the Gulf was safe, too.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened and it almost certainly won’t be the last.
But if you ask me, “we the people” deserve this kind of treatment. After all, we keep voting to power all those lawyers and big business “leaders” to do all those wonderful things they keep saying they’re going to do. So why should they let little annoyances like the Constitution get in the way?
here might be a lil clue
http://mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/07/2_governors_urge_ohio_veto_of.html
this bill got shot down, but think about, the great lakes has 1/5 the worlds fresh water.. the local money grubbers here what to cash in as the “new water Sheikhs” of the middle west.
Orchi–you are maintaining conflicting statements using the theoretical position to advocate, and the reality to explain.
Please resolve for us your statement that “fracking does not pollute Ground Water” with “Gas infiltration can be due to natural seepage from gas-bearing formations beneath the groundwater strata, or it could be caused by a natural gas well that was abandoned and allowed to deteriorate, or it could be caused by a producing well that was not cased properly.”
Can fracking be done incorrectly? Fradulently? For a quick buck? Not maintained after the money has been extracted?
“X” cannot happen if “Y” is followed almost is a bald admission that X WILL HAPPEN if Y is not followed.
You don’t understand the LOGIC of conditional premises. So like an engineer you are==or a liebertard in the economic area. The philosophy/belief is NEVER wrong–its always that people don’t do it right. But people ALWAYS NEVER do it right.
So which is it? Philosophy or Reality?
I’m not a scientist but what is this “ground water never comes up?” What about hot springs and geysers? Volcanic action? Plates shifts? I agree–not the context you are talking about.
So—what percentage of fracking operations, everything considdered in the real world, will pollute the surrounding or downstream ground water?
Still zero? Are you still counseling Zero Orchi?====IN THE REAL WORLD?
Always amusing when reality gets in the way of a good idea.
Same as it ever was.
As I have stated, the actual environmental concern when it comes to fracturing is the consumption of the groundwater itself. The water that is absorbed into the gas-bearing formations is not recoverable.
I am not defending the record of BP. The Deepwater Horizon disaster was a catastrophic failure of management that resulted in the environmental destruction of the Gulf Coast ecosystem.
More importantly, 11 workers were killed in the disaster, and their families will never see them again.
Personally, I think BP should be sued out of existence, the management team should be put in prison for life, and their wives should be raped and their children sold into slavery in North Africa. But I am not in control of that, so it probably won’t happen.
I don’t know where Nitroneo gets his well casing failure statistics, maybe he would share the source of his information?
Hydraulic Fracturing (pdf)
Hydraulic fracturing has been used by the industry since the 1940s and has become a key element of natural gas and oil development worldwide. In fact, this process is used in nearly all natural gas wells drilled in the United States today.
Properly conducted, modern fracing is a highly engineered, controlled, sophisticated and safe procedure.
Not to worry, after the gas companies pollute all the ground water, they have purchased other supplies of potable water, that they will be willing to sell to you for a price.
It’s the way things are going. When they take all the gas, they’ll make money on something else, like water.
Bottled water already sells for the same price as a gallon of gasoline in most areas.
I have never understood why people buy bottled water when they can bottle it themselves from tap water for pennies a gallon.
Carbon-filtered tap water is just as pure as any commercial bottled water.
The single most important thing any human can do is produce oil and gas.
I eat so much fiber and fat that when I take a dump it’s pretty much nothing but oil and gas. I document this extensively and if YouTube would quit taking the videos down I could prove it.
Amabo–do you keep it firmly in mind when you are joking and when you are not? ALL your posts are disturbingly similar, so the differences I see make me question my own carbon based existence.
Carry on.
I rarely joke on this forum.
” make me question my own carbon based existence” – I’ve gotten you off to a good start then.
Yeah. Let’s not tell everyone Fracking causes earthquakes, pollution of drinkingwater and probably many more problems. Thats really bad for business. We can’t have that, right?
Repukes BARE THEIR FASCIST TEETH !!!
Interesting how the Repukes seem to do “the People’s Business” IN SECRET !!!
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