News Feeds

NAZA, the new documentary by Yuval Abaraham and Rachel Szor, is a movie about Israelis. Their previous movie — the critically acclaimed No Other Land...

The post Eichmann in Tel-Aviv: NAZA and the banality of evil first appeared on Spring.

Cindy O’Neil understands the boom-and-bust cycles of industry. Her husband spent years working in Carbon County’s namesake coal mines. In this pocket of central Utah, energy and the economy have long been intrinsically linked, at great sacrifice to county residents.

“We’ve had the coal. We’ve dealt, the whole community, with black lung,” O’Neil said. “The explosions, the fires, and all the things that came along with it.”

But a new industry and type of energy production is about to move near her rural home. And she says it has her and her neighbors even more worried than they were about the dangers that came from their long history with coal. 

“It’s all descending, these data centers,” said O’Neil, who tracks mysterious new projects in the works and shares updates on Facebook community pages. “They’re setting these things within a couple of miles of homes.”

Her latest updates involve a lot of chatter about Valar Atomics, a nuclear startup. The company plans to build a mega-complex of 456 small modular reactors — a still largely untested and unproven technology in the United States — on the vast tracts of Bureau of Land Management land in the county. The project will store radioactive waste, according to a report from National Public Radio, and power an array of industrial activities, including data centers. “Project Beehive” has support from the state of Utah, and will include a square mile of state-owned trust lands.

Another data center complex planned for the county, Altigen Energy’s “Jurassic Spark,” will cover hundreds of acres and include a massive natural gas plant. 

It’s an abrupt shift. Carbon County’s coal mines produced nearly 10 million tons of coal in 2006. But a shift to cheaper energy sources, like renewables and natural gas, along with depleted supplies in the coal seams, sank the region’s main economic engine in just a few decades. Since 2023, not a single pound of coal has been mined in Carbon County.

“They say everything’s left us, and if we don’t grab these table scraps we’re not going to get anything,” said O’Neil. “I don’t think our county has to take the table scraps.”

Empty coal cars sit idle along U.S. Highway 6 near Wellington in Carbon County, Utah, in 2022.
Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune

None of Carbon County’s new data center plans call for coal. The Utah Trust Lands Administration recently agreed to lease a square mile of its state-owned land for up to 100 years to Valar Atomics. The nuclear startup intends to use that lease to run some of its small modular reactors, process its uranium TRISO-fuel to feed the reactors, build water desalination, manufacture steel, refine critical minerals — and support data centers.

The Valar site is expected to generate $35 million in lease rents over 50 years, according to information the Trust Lands Administration staff presented to its board last month. Revenue collected from the project benefits Utah schools. (The state agency declined to comment on the Valar project.)

During that September board meeting, three Carbon County residents who are employed or expected to be employed by Valar spoke in favor of the project. All three of the Carbon County commissioners also voiced their support.

“[We] realize that this topic is a hot button now, along with data centers,” said Larry Jensen, one of the commissioners. “It’s important that you understand that the Carbon County commissioners are committed to allowing these things to move forward. Even with the pushback — we realize that there are a few in our community who will push back — but the silent majority are the ones that we really represent.”

Cheryl Lupo, a longtime resident of the county, balked at that assertion. She is running for a seat on the county commission this year. As an unaffiliated candidate, she had to collect 300 signatures to land on the ballot. She said the opinions she heard during that process were overwhelmingly opposed to data centers and nuclear plants.

“People are up in arms,” Lupo said. “Torches and pitchforks. Because they’re not being heard.”

Governor Spencer Cox, U.S. Senator John Curtis, and other high-ranking Utah officials welcomed Valar to the state earlier this year, allowing it to test its “Ward250” microreactor at the San Rafael Energy Lab in neighboring Emery County. Valar announced it had achieved “self-sustaining criticality” in June — a process where atoms split and maintain a steady fission chain reaction without being fed more neutrons. The company has plans to power a 30-megawatt nuclear-powered AI data center in Emery County, too, in partnership with the computer-chip giant Nvidia.

Small modular reactors have yet to be deployed for commercial use in the United States. During last week’s Trust Lands Administration meeting, Mike Nelson, the board’s chair, seemed to acknowledge that the deal with Valar came with some unknowns. “We weren’t always sure what to ask about,” Nelson said, while offering praise for the nuclear startup, “and probably still aren’t sure of everything to ask about because this is a first, right?”

Utah has a troubled history with nuclear testing. Lupo’s mother was 38 years old when she died, and Lupo believes the cause was downwind effects from radioactive weapons testing in nearby Nevada during the 1950s. Her mother lived in Carbon County at the time. She believes the fallout caused her grandfather’s death, too.

“I will never, ever be a proponent of nuclear,” Lupo said.

Empty coal cars sit idle along U.S. Highway 6 near Wellington in Carbon County, Utah, in 2022.
Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune

Even before the proposal to build Valar’s complex started causing a stir, rumors swirled about the possibility of another data center campus in Carbon County.

Altigen, a company that builds natural gas power plants for data centers, has selected an area east of Wellington for its 1,200-acre “Jurassic Spark” project — nearly double the size of the Valar campus, according to meeting minutes from the local Community Economic Development Board. Plans call for building a 250-megawatt gas plant to power the complex initially, but it could eventually produce 3 gigawatts of electricity, according to Jensen. For the sake of comparison, the entire state of Utah uses about 4 gigawatts. (Altigen did not respond to a request for comment.)

Data center developers are increasingly turning to natural gas to power their projects since utilities have struggled to supply the intense electricity demands of AI servers.

Last year, the Utah Legislature passed SB 132, allowing private companies with energy demands of 100 megawatts or more to build their own self-contained generating stations. The idea was to support business development, including data centers, without putting a strain on the grid used by nearly everyone else. The result was a surge of builders issuing plans and applying for permits to build gas-fired power plants.

Natural gas, however, is a potent greenhouse pollutant mostly composed of methane. It helps fuel climate change and pollutes the air in surrounding communities. And natural gas plants can produce immense amounts of heat.

But nuclear plants can produce even more heat than natural gas plants because they are less efficient, according to Robert Davies, a professor of physics at Utah State University. “If you’re in a contained valley, it concentrates the problem,” he said.

As it happens, the Wellington area sits in a valley, hemmed in by the Wasatch Range to the west and the Book Cliffs to the north and east.

“The heat island that the data centers produce, that concerns me,” said Aspen Westenskow, who has lived in Carbon and Emery counties all her life. “They go clear all this land, the brush, the trees. What helps cool the planet down? Not flat dirt.”

Westenskow said water remains her biggest source of distress. The region is water-strapped, with every drop spoken for.

Valar says its reactors use closed-loop helium cooling which requires little water, and data developers have asserted they will also use closed-loop cooling systems with low water demands.

On July 3, Carbon County issued a statement responding to their residents’ concerns. The region faces a difficult economic reality due to the decline of the coal industry, the statement said. That has shifted more of the county’s property tax burden to homeowners and remaining businesses. Data centers have earned the commissioners’ support because of their potential to infuse tax rolls with much-needed revenue.

The statement also addressed concerns over the non-disclosure agreements that some residents have questioned. “Without these agreements,” the statement reads, “some companies would choose not to explore projects in Carbon County.”

Read Next A solution to data center backlash? Put them in oil fields. Jake Bittle

It’s not clear whether the county had nondisclosure agreements with Altigen or Valar. But they’re common for companies looking to do business in Carbon County. Oran Stainbrook, one resident, said he was aware of several when he served on the county planning commission and economic development board. He resigned from those positions a few months ago to take a job in Colorado, he said.

Although he wasn’t aware of any agreements involving the data center projects, Stainbrook said he believed the commissioners were looking out for the county’s best interests, trying to lure jobs and investment.

O’Neil, from her home on U.S. Highway 6, sees things differently.

“You shouldn’t be hiding what you and the company are going to bring to a community,” O’Neil said, “and not tell the community until it’s too late and a done deal.”

toolTips('.classtoolTips7','A powerful greenhouse gas that accounts for about 11% of global emissions, methane is the primary component of natural gas and is emitted into the atmosphere by landfills, oil and natural gas systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, and wastewater treatment, among other pathways. Over a 20-year period, it is roughly 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.');

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Powering data centers on nuclear? That’s a tough sell in Utah’s coal country. on Oct 7, 2026.

There are many markers of fall: vibrant foliage, apple picking, and pumpkin-spiced everything, to name a few. Cranking up the heat is another. With record-setting energy prices, everyone is bracing for higher bills. For the more than 4 million households that rely on heating oil, this winter could be particularly devastating.

The war with Iran has pushed the cost of heating oil, which is essentially diesel, higher than it ever has been. It is hovering around $6 a gallon across much of the Northeast, where about 82 percent of homes that burn the fuel are located. That’s compared to the mid-$3 range in February. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association, or NEADA, projects that the cost of warming a home with that fossil fuel will go up 50 percent across those states. That amounts to $878 per household, or some $3.8 billion overall. 

“The volatility of this product right before winter is scary,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the organization, which had projected a lower increase just weeks earlier. “This is part of the cost of the war.” 

The stalemate in the Mideast has curtailed ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a tenth of the world’s water-borne diesel once flowed. Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, another major source of diesel, have further curbed the global supply. That has sent prices up, with colder states expected to see heating oil hikes well above the NEADA average. Vermont and Maine, for example, face the prospect of a 76-percent jump. 

These increases threaten to overwhelm the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a federal safety net for those who cannot afford to heat or cool their homes. With existing aid buying far less fuel than it did before the war, Republicans and Democrats alike are pressing the Trump administration to release assistance quickly while Congress weighs whether to put billions more into the program. The situation is so dire that the governor of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency on Monday.

For people with oil furnaces, there are few easy alternatives. They could turn to space heaters because electricity rates haven’t climbed as fast as heating oil, but the devices are inefficient and could lead to higher bills. Burning wood is another option for those with a fireplace or stove. Although natural gas prices have remained relatively low, installing a new furnace is costly and it could take years for any savings in energy costs to recoup the investment.

Another route is to invest in weatherizing a home by adding insulation or sealing windows, for example, which can help lower bills, and many states have funding available to help with energy-saving projects. 

The EI Niño weather pattern could bring a relatively warm winter to the Northeast, which would help ease the burden of higher prices. Still, as winter approaches, people who rely on it are concerned.

“I just had my boiler cleaned/serviced for the coming season and honestly I’m terrified of the oil bill,” one person noted on Reddit. Others are weighing whether to pre-buy fuel to lock in current prices, though some are finding that dealers aren’t offering that option given the uncertainty. An especially dejected person simply said, “I have no plan and I’m all out of ideas.”

Read Next What the record-high cost of diesel means for you Tik Root

Wolfe is especially worried about the more than 1 million low-income households that rely upon heating oil. Those families may end up having to choose between filling the tank and buying necessities like food and medication. “This could be a public health crisis,” he said. “The problem is that the administration has said nothing.” 

President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, for elimination. It has survived so far, though the administration did temporarily hold back payments last spring. Some lawmakers worry fall funds could move slowly, too. 

“A quick release of funding will ensure no gaps in assistance,” a bipartisan group of 31 senators wrote in a letter last month to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The program currently has roughly $4 billion, and the agency has until November 1 to release at least 90 percent of that money to states, with the rest coming in the spring. But the legislators want the payments to reach people as soon as possible. “Given the extraordinary pressure consumers will face this winter,” they wrote, “we ask that you make this distribution well before the deadline.”

The White House referred a request for comment to the Department of Health and Human Services, which told Grist that it will meet the deadline. “HHS has staff and capacity to distribute these funds in a timely manner,” the agency wrote in an email. 

Even if that money arrives quickly, it won’t go as far with fuel prices this high. Increasing the program’s funding would require congressional approval — a step legislators have taken in the past, including during President Trump’s first term. A House bill introduced last week would add $1 billion to the LIHEAP budget, though any action on the legislation won’t happen before midterms. Without more of a buffer, families may not have enough heating oil to last the winter.

“People’s benefit would have less purchasing power,” Miranda Gray, the deputy commissioner at the Vermont Department for Children and Families, told Grist. Her agency distributes the state’s LIHEAP distribution. If assistance were to run out, she said people might have to turn to other options, like community nonprofits. 

On Monday, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency to prepare for a rough winter ahead. Her executive order boosts assistance to 156,000 low-income households and expands access to 50,000 middle-class families. It also activates legal protections against price gouging, the state said in its press release. Healey also called on Congress to pass an additional $3 billion in funding for LIHEAP. For now, both officials and consumers are hoping for the best. 

“I try to have an optimistic attitude that things could change,” Gray told state legislators at a hearing last month. One Reddit user put it more bluntly: “I feel like I’m playing chicken with fuel prices and the impending cold weather.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The Northeast’s reliance on heating oil is turning into a crisis on Oct 7, 2026.

Barrier islands like Tybee Island, off the coast of Georgia, should naturally accumulate sand from islands farther north, but human activity — development on the island, building sea walls and jetties, creating shipping channels — has disrupted that process. As a result, barrier islands are constantly losing sand, and the beaches are constantly being washed away by the relentless tide.

To address the problem, the Army Corps of Engineers has, since the 1970s, been dredging up sand and depositing it onto beaches up and down the east coast. On Tybee, which sits just south of the mouth of the Savannah River, beach renourishment happens every seven years. The natural sand-sharing there is further interrupted by the shipping channel that cuts between Tybee and its neighbors to the north.

In the winter of 2019 and 2020, the Corps placed 1.3 million cubic yards of sand on the Tybee Island beach. More than half of that sand is gone now. On one stretch near the DeSoto Beach Hotel, the dune looks like it’s been chopped in half with a giant knife, ending in a 5-foot cliff instead of a gradual slope.

“It’s extremely stark and startling to see up close and personal,” said city manager Bret Bell. “You can see the vegetation. It’s bisected in half. You can see the roots coming out of the dune system.”

It’s not just the dune grasses. In some places, the tide and storms have cut into sea turtle nests buried in the dune. Businesses are feeling the pinch too. The dramatic erosion has forced chair and umbrella rental operations off the beach in some places, Bell said, and the DeSoto has lost bookings due to the poor state of the beach in front of its doors. 

All told, the erosion puts the island itself — and the mainland — at risk. The sea level is rising about half an inch a year due to climate change.

“It is really our only protection against the encroaching oceans,” Bell said. “Storm surge would inundate our island if it weren’t for the mitigating effects of the beach and our dune system.”

Tybee Island is due for renourishment again this winter. Planning began when the last renourishment ended, Bell said, and the city, Chatham County, and the state of Georgia have worked since then to set aside enough funds to cover 40 percent of the $20 million price tag — the required local match funding for the federal beach renourishment program. But Congress underfunded that program, according to Bell, and Tybee was left off the project list.

“All of a sudden, all of these beach communities started really competing for the limited amount of funding that there was,” he said.

City officials continued to lobby, residents launched a letter-writing campaign, and members of Georgia’s congressional delegation visited the island to see the stark beach erosion. Then, in September, came a development Bell called a “miracle”: The Corps redirected leftover funds from other projects to Tybee. Work is slated to begin this winter.

When it does, the Corps plans to try something new. When the agency dredges the Savannah River shipping channel, it will deposit that sand in the shallows off Tybee’s beach instead of pumping it offshore. The goal is to minimize the wave action that eats away at the beach and allow the sand to travel more like it naturally would without the interruption of the shipping channel.

“That really is expected to extend the life of our nourishment,” Bell said. “So instead of the next nourishment happening in seven years, it might be 10 years.”

Update: This story has been updated to reflect how the Army Corps of Engineers is funding the Tybee Beach renourishment.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The never-ending struggle to protect Georgia’s most popular beach on Oct 7, 2026.

• Like a Roman emperor, President Trump is obsessed with all manner of monuments and other public buildings. Unlike Rome, though — which built 186,000 miles of roads throughout Europe— he seems entirely uninterested in public transportation, refusing to distribute grants or move projects forward. (WBUR)
• In fairness, the Trump administration is prepared to fund some passenger rail and bus rapid transit … but they plan to privilege communities with high marriage and birth rates. (Politico)
• Trump signed an executive order during a visit to Nebraska allowing everyone who drives a diesel vehicle to use tax-free fuel meant for farmers. But it won’t help lower prices much, because the real culprit is a lack of supply. (WRAL)
• Transit is often difficult for seniors to use at a time when many stop driving and need it the most. (The Conversation)
• Walkable cities are usually more enjoyable for drivers, too. (Streetsblog USA)
• Antonia Malchik ties the tactics AI companies are using to the ones used by the automobile industry to overcome opposition in the early 20th century. (Trespassing)
• New walking and biking projects in Seattle’s Pinehurst neighborhood can help health the scars left by I-5. (Seattle Bike Blog)
• Apparently nobody really knows when Maryland’s Purple Line will open. (Maryland Matters)
• Amtrak’s second daily train between Pittsburgh and New York City will launch Nov, 18. (Tribune-Review)
• A new California law lets Valley Transportation Authority employees move into affordable apartments built on VTA-owned land. (San Jose Spotlight)
• Some jerk in Nashville set up a device that screeches at people whenever they walk down the sidewalk in front of his house. (WKRN)
• Electric vehicle sales hit a record high in Europe, but have yet to put much of a dent in car-related emissions. (Transport & Environment)
• Asia’s new high-speed metros could represent a paradigm shift for urban rail because they’re fast enough to compete with highways. (The Transit Brief)
• At 200 miles, Japan’s longest walking trail connects six cities, rural villages, beaches, mountains and historic sites. (Euro News)

The city and state are gearing up to use the MTA’s existing bus-mounted cameras to ticket drivers who illegally park in bike lanes, more than three years after state legislators gave the city Department of Transportation and MTA authority to do so.

DOT and the MTA have have had the power to ticket drivers for blocking bus lanes, blocking bus stops and double parking on bus routes and blocking bike lanes since the state expanded the on-board bus camera system to allow for enforcement outside of bus lanes in 2023. The agencies refer to the whole system as automated camera enforcement, or ACE.

Recommended



Say Cheese! State Budget Lets MTA Bus Cameras Zap Bus, Loading Zone and Bike Lane Blockers
Dave Colon

May 1, 2023

ACE cameras have ticketed drivers for the three bus-related offenses since August 2024, starting with 623 buses on 14 routes. The program has since grown to cover 2,000 buses on 70 routes.

But in all of that time, the agencies have never ticketed drivers in bike lanes, despite having the authority to do so. Last year, the MTA did not directly address Streetsblog’s question of why the bike lane enforcement hadn’t begun, but suggested it was more focused on getting more cameras onto more buses rather than expanding what the cameras could do.

Now though, the agency said it’s ready to start using the awesome powers of cameras to get drivers out of bike lanes.

“We’ve tested this on the ACE system hardware and look forward to advancing a public pilot with DOT,” said MTA spokesperson Eugene Resnick.

Recommended



Out Of Focus: MTA Slow-Walking Bike Lane Bus-Mounted Camera Enforcement
Dave Colon

September 29, 2025

The MTA and DOT needed to collaborate to piece together the new ticketing system. The MTA is responsible for installing the cameras on buses, and those cameras have to capture a driver committing the same traffic infraction over a five minute period. DOT employees then review and process the resulting camera footage. The city told Streetsblog that it recently completed an internal bike lane enforcement test in its own back-end, and will soon begin a public pilot.

“We’ve recently worked with MTA to complete a successful test of this concept with its ACE system and look forward to advancing a public pilot as soon as possible,” said DOT spokesperson Vin Barone.

Both DOT and street safety advocates have pursued camera enforcement against bike lane blockers for years.

In 2021, the city asked vendors for ideas on how they would set up a system to automatically ticket bike lane scofflaws, despite the fact that the agency would ultimately require Albany’s permission to ding drivers. The 2023 state budget finally expanded the authority of bus cameras to monitor traffic infractions outside the bus lane.

Recommended



DOT Wants Cameras to Catch Bike-Lane Blockers (But Will Albany Allow It?)
Julianne Cuba

September 24, 2021

Camera enforcement works. MTA Executive Vice President for Buses Frank Farrell credited ACE for helping buses hit their highest citywide speed in four years this August. And in Hoboken, automated cameras that ticketed drivers in bike lanes cut the number of cars in bike lanes by 59 percent during a 2025 pilot. The Square Mile City also found that 93 percent of drivers who received a ticket for blocking a bike lane didn’t pick up a second one.

Advocates who have waited patiently for the enforcement to finally begin praised the forward movement, but also called for a clearer public timeline and for the state legislature to further expand camera enforcement to cover parking violations.

“We’re excited to hear that testing has concluded on automated bike lane enforcement under ACE, but we need a clear and transparent timeline for swift implementation,” said Michael Sutherland, the senior policy and legislative analyst at Open Plans.

“Once live, this enforcement will have a major positive impact for cyclist safety; every day without it means another day that cyclists’ safety is at risk. These camera programs work, proven by the massive success of the ACE, red light, and speed camera programs, and we also urge the state to expand automated enforcement to parking violations with S8665/A5440.”

Recommended



Hoboken’s Camera Program Got Drivers Out of Bike and Bus Lanes — But New Mayor Won’t Commit
Kevin Duggan

January 20, 2026

Pittsburgh is shouting for car-free travel options — and as city leaders install new bus lanes, actions are speaking even louder than words.

Steel City leaders and transit advocates gathered last week to celebrate Week Without Driving, the annual nationwide event bringing awareness to the pitfalls of American car dependency. The convening occurred next to one of the city’s newest bus lanes, still shiny from their installation in August.

“This is the result of transit riders, people without cars, being put at the center of public policy,” said Dan Yablonsky, the digital organizing director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit.

Student, senior, and disability advocates were among the crowd calling for improved car-free travel options in Pittsburgh last week.

Week Without Driving began in 2021 to show local leaders the challenges that their non-driving constituents experience regularly. Elected officials, transportation planners and policymakers are all encouraged to hang up the keys for a week and put themselves in their neighbors’ shoes — and on their bikes, buses and trains.

“For people who can grab their keys and go, transportation often isn’t a major concern,” according to the campaign’s website. “But for those of us who can’t drive or can’t afford to, transportation is something we think about daily.”

While the week traditionally highlights the burden of getting around for the one-third of Americans who can’t drive, Pittsburghers highlighted the potential to improve other mobility options — and the progress their city has already made.

“Riders are really excited about these lanes,” Yablonsky said. “The buses breeze by these previously congested roadways that always made [trips] late or unreliable.”

Jacob Evangelista, a safe streets advocate and student at the University of Pittsburgh, speaks as a public bus passes by on a newly-installed bus lane.

It’s no secret that frequency and reliability can make or break how well a transit system works — and by extension, how willing people are to ride it. Very few people will willingly wait for a bus that takes an hour to arrive, or one they’re not certain is coming at all.

By contrast, the kind of bus lanes winning applause in Pittsburgh can insulate transit from car traffic, ensuring on-time pickups and faster drop-offs for riders. Put another way: more bus lanes plus more transit riders equals less driving.

Pittsburgh’s new red paint runs along the University Line, a proposed rapid bus corridor operated by Pittsburgh Regional Transit. The line will feature upgraded shelters, real-time arrival screens and safer walk and bike connections, as well as the bus lanes. The University Line will serve one of Pittsburgh’s most important corridors, connecting the University of Pittsburgh and the Downtown, Uptown, and Oakland neighborhoods.

The bus lanes are not done yet, with several blocks still awaiting upgrades, and a highly-anticipated expansion still in the planning stage. Still, Yablonsky says Pittsburghers are feeling the investment.

“It’s night and day,” he said.

Pittsburgh is upgrading a series of bus corridors in Downtown, Uptown, and Oakland neighborhoods, with future expansions being planned. Map: Pittsburgh Regional Transit via Remix

Pittsburgh’s Week Without Driving celebration also marked city leaders’ commitment to expanding car alternatives — even as their federal and state counterparts disappoint.

Rather than encouraging the development of bus lanes, the Trump administration spent its summer urging lawmakers to “prioritize [spending for] motor vehicle travel” and dismissing bike lanes as tools of harmful “DEI” initiatives. Meanwhile, Congress just passed an extension of its transportation spending bill — but not without gutting transit funding first.

Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato reaffirms the county’s commitment to fully-funded public transit in her country.

Pennsylvania legislators have played a similar card for years. State funding for public transit has dropped to what advocates describe as “crisis levels”, ensuring service cuts, layoffs, and even trains catching on fire.

Like many other cities, that’s effectively left Pittsburgh to fend for themselves. But as Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato pointed out at the event, local governments aren’t powerless to improve transit and deter driving — even without much help from higher levels of government.

“We will keep pushing for [state funding],” said Innamorato. “We will not pause until we get the funding that our neighbors deserve to build the transit system that works for all of us.”

How would you describe your job as Coastal Bird Technician to someone who's never heard of it?  As a coastal bird technician most of my job has to do with monitoring shorebirds. That work varies...

80 Native leaders and organizers working to get out the vote! .avia-image-container.av-mux7hy8e-ae50f4977f5464f916812f310dda07d1 .av-image-caption-overlay-center{ color:#ffffff; }

We brought 80 Native leaders and organizers from 24 different communities to Detroit for a Know Your Rights and Civic Engagement training to learn and unite for our communities.  

Our Native partner organizations and leaders have been practicing traditional relational organizing from Alaska to North Dakota to North Carolina to the Navajo Reservation, holding conversations with 1,500 of their neighbors and relatives as part of our Seven Generations Community Survey project. We covered the cost of lodging, food, and travel for participants from across Turtle Island. And we’re continuing to support organizing on the ground with paid NOA Organizing Fellows who will work with Tribes and partner organizations on non-partisan civic engagement through Election Day and beyond.

At the training, we shared our collective history of organizing for voting rights. We learned skills for maintaining a peaceful atmosphere at the polls and to prepare to respond to forms of voter suppression — including de-escalating potential conflicts.

This work is powerful. Ensuring the safety of our communities when they vote, protecting air, water, land, and sacred places is not a small task. It’s a mission with meaning and purpose in honor of our ancestors, our relatives, and generations to come. 

It’s also spiritually uplifting. It’s rewarding. The sense of empowerment is contagious. Everyone is a teacher and an organizer. 

The photos and testimonies from some of the 80 Native leaders and organizers who came to Detroit for our recent Voting rights training speak for themselves. 

“My priority ballot issue is to encourage our Two-Spirit and Native LGBTQ+ community members to be part of the voting process, to ensure they have a plan… to make informed decisions… Being able to be engaged in this way is really important.” – Elton Naswood, Diné,LGBTQ2S Center for Equity

“I think it’s really valuable work… representation does matter, to have my children see me in these types of roles and that I make my time and space valuable.”  – Blaine Parce, Assiniboine and Sioux of the Fort Peck Tribe

“It was so cool to meet other Native people across the country doing the same work.” – Kaia Aiello, White Mountain Apache, Arizona Native Vote

“This election is very important for Crow Country. We really hope to get more Native Americans in office… everything sacred is on the ballot.” – David Blaine, Crow Nation

The post 80 Native leaders and organizers working to get out the vote! appeared first on Native Organizers Alliance.

Fracking Hazards Obscured in Failure to Disclose Wells – Bloomberg Oct 24, 2012 11 min read

Seeking to quell environmental concerns about the chemicals it shoots underground to extract oil and natural gas, Apache Corp. (APA) told shareholders in April that it disclosed information about “all the company’s U.S. hydraulic fracturing jobs” on a website last year.

Actually, Apache’s transparency was shot through with cracks. In Texas and Oklahoma, the company reported chemicals it used on only about half its fracked wells via FracFocus.org, a voluntary website that oil and gas companies helped design amid calls for mandatory disclosure.

Enlarge image

0:49

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Representative Diana DeGette, a Democrat from Colorado, talks about regulation of the energy fracking industry. She spoke with Bloomberg’s Benjamin Haas on June 6. (Source: Bloomberg)

Enlarge image

Rex Tillerson, the CEO of Exxon Mobil Corp., has praised the website and called for extending its voluntary approach to disclosure overseas. Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

Enlarge image

“FracFocus is just a fig leaf for the industry to be able to say they’re doing something in terms of disclosure,” said U.S. Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat. Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Energy companies failed to list more than two out of every five fracked wells in eight U.S. states from April 11, 2011, when FracFocus began operating, through the end of last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gaps reveal shortcomings in the voluntary approach to transparency on the site, which has received funding from oil and gas trade groups and $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

“FracFocus is just a fig leaf for the industry to be able to say they’re doing something in terms of disclosure,” said U.S. Representative Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat. DeGette, along with Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey, introduced legislation in March 2011 that would require companies to disclose fracking chemicals. The bills haven’t advanced in either the House or Senate.

With FracFocus, “companies that want to disclose can do it but the other ones don’t have to,” DeGette said.

85% Fracked

Bloomberg compared oil and gas well records from eight states — Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming — against disclosures that companies made for those states on FracFocus. While the state data didn’t reveal whether wells were fractured, regulators in each state said that at least 85 percent of their wells were fracked. The Congressional Research Service puts the national estimate at more than 90 percent.

In the eight states, companies told regulators that 18,158 wells were readied for production or were newly producing from April 11, 2011 through Dec. 31, 2011. They disclosed 8,555 of them on FracFocus. If 85 percent of the total wells were fracked, that means 45 percent of the fracks weren’t disclosed on the website.

Bloomberg’s analysis, covering states that accounted for 64 percent of U.S. gas production in 2010, shows the difficulty of getting a full picture of the industry’s transparency. Because there’s no official national database of fracked wells, Bloomberg chose states that had reliable records on when gas and oil wells started producing or were completed — that is, made ready to flow — and thus were candidates for posting on FracFocus.

No Reports

Oil and gas companies have gotten better at listing their fractured wells on the website over time, said Dan Whitten, a spokesman for America’s Natural Gas Alliance, one of two industry groups that help pay operational costs for the website. Some states now require companies to make disclosures on FracFocus, he said.

“ANGA operators are committed to transparency, and support public disclosure of the additives used in the hydraulic fracturing process,” Whitten said in an e-mail. “If you were to look at a complete timeframe of FracFocus, you would see a progressively higher rate of participation.”

Companies participating in the voluntary system agree to disclose information about wells on the website once they have been fractured, which is the start of the completion process. Data from three other leading states — New Mexico, North Dakota and Pennsylvania — are incomplete or don’t list well-completion dates. For Texas, Bloomberg used the date companies submitted completion reports, which are supposed to be filed within 30 days.

Half Unreported

More than half of new wells went unreported on FracFocus in each of three states: Texas, Oklahoma and Montana. In all, 1,126 companies had at least one well in the analysis period. While it’s possible that some companies didn’t use hydraulic fracturing, the data show that 1,038 of them, or 92 percent, didn’t report any wells on the website.

In hydraulic fracturing, companies blast millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to break up rock formations and free oil and gas. The technique has unlocked vast new sources of energy. At the same time, concerns center on the hundreds of chemicals — including known carcinogens — used in the process.

Contamination Concerns

Homeowners in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming have complained that their well water was contaminated with chemicals or methane gas from nearby frack jobs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year linked the method to contaminated drinking water in Pavillion, Wyoming; the agency is now retesting some of those findings. The EPA has little authority to regulate fracking; Congress in 2005 stripped it of most such power.

States have responded in various ways. Pennsylvania officials require that companies disclose chemicals within 60 days after fracking. New York has a moratorium on the practice until its environmental impact can be determined. Vermont has banned it outright. Texas began mandating disclosure of fracking chemicals this year, after officials determined that operators were voluntarily reporting about half their fracked wells to FracFocus, according to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas wells.

Oil and gas executives say the FracFocus website helps eliminate the need for any new federal oversight that might unify the regulatory approach.

‘Positive Thing’

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” said Cal Cooper, manager of special projects for Apache. “This is a positive thing. It shows industry can get its act together and make things happen in a short amount of time.”

Apache hadn’t reported some wells in Texas that received only minor frack treatments, Cooper said — though he said they should have been disclosed on the site. The company also struggled to get some of its contractors to disclose their chemicals, he said. Both issues have been addressed, he said.

“We certainly expect to post all of our 2012 frack jobs in the U.S. on FracFocus,” he said. The company is updating its 2011 disclosures on the site as well, “and we fully expect to reach our goal of 100 percent disclosure from Jan. 1, 2011,” Cooper said.

Some of the largest oil and gas companies posted more complete data to the site. For example, Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe’s top oil producer, disclosed fracking chemicals for 107 wells in the eight states during the analysis period. The company reported 115 wells to state regulators, records show. Shell reported all its fracked wells to the website, said Kelly Op De Weegh, a Shell spokeswoman, indicating that eight of the wells weren’t fractured.

Chesapeake’s Reporting

For the same period in 2011, Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), the second-biggest U.S. gas producer, disclosed information on 85 percent of the 1,148 wells listed for it in the eight states. Most of the missing wells were fractured before Feb. 15, 2011, when the company started reporting to FracFocus, said Michael Kehs, a company spokesman.

Chesapeake’s own records show it has withheld FracFocus reports on 10 wells fracked since it began disclosing on the website, Kehs said. In each case, there are unresolved discrepancies in information provided by contractors that did the fracking, he said.

“Chesapeake has reported 99 percent of our wells to FracFocus since the initiative was launched,” Kehs said.

Companies’ Choice

While FracFocus was designed to display all wells fracked in 2011, its voluntary approach allows companies to choose when they want to begin reporting. ConocoPhillips (COP), the largest independent oil and gas producer by market value, decided to report only wells fracked after April 30, 2011, said Davy Kong, a company spokeswoman. That decision left 86 wells from the period Bloomberg examined that were fracked prior to May 2011 unreported, according to data the company provided.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), the biggest oil company by market value, didn’t publish 28 percent of the 856 wells listed in records for the eight states. Rex Tillerson, the CEO of the Irving, Texas- based company, has praised the website and called for extending its voluntary approach to disclosure overseas.

Exxon focused on training staff to file the necessary data during the first half of last year, said Jeff Neu, an Exxon spokesman. In the year’s second half, the company reported more than 80 percent of its fracked wells, and it expects to report all of them going forward, he said.

“Today, we have monitoring tools in place that show we are meeting that expectation,” Neu said.

Lowest Rates

Among the largest operators, the companies with the lowest rates of disclosure in the eight states were Midland, Texas- based Concho Resources Inc. (CXO), which reported none of its 160 wells to the website, and SandRidge Energy Inc. (SD), which didn’t disclose 84 percent of its 779 wells. QEP (QEP) Resources Inc. reported 74 of 153 wells listed in state records. Apache was fourth lowest.

Concho executives wanted to wait until various state regulators finalized their own reporting requirements before it began disclosing its chemicals, said Steven H. Pruett, the company’s senior vice president of corporate development. As of February, 2012, when Texas and New Mexico began mandating disclosures, the company has reported all its chemicals on frack jobs, he said.

SandRidge, based in Oklahoma City, began reporting all its frack jobs in Texas to FracFocus on Jan. 1, 2012, and those in Oklahoma and Kansas on March 1, 2012, Kevin White, a spokesman, said in a telephone interview. The company made only a few earlier reports, he said. SandRidge doesn’t drill in other states.

“We’re comfortable that we weren’t doing anything to the environment whether you had filing or not,” he said.

All Completions

QEP began submitting reports to FracFocus in the third quarter of last year, said Noel Ryan, a spokesman for the Denver-based company. “QEP currently registers all new well completions on this database,” he said.

Continental (CLR) Resources Inc. didn’t report 54 of its 64 wells in the eight-state group. The company didn’t immediately require staffers to list wells on FracFocus, said Mike Cantrell, the Oklahoma City-based company’s vice president for government and regulatory affairs.

Cantrell initially said Continental began disclosing all its wells on Nov. 1, 2011. Data show the company reported only six out of 20 wells it completed in November and December 2011. In a subsequent e-mail, Cantrell said that three of those 20 wells weren’t fracked, and said the company didn’t begin reporting fracks in its south region, which includes Oklahoma, until January 2012.

Missing Third

Of 22 companies with at least 150 wells in the eight states from April 2011 through December 2011, 11 didn’t disclose a third or more of them on FracFocus, the data show.

“The data is so incomplete, it doesn’t help,” said Shane Davis, research manager for the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Sierra Club, which supports stronger state and federal regulation of fracking. Davis said he has studied more than 1,000 drilling-related spills in Colorado.

For members of the public, the website can be frustrating. Wendy Leonard wanted to know about wells in her area after she saw one being drilled near her children’s school in Erie, Colorado. She asked state regulators, who referred her to FracFocus, she said.

Found Nothing

“And then I’d go home and wouldn’t find anything,” she said. Leonard and her family ended up moving to a town an hour away because of health concerns related to fracking, she said.

FracFocus is operated by two groups: the Groundwater Protection Council, a group of state water officials; and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, an association of states that produce the fuels. The council’s own analysis shows that about half the wells that have been fracked in the U.S. have been reported through the site, said Mike Nickolaus, special projects director for the GWPC.

“Companies can take it or leave it where it’s voluntary, but we see more and more companies using FracFocus to say, ‘This is a good mechanism for us to get our information out there and be transparent,”’ Nickolaus said.

The website’s operational costs, which total “a few hundred thousand dollars” a year for server space and site maintenance, according to Mike Paque, executive director of the GWPC, are paid for partly by America’s Natural Gas Alliance and the American Petroleum Institute, two Washington-based industry groups.

Industry Benefit

“We’re unapologetic about the industry cost-sharing on FracFocus because they get a big benefit from the website,” Paque said in a telephone interview. There’s no penalty for failing to participate, he said.

Public money helped create FracFocus. From 2009 to 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy gave grants totaling $3.84 million to the GWPC, records show. About $1.5 million of that sum was used to develop the website, according to Paque. The government plans additional grants for the GWPC totaling $2.12 million through 2014, Energy Department documents show.

Since the website’s inception, seven states, including Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado, have either allowed or required companies to use FracFocus to fulfill disclosure mandates. The federal Bureau of Land Management, which oversees oil and gas rights on 700 million acres — more than four times the size of Texas — is considering adopting FracFocus as the basis for chemical disclosures by companies operating on its land.

Trade Secrets

Gaps remain on the website even when wells are disclosed. Companies skip naming certain chemicals when they decide that revealing them would give away what they consider trade secrets. Many of the wells that are listed on FracFocus have at least one or two chemicals marked confidential. Others have far more.

Nine undisclosed chemicals were pumped into Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO)’s Cherry Bilsky well in Gonzales County, Texas, between San Antonio and Houston, according to the website. The company also withheld the amounts of eight other chemicals used in the well. The purpose of one product, identified only as “EXP- F1008-10,” is listed as “experimental.”

“Marathon Oil provides the fullest amount of information that has been provided by our suppliers for each fracturing job,” said Lee Warren, a spokeswoman for the company, in an e- mail. Some suppliers consider detailed listings of certain chemicals or specific ratios proprietary, she said.

Information Requirements

All operators are required by law to keep detailed product information for each additive, and make it available to first responders and medical providers in cases of emergency, Warren said.

In May, Pennsylvania regulators issued violations after a pit for holding waste fluid from fracked wells in Tioga County leaked into the vicinity of the Rock Run stream and the surrounding landscape. The Responsible Drilling Alliance, an activist group that tried to figure out what was in the fluids, was stymied when it checked FracFocus, said Ralph Kisberg, the group’s cofounder.

That’s because EQT Corp. (EQT), the Pittsburgh-based company that operates the Tioga wells, omitted some information about its chemicals. Of five wells it disclosed in the county, one didn’t include any identification numbers for the chemicals, and four others provided no information about the quantities of chemicals used.

‘PR Effort’

“There are mistakes; some of the data is incomplete,” said Kisberg, of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. “We see FracFocus as a PR effort to placate people.”

EQT staffers made some errors in manually transferring data into the FracFocus system, said Natalie Cox, the company’s director of communications. After Bloomberg News asked about the incomplete disclosures, EQT fixed the errors, Cox said. The company is committed to fully disclosing its fracking fluids, she said.

States that require companies to disclose on FracFocus are adopting the website’s limitations. In North Dakota, where fracking has turned the state into the biggest U.S. oil- producing state after Texas, regulators mandate disclosure on the website within 60 days of a well’s completion.

“We require whatever FracFocus requires,” said Alison Ritter, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Mineral Resources’ Oil and Gas Division. “Whatever their rules are, those are our rules in terms of reporting.”

Private Database

The website isn’t searchable by chemical, or by date. State regulators who wish to check whether companies are making their required disclosures face a time-consuming task. The website doesn’t make its underlying database available to the public.

Improvements are planned for this autumn that will allow users to search by chemical name, chemical abstract number and date. The groups that maintain the website are talking with industry representatives and state officials about how to give regulators in states that require posting on FracFocus access to the database, said Nickolaus, the GWPC’s special projects director.

It remains unclear whether the database will ever be downloadable for the general public. Nickolaus said that’s “not a specific goal of the system.”

Not releasing the database was a prerequisite that companies insisted on before they’d participate, he said.

To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Benjamin Haas in New York at bhaas7@bloomberg.net Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net Phil Kuntz in New York at pkuntz1@bloomberg.net Ben Elgin in San Francisco at belgin@bloomberg.net

Fracking Hazards Obscured in Failure to Disclose Wells – Bloomberg.

#FrackingHazards

• Media
• National Media

   

Fracking Operations Run Roughshod over Pennsylvania Homeowners Oct 24, 2012 3 min read

On a recent trip to western Pennsylvania, I visited a man who lived along a leafy country road. He showed me around the house he had built for his wife and three sons and said he wanted to raise his family in a quiet rural area. He thought he had the perfect spot until an energy company showed up on his property and said it had the rights to drill for natural gas beneath his land.  Although he owned his land and home—and paid taxes on them—he could not protect his property from a drill pad, wells and a pipeline he did not want.

Soon tractor trailers began delivering compressors the size of shipping containers, tanker trucks hauled in fracking chemicals, and workers built an industrial drill pad near his house. The last straw came when the company hired security guards to patrol the area—and stationed them right in the middle of the family’s yard.

There was nothing the man could do to stop them.

Every affected family that I met with in western Pennsylvania said they felt displaced on their own property after natural gas companies muscled their way into backyards and fields.  Existing health or environmental safeguards are too weak, and poorly enforced. Instead, gas companies are allowed to run roughshod over homeowners and their communities.

Fracking operation, including wastewater pit, next to corn field. Photo: Melanie Blanding

Pennsylvania is no stranger to fossil fuel development. The first oil discovered in America was found in Oil Creek in 1859, and Standard Oil built its empire on the state’s oil fields. Coal has been mined in the region for decades, and old mine shafts dot the landscape.

Local residents told me they thought natural gas would be the next wave in a familiar tide. Most were used to seeing the occasional “donkey” oil pumps bobbing up and down on a hillside, and figured natural gas operations would have a similar profile.

But once drilling began, they realized that fracking goes way beyond anything they had seen before. Instead of a single donkey, a drill site can be the size of several football fields. Half of it may consist of a huge pit holding water and wastewater. When a well is fracked, operators run compressors 24 hours a day for days. People told me their houses shook the entire time.

Even people who gave energy companies the right to drill on their property are overwhelmed by the scale of industrial development. One man told me, “My dad allowed oil drilling on his land years ago, and he got income from the company. It was just one pump out there. It wasn’t a big deal.” He figured he would follow in his father’s footsteps, but then the massive fracking equipment arrived, and he realized he had been boxed into a corner.

Many oil and gas companies turn out to be careless and furtive neighbors. Homeowners are especially concerned about the chemicals sitting in the giant open wastewater pits called impoundments. Yet the oil and gas industry has resisted every attempt to make companies more transparent, and as a result, too few states require them to disclose the chemicals used in fracking fluids, even in some cases to doctors trying to find out why people may be suffering from medical conditions. Standards for managing and reporting on toxic wastewater are too lax and companies sometimes flout the rules. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that one company worker was dumping fracking wastewater right into a local river.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Researchers at PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center found that of the 4,596 fracking sites operating in Pennsylvania between 2008 and 2011, companies violated environmental laws 3,355 times. Some companies see the meager fines levied against them as a cost of doing business. Homeowners, meanwhile, pay the price in polluted air, contaminated water, and decimated property values.

Strong national standards could help protect residents from reckless companies and ineffective state regulators. Yet Senator Hoeven (R-ND) recently introduced a bill that would make it harder for the federal government to regulate fracking. Big Oil’s giant lobbying association, the American Petroleum Institute, welcomed the bill, but many local residents will not. Americans should be protected from the hazards of fracking no matter what state they call home.

NRDC is helping achieve that. We are fighting to put stronger state and national safeguards in place, and we created the Community Fracking Defense Project to help local communities to define their own fracking ordinances.

Lawmakers may sit in Harrisburg or Washington and say there is no need for environmental standards, but people living next door to leaking wastewater pits and polluting wells know better. It’s time we honor their experience and start holding companies accountable.

Fracking Operations Run Roughshod over Pennsylvania Homeowners | Frances Beinecke’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.

#NRDC

• Families Affected
• Media
• National Media

   

Chesapeake Testing ‘Green’ Fracking Fluids in Shale Wells – Bloomberg Oct 24, 2012 2 min read

SAFE comments: Development of environmentally friendly constituents for “slick water” used in fracking does not eliminate, reduce or otherwise rectify that highly saline and radioactive materials, in addition to volatile chemicals inherent in petroleum harvesting, will still come up with the waste water. No amount of “green” fluid injected into the ground can prevent these constituents from coming back up in the flowback.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK), the second- largest U.S. natural gas producer, is testing hydraulic- fracturing fluids composed solely of environmentally-benign components in wells.

Chesapeake plans to develop a 100 percent green mixture of fluids used to fracture gas and oil formations underground, Jody C. Jones, the company’s manager of environmental and regulatory affairs, said today during a gathering of energy-industry executives in Columbus, Ohio.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves using high- pressure jets of water, sand and chemicals to smash fissures into rocks so gas and oil may flow. Current fluid formulations often include hazardous components such as hydrochloric acid or diesel fuel and environmentalists say the practice poses a threat to water supplies. Chesapeake, based in Oklahoma City, is testing various green recipes in several shale formations that Jones declined to identify.

“It’s not quite there yet,” Jones said at the Utica Shale Development & Growth Forum sponsored by IQPC Ltd. “The main concern with testing something like this is you just spent $4 to $6 million to drill a well and taking an untested frack system and shooting it down a well could ruin a reservoir and you’d be throwing away all that money.”

Chesapeake is experimenting with green fracking fluids to minimize threats from surface spills near lakes, creeks and rivers that abut drilling sites, Jones said. Such formulations also would reduce workers’ exposure to potentially harmful substances, he said.

Bacteria Slime

Some of the world’s largest fracking-service providers have been working on ways to offer more environmentally friendly fluids. Halliburton Co. (HAL), the world’s largest fracking company, now offers “CleanStim,” which uses food-safe ingredients to stifle the growth of subterranean bacteria that can form a thick slime and impede oil and gas flow.

Halliburton has also developed a process using ultraviolet light to kill bacteria in the fracking fluid, pairing the technology with a recycling process called “CleanWave” that uses an electrical charge to separate contaminants and clean the water.

Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI), the world’s third-largest provider of fracking services, offers a fluid called “VaporFrac” that replaces almost all of the water used in fracking with nitrogen- based foam.

Chesapeake rose 1.3 percent to $19.54 at the close in New York.

Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM) is the biggest U.S. gas producer.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joe Carroll in Chicago at jcarroll8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net

Chesapeake Testing ‘Green’ Fracking Fluids in Shale Wells – Bloomberg.

• Chemicals
• Media
• National Media

   

Oil and Gas Leases: Issues and Considerations Oct 24, 2012 5 min read

Leases do not include the same information that companies give to their shareholders. Landowners are not told the actual risks associated with hydraulic fracturing.  There are ways to challenge a lease if a company was not honest about the risks associated with the processes involved in fracking.

The following document regarding gas leasing practices provides important insight into issues to be considered regarding leasing and what is often omitted in leasing offers. The entire content of “Drilling Doublespeak” can be obtained for download at the following link:
http://static.ewg.org/pdf/Drilling_Doublespeak.pdf

SAFE has been examining leases, and is working toward building this page as one that will help you assess your own lease for language that protects you (issues such as burden of proof , compensation for damages). Please check back on this page as we update this information.

Contact Our Legal Committee

L. Cook

legal@dontfractureillinois.net

SAFE has seen a lease that explained the lessee’s rights as follows:

“with the exclusive right for the purpose of exploring *** and operating for and producing *** and the exclusive right *** to inject water, brine and other fluids into the subsurface strata, as well as any industry enhanced recovery methods.”

Note the use of the relatively innocuous sounding term “other fluids” after “water” and “brine” and also note the use of the term “industry enhanced recovery methods”.  The lessor explained to us that they were not told that horizontal high-volume, high-pressure hydraulic fracturing could be used on his property.

If this language was intended to encompass horizontal fracking, it is far from a model of clarity and is misleading.

Royalties

Other lease specify royalties that are calculated “at the wellhead.”  This means that no matter what is stated anywhere else in the lease, “at the wellhead” means the company is entitled to take all costs (i.e., any cost it can think of) out of its profits before it calculates any royalties.

Pipelines

Leases typically have paragraphs that sound like care is taken regarding pipelines, e.g., that pipelines will be buried below the plow line in crop fields. Yet those leases do not say that pipelines must be buried in a location that is not a crop field. This means they reserve the right to run a pipe line through your yard if they want to.

Damage Clauses

The “famous” liquified damages clause limits any damages payable to you (for any damages, of any kind, ever) to $5,000. We have even seen damage limits as low as $3,000.

Hold Harmless and Indemnify

Perhaps worse, the “hold harmless and indemnify” clause says no matter what happens, you, the landowner, is liable: for injury, damage to the land, to property or anything else. We have a signed copy of one of those leases. The Johnson County clerk’s office has many, many of these leases filed.

FAQ

Will Not Signing a Lease Prevent Drilling?

Q.  I am an owner of an oil/gas lease with Next Energy, LLC.  They have sent us a form that requests to change the original lease to allow horizontal drilling.  With everything I have read, I have not signed it as yet.  Will my not signing (my brother and sister haven’t either) prevent anything?

A. First, we need to know how the mineral rights are owned, before we can answer the question about you and your brother/sister not signing the lease. If they own any of the rights, and none of you have signed the lease, then yes, that can make a difference. The issue is a little complex, but basically it is this: In contract law, an issue has to be “within the contemplation of the parties” when they sign a contract for there to have been a “meeting of the minds.” If there has not been a meeting of the minds, there is a very good argument that a contract is invalid.

I am assuming that the contract that was originally signed was before horizontal fracking became an issue? If that is the case, then the parties had no way of knowing that the oil and gas company could potentially use fracking on their property, and therefore did not sign a lease with any intention of allowing horizontal fracking to take place. Therefore, there was no meeting of the minds, and if the oil and gas company does not get an amendment signed, and goes ahead with fracking anyway, they run the risk of being taken to court for an injunction forcing them to stop operations after they have already committed serious time and money and materials to the project.

So, NextEnergy is covering their bases and trying to get the amendment signed. Now, I must warn you they may try to bully you into it, by threatening you and saying they have the right to do it anyway, so you might as well sign. DO NOT fall for it. This is a standard tactic. They may also say you might as well sign, because they can drill on your neighbor and steal your gas, so you might as well sign. NOT TRUE. There IS something called forced pooling in Illinois, but if by some chance they get any gas or oil from under you, they have to pay you for it, no matter where they drill. And right now IDNR is not allowing forced pooling anyway, and has not even issued one permit for forced pooling in all this time. I talked to IDNR about this myself. So do not fall for that one either.

Threatened to Sign A Lease

Q.  My husband’s family has been presented with leases for their surprise inheritance of indivually-small shares in mineral rights under some property in southern Illinois. Ugh! I’m a member of a grassroots fractivist group in Colorado and am appalled. I thought it was a load of frack-fluid when the landman told my husband that if he didn’t sign the lease, my husband would become like a part owner of the drilling company and would incur expenses of drilling before receiving any royalties.

This sounds crazy, but it’s what the landman told us; he even sent us a copy of a letter to someone owning property in Louisiana (not Illinois) to present the idea. Also, I’ve heard from an attorney in Colorado that it is possible, but he’s not familiar with Illinois laws.

Can you help me with this? Have you heard this before? I haven’t had any luck in looking at the Illinois oil & gas regs.

A Chicago (where I grew up) attorney offered to check into it for $300-$400/hour; I’d have to sell my house to afford that. We’re contemplating the HORRIBLE idea of signing the lease and donating any royalties (expected to be very, very minimal – but even if they were huge) to fractivist organizations, including SAFE. Another HORRIBLE idea is to sell our house and try to hide the money if there’s any profit, rent an apartment, declare bankruptcy, and then sign the lease.

By the way, we’re so impressed with the SAFE newsletter, actions, number of volunteers, etc. Kudos! We wish you the very best – a statewide ban – of course!

A. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard yet. No, you do not become part owner of the drilling company just because you do not sign a lease, and it is legally impossible to “draft” someone into becoming part of any company; no, you do not incur expenses of drilling before receiving any royalties just because you do not sign the lease. Yes, it is a load of frack fluid.

The only grain of truth in it is, if you DO sign a lease expecting to receive royalties, and the lease says your royalty is computed at the well head, they get to deduct all kinds of expenses before computing the royalties.

I would doubt anything the landmen say; I would doubly doubt any copies of letters they say they sent, as this is easily faked; and I would especially doubt anything they say they sent to Louisiana, as Louisiana is under Neopolitan law, unlike the rest of the US, and their laws do not apply to us.

• Leases

   

Cabot’s Methodology Links Tainted Water Wells to Gas Fracking – Bloomberg Oct 7, 2012 1 min read

#NaturalGas #NaturalGasDrilling #Pennsylvania

• Media
• National Media

   

Halliburton’s Radioactive Frack Rod Found Alongside Texas Highway After Going Missing Oct 12, 2012 2 min read

Holy frack that was close!

Public relations people and top-level executives at Halliburton, one of the world’s largest oilfield services companies, are likely breathing a sigh of relief after the oilfield services company found a radioactive rod that it lost last month, the Guardian reports. The seven-inch rod of americium-241/beryllium was found alongside a Texas highway some miles away from where it was being used to locate oil and gas deposits eligible for fracking.

Previously, members of the FBI, the Texas National Guard and Halliburton had been searching for the radioactive tool that is classified as a “category 3” source of radiation and could prove fatal if held for an extended period of time. It is the first incident of a lost radioactive tool of its kind in the past five years, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Bloomberg reports.

But radioactive materials sometimes do turn up in unexpected places. In 2010, Italy experienced the worst radiological incident in its history when a shipping container arrived in the port city of Genoa with unsafe levels of radiation, WIRED reports. The source turned out to be a radioactive rod not much larger than a pencil.

Still, concerns over safety violations are nothing new for Halliburton. The conglomerate once led by former Vice President Dick Cheney faced criticism for its role in BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill after reports emerged that it provided faulty cementing in constructing the well. More recently, critics have raised concerns over the effects its fracking fluid has on nearby drinking water, even prompting one executive to publicly drink Halliburton fluid to prove that its ingredients are benign .

Halliburton’s Radioactive Rod Found Alongside Texas Highway After Going Missing.

• Media
• National Media
• Radioactive

   

Italy earthquakes = FRACKING! Two DOZEN people dead in two weeks !! – YouTube Nov 3, 2012 1 min read

Two DOZEN people killed in since May 20, 2012 (the first large 6.0M+ at this location)…At the epicenter — drilling / pumping / fracking operation .

The days of denying — by so-called ‘professionals’ — are over. Coordinates for this recent 5.8M today (5/29/2012) from USGS:

44.814°N, 11.079°E

USGS stats: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usb000a1mn.php

download google earth for FREE here … http://earth.google.com

At least 15 people dead THIS time (5.8M on 5/29/2012)

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/29/world/europe/italy-earthquake/index.html

7 dead on May 20, 2012:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Emilia_earthquake

Category:

5/29/2012 — Italy earthquakes = FRACKING! Two DOZEN people dead in two weeks !! – YouTube.

#fracking #humaninducedearthquakes #Italy #Earthquakes #frackingandearthquakes

• Earthquakes

   

No fracking for ten years – says EU Commissioner for Energy – Local – Leitrim Obse Oct 8, 2012 3 min read

No fracking for ten years – says EU Commissioner for Energy – Local – Leitrim Observer.

Senator Paschal Mooney with EU Commissioner for Enerfy G�nther Oettinger.

Published on Saturday 29 September 2012 09:00

EU Commissioner for Energy Gúnther Oettinger has informed Drumshanbo Senator Paschal Mooney that no decisions should be taken on hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for ten years.

The Commissioners opinion was in response to a serious of questions from Senator Mooney at a meeting of Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport Energy and Communications which the Commissioner attended during his visit to Ireland last week.

In a series of questions submitted by Senator Mooney to the Commissioner about the EU Commissions Policy on fracking Commissioner Gúnther Oettinger replied that he believed no decisions should be taken until the environmental impact of fracking was established and that could take between five and ten years. He further informed Senator Mooney that he was already in discussions with scientists and those with technical expertise and has opened a dialogue with the Polish Government where fracking has already commenced. The Commissioner revealed that the extraction of shale gas could be chemical free in a number of years which is a major point of controversy and he intended visiting the United States next Spring to see at first-hand how shale gas is extracted.

“I welcome this recognition by EU Energy Commissioner of the sensitivities involved over this controversial process” stated Senator Mooney. “The Commissioner is obviously aware of the adverse environmental impact of current practices associated with the extraction of shale gas. The Commissioner is proceeding cautiously before coming to any conclusions. I am delighted that the person charged with Energy Policy in the European Union is consulting widely with the scientific technical and political community as part of an on-going process and I am now confident that the Energy Commissioner will not rush into a decisions that would harm the environment as a result of the fracking process” concluded the Leitrim Senator.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin MEP and Environment Committee member, Martina Anderson last week voted in the European Parliament against the exploration and extraction of shale gas.

Speaking from Brussels she welcomed the outcome of the vote. “Among the encouraging proposals voted by the Environment Committee are; mandatory environmental impact assessments for fracking projects, the exclusion of EU funding for the shale gas industry and the obligation for fracking companies to declare which chemicals are used in the fracking process.”

“Given the associated risks with the process used to extract shale gas known as hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’, it is baffling that a more robust system of regulation is not already in place. Local communities’ concerns regarding the environment and public health must outweigh any commercial and monetary incentives for large gas companies.”

“The very real and dangerous risks of water contamination and noise pollution from fracking have the potential to seriously damage both agriculture and tourism – two very important sectors of Ireland’s economy. Even before exploration of the gas begins an Environmental Impact Assessment should be an absolute necessity. There is too much at stake to continue with these risks.”

“Indeed, at a time when we are quickly heading towards a point-of-no-return with climate change and the environment, it seems that we’re missing the bigger picture. With an agreed upon need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it is essential that we move away from the business-as-usual use of fossil fuels and towards renewable energies and a greener, safer and more sustainable economy.”

#FrackingChemicals #EuropeanUnionNoFracking #FrackingMoratorium #banfracking #media #EU #FrackingintheEuropeanUnion #moratorium

• Media
• World Media

   

Pennsylvania State Representative Jesse White calls for probe of Dept of Environmental Protection wa Nov 2, 2012 4 min read

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has created incomplete lab reports and used them to dismiss complaints that Marcellus Shale gas development operations have contaminated residential water supplies and made people sick, according to court documents and other sources.

As a result, state Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, today called on state and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the DEP for “alleged misconduct and fraud” described in sworn depositions in a civil case currently in Washington County Common Pleas Court.

“This is beyond outrageous,” Mr. White said in a press release. “Anyone who relied on the DEP for the truth about whether their water has been impacted by drilling activities has apparently been intentionally deprived of critical health and safety information by their own government.”

The DEP quickly responded Mr. White’s statements in an email to the Post-Gazette.

Department spokesman Kevin Sunday said the DEP’s testing lab received a “glowing” review last year in a peer review by the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

He added, “Jesse White is ideologically opposed to responsible drilling regulations which is evidenced by, among other things, his vote against Act 13,” a state law that regulates Marcellus Shale drilling and gas production.

“The battery of analyses we order during investigations are thorough and give us the results we need to make sound determinations, which we fully stand behind,” Mr. Sunday said.

“DEP takes very seriously instances where we do determine gas migration has occurred from drilling — this administration issued the largest single civil penalty in the history of the state’s oil and gas program last year for such a case.”

Mr. White’s call for an investigation came after the release of two depositions of DEP employees, one of whom, Taru Upadhyay, the division director of DEP’s Bureau of Laboratories, said the department’s lab reports to property owners didn’t contain a full array of contaminants found by the lab’s testing.

Mr. White said there’s no excuse for withholding some of the water test results because they could hold the key to residents’ water supply problems.

“If these allegations are true, there needs to be a thorough and objective investigation to determine if someone belongs in a jail cell,” he said.

In her deposition, Ms. Upadhyay said the department’s oil and gas division directed the lab to generate water test reports to homeowners that omitted the full menu of findings for heavy metals, including lithium, cobalt, chromium, boron and titanium, some of which are human carcinogens, as well as volatile organic compounds that are associated with hydraulic fracturing fluids.

Those metals are Marcellus Shale markers, found in the shale layer a mile or more underground in Pennsylvania. They are released by hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” of the shale and can be carried by flowback fluids to the surface.

Finding them and certain volatile organic compounds in the water test results would link contamination of groundwater to gas well drilling and fracking operations, said John Smith, an attorney with Smith Butz, a firm representing eight people in the Washington County case against Range Resources and 12 of its subcontractors. Their case contends that they face serious health problems and increased cancer risk due to exposure to toxic chemicals in their air and well water near Range’s Yeager drill site in Amwell.

“Despite these significant health consequences, the DEP purposely never considered information concerning all of these metals in each of the plaintiffs’ water supplies before making any of its determinations and purposely failed to alert the plaintiffs to their presence,” said Mr. Smith in a court filing Wednesday.

Kendra Smith, another Smith Butz attorney, today sent a 10-page letter to DEP Secretary Michael Krancer about the incomplete test results and requested a review of the practice. She sent copies of the letter to state Attorney General Linda Kelly; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III; David Hickton, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania; and five state legislators.

According to the deposition transcript, Ms. Upadhyay said the DEP’s state laboratory tests water samples for a full battery of contaminants, but at the direction of the department’s Office of Oil and Gas Management, limits the number of contaminants reported to the oil and gas division and the property owner.

In a second deposition filed in the case, John Carson, a DEP water quality specialist, said a special lab code for Marcellus Shale water contamination complaints is used statewide. He also said the department failed to provide its water quality specialists with training to help them interpret the lab reports and identify contaminants that could signal Marcellus Shale-related impacts.

A Post-Gazette review of DEP water quality reports generated under the department’s “942 Suite Code” found that those reports didn’t disclose all of the contaminants found in well water samples. The water complaints in these cases were dismissed because the abbreviated reports did not support the property owner complaints in Amwell, Washington County, the Woodlands area in Butler County, and Dimock in Susquehanna County.

Ms. Upadhyay’s statements came in response to questions from Ms. Smith and are contained in a 336-page transcript of her deposition taken Sept. 26 for an Environmental Hearing Board case. The case, brought by Loren Kiskadden of Amwell, alleges that DEP’s investigation of his well-contamination complaint was inaccurate and incomplete.

The depositions were filed as supporting documents in the related Washington County Court case. In that case, four homeowners, including Mr. Kiskadden, who live near the Yeager well site, allege their private water supplies were contaminated and they suffered a variety of health problems.

Range, owner of the Yeager well site, has denied any responsibility for any contamination from its operations, which included three wells, a 13 million-gallon impoundment and a drill cuttings pit.

By Don Hopey / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

First Published November 1, 2012 6:17 pm

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/marcellusshale/state-representative-calls-for-probe-of-dep-water-testing-reports-660215/#ixzz2B5ubqqv9

State representative calls for probe of DEP water testing reports – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

#ContaminatedWater #MarcellusShalerelatedimpacts #Pennsylvania #PennsylvaniaDepartmentofEnvironmentalProtection #DEPwaterqualityreports #DEP #MarcellusShale #misconductandfraud

• Heroes Corner
• National Media
• Chemicals

   

Big storms and fracking: what’s at stake? Sep 1, 2012 3 min read

Here in Washington, D.C. the winds are fast, furious, and loud as we await the brunt of Hurricane Sandy. Winds have been clocked up to 90 mph as the storm hits land with the lowest pressure ever recorded in the northeast. Images of a crane dangling off a Manhattan skyscraper are as scary as the reports that flooding will occur as far north as Vermont and New Hampshire.

West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio are all expected to be hit by the storm. What could it mean for fracking sites in the Marcellus shale?

One of the greatest risks at these sites are spills and what is called “stormwater runoff.”

Under the Clean Water Act, there is something called the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) rule which includes requirements for oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response to prevent oil discharges to navigable waters and adjoining shorelines. The rule requires specific facilities to prepare, amend, and implement spill prevention plans. Sounds like a no-brainer. But in Fiscal Year 2011, EPA officials visited 120 sites oil and gas development sites and found 105 were out of compliance– 87.5%. (Note: these do not have to be oil production sites. For example, natural gas pads may have enough fuel for drill rigs stored on site to trigger this requirement.)

Almost every single oil and gas site inspected lacked a mandatory spill prevention plan meant to protect our rivers and streams. This is an unacceptable flouting of our environmental laws.

In addition to a spill prevention plan, oil and gas companies should have something called a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan. During a rainstorm, flowing water can pick up pollutants along the way, including toxic materials like fracking chemicals or fracking waste. Most companies are required by the Clean Water Act to get a stormwater permit by submitting a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan outlining precautions the company will take to avoid illegal discharge of pollutants and impacts to nearby rivers and streams. Ensuring prevention of stormwater run-off is not rocket science. It requires simple measures such as sufficient berms and containment systems. But the oil and gas industry is exempt from having to get a permit, which means regulators do not have to approve a pollution prevention plan–or even see if a company really has one for each site.

This is all increasingly terrifying as Sandy bears down on the Marcellus region, where there are many open pits filled with fracking and related waste. Because the oil and gas industry is also exempt from our hazardous waste laws, no one knows exactly how dangerous the waste at any particular site might be, but we know it can be very toxic and also radioactive. NRDC opposes storing of fracking and production waste in these open air pits, but it is still allowed.

What does a flooded wellpad look like? Here is a photo of a flooded wellpad in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, after Tropical Storm Lee in September, 2011:

Photo credit: Carol French, used with permission.

And here is a photo of how dangerously close millions of gallons of potentially toxic fracking waste can be to homes, in this case in Washington County, Pennsylvania:

Photo credit: Robert Donnan, used with permission. 

NRDC opposes having dangerous fracking waste stored so close to people’s homes. Hurricane Sandy is terrifying for many reasons. For people living next to fracking waste sites, one of them is that the storm may flood these sites and cause toxic substances to flow onto their land, their home, or their farm. It is well past due for the toxic waste loophole for the oil and gas industry to be closed.

Big storms and fracking: what’s at stake? | Amy Mall’s Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC.

#StormWaterPollutionPreventionPlan #frackingwaste #HurricaneSandy #Control #flooding #stormwaterrunoff #Bigstormsandfracking #easternOhio #Pennsylvania #SpillPrevention #andCountermeasureSPCCrule #WestVirginia

• Media
• National Media

   

Facing significant backlash to his recent TV ads, Trump recently declared he will no longer use taxpayer funds to pay for partisan advertisements. He has not indicated that he will reimburse the U.S. Treasury for public funds wasted so far.

Public Citizen has filed multiple complaints against the Trump administration for using taxpayer dollars for the ads, which lavishly praise the character of Trump and boost congressional Republicans ahead of the midterm elections. AdImpact estimates $10.1 million in taxpayer funds was spent on the production and airing of these ads. The complaints allege that the payments violate federal laws against using taxpayer funds for “propaganda” purposes and the involvement of White House staff in producing and distributing the ads violate the Hatch Act.

Craig Holman, Ph.D., government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“It apparently took weeks for the Trump administration to realize it is illegal to use taxpayer dollars to pay for campaign commercials.

“But what of the millions of taxpayer dollars already spent on these self-adulation campaign ads? The act of having wasted taxpayer dollars on these ads remains a violation of law. At the very least, Trump and his administration must reimburse the Treasury and face the consequences for violating federal law and the Hatch Act.”