Simon Lomax writes at Energy Indepth:
Local officials in Erie, Colo., are pushing back hard against a national environmental group for misrepresenting the outcome of a failed “ban fracking” campaign in their town. The officials say the Massachusetts-based group has “ignored or misstated” the facts, including a number of scientific analyses posted on the town’s website, and they are demanding to know: “Why did you ignore this information?”
The Union of Concern Scientists in Cambridge, Mass., profiled the Town of Erie in a “toolkit” for anti-energy activists called Science, Democracy and Fracking: A Guide for Community Residents and Policy Makers Facing Decisions over Hydraulic Fracturing. Regular readers of Energy In Depth may recall we have closely tracked events in Erie ourselves (some examples here, here, here, and here).
Among other things, the UCS publication falsely claims that a group of “ban fracking” activists were responsible for negotiating agreements with oil and natural gas companies in 2012 that have been hailed as a “statewide model” and a “thoughtful step forward” in the debate over energy development in Colorado. In reality, the activist group Erie Rising fought those agreements tooth and nail with help from the national “ban fracking” group Food & Water Watch.
Washington, D.C.-based Food & Water Watch even declared Erie “ground zero” of the “national movement” to ban hydraulic fracturing, which is really a ban on domestic oil and gas development, because this technology is essential for developing more than 90 percent of oil and gas wells in Colorado and across the nation. Food & Water Watch opposes negotiated agreements with the energy industry and even tougher regulations. Instead, this group just wants to ban energy development across Colorado and nationwide for ideological reasons.
But in Erie, the “ban fracking” campaign fell flat when Erie town officials investigated the alarmist claims of the activists and found them to be false. Former Erie Mayor Joe Wilson later wrote in a Denver Post column that town officials “sorted fact from fiction, and helped our Board of Trustees drive a hard bargain with oil and gas operators to get the best possible environmental controls” while the activists “mindlessly opposed them.”
Erie Town Administrator A.J. Krieger corrected the record in a scathing July 10 letter to UCS. Krieger and his staff also shared the letter with local officials, environmental advocates, industry representatives, academics and other stakeholders to promote the idea that “factual information serve as the cornerstone of any public discussion of oil and gas activities – including fracking.” Here are some highlights from Krieger’s letter to the UCS Center for Science and Democracy:
“It came as no surprise to us that the Town of Erie was mentioned in your publication. … But what did surprise us is just how much inaccurate information you could squeeze into a mere 128 word article.
We are not sure if you ignored or misstated information readily available to the public. However, what is clear to us is this article does not even meet the most basic criteria including on your “Checklist for Determining Reliable Information” (see page 9 of your publication). …
We have taken the time to set the record straight for you and your readers because the Town of Erie values a balanced approach to oil and gas development – one that is protective of human health and the environment while taking into consideration private property rights. …
The Town of Erie has a great story to tell. We are at a loss for why you chose not to dedicate the time to share it accurately with your readers.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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Richie D – Governor Hickenlooper, an outright Dem leaning towards the far left, drank a mug of fracking fluid to demonstrate it’s safety. He’s been a miserable disappointment all the way around, but on this one issue, he is correct. The battle between him and Jared ‘Not near my shed’ Polis is hysterical. They know that the fracking hysteria is going nowhere and is damaging their chances in November, but they can’t get Polis to shut up about it.
Hey wait a second, that’s a picture of “new” Erie. I’ve been riding my bike through that area since 1989 and a picture of old Erie would show gravel roads and $50,000 houses with many mobile homes. Perhaps the leadership of Erie figured out that energy prosperity equaled local prosperity and cashed in. I can’t blame them if it did indeed lead to their town going from one of the most undesirable places to live to a rather nice place well situated to both Boulder and Denver.
@ladylifegrows
Both sides? Funny you.
Ideologues are nothing but a pack lying liars.
Mark
Pathway says:
July 24, 2014 at 4:42 pm
Communists do what communists do, lie.
True, according to new research reported in the Economist:
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21607830-more-people-are-exposed-socialism-worse-they-behave-lying-commies
“The Union of Concern Scientists in Cambridge, Mass.” Is actually The Union of unscientific policy based activist? I could have used the word sciectivist, but have no real idea if any of them have any scientific basis on the topic.
The CAGW adherents at one time were in-love with natural gas. It was much cleaner than oil, and coal, with no waste (radioactive, fly ash, or soot messes). That era was before new fracking and horizontal shale drilling technologies unlocked plentiful shale naturaj gas, lowering its cost to make solar and wind economically uncompetitive. Now the Church of CAGW congregation is in a full-throated “ban fracking with any lie” mode to slow the inevitable economic death of wind and farms as government subsidies will ultimately disappear. One fundamental tenent of Environmental Progressives is that the End Justifies the Means. The means include lies, strawman arguments, and alarmist but unfounded claims.
phlogiston says:
July 24, 2014 at 11:12 pm
Pathway says:
July 24, 2014 at 4:42 pm
Communists do what communists do, lie.
True, according to new research reported in the Economist:
But so do – Democrats, Liberals, Nazis, Republicans, Christians, Islamists, Jews, Bankers, Lawyers, Politicians, Reporters, Salesmen, Scientists, in fact any one with an agenda to push or an axe to grind. the more they believe the more they twist the truth & then justify it as noble cause.
Truth & lies are altered from black & white to 50 shades of gray (like my lingerie drawer ).
Katherine said on July 24, 2014 at 5:00 pm:
Are you sure it couldn’t be Cornered? It sure looks like they’re running out of escape paths.
From SMS on July 24, 2014 at 6:39 pm:
Don’t Poke Murphy.
Don’t make Murphy angry. You wouldn’t like Murphy when he’s angry.
The lubricants won’t migrate up for the same reason the water table exists: the underlying rock that holds the water up holds frac fluids down. Google “impermeable”.
The “seismic events” referenced would have trouble tipping over a balanced egg, and in any case small tension releases delay big quakes, if anything.
CO2 is stripped out of gas during the refinery process and this is why it burns so “clean”. However the CO2 is pumped straight out of a pipe at the refinery into the air.
I tried to access the link for text of the letter and got greeted with this :
“One more step
Please complete the security check to access energyindepth.org”
“Why do I have to complete a CAPTCHA?
Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property.”
WTF? Web “property”.
Brian H says: “The “seismic events” referenced would have trouble tipping over a balanced egg, and in any case small tension releases delay big quakes, if anything.”
If there’s any truth in that argument ( which seems reasonable at first view ) , then it would be a case of defusing major events, not just delaying them.
Joel: “Now the Church of CAGW congregation is in a full-throated “ban fracking with any lie” mode to slow the inevitable economic death of wind and farms as government subsidies will ultimately disappear.”
No Joel, most opposition to fracking is a genuine fear of pollution of the ground water. Whether that is ill-founded, exaggerated or misinformed, or whether we should by now know not to trust the assurances of those who are out to make a stack of money, is another question.
My gut feeling is that injecting chemicals into the ground needs to be very carefully assessed. Unfortunately, in view of the deception and blatant disregards for facts we’ve seen in AGW saga, I do not trust the info coming from enviros any more that I trust those out to make a pot of gold by telling us there’s absolutely no risk.
I seriously doubt many are basing their opinions on speculations about the energy futures, like you are.
Don’t expect facts from the anti-frackers; our local bunch of Agrarian economy enthusiasts, “Frack Free Somerset” recently had to pull a leaflet they were putting out – some 25 errors or lies were noted in the leaflet by a local engineer. They are hysterics and fanatics.
Greg Goodman – fracking started in the USA in 1949, and since then, over 1,000,000 wells have been fracked. Any process that takes whatever out of the earth is fraught with problems, yet fracking has a safety record that compares well to mining, drilling for oil, you name it. Water tables are usually two to three hundred feet down – shail gas and oil, thousands. You will have a problem if the well casing fractures by the water table, but the technology is getting smarter by the day. Speak to any mining engineer to get the truthgon fracking.
The claims that fracking has not compromised groundwater in over a million wells is false. I personnel have witnessed at least one case where fracking chemicals showed in shallow ground water only one day after a near by frac job. The cause for this is simple. In that area there are dozens of abandoned wells from the 1920’s that were never plugged and the frac job forces the chemicals back up these old wells to shallow aquifers. I am all for fracking, it is the future of our energy supply, but don’t claim that it has never damaged the environment. If the surface casing isn’t set properly or there are vertical fissures in the confining layer (or old wells that were not plugged nearby), any frac job has the potential to affect shallow aquifers
See the recent post about winning the facts but losing the policy. The radicals simply lie. Nothing new. More voters hear/read and then remember the first screaming headlines. It’s like an RLC response (pick your dampening). Propaganda has a long, long history.
No one’s been very successful, over time, in simply challenging and presenting facts. It’s just a shouting match and, as noted, the first shout out will prevail in the West. Then consider the propaganda is published daily, taught daily and reinforced via entertainment, etc., and you mostly understand the difficulty of winning. For example, I’d wager a large number of the citizens, a year from now, will tell think the anit-fracker claims are true.
Think about that the next time you travel to pay your carbon tax in your coffin known as a smart car and see all those horrid windmills, empty coal trains, shuttered power plants, ethanol stations. Winning facts are helpful but simply won’t win. Mein Kampf. Big Lie. History.
save energy on July 25, 2014 at 12:43 am
phlogiston says:
July 24, 2014 at 11:12 pm
Pathway says:
July 24, 2014 at 4:42 pm
Communists do what communists do, lie.
True, according to new research reported in the Economist:
But so do – Democrats, Liberals, Nazis, Republicans, Christians, Islamists, Jews, Bankers, Lawyers, Politicians, Reporters, Salesmen, Scientists, in fact any one with an agenda to push or an axe to grind. the more they believe the more they twist the truth & then justify it as noble cause.
Truth & lies are altered from black & white to 50 shades of gray (like my lingerie drawer ).
That interpretation is not consistent with the results of the study. Did the control group have no beliefs that would have made them equally mendacious? Were none of them liberals, democrats, republicans, christian, islamic, etc?
No – there does seem to be something special about socialists.
BTW love to see your lingerie drawer, how about posting a photey for us?
Jkadaka (KD Knoebel) says:
(…) It is just impossible to contaminate a fresh water formation through the many sheaths of pipe and cement that are found in a well.
Don’t Poke Murphy.
—————————
Murphys law states what can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. The key is “can go wrong”. Somethings really can’t go wrong or are of such extreme improbability that it is not worth trying to mitigate or avoid. We do not place steel sheaths on our roofs even though according to Murphy we could be hit by a meteor or other space debris while watching our favorite TV show.
We know with oil, there are well documented cases of oil spill contamination, we have over 60 years of fracking, what is the history of proven (not claimed but proven) fresh water contamination? If it is about the risk, what is the risk – is it about equal to being hit by a bus on a beach at 3AM – about equal to being hit by a drunk driver or getting lung cancer without having ever smoked?
The issue is do you want fracking by your home? It’s a lifestyle choice, what kind of town do you want to live in – industrial or pastoral? I do not want fracking by my home but for the same reason I do not want a solar panel factory, or gigantic windmills, or any other industry, green or otherwise.
Richie D says:
July 24, 2014 at 5:28 pm
So what does this have to do with Climate Change (TM)?
——————————–
Environmental alarmism, political activism and biased mis-representation of data.
Jim says:
July 24, 2014 at 6:43 pm
“Oil and gas are commodities, If you are a landowner, they are now removing from your property what is yours. I believe that there is a term for unlawful removal of property.”
I know in Colorado, as well as much of the west, property owners own the surface, but not the mineral rights underneath. Property owners should be able to receive a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the oil and/or gas if the well is situated on their property. But, unless it specifically says so in the property sales agreement, you have no right to the minerals beneath your property.
Still incorrect. Proper spelling is “Communist”.
Richie D says:
July 24, 2014 at 5:28 pm
——
In your opinion, giving out accurate information is “demonizing”?
This site covers anything that interests Anthony. A large percentage of that is global warming, but there is a lot that isn’t.
The so called increase in seismic activity involves low level tremors, most of which can’t be felt but need sensitive instruments to detect. Secondly, most of the “increase” occurs miles away from where the drilling occurred. Thirdly, lots of small earthquakes rather than one big one is a good thing.