The Best Energy Bill Corporations Could Buy: Summary of Industry Giveaways in the 2005 Energy Bill

Hey Dick, If fracturing fluids are so safe, why did you need to get a "Safe Drinking Water Act", exemption for Haliburton and the 15, politically connected gas drillers...Oh and why is the "chemical cocktail" so secret that emergency first responders can't even know what's in it? Sounds sketchy to me Dick.

Public Citizen’s Analysis of the Domenici-Barton Energy Policy Act of 2005
OIL & GAS REGULATORY ROLLBACKS

Section 322
http://www.marcellus-shale.us/2005-Energy-Act.htm
"Exempts from the Safe Drinking Water Act a coalbed methane drilling technique called “hydraulic fracturing,” a potential polluter of underground drinking water. One of the largest companies employing this technique is Halliburton, for which Vice President Richard Cheney acted as chief executive officer in the 1990s. This exemption would kill lawsuits by Western ranchers who say that drilling for methane gas pollutes groundwater by injecting contaminated fluids underground. Only 16 companies stand to significantly benefit from this exemption from clean water laws: Anadarko, BP, Burlington Resources, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, Dominion Resources, EOG Resources, Evergreen Resources, Halliburton, Marathon Oil, Oxbow (Gunnison Energy), Tom Brown, Western Gas Resources, Williams Cos and XTO. These companies gave nearly $15 million to federal candidates—with more than three-quarters of that total going to Republicans. Moreover, the 16 companies spent more than $70 million lobbying Congress.

The Best Energy Bill Corporations Could Buy: Summary of Industry Giveaways in the 2005 Energy Bill

On August 8, 2005, President Bush signed into the law the energy bill; on July 28,the U.S. House of Representatives voted 275 to 156 to approve the energy bill; and on July 29, the U.S. Senate voted 74 to 26 to approve the energy bill.

Since 2001, energy corporations have showered federal politicians with $115 million in campaign contributions—with three-quarters of that amount going to Republicans. This cash helped secure energy companies and their lobbyists exclusive, private access to lawmakers, starting with Vice-President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force, whose report provided the foundation of the energy bill passed by Congress and signed by President Bush on August 8.

This energy bill will do nothing to address America’s energy problems; rather, it will make matters worse. The United States is one of the largest producers of energy—for example, we are the third-largest producer of crude oil in the world—so our problem is not that we don’t produce enough energy, but that our rates of consumption are among the highest of all countries. Our economic competitors in Europe and Asia typically use half the energy per person than we do, which helps explain why the United States alone uses 25% of the world’s energy every day. Reflecting the fact that energy companies helped write the legislation, the energy bill lavishes these lucrative corporations with billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies, while doing little to curb energy demand.

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/energybill/2005/articles.cfm?ID=13980

Common Sense?

You don't need to be a Chemist or Geologist to understand that if you transport deadly chemicals in massive amounts of media through our water supply, some of it is going to contaminate the drinking water.

What will you do when there is no clean water in Pennsylvania?

Where will you go?

How will you survive?

Tell your Representative to pass America's Commitment to the Clean Water Act!
http://www.cleanwateraction.org/action/tell-your-representative-pass-americas-commitment-clean-water-act

Take Action Today: Urge your Representative to support America's Commitment to the Clean Water Act (H.R. 5508) and protect all of America's waters.

"Mommy, Where does Kool-Aid come from?"

Marcellus Shale Coalition
http://www.pamarcellus.com/about.php

This summer, two Penn State University professors, Timothy Considine and Robert Watson, both from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, passed off a paid advertisement of gas industry talking points as a research paper.

While Considine and Watson have good academic credentials, those credentials are not within the discipline of community economics. Watson is a physical scientist and Considine has done most of his economic work on fuel markets.

Watson admits that the Marcellus Shale Committee, a group of 50 industry companies, paid $100,000 for the paper. At least one version, circulated in Harrisburg, during the tax debate, didn’t include that fact.

Considine and Watson wildly over reached. They claimed the economic impact here in 2008 was 28% of that achieved in the Barnett Shale in Texas and had already created 32.5% of the Barnett’s jobs. That from only 431 wells at the time, or 6% of the then current 7170 Barnett wells.

“An Emerging Giant”, was met with heavy criticism and outright contempt by a number of organizations and scholars. The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan, policy study concluded “The “An Emerging Giant” report serves the narrow financial interests of its funder, the natural gas industry.” At a Marcellus Shale seminar in August, the acting secretary of conservation and natural resources, John Quigley, introduced Watson by saying that Watson’s study was “unsubstantiated by facts”. Nevertheless, the well funded gas industry PR machine has trumpeted “Emerging Giant” nationally so it has become the dominant word.

http://responsibledrillingalliance.org/wp/?page_id=79

"An Emerging Giant" pdf
http://www.pamarcellus.com/EconomicImpactsofDevelopingMarcellus.pdf

Disclaimer

Would you bet your life and land on a report like this?

This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by the Marcellus Shale Committee. Neither the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State nor the Marcellus Shale Committee, nor any person acting on behalf thereof, makes any warranty or representation, express or implied, with respect to the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of the information contained in the report nor that its use may not infringe privately owned rights, or assumes any liability with respect to the use of, or for damages resulting from the use of, any information, apparatus, method or process disclosed in this report. This report was written and produced for the Marcellus Shale Committee by the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Penn State University. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in the report are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of The Pennsylvania State University or the Marcellus Shale Committee. To obtain additional copies of the report or with questions regarding the content, contact Timothy Considine at tconsidi@uwyo

PA Marcellus Shale Coalition Members

Alta Resources, LLC

Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

Atlas Energy Resources, LLC

Burnett Oil Company

Cabot Oil and Gas Corp.

Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation

Chief Oil and Gas LLC

CNX Gas Corp.

Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc.

East Resources, Inc.

Encana Oil and Gas

Energy Corporation of America

Enerplus Resources USA

EOG Resources, Inc.

EQT Production Company

EXCO- North Coast Energy, Inc.


Hunt Oil Company

Key Energy Services, Inc.

J-W Operating Company

Marathon Oil

MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P.

Newfield Exploration

Pennsylvania General Energy Company, LLC

Penn Virginia

PDC Mountaineer, LLC

Phillips Production Company

Quest Resource Corporation

Range Resources

Rex Energy Corporation

Samson Resources Company

Seneca Resources Corp.

Southwestern Energy Company

Statoil

Talisman Energy USA Inc.

The Williams Companies

Turm Oil, Inc.

Ultra Resources Inc.

XTO Energy, Inc.



Associate Coalition Members

Allis-Chalmers Directional Drilling Services, LLC.

AOP Clearwater

ARM Oil & Gas Solutions

Babst Calland Clements & Zomnir

Borton-Lawson

Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney, PC

Complete Production Services/AWS/Titan

Crescent Directional Drilling, LP

EADS Group

Energy Transfer

Environmental Resources Management

Epic Energy Resources

Exterran Energy Solutions, L.P.

Fluids Management

Frac Tech Services, LLC.

Gas Technology Institute

Halliburton Energy Services

Hart Resource Technologies, Inc. & PA Brine Treatment, Inc.
Holloman Corporation

Hull & Associates, Inc.

K&L Gates

Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox, LLP

MI Swaco

Producers and Packers Plus

RETTEW

Schlumberger Oilfield Services

Select Energy Services, LLC

Steptoe Johnson

Superior Well Services, Ltd.

Tetra Tech

TeraAqua Resource Management

UGI Energy Services, Inc.

United States Steel Corporation

Universal Well Services, Inc.

URS Corporation

Weatherford International Ltd.

Weston Solutions, Inc.


http://www.pamarcellus.com/about.php

Welcome to Marcellus-Shale.us

This Marcellus Shale gas drilling website is dedicated to providing photos, facts, opinions, stories and news about the Marcellus Shale gas play that you won't see other places. You'll find extensive photos of gas drilling sites, pipeline construction, well sites and compressor stations. News and opinion about hydraulic fracturing.

Go here >>>>>> http://www.marcellus-shale.us/

Mayor of Dish Texas Forced To Sell Home

TRR photo by Fritz Mayer
Calvin Tillman, the mayor of DISH, TX, meets with Norma Fiorentino of Dimock, PA on February 19. Fiorentino’s well exploded in January 2008, and Tillman’s town is plagued with bad air. Both conditions are linked to gas drilling. (Click for larger version)
http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/10-02-25/head1-tillman.html


Here is an email from Calvin Tillman, Mayor, Dish, Texas.
Search You Tube for Mayor Calvin Tillman.
You will find a man who has served as mayor for no salary and travelled across America, including Pennsylvania, to warn Americans about the destruction that comes with frac drilling. He does these nationwide trips at his own expense.
Meet a real hero.



-----Original Message-----
From: tillman4council@aol.com [mailto:tillman4council@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 10:47 PM
Subject: My Future in DISH



It is with great difficulty that I post this message. There have been many of you that have supported me through our battle to save this tiny community. Some of you have supported me for several years now. Some of you have donated to the town’s legal fees, and I appreciate that support. However, I am reaching my breaking point in the fight. On the surface it would appear that this tiny community has won the battle, and in many aspects that is accurate. We have greatly improved the noise level, the aesthetics, and apparently the air quality at the natural gas compressor site. If you were to look at many similar facilities throughout this area, you will find that we likely are home to one the nicest, if not the nicest compressor sites in the entire Barnett Shale. However, we are now starting to get some interesting water out of our water wells. There will be more on our water troubles soon. One thing that troubles me is that almost every night the levels spike in chemicals detected by continuous air monitor that coincides with the odor that we have grown accustomed to.



The continuous air monitor shows us that our air is not toxic and in some cases it is good. However, with the nightly spikes and odor issues, I still have concerns. When these odor events happen, I still get the same old scratchy throat and burning eyes that coincides with the odor. That is not the biggest problem that concerns me. The biggest problem that concerns me is that one of my children frequently is awakened with a nose bleed, an this also seems to coincide with the odor. The monitor shows spikes, but none of the things like benzene gets too elevated. It is possible that something that is not tested for is causing the nosebleeds, or maybe this is just coincidence, but it disturbs me nonetheless. Therefore, it is very likely that I will put my house on the market in the very near future to ensure my children's safety. It is very likely that this will cost me tens of thousands of dollars, but I this point I am considering cutting my losses and just moving on. It is very clear that our state agencies are only in existence to protect the industry, not the general public, so in my view it would be best to be somewhere that you do not need to count on these agencies for your protection.



It is unlikely that the house will sell, even at a bargain, and until it sells it will be my primary residence and therefore, I will remain the mayor of DISH. As long as I am the mayor of DISH, decisions will be made as though I will live here forever. I will do everything in my power to continue helping and supporting the citizens of this community. However, if by some miracle, someone was willing to purchase the property, I would then be forced to resign as mayor. This does not mean that I would walk away from this issue completely; it is just that I would not be able to be in the battle as an elected official, which may hurt my affectivity on the matter.



This option is not set in stone and we could still possibly go in a different direction. There are also a number of questions, such as where am I going to move? Is it worth buying property in Texas, knowing what I now know? How far will the commute be if I can find a place where there is confidence in the air and water quality? So this may or may not happen. It may be that we move into an apartment or a condo, and keep our primary residence in DISH, and just maintain an additional household until the air clears. But currently I am extremely concerned about the health of my children.



There are several things that must be accomplished prior to putting the house on the market, so it will likely be a while before it is listed. In the meanwhile I will be thinking about way that I can can stay involved in this issue. It is also very unlikely that I will be able to sell it for anywhere near what it should be worth. My home is modest, but it sits on six acres, is fenced for horses and has two horse barns. I will try to find comparable property outside of the Barnett Shale and compare to what mine will be on the market for. This may be a very good illustration of exactly how bad this activity can hurt property values, if not accomplished responsibly.



I tell you this so that there is no confusion when word gets out that my house in on the market. We have accomplished many things here in DISH; we have built a nice park, finished out our town hall building, and will soon have one of the nicest libraries in this area, and that will be tough to walk away from. I also have a wonderful group of citizens that have been extremely supportive, who I will fight for till the end. All of this talk may be for nothing, but I wanted all of the good people who have helped and supported me to know the story, before the nasty rumors begin. Thanks again for everything, and please know that I will not stop doing the things I am doing no matter what happens. Please feel free to share with others



Calvin Tillman
Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640

"Those who say it can not be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it"

What Is Hydraulic Fracturing?

Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas.

Scientists are worried that the chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled and sometimes spilled on the surface.
http://www.propublica.org/special/hydraulic-fracturing-national

Natural Gas Drilling: What We Don't Know

21 of 31 drilling states have no regulations specific to hydraulic fracturing

4 of 31 drilling states have detailed regulations guiding hydraulic fracturing

10 drilling states surveyed require that fracturing chemicals be disclosed

0 states require that the volume of fluid left underground be recorded

Sources: State Oil and Natural Gas Regulations Designed to Protect Water Resources, May 2009, U.S. Department of Energy, office of Fossil Energy, National Energy Technology Lab, and the Ground Water Protection Council.

http://www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat