Reply With QuoteSounds like knee-jerk feel goodery.
Vermont first state in nation to ban fracking for oil and gas
SourceWith a 103-36 vote in the House of Representatives, Vermont on Friday became the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing to extract oil or natural gas. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week.
The House debate was short. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, raised concerns that Vermont was banning the practice without knowing what natural gas resources it was giving up. “We have no idea if some farmers in Franklin County might be able to take advantage of an economic opportunity on their property,” she said in floor debate. Scheuermann urged the House to vote for a moratorium, which would sunset after a number of years.
Sounds like knee-jerk feel goodery.
How much oil does Vermont even have? Do they frack for smaller wells? Would be logical for them to ban it if they have very little I assume. I think this is just political to set an example.
Blogs as sources now?Originally Posted by CG51
I actually know Joe Choquette. His office is in my home town. I don't claim to know a helluva lot about "fracking" except what I saw in an HBO documentary, which, if remotely true, is frightening as hell about the side effects on ground water, aquafirs etc...Vermont has crazy requirements about environmental stuff anyway.
This doesn't surprise me at all. The "Green Mountains" lose their appeal to everyone if the mountains are f*cked up, the water is tainted, the trout streams are screwed and the maple trees all die...
The hippies don't even want wind farms on ridge lines because it f*cks up Fall Foliage season and tourist income, while other hippies are demanding wind power replace fossil fuels.
Cracks me up that some broad from Stowe objected. That place is wealthy as hell and their properties are all worth as much as they are due to the fact that it's pristine...That's where the "Sound of Music" Von Trapp folks started their inn....
I am glad that one state took the initiative. Hope the other states follow suit.
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
I'm glad somebody hasn't bought into the gas land crap. Proper regulation of the industry is what is required. The Germans have done this properly for years and have very little issue with the whole thing.
I'm sorta in the same boat.......I'm not convinced this fracking is the safest and best way to look after the place long term.
I remember MTBE in the groundwater being an issue in the US...leaching from gasoline storage tanks(MTBE being an additive being reduced in use for petrol)...I would hate to see something similar with fracking juice.
All I DO know is that this massive spike in the use of fracking has led to a massive spike in US NG production...and we are currently seeing near record low NG prices in the US.
I seriously, seriously doubt US NG production can be grown considerably or even sustained at current levels for an extended period of time.
I believe all this fracking and NG drilling investment is just another Wall Street generated bubble.....much like the dot com bubble, the housing bubble, the commercial property bubble, the ethanol bubble, and the alt-energy bubble.
Just look at NG prices around the world.....it is super cheap in the US for a number of reasons(Wall Street bubble investment, fracking boom/crash recovery curve, and the local/regional nature of NG(unless or until it makes sense to convert to liquid)....and it will not stay that way forever.
I reckon NG, sometime between today and over the next year or two will have hit rock bottom.....then it's going to ratchet up to the moon...a bit like gold circa 99 and oil circa early 09.
Maybe this will finally save the spotted asshole from going extinct.
Look, "fracking" seems like a rather "unstable" way to look for sh*t underground. That's just common sense. I'm proud of being from here. There's like 800,000 people in the whole state. Ethan Allen was breaking bad with the British before most of the rest of you motherf*ckers had states. Pounding sh*t in the ground and "releasing" god knows what. Yeah, that's a coherent idea...
I'll tell you what, the second my drinking water, or the beaver pond out back of my house catches fire due to fracking, I'll track all of you fanboys down and set fire to you.
This is getting a lot of debate here in Montana now. The State is trying to pass regulation requiring the drilling companies to give full disclosure of exactly what they're pumping into the ground.
The loophole is that proprietary information is exempt, and they're claiming all the chemicals used are protected trade secrets.
They claim what they're using is 99% water and sand anyway.
The Bakken oil fields in the Eastern part of the state are bringing in a lot of money and jobs (for now), and nobody really wants to rock the boat.
Edit: The disclosure laws went into effect here in August. They even have this nifty website:
http://fracfocus.org/
Last edited by Partial_Panel; 05-06-2012 at 08:32 PM. Reason: update info, and add more.
I'm not read up on the science, but I'd much rather see individual states regulate the practice than Washington.
I live in an area that is surrounded by coal seam gas mines. Not a day goes past without some "accidental" chemical leak into groundwater or excess methane escaping into the atmosphere.
Spin it anyway you like, but there is no "safe" way to mine using fracking.
http://ecowatch.org/2012/mining-comp...for-frac-sand/The recent boom in hydrofracking for natural gas and oil has resulted in a little-reported side boom—a sand-rush in western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota, where we just happen to have the nation’s richest, most accessible supply of the high-quality silica sand required for fracking operations.
Just a side issue here - one of these frack sand sites is operating about a mile from where my dad lives in Barron County, WI. The heavy trucks hauling the sand to a rail-head are tearing up roads that don't wear well with the weather in that area to begin with. Enviro concerns---- taxes to fix the damage ---- holding the companies responsible for any damage caused "up front" so they don't pull a stunt ala creosote operation in ST Louis Park suburb of MSP years ago, promoted as a good thing for jobs; area development ie. roads, business, etc.....owners made their money and then disappeared. Legacy in the ground-water most likely means some MinneSLOWtans have a reason for their condition.
Maybe need more fact based answers on what this does to everything.
Joe, I totally respect your opinion, and I know that not all energy exploration/extraction is a good fit for every area. It's just the typical CG51 thread getting my dander up. Coal bad, oil bad, nuclear bad, CNG bad...must follow the liberal agenda crap with no alternatives besides spending more American blood and funding terror in the Middle East.
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