Besides the fact that people are demanding air that it breathable and water that is drinkable, swimable and fishable OilPrice.com lists 10 reasons fracking is doomed.
Ten Reasons Why Fracking is Doomed
- Scientists have found that solar photovoltaic cells could be producing electricity at less 50 cents a watt by 2016, four years
- Germany is on the verge of producing more solar energy than wind energy
- Researchers at UCLA have created a solar-power-generating window
- The British government has given the go-ahead for two huge offshore wind farms
- Japan It is placing a big bet on offshore floating wind platforms.
- Scientists have concluded that it is perfectly practical to provide 2/3s of US electricity from solar over the next decades.
- Algeria wants to go solar, aiming for 650 megawatts of solar energy by 2015 and a massive 22 gigawatts by 2030.
- Some 750,000 Australian homes have solar panels on the roof
- China is going to make a major push for solar energy after 2015,
- The Egyptian gas pipeline through the Sinai to Jordan and Israel has been blown up 15 times since the Jan. 25 revolution.
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About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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Sharon-you never did answer my question regarding windmill installations. If a homebuyer disregards the title exceptions listed in his policy (as apparrently your friends the Ruggieros did) and the property has a wind lease, they will be upset just as though it was a gas well (except the windmill tower is parmanent). Are you against them as well ?
John: I’m not sure what you are referring to as ‘title exceptions’. Aside from that, I was actually looking into installing a windmill like my neighbors had. No spills, leaks, equipment malfunctions, strange workmen urinating in my back yard, semi trucks rolling through all hours of the night, no pipeline, and certainly no malfunctioning, polluting, ground shaking compressor stations involved. No chance of water or air contamination, and no loss of use of land-the ‘pad’ for the windmill takes up 100 square feet. The average well site is more than two acres. Would have cost around $13K and paid for itself in 5-7 years. And, unlike the gas site, since the windmill is on my property, it generates electricity for my property, and the best news is, beside being off the grid, any electricity generated but not used gets returned to the grid. So what’s not to like about that? Other than someone like you not making any money off my property?
What part of the gas development site isn’t permanent? I see rusting and leaking condensate tanks all over Decatur and elsewhere.
Tim-your title company gave you a list of exceptions prior to closing (if not then you have a valid claim against them). That list included the fact that there was a lease covering the land you bought. It probably also included easements for utilities etc. Just because people ignore them doesn’t mean they should. I sympathize with you but the fact is you made a commitment without reading and understanding your documents and that was your responsibility. Your windmill generates some of the electricity you need when the wind blows. A COMMERCIAL wind generator is huge and it is permanent. A well is small to except for drilling and infrequent workovers. Don’t get me wrong-there are problems and they should be addressed. Reasonable people are working on solutions right now. (I have installed extra sound deadening walls and mufflers for years on compressors without ever being asked. I paint tanks to match the background when I can. I don’t put lights unless I have to and then sheild them if they are near a residence. None of that is costly and all of it has been done long before you ever heard of a frac job.
When first dealing with this, I had no idea what ‘mineral rights’ were. I asked about it, and the explanation was that “If you’re out digging in your garden one day and you strike oil, you own the oil.” Not exactly the what I would call full disclosure. Okay, so you then say that it’s still my responsibility to thoroughly research and understand to the letter of the law what all of this means. Fine. So I asked, and have been asking real estate attorneys since, and most of them have no idea of what Split Estate is.
Let’s take it another step further. Should I, as a potential homeowner, also contact the various railroads and see if they plan on running a line through this property anytime soon? How about the airlines or airports? Should I also have to contact every type of utility company and see what long term plans they have, and if so, what am I potentially up against? Where does it end?
The explanation you have provided has been told to me dozens of times. Unfortunately, none of those people were around when I needed them. I don’t think that it’s coincidental that real estate agents, title companies and anyone else that makes a living off of selling homes and property bury the little that’s revealed in legalese and fine print.
Let’s turn this around a moment, and for the sake of discussion, let’s say there’s really a such thing as full disclosure. Something like this:
Title Agent: Congratulations on the purchase of your new home! You do understand that you don’t own the mineral rights, correct?
Home Buyer: What does that mean, exactly?
TA: Basically, it means that someone else owns the minerals, and they have a right greater than yours to access those minerals. That means that they can lease their minerals to an energy company, and that energy company can take and use as much of your property as THEY deem is ‘reasonable’ and ‘necessary’ to extract the minerals. Since the home you’re buying is on top of the Shale, it’s not a question IF they will drill, but WHEN. There’s going to be LOTS of equipment out there, bulldozers and backhoes, and semi trucks, and lots of workmen. Then they will bring in the drilling rig, and all the platforms. It’s going to run 24/7 until the job is done, typically 30 days or so for each well. Lots of diesel exhaust plumes, semi trucks that run 24 hours a day, lighting and more noise than a rock concert.
Since natural gas development is a dangerous business, and the state agencies that the regulators of this industry are essentially owned by this industry, there’s going to be spills and leaks and vast emissions of gases, venting of noxious gases, flaring and the possibility of a fire or explosion. The TRRC really doesn’t care about people like you, and at best, will only pretend to hold the operator accountable for anything negligent they do.
For example, if there’s a spill, the TRRC will come out an inspect the spill. If you request, they will take a sample of the spilled fluid and test it, but they only test it for chlorides and nothing else. Since industry is kinda sneaky-okay, a lot sneaky-they use tens of thousands of gallons of carcinogenic fluids in the development of each well, but they will tell you the percentage of these dangerous fluids in a percentage, not gallons. After all, it seems insignificant to say 1-2% rather than “30,000 gallons”.
But since you’re not the operator, obviously, and not the mineral right owner, you’ll have no idea what the lease calls for about anything-how many wells there will be, pipelines, compressor stations, set backs, etc. It’s even worse if you live in an unincorporated area because the operators only have to follow state law without having any those pesky city ordinances to deal with, such as operating times, noise abatement, waste water disposal, even the distance from the rig to your home. By state law, the operator could plant that thing 5 feet from your front porch if they wanted to. What you have to understand is that mineral right owners are the ones that call the shots, and the energy companies have well lobbied all the politicians and funded their re-election campaigns. As a matter of fact, the operators long ago figured out it was much easier to get the laws written in their favor than anything else.
I almost forgot to tell you the best part-no matter how much property the operator takes and uses or even renders completely useless due to either a pipeline or ground contamination or equipment, you still have to pay the full property taxes. And, once the operation is essentially complete, don’t be surprised if having this noxious and unsightly, if not dangerous operation right next to the house destroys your home and property value.
John: Do you really believe if people knew the real truth, even half of what I mentioned above, that very many homes would be sold? I have heard from, and spoken to hundreds of people that have been negatively impacted by drilling. I’ve also spoken to a handful of mineral right owners. I have yet to talk to either a ‘surface owner’ or a mineral right owner who didn’t have a long list of complaints about the drilling operations. I have yet to talk to one single person with condensate tanks, drill rigs, pipelines, metering stations or compressor stations that said, “We’ve never had any problems with anything.” Except for the gas bags like Ed “Gas Wells Produce More Fresh Water Than They Use” Ireland and any energy company executive, because they don’t have these types of operations anywhere near their homes.
So, I guess I’m the idiot here, because I didn’t ask more questions, I didn’t actually do enough research, I believed the tile company was telling me the truth, and I trusted in the law. Unfortunately, I am in great company of thousands of people who have been run over and backed over by this dangerous dirty business, all so that you can have a job and someone else can make a buck at my expense.
And I’m not sure where you’re operating at, but it sure as hell isn’t in Wise or Denton County. There is no such thing as land reclamation, removal of old rusting tanks, and the only cleaning or painting I’ve seen is the day before the EPA was showing up for their own inspection.
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