Monte Besler has been “Cracking rock in North Dakota since 1981” or so says his card or license plate. He owns a company he named FRACN8R and also is a principal for Hohn Engineering. He says he knows a lot about fracking and he challenged us to a debate which is taking place on THIS POST.
You might want to read through the comments because you could learn something but play nice. The Big Gas Mafia is monitoring all our online activity using very expensive technology and snoop services. It’s part of their PSYOP plan.
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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http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/05/9225542-showdown-this-week-over-fracking-for-natural-gas
I’m ready to debate…I hope Monte will take the time though to watch this recent report.
Tell you what, Monte- when you drill right next to your home, set up a pipeline a few feet away, install a few condensate tanks, and compressor stations, you let me know. Then we can have an open and honest discussion. Until then, you’re just the guy who’s been drinking the frack fluid for so long, you believe your own lies. Given that it’s not just your job, but how you apparently make your living, to destroy other people’s private property and turn their lives upside down, you cannot possibly begin to speak from an objective point of view.
You don’t know me from Adam. How do you know what you stated isn’t in fact the truth? It is obvious you are not interested in an actual discussion of the facts, as you get to make your own facts, included where I live, what is around me, where I stand on issues, etc.
And, you don’t know Fellow Man either. If you did, you might be a little more humble.
But I DO know you, Monte. You’re all over Texas and 34 other states and you could care less about who you run over or whose property you destroy in your never ending quest for money. You’re also the same guy that hires PR firms or creates PR departments with multi-million dollar budgets to convince the masses that this is all required in order for America to regain it’s independence from foreign oil, create “Hundred of thousands of jobs” (Exxon Gashole Artis Brown extolling the virtues of the Keystone XL on TV) pour billions into local economies and blah, blah, blah. You know people don’t buy this bullshit, so instead, you keep running the ads over and over thinking that if you say it enough times, it’ll become fact. Those of us actually on the ass-end of your dealings know better.
Tell us your address so I can look it up on Google Earth, and I’ll see for myself how many compressor stations, dehydration units, condensate tanks, toxic waste pits, et. al. are actually within a few feet of your HOME.
I’ll do the same: 415 Star Shell Rd, Decatur, TX 76234. In the picture you’ll see a small white care near the house-that’s my actual Good Neighbir coming over to my house while we were out to see what the strange workmen were doing ON our property. You’ll see their truck parked at the top of the driveway. That’s you out there, Monte, having yourself a good look see of your operation. Your arrogance gives you away every time. Since you own the mineral rights, and we all know that mineral rights trump all other rights, property, civil and otherwise, it’s not even a question for you if you are permitted to be on MY property.
The other thing you can’t really see in the picture is the loss of more than 40% of this property to you. You can see the tank battery in the bottom of the picture, the well heads north of that, right smack in the middle of what used to be our horse pasture, the horse barn above that. If you zoom in a little, you can see our horses with nowhere to graze, because what you also can’t see is the soil contamination from the thousands of gallons of toxic fluid spills. The two small buildings on either side of the horse barn? One is what used to be my daughter’s playhouse. No more of that, you’ve seen to fouling the air with diesel exhaust, and constant fugitive emissions from the well heads and tanks that make her sick. The other building is what houses our water well. We used to drink this water before it was contaminated with drilling fluids. Pre-drilling and post-drilling water tests confirm this.
Quid pro quo, Monte, quid pro quo. Or, as we say in Texas, put up or shut up.
OK Monte–Come on down to Booger County, Tx. Come live by a stinking gas plant, compressor stations, many sour gas wells, leaking pipeline, flares, noise, fumes etc., etc. Buy my place, move here and then you can brag about what a dumb ass I am and how smart you are!!
I’m sorry Monty—I forgot to mention should you be interested in our property in Booger, I am required by our realtor to disclose to you ALL the measurements of contamainants we have made on and about our property includind soil, water, and air contamination. But,that should be no problem to you.
Let’s find out what you know about hydraulic fracturing.
In what way would a hydraulic fracturing design consultant such as myself use the rock mechnics properties of Young’s Modulus, Poisson’s Ratio, and Biot’s Constant to evalute the stresses in the formation I intend to fracture and the formations above and below, that may effect the fracture geometry created?
How would I use the number of perforations, perforation diameter, orifice coefficient, fluid density, and injection rate to help choose the proper casing size and linear weight, etc., so that the treatment can be safely pumped through that same casing without exceeding the casing internal burst rating reduced by a safelty factor of 0.8?
There is lots more where this comes from that I have to consider when designing an oil or gas well, a hydraulic fracture treatment, or monitoring a fracturing treatment.
Here is what we know about hydraulic fracturing:
1. For years, despite thousands of documented cases of water contamination, industry has claimed there is no proof that fracking contaminates water. Now the EPA says it does.
2. When you drill and frack, our water gets contaminated.
If you feel something heavy, Monte, it’s the preponderance of the evidence.
Fact check time. Just so Sharon has her facts correct, I am not a principal for Hohn Engineering, a former employer. They are more like a competitor now, as I am self-employed in the same business as they are, consulting in the oil and gas industry.
Their website still lists you as a principle so you might want to get that little detail cleared up, Monte.
You need a better search engine. It is pulling up old webpages. I haven’t been listed for over a year. I was gone within a week.
Really? Because I was just there and–just for you–I refreshed.
Monte one http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y49/TXsharon/PUBLIC/Monte-Hohn.png
Monte two http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y49/TXsharon/PUBLIC/Monte-Hohn2.png
I use Google most of the time and your personal favorite, Bing, some of the time. Either way, your rankings are pretty much screwed. =)
Does not know when to leave well enough alone!
Dear Monte,
I have to hand it to you. Fracking is amazing technology. It’s tragic that your industry rushed things, cut corners and harmed so many people. It’s too bad you couldn’t quite get it right.
I have a question for you and (then) I’ll never visit your sight again. I am guessing you are a severed surface owner who owns no mineral rights in an area being developed in the Barnett Shale…Correct? That might explain your (seeming) hatred for the entire oil & gas industry. Unfortunately, I have met others in that position and they have that type of vehemence like you. Let me give you another source of information only if you DARE. Try the link at spoiledthemovie.com. The name of the film is spOILed and it is currently in limited circulation. It just reinforces my point that oil & hydrocarbons will continue to be a HUGE part of our energy mix worldwide for decades to come. The transition from fossil fuels to (ultimately) other alternatives will not be quick or painless. Nobody has to like it, just try to deal with it…
Aw, I’ll miss you!
It’s funny how you guys demand information about me while no one knows who you are. Aw well, I have nothing to hide. It’s all posted under about me.
I worked in the industry for 12 years. Then I moved to Wise County where fracking the shale got started so I know a bit more than you think I do. I am a mineral owner and I receive a royalty check every month. I donate a portion of that toward getting better regulations.
No one disputes that we will be forced to use dirty fossil fuels for a bit longer. And most people wouldn’t mind if you would operate in a safe responsible manner. But YOU DON’T. You are your own worst enemy.
Since you want to present “credentials”…I am a thirty plus year veteran of the industry with over 20 years in regulatory and I’m currently a regulatory manager for an independent E & P company. Your contention that the industry (as a whole) operates in an unsafe & irresponsible manner is just not supported by performance. Not the world I live in. I am proud of my record and you can find my work in hundreds of public filings across eight states. I don’t cut corners, I don’t cheat and I do everything I can every day I come to work to make sure my company is in full compliance with the myriad of federal, state & local regulations I have to adhere to. Whether it’s air, water, roads, waste management or anything else, I take the law & protection of the environment very seriously. So, if you have run into a few “bad apples” in your experience that is certainly unfortunate (for you). There are those types in any industry…They are not exclusve to oil & gas. We will continue to go NOWHERE with any coherent or constructive national energy policy as long as folks continue to see each other (only) as enemies. I don’t think that is a recipe for anything positive. My thoughts, any way…
Frackers need to hand out hard hats to locals during some operations:
http://www.harlandaily.com/view/full_story/16740080/article-Debris-from-gas-well-falls-from-the-sky?instance=secondary_news_left_column
Hydrofracking sure to contaminate water:
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20111213/OPINION02/712139975
“As an environmental engineering technician with NYSDEC Region 5, I managed scores of groundwater remediation projects in the 1990s. I’ve reviewed countless hydrogeologic reports and seen thousands of lab results from contaminated wells. I’m familiar with the fate and transport of contaminants in fractured media, and let me be clear:
Hydraulic fracturing as it’s practiced today will contaminate our aquifers. “
The biggest threat from modern fracking is at GROUND LEVEL. If downhole groundwater contamination was as widespread as you claim, various state agengies around the country would have stepped in years ago to stop the practice. As a creditable scientist, you have to know the reason the vast majority of water wells have methane in them is it is BIOGENETIC gas. That is what happens (over time) when you drill water wells into areas with shallow COAL SEAMS. You (also) should know that industry is required to design & construct casing & cementing (defacto) in compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Most of these states have primacy and that is what drives the base engineering. So, anything mechanical can fail, but as long as protocols are correctly followed, then you can drill & produce a well safely. Plenty of data on official record. As a regulatory professional in the oil & gas industry, I am most concerned with surface spills, not migration into aquifers from loss of downhole integrity. I believe that is a honest and fair risk assessment, based on a huge data set. One last thought. I wonder what your counterpart at the Texas Railroad Commission or TX Dept of Environmental Quality would have to say. There are TENS of THOUSANDS of wells drilled & fracked in that state. Again, if the facts & evidence are so overwhelming in your favor, this entire industry would have been put out of business long ago…
You are so right: “this entire industry would have been put out of business long ago… if it weren’t for the graft and payola to the courts and legislators and the non disclosure agreements.
WEAK & LAZY. You won’t do the research & gather the facts. You’ll just play the “payola” card. Pretty predictable. The “environmental engineering technician” made some pretty serious assertions. OK, fair enough. If the facts are truly there as contended, then there are plenty of environmental law firms out there who’d just LOVE to carve out some of their own “payola” off the ruthless “Big Oil” profiteers to punish them for their crimes. Heck, maybe Erin Brockovich is available…
I highly doubt the “big gas mafia” as you put it is “monitoring” your site. That is laughable, just as this group is. “Snoops service” and “very expensive technology” – are you kidding me? Instead of being ridiculous, arrogant, and over-stating your importance as a group, why don’t you change your life to help the environment. Stop hating. The energy companies are providing you with a product you need and want.
Are you kidding me? Kelly, hun, you need to catch up. Nothing, not one thing you said in your comment is accurate. You’re probably one of those guys who believes all the “BBQ Facts” you’re given.
One thing I love about Gasholes is that most have no clue how the Internet works.
It would not matter what facts or data Monte presented, you would not believe them any way. It is really sad that folks like you can’t objectively look at the situation and resort to emotion and sensationalism. The guy who claims all the contaminations is stretching the truth, at very best. There is no “cover u,” just NO EVIDENCE that fracking has created any substantial groundwater contanmination. You watch. On the latest national headlines the EPA, after sufficient peer review, will get totally discredited on this Pavillion “fiasco” in Wyoming not because of some “Big Oil” conspiracy, but bad test parameters & poor science. NONE of you folks have ANY alternatives or even a remote idea of an energy strategy to keep our economy & country moving. Read a book called “Power Hungry” and start getting educated on the facts & the real choices we face. Hydrocarbons will be a big part of our energy mix through this century, whether you like that idea or not. Why not try to work together in our national interest to promote positive relations & understanding instead of demonizing an entire industry. Oh, that would take more open thinking and some sense of balance…Something a lot of people seem to lack these days…j
It would not matter what facts or data we presented to you, you would not believe them anyway. As Upton Sinclair said: it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his living depends on him not understanding it. It is really sad that folks like you can’t objectively look at the situation and see that people who are suffering from health impacts, loss of quality of life, and loss of property value is a pretty emotional issue. To a person whose groundwater has been contaminated, it does not matter is you have enough EVIDENCE to satisfy your unrealistic burden of proof. All that person cares about is their lack of water. You watch. If your industry continues to harm people, the opposition will grow to an enormous level. I will see Pavilion and raise you Dimmock and Wise County.
As a matter of fact we fools do have some alternatives and we are busying ourselves employing those alternatives to craft us a lifestyle without the use of natgas. Why not try to work together before it is too late? They only balance you know is the balance you have always known, where you have all the power and we have to STFU. How is that working for you these days?
Almost ANY activity of man has impacts on mother earth and consequently, trade-offs. It is not as black & white as many folks make it. As we make choices, they will have consequences. Read the book “Power Hungry” as I have suggested. The author is a long time energy analyst and independent. He just puts the facts & enormous scale of worldwide energy consumption & power generation into perspective. You can talk about “crafting” your alternative lifestyle all you want. FICTION won’t run your toaster or anything else that requires power or fuel. Until we can have some intellegent debate on energy and what are REAL choices, then we just continue to weaken our nation & risk our security. A lot of us have been involved in the energy sector for a long time and are ready to face realities and look at all reasonable alternatives. That is BALANCE. I’ll leave it at that. I’m sure you’ll have the last word, so be it…