How do we make people understand fracking?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Noreen Seebacher on May 15, 2011 at 8:32pm

I'm the community editor of a financial site called Investor Uprising. The site focuses on investing, but we've had several posts recently about fracking, including Fracking Friction Intensifies as Studies Continue  and Natural Gas Prices Stay Low on Shale Supply.  As a long time business journalist with a special interest in energy, I invite you to join the conversation on our site. If we're on target, let us know. If we're missing something or getting something wrong, let us know. If you can help us expand our understanding, we'll reduce the misinformation. I'd appreciate your insight so we can change the focus on this issue from contentious to cooperative. Thank you!

Permalink Reply by Lesa R on May 15, 2011 at 9:14pm

My husband works in the Marcellus, and we live in PA. I agree it is so frustrating. I have recently lost a few friends over my husband's job because the newspapers around here just sensationalize the whole thing. They write from one angle and don't really know what they are talking about. However, everyone thinks they are the expert because they have seen the movie "Gasland." They don't understand, and they don't want to understand. It just drives me nuts!

Permalink Reply by Chris Keilberg on May 16, 2011 at 1:36pm

I agree that the media doesn't understand , they mostly show no interest in learning either, they simply regurgitate the government propaganda they are fed.

President Obama has said the misleading words "Oil Subsidy" so many times while on his "Bash domestic oil & gas 2011 tour" that he now has the media , congress and any idiot that can watch the news repeating it, even though no such thing has ever existed.

Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson just told the congress point blank: "if you don't want us here, we'll take our money and go produce elsewhere" !

Permalink Reply by Michael Blaine on May 16, 2011 at 1:56pm

The media is having a field day with the Oil Subsidies, what they do not tell you is that the Federal Enviorment Protection Agency has been dictating how we run a refinery for years. I agree that we need to protect the enviroment. It has come to the point that the industry spends millions of dollars just to stay in buisiness. Those dollars do not make one penny in profit. This is what the EPA demands that we do to run. Those subsidies that are given to the oil companys are eaten up by the rules that  the EPA puts out.  I agree with Rex but the sad thing is it would put America more at risk and lots of good people out of work.

 

Permalink Reply by Chris Keilberg on May 16, 2011 at 3:47pm

You are exactly right, but so-called "big oil" has already made this move some years ago, for the most part.  Now the Obama has shutdown the gulf and is trying to tax everybody out of business on land. I sent the letter below to several of the Fox Business commentators recently with regard to all the hype and outright lies about subsidies .

 

I love your show but was very disheartened to see you using the term "oil subsidy".

I have been involved in the domestic petroleum business for 24+ years and would like to point out; all the hype by this administration referring to so called  "subsidies" given to domestic oil & gas producers is nothing short of a ridiculous .  The federal government does NOT in any way, shape , or form "subsidize" domestic oil & gas production.  A subsidy, by definition, would be circumstance such as with corporate "big farms" whom actually receive a check for non-production (not doing anything) or for maintaining government quotas (subsidies which I oppose, btw) . I can assure you that the government has never written a check to a domestic oil producer. The minimal tax incentives the president speaks of, in his continued attempts to incite anger and contempt for oil companies, are a 1) "IDC" (intangible drilling costs) tax deduction which is a portion of the risk capital invested for drilling new wells and is typically passed along to many small individual investors whom are required for new drilling , and furthermore this intangible drilling cost portion of the total investment is treated no differently tax-wise than the "risk capital" portion on any other venture which has the potential to create jobs and positively add to the economy. The other so called "subsidy" is a  2) "Depletion Allowance" allowed because of the rate of decline in wells after initial production. It should be pointed out that 100% of all domestic oil & gas is taxed immediately at the wellhead and that a Depletion Allowance tax credit of up to 15% of after-tax proceeds is allowed because oil & gas production diminish and are non-renewable. These stated tax incentives more often than not are afforded to small "mom & pop investors" and are crucial to the flow of investment into domestic oil & gas exploration, particularly during extended periods of excessively low commodity pricing and for entry into new high risk fields. Even when it is "big oil" doing the drilling, there are often many individual investors in aggregate putting up the  capital which is effected by IDCs & Depletion allowances. They would NOT be considered "subsidies" by any definition of the word ,save and except the current administration's way over-hyped definition.
It is most often overlooked that the vast majority of U.S. oil production is derived in aggregate from stripper wells and most stripper well operators are individuals and SMALL business , NOT "big oil".

Permalink Reply by steve eggleston on May 16, 2011 at 2:03am

Theres no easy solution to this problem its going to become worse before it ever gets better. The general public have no concept about what we in the oilfield go thru all they see is rising costs and the media is no help, they are reporting what they have been told and really dont have the experts in place to call the b******* when they hear it. ive been in the oilfield for 22 + yrs and this has been and will continue to be the norm. its a never ending battle brother just be safe and keep turning to the right.

Permalink Reply by Joe Mccleery on May 16, 2011 at 3:06am

I've never worked in the oilfields and was initially "for" fracing, then saw GASLAND and it made me against it. Then I heard about a fracking company that uses gel propane for its hydraulic fluid and became "for" it again. The company, Gasfrac, doesn't use water for its fluid and though everyone isn't using this technology, and I believe should be, it takes some of the prejudice away from the industry and opens the possibility that it w0nt be hated by everyone. I'm actually going to the BAKKEN oilfields to work and see if I can make a living there. I'm from Ohio.

Permalink Reply by Sherry Hart on May 16, 2011 at 8:10am

I am not against exploring alternative techniques to the traditional frac fluid make-up but it is my understanding GasFrac (a gel propane alternative) has its own drawbacks and can try to find the couple of discussions I seen the pros and cons discussed.  Halliburton has some alternative technologies and a "food-grade" frac formula.  For more information see CleanStim.

On Gasland, most of it has been proven false.  I suggest you know the truth before you even TRY to get a job in the fields.

http://www.energyindepth.org/2010/06/debunking-gasland/

http://anga.us/learn-the-facts/the-truth-about-gasland?gclid=COjH3L...

 

 

Permalink Reply by Luiz Souza on May 16, 2011 at 6:32am

Stuart,

I really understand what you`re felling. People sometimes are very stupid and if there`s, also, a press "specialist" making crazy comments things may become screwed up. Don`t give up to fight those son of b...

I`m affraid of that could happens in Brazil `cause brazilians just copy only the wrost in US but don`t the best things US can teach us.

 

Best regards,

Permalink Reply by Michael Blaine on May 16, 2011 at 7:40am

You are so right about the general public not have a full grasp about what we in the petrolem do. I am in the down stream side. People do not have any idea that a large part of there lives revolve around Oil. The plastic in there cars, the clothes they wear. the soles of there shoes and boots. It is not just the gas they put into there tanks. It takes energy to make energy. In the past we held community meetings and there would be people get up and shout that we had to do something about the use of Oil. My response to them was did you drive your car to this meeting or did you ride your bicycle?

 

I am so with you Brothers and Sisters.

Permalink Reply by Sherry Hart on May 16, 2011 at 7:56am

My husband and I moved to Pennsylvania from Wyoming almost three years ago (with one year in between spent in the Piceance Basin in Colorado).  At that time, it became clear there had been a lack of communication between the companies and the residents.  While hindsight is 20/20, it seems the O&G companies thought it was going to be business as usual, while residents were ill-informed as to what the gas extraction process entails.  In my opinion, this is when the anti-drill opponents got their foot in the door.  Two things happened around: the methane migration in Dimock, and the release of Gasland, (which also included Dimock).  This cemented the hold that was to take place.

My involvement started with trying to correct a story in the local newspaper about Dimock.  We live 20 miles away and let me tell you, the local editor is NO friend to drilling.  He KNOWS there are two sides, but it says all when one of his reporters is a litigant in the case.  But it goes beyond the media... the opponents are well-funded, there are conspiracy theories involving Soros, etc., but what it comes down to is a bunch of wealthy New Yorkers who funded Josh Fox and managed to get a foothold of fear on some of the people in the middle.  They managed to get a three-year moratorium put into place and the fear trickled down into PA.

Those people in the middle, my friends, are the people we need to reach.  After being so involved with this battle over the past year, as strange as it may seem, the most ardent of the anti-drill crowd actually know the truth about fracing, but have purposely led those in the middle to believe it will be the end of the world as we know it.  Us and the landowners know the truth, but those in the middle don't understand the big picture of energy freedom.  They are just being told their water WILL be ruined.

Patience is the key; some of us who advocate for this everyday have seen a change in the tide, coming around to favor drilling.  The New Yorkers are fighting it harder then ever, but landowners and others are holding informational forums to get the correct information out there.  In fact, there is one in Sullivan County this Wednesday in Sullivan County.  For more information, check out the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York.

I guess I better get my next blog post written.

Permalink Reply by Galen Cox on May 16, 2011 at 7:59am

This has become the F word here... I hear about a lot.. Weld County is a hot spot here. The gasland deal and so forth. It seem that the public has been miss informed again. I had an art show a month ago and had a lot of questions about fracking. When I talked to the ladies about how it works... they could see that they had been miss informed. They were at ez when they found out what was happing and where the gas were coming form and that there is a difference between the gases... weither if it came from a well or a water well... Just basic a example of how it works and what the formations look like under their homes. Showing them where there water comes from and what it passing through... you can never rule out possibilities of where it could come from... basic testing... fine the problem  

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