> Expecting Texas or Oklahoma wildcatters to care about what they leave
> behind in Pennsylvania or New York is a bit of a stretch. I support
> fracking but only if there's effective regulation and very steep
> penalities when the rules are broken... starting with paying
> pre-drilling market value for any polluted properties as well as a 3X
> price penalty to the owner (not the state)... all moneys to maintained
> in escrow. And no drilling starts until the base state of the land is
> known and agreed.
I grew up in a community affected by Hooker Chemical Company. Probably
explains a lot about me, about me, about me, about me...
Fracking is actually a very brilliant technology. I am actually pretty
impressed with it. However, there are assumptions made which just
don't ring true and those assumptions make for some wonderful pithy
responses from the oil/gas industry. First one is where the water
table is in comparison to where the gas/oil is. That's all fine and
dandy. 2000' of vertical separation seems like it should be good
enough. But that assumes no vertical fissures in the layers between
the two points. As we all know, fissures exist--especially if there is
any limestone involved. That's why the fluids will bubble up to the
SURFACE even.
Another thing that I learned a zillion years ago,
The oil guys are NOT like the gas guys. The gas guys are positively
ruthless and run by a totally different set of ethics. Excuse the
term, but the gas guys have a "scorched earth" mentality. The oil guys
will come in, do their thing, keep impact to a minimum and actually
clean up after themselves. The gas guys do their lease, destroy the
land and then blame the landowner for being so picky.
Evil people.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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