Saturday, September 4, 2010
Environment Wary of the shale
Posted by Max Brantley on Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 10:58 AM
All aren't ready to blindly salute the shale exploration flagpole. Thanks to Roby Brock for noticing an effort underway in Van Buren County, the very heart of the Fayetteville shale, to form a county committee to "monitor" shale gas drilling. The intention seems to be to study such issues as air and water pollution, road damage and property rights.
Sounds like it's a good time for the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce to fire off another copy of its shale cheerleading letter (on behalf of its shale drilling members) to the local newspaper reporting on this. The chamber can explain that it's just more shock tactics like that meddling documentary maker. The people in Van Buren are just too stupid to see the manna through the fumes, crumbling roads and foul liquid effluent. No reason the Little Rock chamber can't pitch in on educating these yokels, too, since it's already busy driving people to live in Van Buren County and other exurbs with its publicity campaign about failed Little Rock schools.
You know what they say, Van Buren County. Relax. Enjoy it.
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Comments (6)
Showing 1-6 of 6
Don't leave us people in northern Faulkner County out of this. We have the wells, the trucks, the crumbling local roads which the county judge has said will be allowed to go back to gravel until they finished the destruction. White County is also getting a lot of damage. Take a drive on highway 36 to Searcy and look at all the patches they have had to make on this state highway. Same on highway 107 from Enola to Quitman where a permanent repair crew was kept in the area for months.
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Whether it is state or county roads, the damage way exceeds whatever benefit that the state receives from the severance tax.
Then start with the damage that landowners who have lost their property rights through all the legal BS along with the surface destruction and the amount of waste water that is to be desposed of and we got a problem.
Plus, the gas goes to Midwest and Northeast portions of our country. Why not keep it here and minimize delivery costs?
wammabee-
If they save the gas, or electricitty, or any other state-controlled ultility product, then they have to meet the intrastate regulations on tariffs. They make more money by shipping it across a state line, even if they just turn around the pipe like a croquet wicket and sent it right back as interstate tariffs apply which give them momoney. It is always the money and it really doesn't cost them as all costs to get gas to the market is paid off before the landowner sees any royalty. Same magic accounting as the movie business uses where they gross millions and yet say that the movie lost money in the US.
Wow, one of the most important topics in Arkansas these days and Max's thread only gets 3 posts in almost 13 hours. Does anyone care if the gas drillers poison our water, ruin our roads, pay a pittance in severance taxes and then mouth off they are being over taxed? Is it a lack of knowledge of what is going on or what?
I'd like to think there's a lot of interest in this topic, but it is Labor Day weekend after all! Hopefully people are out enjoying the beautiful weather, not laid up indoors sickened by fumes from those damn gas wells! @#%^!$
Arkansas Chamber Misses the Point
On August 31, Mr. Jay Chesshir, of the AR Chamber of Commerce writes in the “Voices” section, that we in Arkansas should “ignore the rhetoric” regarding concerns related to the natural gas industry in Arkansas. Once again, the Chamber of Commerce demonstrates their total disregard for the average citizen of Arkansas and proclaims their bias toward industry at all costs. Don’t misunderstand, I am a small business owner and believe in business enterprise but the benefits of business should be balanced against the actual cost of the business.
Mr. Chesshir would like us to believe since the producer of the film is from New York City and labels the film a “shockumentary” it should be dismissed and is without merit. It is ironic that here in Arkansas quality and creativity is often linked to coming from someplace like New York City but when information is presented that is contrary to what we want to hear those from such locales are dismissed as interlopers in our affairs, should not be trusted and their opinions can not have any possible merit.
It is a shame that a state as rich in natural resources as Arkansas, has to succumb to the will of a few powerful industries whose only interest is in fattening their wallets and those of their shareholders. This is done with almost reckless abandon and with little thought to the long ranging effects on our Natural State, our resources and those who live here.
The reality is natural gas production comes with a hefty price tag and the average citizen is being asked to pay this cost while receiving little if any benefit. Mr. Chesshir is quick to point out the many purported benefits of natural gas production, but fails to measure these benefits against the actual costs of this business. What is the quality of our water worth? What is the value of our land that is being impacted daily worth? What about County and State roads and highways? How many of those $60,000 salaries are going to citizens of AR? Or is the majority of this high salary going to those hundreds of individuals living in travel trailers all up and down the highway and sending the majority of their earnings back to Texas or some other location? What the facts reveal, is an industry, which has faced minimal regulations, has had a significant impact in diminishing the quality of life for many communities and families in Arkansas.
I fully understand natural gas is a reality in our short-term energy practices and has many benefits making it a better choice than some other fossil fuel options. However, if we are to extract a resource from below the ground appropriate safeguards such as mandatory Best Management Practices must be part of the discussion. If the Chamber of Commerce is truly interested in a prosperous Arkansas they need to help protect the very attributes, which attract so many tourists and visitors to our state. Allowing any industry to operate without adequate regulations and BMP’s will never benefit the many but rather only the few.
Perhaps, one should ask, why Arkansas has seen such significant gains in the industry. I surmise it is large part because the industry can operate almost at their free will and laugh at how little we seem to care that we are slowly destroying our assets. It is very similar to the story of placing a frog in a kettle of water and gradually increasing the heat. The increase is gradual and before the frog realizes what has happened they have perished. I think this is a fitting comparison. We are sitting calmly by while the impacts are slowly on the increase and before we know it the damage will be beyond what can be repaired or managed.
The unspoken reality in most of this debate is we as a nation have failed to adopt a progressive and forward thinking strategic energy policy focused on the needs of the future. Instead we remain enslaved to an energy model from a former era that neglects to add to the balance sheet the unspoken but real costs of this outdated way of thinking.
If the Chamber wants to be serious about a healthy business climate that moves Arkansas as well as the nation forward, they need to speak out in favor of a Clean Renewable Energy Policy for this country and to tackle head on the realization of climate change and what it means to those who live in all our communities.
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