Arkansas Blog

One might say the whole severance tax saga was quite the mockumentary.

Not only will they destroy our roads and environment, the state will gladly hand it over, too.

I watched the show the other day and knew right away that Chesapeake was a really wonderful company. Why? Because they told me this over and over. No environmental damage. The fish in the Little Red River now jump into your boat. Everybody makes lots of money. (I'm still waiting on my check. It must be lost along with the one from Bill Gates.)

I must've stepped away from the TV when they talked about the noise 24/7 from the wells, the waste water from the drilling, and the possibility that ground water may be ruined. Maybe this will be covered in the next presentation brought to us by this fine corporate citizen.

A week ago I turned on the TV hoping to watch local news. Instead, I watched in utter amazement as former TV newsreader Anne Jansen did the voiceover for a 30-minute 'infomercial' paid for by Chesapeake. How many folks will this garbage fool?

Let's call it what it is- propaganda. And it's no less damaging than the propaganda the Bush people use to convince the American people with lies repeated over and over in hopes they will eventually be seen as the truth.

Anne- you're married to a doctor and you have children who will breath the air and drink the water. Don't you and your husband care about the world your polluting friends are creating for them? Or will your children have the resources to simply move to another part of the planet Chesapeake and others of their ilk haven't polluted?

On another subject- who's going to the Olympics in China to breath what they claim is 'air'? Really, you say, that's air? China is a corporate polluter's heaven.

I worked as a roughneck on a few oil wells in Texas back in the early 80's. There wasn't a place we drilled that wasn't covered with debris from the drilling operation. The areas immediately around the rig was most likely enviromentally destroyed for at least ten years, not to mention the waste that was left over from all that drilling mud, (the caustic concrete-like compound used to carry the shards of rock and earth up from the drill bit), I mean there were pits of that stuff left after every drilling we did. I was in my twenties then and did not much care, but now I wonder how many animals wandered into those waste pits after we moved the rig. And as mentioned above, how much ground water was either contaminated of actually completely ruined for consumption. The pay was great, but now I understand the costs in the enviromental losses. The whole area around drilling rigs is usually pretty much destroyed. Vehicle traffic, chemical spills, etc.... The need for renewable sources of energy and better systems for electronic drives in vehicles simply outweighs the damage fossil feul does both in its acqisition and use. Why can we not use a "Tesla" style electric motor for automotive power with a self generating electrical charging system? I have seen pictures of these systems and read some on them though there is not enough info out there for me to design it, (being smarter wood hep 2), I am sure there have to be a few engineers who are capable of this simple request. Nuke and Hydro-electric power systems are cleaner than any gas or petroleum based source, my home is total electric, I wish it was supplied with cleaner made elctricity, but at least it is all electric and not causing as much pollution as gas. Now if I could only afford that electric car?

McClendon said "fact based journalism." Haven't we heard that before?

But the sad news will be the decrease in Ft Worth church attendance. Just from watching this
it's obvious the Second Coming is happening in Ft Worth.

Water? No mention of the hundreds of millions of gallons of water that will be used, contaminated, then left to seep into local groundwater. Isn't Central Texas experiencing a long drought?

Hope someone can save this movie for future reference to a slick corporate con.

True story: A friend up in Van Buren County tells about a scraggly old guy who's somehow scrapped out a living all his life on hilly, rocky, good-for-nothing land homesteaded by his ancestors more than a century ago. The old guy's never had a pot to piss in or, as they say, a window to throw it out of. Anyway, turns out the land is in a prime Fayetteville Shale area, and some time back the old fella leased some of it to an exploration company which has since commenced to drill.

The old boy hobbled in to Clinton one morning not long ago and announced that he hadn't never had nothin' and just kindly, ya know, wanted folks to know that finally he'd "came into a little bit o' money." So, he went to Wal-Mart and bought himself a pair of pants and a couple of shirts, and then treated himself to a beat-up old truck he'd been admiring on the used car lot. That afternoon somebody on the square said to him, "My God, new clothes and a truck, how much money did you come into?! The old fella grinned real wide and said, "Oh, 'bout $19,000 a month."

I'm concerned about the environment up there, but seriously doubt this old codger is.

I'll start caring about all the drilling when CHX, XTO, and Seeco quit sending me about 25K a month in royalties.

Sorry.

They ought to double the tax as these people get rich by screwing the rest of us. Republicans would sell their mothers into slavery for $25K a month, but that doesn't mean we ought to make it legal.

Born Rockin,

Is your post BS or are you so low of an individual that some cash to you is worth death and disease to others?

A hit man can make a good living with short hours and little hard work if he can get over the killing people aspect of the windfall.

Hang on to your money hoss cause your gonna need it to buy your way out of this mess. It costs a lot more to live in places that take care of their environment.

CHX, XTO, and Seeco quit sending me about 25K a month in royalties.<<

I say rock on. How many would actually turn down 25K a month? Now really. We know who/what god is in America. Just ask Ft Worth. They would have bulldozed churches to get that stuff. Face it, we're energy whores. We love our big a/c homes with every electrical convenience known to man, and comfy overpriced cars.

They drink my milkshake.

Again, Sorry. I buy the eco-friendly lightbulbs. I am militant about recylcing , I drive a 50MPG car, and I otherwise have big ole mess of give a damn. I'm not going to turn down money now or ever.

There goes the AR Times ad revenue from CHK.

They don't only have these infomercials. They''re also doing high profile $1000.00 scholarships and Music in the Park. Don't know if they'll being a good corp. citizen or just leveraging good will for the inevitable.

That commercial they're running makes me think the latter.

ARK. BLOG: Say it's not so. Say a company that believes in facts and "investigative journalism" wouldn't punish a medium that spoke its mind.

That's great. You sound like someone who will do some good with your money.

Now does anybody out there believe Chesapeake would have left the state if we had put a tax on their gas? Don't say we have a tax. The tax-like scheme begins six months from now. And don't say 'our gas' because the big money is headed to Oklahoma, where Chesapeake is located, while the gas they are pulling is headed to tejas.

Meanwhile, a small beautiful state builds a coal plant for fuel.

Industry Troll Alert

Mmm hmm. I wasn't Bjorn yesterday.

Mmm hmm. I wasn't Bjorn yesterday.

Posted by: Roderick A. Bryan | July 17, 2008 03:24 PM

Good for you.I suppose you are morally superior to me. Please post in great detail when you have bravely and heroically turned down 25K/month.

I am a member of Greenpeace and the Rain Forest Action Network. I despise those who use cars and find even bicycles to use more materials and energy in their construction than I am comfortable using, so I walk everywhere. I recycle all materials, heating my home in the winter with used toilet paper and capturing the heat going up the chimney to warm my stable of rescued greyhounds and wild horses.

I have laid down in front of bulldozers to protest the removal of even one stalk of poke salat from our national forest. I have been beaten with baseball bats by police intent on stopping me from stripping the leather seat covers from Escalades to give to the homeless. I have been jailed for bringing my own reusable sacks to Wal-Mart (admittedly, it was probably the picture of Sam blowing Che that incited them).

But $25K a month? Pay me that and I'll gladly drizzle nuclear waste over the Harlem Boys Choir. Every man has his price.

I've been turning down about $75,000 per year for18 years. Leaves more for you I guess.

Bjorn,

I'm hopelessly outclassed by you. Please give me an idea of what you'd charge to
- Microwave every stray dog and cat in the state?
- Place staph cultures in every book in the library?
- Hire a cropduster to spread pre-emergent over the national forest?

Looking up you my hero,

Mr. Green.

Oh, Bjorn, by the way, just how any square miles of your estate have you obligated to the resource removal mullahs to obtain the 25K?

You both are better men than I am. Kudos to the both of you.

Ozarkrazo: I don't ony any land in the Fayeteville Shale Play area. I own mineral rights. So the answer is none.

Well, have fun with all your money-- But don't forget that you cannot eat or drink it or sit up under it for shade from the sun. You might consider converting it to another countrie's medium of exchange quite soon.
As to me or another being a better man than you-- I believe we are all products of our decisions and we all determine our own morality. If you believe your decision makes the world a better place for you and me and everyone else in the world then rest easy. Do you have any idea how much I would pay to see old growth Cypress and Oak forests all around Little Rock? Or to return those SW Arkansas forests I used to play in when I was a kid. There's not enough money or time in the world to grow a proper forest in a human lifetime.

eL - You know how I love to tell you stories!

When I was in Jr. High, might have even been in Elementary School, my Father would come home and at dinner we would discuss how the Dallas/Fort Worth area would somehow grow together. He decided along with a group at work that they would try to bid on some land that was for sale between Dallas/FortWorth and they would eventually sell it as the two cities grew together.

This went on until I was at the end of Jr. High and one day my Dad came home from work, sat down at the dinner table and my Mom say's, "You look like you've had a tough day,what's up? Dad's reply, someone has bought up every acre of land that my group was looking at. Didn't really give it a great deal of thought until I was in college and heard of a purchase of land that would become DFW. Woah shit, we missed out on that one big time! And of course, I think LBJ was the buyer. Never again heard my Dad talk of Grapevine, Texas.

Thank God Dad died about 10 years ago because when the Barnett Shale kicked into high gear, one of the first leases that was done was DFW to the tune of about 40 million.

Now Bjorn or whoever else is getting 25K a month , could you please throw a bone my way as we've missed out twice?

Industry troll invasion confirmed.

"I despise those who use cars and find even bicycles to use more materials and energy in their construction than I am comfortable using, so I walk everywhere. - Mr Green"

I don't agree with that necessarily. I have had the same bicycle for 5 years. I'd say the resources required to make it vs the 3000 miles a year I put on it have more than made a green impact. Its still a matter of conservation.

I walk too if I have a journey under 1/4 mile maybe 1/2 mile. The time it takes me to walk more than 1/2 mile, is the time it takes me to complete the ride, get home, pop the top on a cold one and relax. Plus, I can carry a 10# bag of dog food, milk, bread, other stuff. Not a vary easy load to haul walking.