Shale Watch

A couple of things worth checking out today and throughout the rest of the week. 

Tonight: The UCA Honors College Challenge Week continues.  Tonights speaker will be Woody Tasch, former venture capitalist and author of the book Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms and Fertility Mattered.  He'll be at the McCastlain Hall Ballroom on the UCA campus tonight at 7:00.  More Challenge Week programs will continue throughout the week.

Also tonight, the Green Faith Alliance and the Arkansas Sierra Club will host a showing of the documentary Coal Country at the 2nd Presbyterian Church at 600 Pleasant Valley Dr. in Little Rock tonight at 7:30.  If you can't make it out tonight, you can catch it Thursday Nov. 12 at UCA (McAlister Hall, 8:00 p.m.) or at 519 8th Street in Little Rock at 6:30 on Saturday. 

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It's been a shame that I haven't been able to keep a closer eye on the UCA Honor's College Challenge Week this year.  This year's focus is on local food.  Last week was quite hectic, what with Max out on vacation.  All of my blogging energy was spent on the Arkansas Blog.  Tonight, there will be a screening of the documentary Food Fight: Revolution Never Tasted So Good.  It will be screened at 7 p.m. in the McCastlain Hall Ballroom.  The film's creator, Chris Taylor, will be on hand to discuss his work and answer questions.  For more info on tonight's even, and to see what's happening the rest of this week, go here. 

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Today, Arkansas Business Leaders for a Clean Energy Economy released a report that shows strong federal clean energy and climate legislation would create jobs, increase incomes and boost the economy in Arkansas.  According to the report, moving further toward energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and away from carbon pollution would create 25,000 jobs, boost the average Arkansan's income by $1,230 and grow the state's GDP by $1.2 billion.

“This study shows that the stronger the federal energy and climate policies, the more Arkansas stands to gain economically,” said Eddy Moore, coordinator of Arkansas Business Leaders for a Clean Energy Economy. “We need to grow our wind, bio energy and energy efficiency industries and also employ thousands of people in developing and implementing more energy efficient building and industrial facility technology. These steps will put money into consumers’ pockets to spend in the broader economy. Arkansas can play a bigger role in the emerging multibillion-dollar global clean energy market.”

Oddly enough, the study didn't say that new coal plants were the answer.  Get the full press release on the jump. 

Continue reading "Strong Energy Policies to Help Economy, Study Shows" »

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Entegra Power Group, which owns and operates a natural gas fired power plant in El Dorado, told the Arkansas Public Service Commission they could produce more power - cleaner, and for less money - than the existing White Bluff coal-fired power plant near Redfield, Ark.  The White Bluff plant is owned by Entergy Arkansas, Inc.  Entergy filed a petition with the PSC in March, seeking a declaratory order finding that new environmental controls were in the public interest and necessary for the plant to meet state regulations.  These required improvements would cost, according to Entergy's estimate, $1.04 billion, which would come from rate-payers here in Arkansas. 

Entegra filed a petition to intervene in the proceedings yesterday, saying the natural gas plant near Magnolia "is an existing reasonable capacity energy resource located within the state of Arkansas that... provides Entergy with a cleaner, lower cost alternative to White Bluff and the proposed environmental controls project."

The filing presents one more stumbling block for coal plants here and in other states.  The natural gas plant, which lies dormant for most of the year, could meet the needs of White Bluff customers and would burn much cleaner, emitting approximately half of the carbon emissions.  

Glen Hooks of the Sierra Club says, "The question is this: do Arkansas ratepayers spend a billion dollars to prolong the life of a dirty coal plant, or do we save that billion dollars by transitioning to an already-existing, cleaner-burning natural gas plant?. It makes environmental and economic sense to say no to coal."
    

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From Max's post on this subject earlier:

The state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission this morning denied a request from the Sierra Club and Audubon Arkansas to stop construction on American Electric Power's coal-fired plant in Hempstead County during court appeals.

The Arkansas Court of Appeals recently overturned the Public Service Commission approval of the plant. Surprise: Two PC&E members voted for the stay, Commissioners John Chamberlin of Little Rock and Scott Henderson, state Game and Fish director. Probably worth noting: Chamberlin was named to the Commission in April by Gov. Beebe to succeed Tom Schueck, who would have been on the other side.

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Ken Smith, director of Audubon Arkansas, said the decision was not a surprise and that he did not consider it a set back.  Many came out in support of the plant including workers, a superintendent from a nearby school and the mayor of Hope, along with reps from other near-by cities.  Proponents of the plant said economics was the key factor as the plant now employees over 940 workers.  Attorneys for the Sierra Club and Audubon stressed that the prudence of continued construction on a plant hindered by appeals should be considered.  SWEPCO attorneys argued that was not the case. 

Of course, that has been SWEPCO's plan from the beginning - continue to build the plant no matter what appeals or legal challenges are thrown in the way and get to a point where local economies and hundreds of jobs are at stake.  That will make it difficult to halt construction, and it looks like that strategy is working.  Smith said it was curious how big of a role economics played in today's hearing when the focus should be on the environment.

"It's interesting to note that environmental issues were more of an issue before the Public Service Commission than they have been for the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission.  It seems like we've got our priorities a little backwards," Smith said. 
     

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It looks like some big time oil and gas companies like Chesapeake and Range Resources are trying to hang their hydraulic fracturing service contractors out to dry.  That's the impression I get from this piece from Reuters.  Companies like Chesapeake produce natural gas but they don't actual get it out of the ground themselves.  They hire companies like Halliburton (yes, that Halliburton) to do it for them.  The chemical content of fracturing fluid has always been kept secret by these companies because, they claim, the formula for the fluid is proprietary information.  Now, probably because of backlash from environmentalists across the country, companies like Chesapeake and Range are calling on these companies to release information on what chemicals they're using. 

The industry line is that these chemicals are harmless, but tell that to a farmer in Louisiana who lost 19 head of cattle because the cows drank some fracturing fluid near a well site.  Companies like Halliburton claim that 99 percent of the fluid is pure water, which may be true.  But if you're using 5 million gallons to frack a well, then that 1 percent is actually about 10,000 gallons of chemicals. 

Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon said "We need to disclose the checmicals that we are using and search for alternatives to the checmicals we are using."  Now, why would you need to seek alternatives if the ones you were already using were harmless. 

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Stepping up: Coal Power is Poison is stepping up their ad campaign against the controversial coal-fired power plant near Texarkana.  The group will start running the above advertisement in the Democrat-Gazette starting tomorrow morning.  

The Frac Act: The Arkansas Conservation Alliance joins a laundry list of national groups in support of the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act.  Check out the YouTube video above, and a press release here, describing how chemicals from drilling waste led to a large scale fish-kill in a creek in Pennsylvania.  If you think this stuff isn't going on in this state, you're dillusional.

Just for Kicks: A comic by John Hart [via Switchboard]. 

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In Focus: Green business will be one of the topics discussed at the Little Rock Sustainability Summit on Saturday, September 26.  [Arkansas Business].

Big Money: Arkansas will receive nearly $10 million in federal stimulus dollars to develop energy efficiency and conservation programs.  [Talk Business, Arkansas News Bureau].

Big Fish: Eat some catfish and meet up with some local greenies tonight at the Oyster Bar in Little Rock.  The Sierra Club holds their monthly meeting tonight at 7. [GreenAR by the Day].

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Shifting Deadline: Mother Jones says the deadline for passing the Waxman-Markey bill is shifting more than melting glaciers.  According to an article by Rachel Morris, "the Senate has jettisoned the deadline for the bill, and momentum to quickly pass legisltion appears to be vanishing."  [Mother Jones].

To-Dos: There's too many to mention.  GreenAR by the Day does a far better job of keeping up with them than I ever could.  Also note that the Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association will hold an open house on Saturday and Sunday to take public comments on a plan to safeguard natural spaces in Washington County. [The Morning News].

Over-populated: Wonder how many gas wells are in Arkansas?  The Natural Resources Defense Council has published a map.  Final tally for the natural state?  14,294.

Green Jobs: A German-based company broke ground on a wind turbine factory in Jonesboro today.  They expect production to begin in mid-2010 and the factory will eventually employ 700 people. [CleanTech].

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Greenies Unite: Repower America will host an organizational meeting in Russellville tonight at 7:00.  [GreenAR by the Day]. 

Not-so Hot Air: Gov. Beebe says that while Arkansas might not be a big wind producer, the state will be a leader in supplying the wind industry with the parts it needs to harness that power. [Arkansas Business].

Now's the Time: A report released yesterday by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the group Environment America says that the American Clean Energy and Security Act would save Arkansans $340 a year on their utility bills, and create nearly 5,600 new jobs.  [The Morning News].   

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Made in America Town Hall: Tonight, at Pulaski Technical College, Repower Arkansas will host a roundtable discussion on the benefits of transitioning to a clean energy economy.  Panelists include Mary Ann Shope, vice president for economic development at Pulaski Tech; Stephen Walker, director of development at Phoenix Renewable Energy; April Ambrose, sustainability coordinator for Viridian USA; JD Lowery, sustainability project manager for Viridian USA; Christopher Charlton, Greenway Equipment/John Deere, and Bill Ball, CEO of Steller Sun Solar.  Promises to be interesting.  More details here. 

Another Meet-up: Business and community leaders, along with groups like Environment America and Audubon Arkansas will hold a press conference tomorrow to release a new study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy that shows how energy efficient policies create jobs, save money and limit our dependence on oil.  The conference will be held at the Little Rock Audubon Nature Center at 4500 Springer Blvd., Little Rock, AR 72206 at 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, Wednesday September 9.

Social Responsibility on the Interwebs: Here's a great list of 10 sites that will help you shop and be socially responsible at the same time. (via Mashable).  

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Coal is dirty.

SWEPCO is asking for a rate increase in Texas, partly to help pay for the Turk Plant being built in Hempstead County, Arkansas.  According to the East Texas Review:

The company is also seeking to offset financing costs during construction of the 600-megawatt John W. Turk, Jr. Power Plant and the 500-megawatt J. Lamar Stall unit. The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved construction of the Stall plant in March 2007, and on the Turk facility in July 2008.

Construction on both units is well underway.

“Recovery of financing costs while the plants are under construction, instead of at the end of construction, will help prevent compounding interest on these major investments,” Chodak said. “This will save over $300 million in financing costs that SWEPCO customers would otherwise have to pay over the life of the plant.”

The requested rate increase seems similar to the one SWEPCO is asking for here in Arkansas.  The general rule has been that customers don't have to pay until the plant is built and delivering power. If approved, the rate increase would make a difference of over $250 million and probably over $300 million that customers would front to help finance the plant, so that the company doesn't have to borrow it elsewhere, arguably at higher rates.

As a policy matter, the risk has been placed on the company in the past so customers don't take the risk of involuntarily investing large amounts of money into company property that may never be completed, or where there might be imprudent cost overruns - a hightened risk here, since there are adverse court decisions on the books. 

The Arkansas Court of Appeals overturned Public Service Commission approval of a construction permit for SWEPCO's coal plant due to inadequate assessment. It ordered a new PSC hearing on environmental and other issues.  That decision has since been appealed and should be ruled on by the Arkansas Supreme Court sometime after Labor Day.  The National Audubon Society and the Sierra Club have since asked SWEPCO to stop construction.  If the Supreme Court decides not to review the decision SWEPCO will have to go back to the drawing board and begin hearings with the PSC anew.  They could also decide the whole effort isn't worth the trouble.     

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Just caught an absolutely beautiful video, produced by the Sierra Club, that tells the troubled story of ranchers in New Mexico.  The scenery is jaw-dropping.  Of course, the story is not so awe-inspiring.  It's the tale of a ranching family, on the the land for six generations, whose land has been destroyed, whose livelihood has been killed, by the oil and gas industry.  At 28 minutes, it's pretty long, but the story is very interesting and truly tragic.  Give it a watch.  It's a great production.  From the site:

A traditional New Mexico ranching couple Tweeti and Linn Blancett, lead their cattle up a slope, past a natural gas drilling platform and around industrial equipment that occupies the once-pristine public land where their cattle used to graze undisturbed. Now they can't believe what they see: a natural gas clean up crew ripping the lining of a waste pit, allowing toxic, industrial waste water to seep into the land. This is a blatant violation of the environmental rules that govern the use of public lands. Chris Velasquez, a fellow rancher shares this same bond to the land and he is just as furious as to what is going on.

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Exxon Mobil was successful in their request to have a gag order issued on a blogger down in South Texas.  The blog "A Satirical View from the McGill Brothers Lease" is run by a housewife who lives on a 38,000 acre ranch in south Texas that is being leased by subsidiaries of both Exxon Mobil and Chevron. 

From the "about" section of her website: "I would like to see ExxonMobil, Chevron and their various partners walk away from this lease so the family can get some decent companies to come in, drain the oil and gas from the ground, plug the well bores, and leave so we can live in peace and quiet."

You can read more about the situation at Drilling Reform for Texas.  Here's a link to a pretty good post, it accompanies the video pasted above.  You can see why Exxon wants this woman to stop reporting on this issue. 

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The Turk power plant as of May of this year.

Just Stop it Already!: The Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society filed a request with the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to hault construction on the John W. Turk Jr. power plant in Hempstead County.  The Arkansas Public Service Commission recently found that the plants owner American Electric Power had not gone through the proper process of obtaining the permit to build the plant.  AEP and SWEPCO decided to continue construction on the plant as they appealed the decision. 

A Bright Idea: News came yesterday of a US Department of Agriculture program aimed at improving water quality in the Illinois River.  It will take nearly $30 billion to fund the program and that includes planting trees and other grasses to filter runoff.  Of course, there is one other way to clean up that river.  Stop dumping chicken guts into it!

Tele-town halls.  Because facing a real crowd is for suckers.

Want to Get Involved?: Check out these two events - a tele-town hall with Sen. Mark Pryor and an event tomorrow morning, sponsored by the Clinton School and featuring former Murphy Oil CEO Claiborne Deming.  Special thanks to GreenAR by the Day for the heads up.  

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G-R-E-E-D: A leaked memo reveals that the American Petroleum institute asked oil company employees, retirees and current contractors to turn out in opposition to climate change legislation.  Hey, it worked for health care.  Democracy Now has more.  

Photo: ProPublica

Dirty Business: The EPA has determined that water wells near the town of Pavillion, WY contain chemicals that are used in the hydraulic fracturing process.  I've been told by officials in Arkansas that there's no way that a water well could be contaminated with fracking fluid.  I've heard Arkansans say differently.  Ask the guy in the picture above if it's possible.  ProPublica has the story.  The Switchboard blog from the NRDC has more.
  

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Ring Ring: The ever-dilligent GreenAR by the Day has all you need to know about Mark Pryor's Tele-Town Hall meeting tonight.  Of course, most of the questions taken by the senator will likely revolve around death panels and how health care reform threatens the constitution. 

Fracked: The EPA has found a direct link between hydraulic fracturing of gas wells and water contamination.  Don't think this will happen here?  It already is. 

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According to Arkansas Business, Chesapeake Energy Corp. has admitted there's a possibility that wells drilled in Texas' lead to a series of earthquakes earlier this summer.  Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.  That whole New Madrid thing is pretty serious business.

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It's Happening Here Too: Fugitive emissions from gas well sites are caught on an infra-red video camera.  The footage is from a well-site in Texas and was obtained by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. 

Comment from Dr. Theo Colborn, an expert on health issues associated with gas-drilling who has been mentioned on this blog numerous times, who viewed the raw video:

"The tanks you see in this picture can be found across the gas fields in the US. They look harmless as you drive by just like the other stationary equipment you see on well pads. Without an infrared camera, as in this case, that picks up the plume of the highly active volatile chemicals escaping from the tanks, no one would suspect that the tanks could possibly pose a public health problem. As natural gas extraction continues to increase, federal, state, and local public health authorities and regulatory agencies are unprepared to deal with the problem."

Good News:  Despite the fact that revenues from the severance tax fell way below expectations and that some employees have been layed off recently (I'm talking specifically about White County, though there might be others), two companies active in the Fayetteville Shale, Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, posted quarterly profits.   See Talk Business for more.

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