The Dirty Truth in North Dakota

[Nbadan]

give me some of that...

Not for Kitty lovers or the extremely easily squeamish...
jN_YwQp4pzY

Say, aren't Haliburton and other companies about to about to start gas fracking just south of here? Hmmm....

[leemajors]

Dunno about that but I think DeWitt county had 100+new millionaires this year just from natural gas. A buddy of my dad's first royalty check was 500k. I was immediately envious and occupied his front lawn.

[boutons_deux]

yeah, people are getting real rich, real easy, so they can afford to move away from their defaced land and poisoned water.

carbon energy is a Faustian deal for many landowners.

fracking, oil, oil, uranium, gold, copper, all extremely destructive with the costs externalized by the extractor corps.

[Drachen]

yeah, people are getting real rich, real easy, so they can afford to move away from their defaced land and poisoned water.

carbon energy is a Faustian deal for many landowners.

fracking, oil, oil, uranium, gold, copper, all extremely destructive with the costs externalized by the extractor corps.

well, a lot of people are getting screwed because about 20 years or so ago people started stripping the mineral rights from the land. Someone would buy land, strip the rights from the deed, then sell it. Someone could have bought the land years ago and yet someone else is getting the profit off of their land.

[Halberto]

:tu

continue to demonize us, we don't care.

[DarrinS]

Imagine what it's doing to the polar bears.

[baseline bum]

It would be lunacy to not tap our great stores of natural gas. I can't believe we're not using it in our cars right now.

[Wild Cobra]

If this near a Bakken Formation, which naturally outggasses?

[mouse]

Canada is looking better everyday.

[boutons_deux]

Sometimes Things Are Not As They Seem

Some scientists said using less Clean :lol Coal and more natgas would increase global warming because the pathogenic particulates (they sicken and kill some people, and they fall to earth as methyl mercury, cadmium, radioactive shit, etc) of Clean :lol Coal that linger in the atmosphere reflect solar energy, so fewer particulates would mean less reflected energy, more heating.

Atmosphere and warming is very complex, ripe for Kock/API whore deniers lies.

[boutons_deux]

ah yes, just trust UCA to be fair, honest, non-predatory, unregulated, etc, etc,

Fracking: Anatomy of a Free Market Failure

A review of more than 111,000 leases, addenda and related documents byThe New York Times revealed:

Fewer than half the leases require companies to compensate landowners for water contamination after drilling begins. And only about half the documents have language that lawyers suggest should be included to require payment for damages to livestock or crops.

Most leases grant gas companies broad rights to decide where they can cut down trees, store chemicals, build roads and drill. Companies are also permitted to operate generators and spotlights through the night near homes during drilling.

In the leases, drilling companies rarely describe to landowners the potential environmental and other risks that federal laws require them to disclose in filings to investors.

Most leases are for three or five years, but at least two-thirds of those reviewed byThe Times allow extensions without additional approval from landowners. If landowners have second thoughts about drilling on their land or want to negotiate for more money, they may be out of luck.

If all this sounds reminiscent of ex post revelations about predatory lending in the housing market that contributed to our recent housing bubble and crash, it should. It is the classic tale of fast-talking salesmen working for well-heeled companies taking advantage of disadvantaged individuals who are less than fully informed about the options presented to them.

The importance of knowledge and power asymmetries is illustrated by the fact that most of the communities in Pennsylvania attempting to ban fracking through local regulations are affluent. Affluent communities can afford the time and money to investigate the risks of fracking more thorougly to reduce knowledge asymmetry. Affluent communities are also not so desperate for additional income that they are willing to risk damaging their health and high property values.

Externalities: But far and away the most important reason the free market solution to fracking yields undesirable outcomes is because there are significant external costs unaccounted for in the market for fracking leases:

As a fossil fuel, natural gas contributes to global warming even if it is cleaner than burning coal. And if methane, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, leaks from wells as new studies suggest, the effects on global warming may be even worse.

Fracking has also been associated with earthquakes.

The risk of contaminating well water is not confined to the land of the lease, but extends to neighbors’ wells and can potentially damage an entire aquifer. A major reason the NYSDEC report is delayed is concern over contaminating the water supply for New York City.

http://www.truth-out.org/print/11532