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You realize that the only real reason there is now such a huge rainy day fun that the Texas Government refuses to really use for some reason is due to taxes paid by the oil and gas industry right?
Texas Converts 80 Miles Of Paved Road To Gravel Thanks To Lack Of Funds
lawmakers found $225 million to repair county roads affected by energy development, and the same amount for repairs to state-owned roads. That funding, though, was only a temporary fix.
Efforts to increase taxes on the companies that are profiting from the energy boom to cover the road repair costs failed to gain traction. TxDOT said repairing and maintaining the oil field roads into the future will cost about $1 billion a year in additional funding.
The conversions will affect roads in four South Texas counties — Live Oak, Dimmit, LaSalle and Zavala — and two West Texas counties — Reeves and Culberson. Glessner said the farm-to-market roads that will be turned to gravel were picked, in part, because they are rural routes that are ineligible for federal funds.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/...-with-concern/
You lovers of fracking remain silent on the externalities unpaid by BigCarbon and dumped on taxpayers.
You realize that the only real reason there is now such a huge rainy day fun that the Texas Government refuses to really use for some reason is due to taxes paid by the oil and gas industry right?
fixing roads destroyed by fracking industry isn't an emergency "rainy day", it's an continuing disaster.
"As drilling has boomed in the state, the fund is now sitting with over $8 billion, an is projected to grow to nearly $12 billion by 2014-15. That’s more than double what it had in 2010-11."
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/rainy-day/
no its that the state of texas in its wonderful wisdom should be diverting some of funds that are now going to the rainy day fund to fix roads in the Eagleford and other oil rich areas since this is where the ing money is coming from.
If they were to divert half of the funding coming into the rainy day fund from the oil and gas industry into fixing the infastructure in those areas, this wouldnt be such a problem.
The morons in Austin are the ones who refuse to actually properly fund transportation like they should be.
yup...there's billions in taxes being paid by the companies already. It's flowing into the treasury and apparently being partially socked away.
That being said, I don't have any real problems with a road use tax being levied specifically other than the fact that's already being done. lol
TxDOT says they need several $Bs for road construction and maintenance. Are they lying?
I believe there is already something similar to that existing in the eastern counties of the Eagleford.
Now the Western moronic counties.....eh not so much.
@ Boutons crying alligator tears for those multi millionaire ranchers that are going to have to drive down those gravel roads to get to their ranches being drilled by the oil companies that tore up the roads to their ranches.
boo ing hoo.
No, they say they need 1 billion a year.
And they only need less than half that to save that 80 miles of FM road...that 80 mile chunk out of about 15k miles of FM which is a subset of the 300k miles of roads in Tx.
And TxDOT can suck my . They ain't all that anymore.
This is not a BigCarbon() problem. It is a Governor Goodhair and his weak legislature problem.
BigCarbon is destroying the taxpayer's, BigCarbon must pay for the destruction.This is not a BigCarbon(
Shale Grab in U.S. Stalls as Falling Values Repel Buyers
Oil companies are hitting the brakes on a U.S. shale land grab that produced an abundance of cheap natural gas -- and troubles for the industry.
The spending slowdown by international companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and Royal Dutch S Plc (RDSA) comes amid a series of write-downs of oil and gas shale assets, caused by plunging prices and disappointing wells. The companies are turning instead to developing current projects, unable to justify buying more property while fields bought during the 2009-2012 flurry remain below their purchase price, according to analysts.
The deal-making slump, which may last for years, threatens to slow oil and gas production growth as companies that built up debt during the rush for shale acreage can’t depend on asset sales to fund drilling programs. The decline has pushed acquisitions of North American energy assets in the first-half of the year to the lowest since 2004.
North American oil and gas deals, including shale assets, plunged 52 percent to $26 billion in the first six months from $54 billion in the year-ago period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. During the drilling frenzy of 2009 through 2012, energy companies spent more than $461 billion buying North American oil and gas properties, the data show.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-18/shale-grab-in-u-s-stalls-as-falling-values-repel-buyers.html
New Fracking Reports: Gas Bubble About To Bust
Two new fracking reports came out earlier this week, and they reveal some serious new cracks in the booming natural gas industry. Fracking, the drilling method that involves pumping a chemical brine underground, has already been linked to the risk of water contamination, significant methane gas leakage, and even earthquakes. The two reports add another angle of risk, making the case that the gas boom hides a financial bubble that is headed for a bust of epic proportions.
http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/20/...about-to-bust/
BigCarbon will put tremendous pressure on govt to approve LNG terminals so it can export US "God-given because God Loves America" natural resources and drive up the price for domestic gas sales to the world price.
iow Drill Here Drill now is Repug bull .
First of all, tap the brakes on destruction. Taxpayers are getting a load in return.
Second, they are paying. But Goodhair ain't spreading it around, per par.
Welcome to the boom/bust cycle. It's been a normal way of life for the last 100 years in Texas.
Old ing news, you'd know that if you're in the industry. Nobody actively pursues more natural gas, not until our country can finally utilize it. Calling it a "bust" because gas isn't marketable currently shows ignorance. In hindsight those companies who threw all their eggs in the gas basket are regretting it, but only because they bought acreage that would cover multiple counties. Fracking for oil is going to grow and it won't be halted by the market, especially now that OPEC is growing weaker by the day.
X2
The guys in the wet part of the Eagle Ford are killing it.
ya and if they actually enable natural gas to be exported, the dry stuff will start to rebound and then all is going to break loose from an economic aspect down here.
Yes I have.
EPA Censored Dimock’s Fracking Water Contamination Study
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,4847442.storyIn an internal EPA PowerPoint presentation obtained by the Tribune/Los Angeles Times Washington Bureau, staff members warned their superiors that several wells had been contaminated with methane and substances such as manganese and arsenic, most likely because of local natural gas production.
The presentation, based on data collected over 4 1/2 years at 11 wells around Dimock, concluded that "methane and other gases released during drilling (including air from the drilling) apparently cause significant damage to the water quality." The presentation also concluded that "methane is at significantly higher concentrations in the aquifers after gas drilling and perhaps as a result of fracking and other gas well work."
Dissolving the Planet for Oil
But just when you thought that the oil companies couldn't possibly put more poison into our air and water, do more damage to the earth, to our climate, to our future and our hope for survival, along comes "matrix acidizing," the oil industry's latest stroke of genius to extract oil from shale formations by literally disintegrating underground rock formations using - you guessed it, hydrofluoric acid.
During the summer of 1986, Amoco, Allied-Signal, Du Pont and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory voluntarily conducted a series of six experiments involving atmospheric releases of HF in an attempt to characterize its behavior. These studies, known as the "Goldfish studies," were conducted at the Department of Energy Liquefied Gaseous Fuels Spill Test Facility in Nevada and showed that the HF did not remain a liquid following accidental release. Instead, under the conditions simulating a petroleum refinery explosion (HF above its boiling point and liquefied under pressure), 100 percent of the released liquid HF formed dense, rolling clouds of toxic vapor. The clouds expanded rapidly, and researchers measured dangerous concentrations at distances of three to six miles downwind. A person caught in this cloud would experience burning eyes, nose and throat. Soon their lungs would become inflamed and overwhelmed with fluid, followed by acute respiratory distress syndrome, ARDS, and most likely death within a few hours.
But maybe I worry too much. Maybe the oil and gas industry can pump millions of gallons of HF in wells underground all over America, fill thousands of diesel trucks with it, have them drive all over our roads - next to commuters who are texting on their cellphones - through rain, ice and snow, not cut any corners, never go too fast or lose their brakes. None of that HF will corrode any well cement or casings in the next 50 years and seep into our water supply, will it? This will all work out fine, right?
Actually we already know a fair amount about the risks of HF because of its current aboveground use in several applications, most importantly by about one-third of the oil refineries in the United States.
A 2013 survey of 50 US oil refineries by the United Steelworkers union, makes this statement.
"No industrial process risks more lives from a single accident than does the subject of this report - alkylation using hydrogen fluoride in oil refining. Fifty American refineries use HF alkylation to improve the octane of gasoline. Many are situated in or close to major cities, including Houston, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City and Memphis. In some cases, more than a million residents live in the danger zone of a single refinery. All in all, more than 26 million Americans are at risk."
The survey found that over a five-year period, the refineries in the study experienced 131 HF releases or near misses and committed hundreds of violations of the OSHA rule regulating highly hazardous operations. Some specific historical examples illustrate the point.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/18369...planet-for-oil
From my inbox.
After not passing a temporary solution to road funding in the regular session and two consecutive special sessions, the Governor called the Texas Legislature back for a third and final special session on July 31st to again attempt to resolve the issue of transportation funding.
After having kicked around several different proposals, the legislature passed a plan that mirrored a cons utional amendment that I filed back in January and which I strongly encouraged the legislature to adopt—taking a portion of severance tax dollars (state taxes that oil and gas companies pay) that typically go to the "Rainy Day Fund," and rerouting it toward transportation funding.
The difference between my plan and this final plan is that my plan would have dedicated the funding to Shale production areas—the areas that sent the vast majority of this money to the state in the first place and the areas struggling the most with road conditions. The plan that finally passed on August 5th dedicates the funding to transportation projects throughout the state and is estimated to yield $1.2 billion per year. This is in addition to the $.6 billion per year increase given to TXDOT in the regular session.
TXDOT, however, says they need $4 billion per year to keep up with construction and maintenance and have abruptly begun to implement a plan that takes paved farm-to-market roads and converts them to gravel, contending that it'll save $165 million.
Although it is the responsibility of the legislature to fund TXDOT through taxpayer dollars, the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC), a governor appointed, 5-member board, is the en y responsible for adopting TXDOT operational rules and for planning, designing, and policy making for the location, construction, and maintenance of state highways. TXDOT first introduced this idea on July 25th at the TTC regular meeting where the TTC took no action on the proposal. This allowed TxDOT to implement the plan within only a few weeks.
In early August, about a week after TxDOT's announcement, during the final debate over the transportation funding bill in the 3rd Special Session, Tracy King, Harvey Hilderbran and I, in response to TxDOT's plan, introduced an amendment that would have prioritized keeping paved roads paved. It required that new funding would first be used to keep paved roads from being diverted to gravel. After first winning on a motion to table, the amendment was then voted down by the House.
My South Texas colleagues and I have since corresponded and have had several meetings with state transportation officials urging them to reconsider. They have since, delayed implementation of this plan by 60 days.
After meeting with stakeholders in Austin again in a few days, Senator Zaffirini and I, along with other Eagle Ford Shale Caucus members, will be meeting in Cotulla next week with TxDOT Executive Director Phil Wilson, local leaders, and other interested parties to again attempt to work out a solution to this problem.
For rural communities like ours, these roads are not just farm roads and highways; they are the only ways. This move is a threat to our safety, our economy, and our way of life. It's embarrassing for a state that touts its economic strength to downgrade its farm-to-market road system—the very roads that for generations have led us to our economic success. Downgrading from pavement to gravel is a road that Texas must not take. Together, we MUST find a solution.
Ryan Guillen
Texas State Rep.
In Repug, BigCarbon=friendly PA?
ExxonMobil company charged with fracking-related crimes
ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy is being prosecuted for alleged environmental crimes after it spilled fracking wastewater into a Pennsylvania river in 2010.
The company’s response? It claims the criminal charges could harm the environment.
We told you about this spill in July — that’s when the company agreed to pay a $100,000 federal fine for spilling 57,000 gallons of contaminated fluids out of sloppily maintained tanks in Penn Township and into a tributary of the Susquehanna River. It also agreed to spend $20 million to get its frackwater treatment and disposal facilities up to scratch in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Following a grand jury investigation, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office announced this week that XTO was also being charged with five counts of violating Pennsylvania law:
The grand jury found that XTO hired a company to recycle waste water at the Marquardt site from Nov. 4, 2010 through Nov. 11, 2010. After that one-week period, XTO directed that company to remove their processing equipment from the site and transport it to another XTO well site in West Virginia. However, XTO allegedly continued to transport and store gas well waste water at the Marquardt site despite not having the proper equipment on site to safely store or process it.
Prosecuting fracking companies when they piss their toxic waste all over nature would seem to be a good way of encouraging them to be better environmental stewards. But XTO begs to differ — because every day is opposite day in Frack Land.
“Charging XTO under these cir stances could discourage good environmental practices, such as recycling,” XTO said in a statement responding to the charges.
http://grist.org/news/exxonmobil-com...elated-crimes/
My guess is that you BigCarbon suckers 100% agree with the XTO's "logic"
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