Biblio
eCORP is a Houston, Texas, based multifaceted energy company which, through its subsidiaries, affiliates and related entities, is engaged in the development and operation of natural gas storage facilities, natural gas pipelines, electric power plants, and other energy related facilities.
eCORP and its principals and affiliates have been involved in Stagecoach Natural Gas Storage Facility, Tioga County New York.
The U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration reported in 2007 that the largest expansion of working gas capacity (13 Bcf) occurred at the Stagecoach natural gas storage site in New York State, a depleted-reservoir facility.
Wyoming rancher Ed Swartz is feeling the affects of environmental de-regulation. Hear his story.
Ed Swartz
Gillette, WY
Added: January 18, 2009
Co-Presenting Sponsor: The Fledgling Fund supports the creation and dissemination of innovative media projects that can play critical roles in igniting social change.
The Fledgling Fund believes that film and other creative media can often demonstrate what statistics can not, can create broad understandings of social problems, and can inspire both civic dialogue and concrete action.
Cornell Daily Sun Editorial. Published: 2/16/10.
Peter Meinig, chairman of the Cornell University Board of Trustees and former associate of a large natural gas company, is at the center of many competing interests, and should not participate in any decisions the University makes regarding leasing land for natural gas drilling.
...In order to reach the most appropriate outcome for Cornell, and for the University to remain above reproach and second-guessing by the many interested parties, Meinig should recuse himself from all decisions and discussions regarding the leasing of land for natural gas drilling.
New York Times Editorial. Published: October 16, 2009.
Regulators must amend the rules to bar drilling in the New York City watershed: a million acres of forests and farmlands whose streams supply the reservoirs that send drinking water to eight million people.
Accidental leaks could threaten public health and require a filtration system the city can ill afford...“fracking” has been implicated in hundreds of cases of impaired or polluted drinking water supplies in states from Alabama to Wyoming.
New York Times Editorial. Published: November 2, 2009.
Among the many dubious provisions in the 2005 energy bill was one dubbed the Halliburton loophole, which was inserted at the behest of — you guessed it — then-Vice President Dick Cheney, a former chief executive of Halliburton.
It stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. Invented by Halliburton in the 1940s, it involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, into underground rock formations to blast them open and release natural gas.
Hydraulic fracturing has been implicated in a growing number of water pollution cases across the country. It has become especially controversial in New York, where regulators are eager to clear the way for drilling in the New York City watershed, potentially imperiling the city’s water supply. Thankfully, the main company involved has now decided not to go ahead.
The safety of the nation’s water supply should not have to rely on luck or the public relations talents of the oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to two New Yorkers — Representative Maurice Hinchey and Senator Charles Schumer — Congress last week approved a bill that asks the E.P.A. to conduct a new study on the risks of hydraulic fracturing. An agency study in 2004 whitewashed the industry and was dismissed by experts as superficial and politically motivated. This time Congress is demanding “a transparent, peer-reviewed process.”
Philadelphia Enquirer editorial. Published: Mar. 22, 2010.
...Representatives of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, point out that not a single case of groundwater contamination has been linked to their drilling technique, called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking."
It involves pumping up to three million gallons of water (per well), combined with sand and chemicals, more than a mile underground to shatter the rock and release the gas.
But fracking does carry potential risks to the environment. Those concerns are causing government officials elsewhere to proceed cautiously on Marcellus drilling. New York state has imposed a moratorium on Marcellus wells until it completes an environmental-impact assessment.
Let us see if we have this right: The tap water is bubbling in Parker County, carbonated with enough natural gas to make it as flammable as a French Quarter cocktail and as explosive as a hand grenade, and the Texas Railroad Commission — consulting its Advent calendar, no doubt — has scheduled a hearing on the matter for Jan. 10.
No need to spoil the holidays with unpleasant decision-making; we’ll just let that gas keep percolating until next month, and hope we don’t get a big boom west of Fort Worth to ring in the new year.
If you haven’t been reading the recent accounts in the paper, here is what’s been going on in Parker County: Residents there reported that their tap water was bubbling. The federal Environmental Protection Agency did tests and determined that the water was contaminated enough by gas to create an imminent threat of fire or explosion. The EPA turned its results over to the railroad commission, which decided to hold a meeting...
See: Bluedaze. "Shale Survival Tools and Medical Information."
See: Sharon Wilson. Dec. 20, 2010. Earth Blog. "EPA's Xmas present to Texas families with drinking water polluted by drilling: cleaner water".
See: Argyle-Bartonville Communities Alliance. Dec. 14, 2010. "Keep Track and Speak Up."
According to the website, Endangered Environmental Laws, "...over time, courts have transformed [the Eleventh Amendment] into a sweeping doctrine of state “sovereign immunity,” unmoored from the Constitution’s text, and in recent years, a conservative bloc of the Supreme Court has further expanded states’ immunity from private lawsuits.
In the environmental context, this has led to near-total immunity of state agencies from citizen suits under the federal coal-mining statute; to similar challenges (so far unsuccessful) to citizen litigation under the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act; and to dismissal of state employees’ whistleblower complaints under the Solid Waste Disposal Act and other laws."
"The states are permitted to act unjustly only because the highest court in the land has, by its own will, moved the middle ground and narrowed the nation's power.
With rare exception, many people, including Indian tribes, federal employees, patent holders, the elderly, and the disabled, find themselves unable to vindicate rights granted by federal laws in any court when the defendant is a state or a state agency."
Babcock, H. “Effect of the United States Supreme Court's Eleventh Amendment Jurisprudence on Clean Water Act Citizen Suits: Muddied Waters, The.” Oregon Law Review 83 (2004): 47.
See: Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling E.P.A.
See: Activists Block Entrance to DEP Headquarters, Condemn Failed Enforcement
Among the largest natural gas companies in North America, based in Calgary, Alberta.
The Michigan Land Use Institute reported that In 2006 the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission fined Encana $370,000 for flawed drilling practices. Residents said the drilling contaminated Divide Creek with methane and benzene.
Alan Boras, Encana’s spokesman, said in an interview that the leak was “a rare circumstance” caused by flaws in the cement that holds the well casing in place.
“Within less than a week of being alerted, the problem was rectified,” Mr. Boras said.
Lisa Bracken, on Journey of the Forsaken, reported on June 30, 2010 that,
"EnCana has recently submitted twenty well permits (with at least twenty more on the horizon) to infill drill in our neighborhood... despite 1) low natural gas prices, despite 2) EnCana suing the state of Colorado over new public safety rules (which are by the way utterly toothless) and which they say are driving them from Colorado; and, 3) despite the persistent, increasing and largely un-investigated presence of leaking hydrocarbon toxins into groundwater and private water wells.
Why the renewed surge in activity? Could be because China is dumping investment dollars into EnCana's bank account to facilitate extraction of gas for export to China?"
See: Natural gas: the commodity world’s ‘ugly duckling’.
See Lisa Bracken video.
See: Lisa Bracken Website: Journey of the Forsaken.
See: Will Koop. Encana's Cabin Not So Homey: Cumulative Environmental Effects - An Unfolding and Emerging Crisis in Northeastern British Columbis'a Shale Gas Plays. (PDF 13. 4 MB, 58 pp.). November 9, 2010.
An Introductory Journey Into BC's Dirty Domino Zone - Commentary and Recent Photos by Garth Lenz.
See: Letter written to Vancouver Sun by Fort Nelson First Nation Chief, Kathie Dickie. Dec. 22, 2009. (Koop, p. 21)
Calgary-based EnCana Corporation, Canada's largest gas producer, along with a consortium of seven other oil companies, is planning to build the biggest gas processing plant in North America in the heart of our 1910 treaty territory.
We've been told many things by the B. C government as we've tried to participate in the environmental assessment process. One official said that because our 100-year-old treaty doesn't specifically address clean air, we have no say on clean air when it comes to the construction of the biggest greenhouse gas creator in B.C. Imagine being told by a government official in 2009 that you have no say on the quality of air you or your children breathe! What parent would stand for it?
We understand the value to the province of shale gas development in the Horn River Basin. But such economic development, whether for our community or yours, should not come at the expense of a gutting of the land, water, and air where a community lives.
We are the only Treaty 8 Nation that lives within the Horn River Basin, and this gas plant, designed to open the basin to drilling, pipelines and gas development, will have an immense effect on our rights and interests. Without the capacity to determine and plan for this development, the survival of the Fort Nelson First Nation is in jeopardy. This plant and the development that it brings must not mean the end of us.
Source: Fort Nelson First Nation Chief, Kathie Dickie, Vancouver Sun, December 22, 2009, Premier’s climate-change hypocrisy could doom first nation’s way of life.
See: Julie Green. "The Game Changer." UpHere Business. June 2010.
...In mid-April, Dickie signed an agreement with Spectra. “It’s more than an impact-benefit agreement,” says Spectra’s Duane Rae. “It formalizes the relationship we already have and talks about how we’re going to continue working together.” The band is working on similar agreements with TransCanada and EnCana. Dickie has a list of substantial fears about shale development and water is at the top.
Twenty-three days after EnCana completed hydraulic fracturing operations on the F11E, the liner is removed, some of the sludge is pumped out and the remainder - perhaps 70 barrels or more - is dozed in.
For over a year, at Journey of the Forsaken., I've been documenting EnCana's aggressive and irresponsible development of 60 natural gas wells around our home and the infamous area of the 2004 West Divide Creek natural gas blowout.
Lisa Bracken. 2009.
"If one of the pumper trucks had overturned on the county road, spilling this stuff into the environment, a hazardous materials unit would have responded, sequestered the area, potentially evacuated citizens and employed measures to safeguard first responders, citizens and the environment.
But because this is a hydraulic fracturing waste pit, out of sight of the public and on private land (owned, coincidently, by EnCana) it is simply covered up."
See: Lisa Bracken. Journey of the Forsaken.
The sweet irony of this video - some things, like fracking, are best expressed with a cake!
A recent company event provided an opportunity for one of our engineers to educate children about natural gas development. Parents and educators often ask us for industry material to use with this audience so we made this video in the spirit of creativity.
What do 11 tubs of icing, more than two dozen cookies and 115 cupcakes have to do with natural gas? A lot, actually, once sculpted into a layer cake that uniquely demonstrates how the clean energy choice is extracted in our operations.
See: Encana | Mixplex.
See: Spectra Energy's "Kids Say [the] Darndest Things About Natural Gas".
Spectra Energy Watch said, "When gas companies send children to defend the industry, it is a sign of desperation."
Spectra Energy’s latest 3-minute PR effort in the form of a kiddie video includes a touch of irony. It begins with the kids comparing natural gas to farts, when asked, “What is natural gas?”.
The video has been removed by Spectra Energy. We saw it.
There are now two websites for the House Energy and Commerce Committee- one for the Republicans and one for the Democrats. For citizens in the U.S., we are still living a Reaganesque "con", an obvious "tell" that Washington is more broken and redundant than ever.
In the David Mamet film, House of Games | Human Nature is a Sucker Bet (1987), Mike and his men [pulling a con job on Margaret] ...see that the jig is up, and nonchalantly pack up the con. Mike apologizes, saying it was “only business … nothing personal.” Margaret puts the pieces together. She spies on the con men--among whom is the "dead" cop/mark--and confirms that everything was a ruse to swindle her out of $80,000...
...Margaret pulls out her gun and dares Mike to beg for his life. He refuses and she shoots him repeatedly until he dies.
Much later, we see that Margaret has gone on with her life, a changed woman, now able to "forgive herself." She shows no sign of guilt or remorse for murdering Mike. She steals a gold lighter out of the purse of another woman in a restaurant and relishes the acquisition.
The energy business and its minions are fighting an undeclared war on the EPA, The Clean Water Act and public saftey. We are all being dragged into this con job. Their argument: the Clean Water Act does not directly address groundwater contamination. Groundwater protection provisions are included in the Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Superfund act.
Sounds redundant to me... just give me a cool drink of water 'fore i diiie. (Neil Zusman, 2011-02-02.)
Angelou chose "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie" as the book's title because of her interest in "unconscious innocence," which she says is "even lovelier than trying to remain innocent." The title is a reference to her belief that "we as individuals ... are still so innocent that we think if we asked our murderer just before he puts the final wrench upon the throat, 'Would you please give me a cool drink of water?' and he would do so."Angelou has said that, if she "didn't believe that, [she] wouldn't get up in the morning." (Angelou, Maya; Elliot, Jeffrey M. (1989), Conversations with Maya Angelou, University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 0-87805-361-1.)
Update February 2, 2011
See: Andrew Schenkel. "Fracking finger-pointing starts as drinking water violations roll in." Mother Nature Network. 2011-02-01.
A report linking the fracking industry to violations of the Safe Drinking water Act is putting the biggest names in the fracking industry on the defensive. Democrats in the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report on Monday (2011-01-31) that claims 12 companies in several states dumped more than 30 million gallons of diesel fuel as part of a scheme to extract natural gas from underground space.
See: Tom Zeller Jr. "Diesel Use in Gas Drilling Cited as Violation of Safe-Water Law." NYT. 2011-02-01.
No permits for diesel-based fracking have been sought or granted since the Safe Drinking Water Act was amended in 2005.
Lee Fuller, a vice president for government relations with the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said that was because the E.P.A. had never followed up by creating rules and procedures for obtaining such permits and submitting them for public comment.
The agency did quietly update its Web site last summer with language suggesting that fracking with diesel was, indeed, covered as part of the underground injection program, which would suggest that permits should have been obtained. But Mr. Fuller’s organization, along with the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, has gone to court to challenge the Web posting, arguing that it amounted to new rule-making that circumvented administrative requirements for notice and public commentary.
Thursday, February 18, 2010. "Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey today sent letters to eight oil and gas companies that use hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and natural gas from unconventional sources in the United States. The Committee is requesting information on the chemicals used in fracturing fluids and the potential impact of the practice on the environment and human health."
As Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the last Congress, Rep. Waxman requested and received information from the largest hydraulic fracturing companies - Halliburton, BJ Services, and Schlumberger - on the chemicals used in their fracturing fluids.
According to this data, two of these companies used diesel fuel in their fracturing fluids between 2005 and 2007, potentially violating a voluntary agreement with EPA to cease using diesel. Halliburton reported using more than 807,000 gallons of seven diesel-based fluids. BJ Services reported using 2,500 gallons of diesel-based fluids in several fracturing jobs. Halliburton and BJ Services also indicated that they used other chemicals - such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene - that could pose environmental risks in their fracturing fluids.
Today Chairmen Waxman and Markey sent letters seeking additional information from Halliburton, BJ Services, and Schlumberger on these and related issues. The Chairmen requested similar information from five smaller fracturing companies that comprise a growing share of the market: Frac Tech Services, Superior Well Services, Universal Well Services, Sanjel Corporation, and Calfrac Well Services. In addition, the Chairmen sent a memo to Members of the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment detailing the background on the issue, including EPA's recent work on hydraulic fracturing, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's investigative findings, and the need for additional oversight and investigation."
Documents included: Examining the Potential Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing, Feburary 18, 2010
Letter to Andrew Gould
Letter to Roger Willis
Letter to David J. Lesar
Letter to Douglas R. Ramsay
Letter to Darin MacDonald
Letter to J.W. Stewart
Letter to Dan Wilks
Letter to David E. Wallace
See: Sabrina Shankman. "Congress Launches Investigation Into Gas Drilling Practices." ProPublica. 2010-02-19.
See: Abrahm Lustgarten. "Clearing the Air on ProPublica’s Drilling Pollution Story." ProPublica. 2011-01-31
See: Candice O'Grady. "Newsweek Greenwashes the Oil Lobby for Real." FAIR. Feb. 2010.
See: Committee Democrats Release New Report Detailing Hydraulic Fracturing Products
See: House committee votes to deny climate change
See: Action Center | Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP America)
Energy in Depth is an oil and natural gas industry informational site.
Since June of 2010, this has been the place to read the rebuttal to Josh Fox's documentary Gasland.
"We’ve spent some time over the past couple months taking a critical look at some of the key assertions made in the HBO documentary Gasland, putting forth in that time two separate rebuttal documents that we believe address in a substantive way a number of the misconceptions upon which the film, and its broader political message, is based.
Read the opposing viewpoints on Energy in Depth as an information source on Sourcewatch Wiki
See: Nora Eisenberg. AlterNet. July 23, 2010. Exposing the Natural Gas Industry's Attempt to Silence Its Critics
Please note that information taken from Wikis should be verified using other, more reliable sources. It is a good place to start research, but because anyone can edit a Wiki, we do not recommend using it in research papers or to obtain highly reliable information.
About Energy in Depth:
"Who We Are: America’s natural gas and oil producers – the majority of which are small, independent businesses with less than 12 employees- are committed to strengthening America through the safe, responsible and environmentally-friendly development of domestic energy resources."
See extensive press-releases and archived press-releases reacting to environmental pressure, presenting the arguments of industry in favor of fracking the Marcelus Shale.
Related:
Lee Fuller. "HF 101: As Cornell Begins Study of Shale Gas Exploration, Energy In Depth Offers Itself Up as Resource for Ad Hoc Panel". Energy in Depth.
Lee Fuller
Mike Hale. The New York Times. June 21, 2010. The Costs of Natural Gas, Including Flaming Water.
Oral Statement Submitted by Mr. Lee Fuller, Representing Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and Energy In Depth (EID), 3-28-10. (PDF, 3 pp., 46,255 bytes). Submitted to: EPA Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) Environmental Engineer Committee Hydraulic Fracturing Research Plan Review. 4/7/2010- 4/8/2010. The St Regis, 923 16th Street, NW, Washington DC 20006.
See: Drilling Isn't Safe.
"Energy in Depth (EID) is a pro-oil-and-gas drilling industry front group formed by the American Petroleum Institute, the Petroleum Association of America and dozens of additional industry organizations for the purpose of denouncing legislation proposed by Colorado U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette to regulate underground hydraulic fracturing fluids."
"The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) publishes SourceWatch, this collaborative, specialized encyclopedia of the people, organizations, and issues shaping the public agenda. SourceWatch profiles the activities of front groups, PR spinners, industry-friendly experts, industry-funded organizations, and think tanks trying to manipulate public opinion on behalf of corporations or government. We also highlight key public policies they are trying to affect and provide ways to get involved."
Please note that information taken from Wikis should be verified using other, more reliable sources. It is a good place to start research, but because anyone can edit a Wiki, we do not recommend using it in research papers or to obtain highly reliable information.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-58), signed by President Bush on August 8, 2005, was the first omnibus energy legislation enacted in more than a decade. Spurred by rising energy prices and growing dependence on foreign oil, the new energy law was shaped by competing concerns about energy security, environmental quality, and economic growth.
The Energy Policy Act encourages production on federal lands through royalty reductions for marginal oil and gas wells on public lands and the outer continental shelf. Provisions are also included to increase access to federal lands by energy projects — such as drilling activities, electric transmission lines, and gas pipelines.
In addition, the law prevents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating hydraulic fracturing to protect drinking water sources.
(For additional information, see CRS Report RL32873, Key Environmental Issues in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, coordinated by Brent D. Yacobucci, and CRS Report RL32262, Selected Legal and Policy Issues Related to Coalbed Methane Development, by Aaron M. Flynn.)
See: CRS Report RL33302.
