Dateline: 22 February 2012
Updated: 25 February 2012
Updated: 25 February 2012
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| Hydrofracking Equipment |
In Part 1 of this report about the February board meeting I told you all about Jack Showers, the excellent public relations man for Talisman Energy who was at the meeting to give a presentation. But, unfortunately, all the people of Sempronius, were not officially informed of the presentation and, for that matter, neither was I. But a large contingent of people who are in favor of fracking in Sempronius were there.
After Mr. Showers gave his presentation, then came Ben Haith. Here is Mr, Haith's bio as I got it from an internet site:
Ben Haith is the Regional Manager of The Palmerton Group’s Central and Eastern New York operations. He holds a degree in Geosciences and a Professional Geologist license in the State of Pennsylvania. Ben has over 12 years of experience with traditional environmental investigation, remediation, and regulatory site closures. Over the past five years, he has parlayed that experience into supporting the oil and gas industry in New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Ben’s projects include large-scale legacy oil and gas field decommissioning projects, asset acquisition due diligence investigations, development permitting, and pipeline compliance work.
Mr. Haith also appears to be a representative of, The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY), which “represents oil and gas professionals to the citizens and lawmakers of New York State.” So it looks like he’s also something of a public relations person too, like Jack Showers.
In any event, I don’t think Ben spoke more than 5 minutes. He was nowhere near as talkative as Mr. Showers. Ben's powerpoint presentation served to inform those of us in attendance about how many gas wells are in New York state and how much they produce. And he pointed out that some gas wells are owned by individuals and institutions. Then Mr. Haith repeated something that Jack Showers had said only a few minutes before.....
Both of these gas industry representatives told the audience that hydrofracking has been done for a very long time (since the 1940s, I believe) and it hasn’t been any problem.
Well that claim got my attention. I made a point of explaining to Jack and Ben that hydrofracking has, indeed, been around for a very long time and thousands of gas well have, indeed, been hydrofracked but not a single well in New York State has ever been hydrofracked using enormous volumes (millions of gallons per well) of “slickwater hydrofracking fluids,” which are the big concern with a lot of people.
The technology now being used to hydrofrack is far different than in the past, and that is why it is referred to it as “unconventional” gas drilling. Here is a little snippet I found about this from an investment web site called “ClearOn Money.”...
Mining of unconventional gas is relatively new. It began with tight gas and coalbed methane in the 1980s and 90s, and has recently expanded into shale. The main enabling technologies are horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, both aimed at connecting a large volume of fractured rock to the well.
Because the area is so new, there remain significant unknowns. The first is that the environmental impact, especially contamination of aquifers, is not well characterized. The second is that the long term productivity of wells, and hence the cost and size of ultimate recovery volumes, is unclear.
Wouldn’t you think that a man who has a degree in geosciences and who is a registered geologist in Pennsylvania would know this?
I’m sorry Ben (and Jack) but, as I said at the board meeting, I think you two guys are being disingenuous when you tell people that hydrofracking has been around for decades, and thousands of wells have been drilled, and there have been no problems.
disingenuous: Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating
Jack Showers, PR man, said he didn’t know where I was getting my facts, but he was “hydrofracking in the Barnett Shale 20 years ago.”
disingenuous: Not straightforward or candid; insincere or calculating
I got my facts from the New York State Supplemental generic Environmental Impact Statement (a.k.a., NYS SGEIS), as shown in the picture below, which comes from the excellent presentation by Professor Anthony Ingraffea that I wrote about HERE. By the way, Professor Ingraffea is not a public relations man. Far from it.
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| Click To See An Enlarged View |
Now... I did not say what follows at the board meeting but I think it needs to be stated:
When you knowingly use skewed disinformation to persuade people to support your thesis, and it becomes evident that this is the case, you lose credibility.
Credibility:
The quality of being convincing or believable.
The quality of being convincing or believable.
And when you lose credibility, people just are not going to trust you.
Trust: Firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
Furthermore, if you must be disingenuous to persuade people that unconventional gas drilling is safe, I think you have done a great disservice to the people you represent.
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. .(stay tuned for part 3)