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June 16, 2009 09:48 PM UTC

Twisted oil company shills: Mesa County Commissioners

  • 7 Comments
  • by: JeffcoBlue

(So what if your drinking water is flammable? It’s good for you! – promoted by Colorado Pols)

I’m hurrying to post this insanity before somebody else does, today’s Grand Junction Sentinel.

County downplays need for fracking rules

Proposed federal legislation targeting hydraulic fracturing fluid, used by the energy industry to release trapped pockets of gas deep underground, drew the ire of the Mesa County Commission on Monday.

The commission unanimously passed a two-page resolution in opposition to further regulation. The resolution also claims if Congress passes the bill, it will drive up energy costs and add to Washington bureaucracy…

The bill strikes some of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s provisions and replaces it with language that calls for the disclosure of what is in fracking fluid, “but not the proprietary chemical formulas,” according to both versions of the bill.

In addition, there is a provision in the bill that calls for full disclosure of chemical formulas “of a trade-secret chemical” if there is a medical emergency.

“I guarantee you I can go into anybody’s household and find more dry chemicals than on any well pad,” said Commissioner Craig Meis, who authored the resolution. “99.5 percent of it is basically water and sand.”

Meis then handed out a list of common frac-fluid ingredients that showed many of the same ingredients can be found in dental cleaners, hair-care products, makeup and pool cleaners.

This should leave everyone who reads it shaking with rage. These are elected county commissioners, charged with protecting the public they represent, who are saying they don’t want to know what oil companies are injecting into the ground to stimulate production.

They are doing this to protect “proprietary” formulas used by the oil companies in fracture drilling operations. There is no public health interest in not having this information. There is really no economic interest, since fracture drilling is hardly an exclusive practice – they all already have the stuff. Even worse, they are defending their stated desire to not know what’s in fracture drilling fluid by asserting the chemical brew is “99.5% water and sand!” It boggles the mind. How sold out can you possibly be?

A little over a year ago a nurse at a Durango hospital became critically ill treating an oil industry worker who came into the ER soaked in fracture drilling fluid. In that incident some details about the chemicals were not provided by the industry, leaving the nurse’s doctors to “guess” what was wrong.

Commissioner Craig Meis ignorantly laughs about how chemicals used in fracture drilling can be found in “dental cleaners, hair-care products, makeup and pool cleaners.” But there’s no acceptable reason to deny the public’s right to know what those chemicals are when they’re going into the ground in massive quantities. Absolutely none. By passing this “we don’t want to know” resolution and mocking their own worried citizens, they have demonstrated contempt for their offices, and violated the public’s trust.

Comments

7 thoughts on “Twisted oil company shills: Mesa County Commissioners

  1. I think the Mesa County commissioner were saying they welcome fraccing waste pits and injection wells. So, GarCo, Weld, LaPlata, Rio Blanco….let’s give it all to them!

    Rev up your tractors, boys, and head west!

    oil and gas industry pollution

  2. According to the latest online edition of the Oil & Gas Journal, issuing of drilling permits fell by 7% nationwide during May 2009 for the thirty states monitored by Barclays Capital, Inc. in New York.

    In fact, in the same thirty states, the number of permits issued in May 2009 is 55% below the same month in 2008. Leading the decline was Wyoming (29% decline), California was second (down 36%), and Oklahoma came in third (down 22%).

    http://www.ogj.com/index/artic

    Apparently, there is something else at work here far above and beyond the new Colorado Oil and Gas rules and regulaitons. Could it be the market place?

    1. but you can see the story under the Exploration and Production section of the Oil and Gas Journal online. The article is entitled “US drilling activity still in decline.”

  3. “How sold out can you possibly be?”

    Craig Meis has set that bar so high that no one but him will ever clear it. Meis works in the industry and continues to amaze progressive Mesa Co. residents (yes, there are a few of us) with his never-ending efforts to convince us that the earth is flat and Big Oil and Gas are our best friends.

    Meis’ willingness to shill for his industry masters is apparent in almost every move he makes. Dancing on the strings of his puppetmaster, COGA dominatrix, Kathy Hall, Craig misses no opportunity to mislead the people of Mesa County. From his non-existent Energy Master Plan to his defense of waste pits, Mr. Meis has shown himself to be completely devoid of conscience.

    I watched last year as he hemmed and hawed and squirmed in an effort to allow Delta Petroleum to house dozens of workers on private land, without even requiring notification of the landowner. Craigs’ devotion to his industry buddies is complete. He will do and say whatever they tell him to do.  

  4. how little control the public has when it comes to reigning in the oil and gas industry. They’re drilling on the property of private land owners, and in many cases ON PUBLIC LANDS…as these companies are making huge profits (ok, maybe not quite so huge since prices fell again) at the expense of our health and environment, seems like the least they could do is offer up a little bit of transparency.

    More info on oil and gas industry shennanegins in Colorado, including the state’s new oil and gas drilling regulations from Colorado Environmental Coalition here.

  5. O&G mouthpiece Commissioner Meis-

    From GJ FreePress:

    Why not tell us what’s in it?

    By Jim Spehar

    So, if Craig Meis is right and “99.5 percent of it is basically water and sand”, what’s the problem in providing a list of the ingredients in the fluids used in hydraulic fracturing? That practice, injecting fluids into underground rock and tight sand formations, is common out in the gas patch that includes our watersheds, private wells and a lot of territory where the experiences of local landowners cause them to question just what’s being pushed downhole to release needed natural gas.

    I’m certain no one’s surprised that Commissioner Meis authored the resolution our Board of County Commissioners passed Monday opposing the Fracing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act of 2009 introduced by two members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, Diana DeGette and Jared Polis. The brief bill would simply remove an exemption from provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act for the practice, a recent exemption contained in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It would require disclosure of chemicals, but not proprietary formulas, to states or to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in instances where states have not assumed this regulatory responsibility.

    Similar legislation is being pushed in the Senate by Senators Robert Casey of Pennsylvania and Charles Shumer of New York, two states where hydraulic fracturing is newly being used to release natural gas from shale formations. That’s also why Congressman Maurice Hinchey from New York cosponsored the House bill.

    “I’ll guarantee you I can go into anybody’s household and find more dry chemicals than on any well pad,” Meis is quoted as saying.

    That’s fine, Craig. Come to my house and do an inventory. My only caveat is that you also provide an inventory of every chemical on a well site of my choosing. Also recognize that I had a choice as to which chemicals I brought home and the ability to read on every package just what was contained inside. It’s that lack of choice for surface owners and water users being kept in the dark as to just what might be bubbling underneath the ground in our watersheds and elsewhere that is at issue.

    …What’s curious is not Meis’ advocacy for the industry or the acquiescence of his fellow commissioners. It’s the absence of our Third District representative, Congressman John Salazar, this go round. John helped write virtually identical legislation last September, trumpeting his co-sponsorship in a pre-election news release, but the bill didn’t make it through the process before adjournment. Now his constituents are left wondering why he’s not similarly concerned about their welfare after re-election.

    And a Letter-to-the-Editor in the Sentinel:

    Fracking chemicals should be regulated

    County Commissioner Craig Meis, as reported in the Sentinel, said that “you I can go into anybody’s household and find more dry chemicals than on any well pad,” in blasting federal legislation to re-regulate hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) under the Safe Drinking Water Act, signed into law by President Richard Nixon.

    The Christian Science Monitor reported in a February article that each frack job uses about 100 million gallons of fluid. Thus, even if Mr. Meis’ claim that “99.5 percent” of the fluid is sand and water is correct, each job includes about 500,000 gallons of chemicals, including known toxins. Mr. Meis might keep a half-million gallons of chemicals laying about his abode, but I doubt many others do – so much for the quality of his “guarantee.”

    In Colorado thousands of wells are being drilled annually, and fracked with about 10 such jobs per well according to the Monitor. This is a lot of chemicals – many unknown -being pumped under extreme pressure into the ground surrounding our towns and communities.

    Reports of contamination of water sources where fracking is a leading suspect are on the rise – in the Piceance and in other gas fields across the nation, such as the Marcellus Shale plays in New York (represented by Congressman Hinchley) and Pennsylvania (represented by Sen. Casey).

    All industries in the United States must abide by the Safe Drinking Water Act – except one. The exemption for oil and gas companies was passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in 2005. It’s time for Congress to return this single – and very impactful industry – to operating under the same standards with which all others must comply. Colorado representatives Diana DeGette and Jared Polis deserve much credit for sponsoring legislation that would do just that. Rep. John Salazar and the other members of our congressional delegation should follow suit.

    Pete Kolbenschlag

    Paonia

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