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You know, this is pretty basic property rights?
We ban a LOT of stuff on public lands that is fine on private property.
The BEST reason to ban fracking on public land is because Oil & Gas doesn’t clean up their shit. So the public is left paying *more* than we got in royalties. https://twitter.com/cbsphilly/status/1320846268495745027
We ban a LOT of stuff on public lands that is fine on private property.
The BEST reason to ban fracking on public land is because Oil & Gas doesn’t clean up their shit. So the public is left paying *more* than we got in royalties. https://twitter.com/cbsphilly/status/1320846268495745027
Short course in what fracking looks like: This is a couple of well heads and a storage container on private property in Weld County, CO.
points at storage, 
point at wellheads.
What the oil company leases is the access roads and the footage where the tank & pumps are.
points at storage, point at wellheads.What the oil company leases is the access roads and the footage where the tank & pumps are.
This one’s recent; there are more wellheads out of frame.
Not much land gets leased, but that installation will be there for a LONG time.
The sad part? The homeowners probably own the rig. Drillers convince landowners to set up an LLC to take a loan to finance the installation.
Not much land gets leased, but that installation will be there for a LONG time.
The sad part? The homeowners probably own the rig. Drillers convince landowners to set up an LLC to take a loan to finance the installation.
Oil companies make real estate developers look like prudent debt-phobes.
Oil companies are leveraged well past their eyebrows.
OF COURSE they want to offload capital costs onto some poor schmuck who can talk a good game at the bank.
(O&G feels like an MLM.)
Oil companies are leveraged well past their eyebrows.
OF COURSE they want to offload capital costs onto some poor schmuck who can talk a good game at the bank.
(O&G feels like an MLM.)
And since the landowners are (usually) the owners of the equipment, when the oil company stops pumping (like... when oil is worth -80¢ a barrel) the landowner is left to either find someone else to pump, or tear it down & remediate. Which they can almost never afford, because...
Oil companies never pay what they estimated. (Srsly, oil & gas is the biggest scam on earth...)
In part, the market is volatile, but, like Hollywood, O&G’s accounting can be REALLY opaque.
Sure, Gone With the Wind & that Standard Oil install will make a profit *any day now.*
In part, the market is volatile, but, like Hollywood, O&G’s accounting can be REALLY opaque.
Sure, Gone With the Wind & that Standard Oil install will make a profit *any day now.*
Now, the oil & gas companies can get away with worse behavior with private landowners because the owners can’t afford to sue.
O&G is somewhat more accountable when the landowner is a government, but ... just barely. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/07/09/why-orphan-oil-and-gas-wells-are-a-growing-problem-for-states
O&G is somewhat more accountable when the landowner is a government, but ... just barely. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/07/09/why-orphan-oil-and-gas-wells-are-a-growing-problem-for-states
With states/nations, the equipment is property of the oil company, not state owned, but WHEN (not if) an oil company goes bust, and nobody buys a minimally productive old wellhead in the middle of nowhere... well, the state or nation still gets to pay to clean it up.
Shouldn’t there be insurance for this?
YES, there should!
This should fall under Superfund (at worst) but...
Please, go dig into the intentional federal dysfunction that is Superfund, how it’s financed, and how it gets contracted.
It’s a *disaster* on a good day.
YES, there should!
This should fall under Superfund (at worst) but...
Please, go dig into the intentional federal dysfunction that is Superfund, how it’s financed, and how it gets contracted.
It’s a *disaster* on a good day.
Fiscally? As the collective owners of all US federal property? We don’t make enough income off oil & gas.
We have to eat the costs — and that’s assuming the frack spilled nothing worse than dirty fracking fluid (which is usually salt water, sand, propylene glycol, detergent.)
We have to eat the costs — and that’s assuming the frack spilled nothing worse than dirty fracking fluid (which is usually salt water, sand, propylene glycol, detergent.)
You can’t plant crops or graze on top of salt water. Plants won’t grow.
All fracking brings up a LOT of salt water (as well as benzene, arsenic, methane... the list goes on and on...)
But environmental arguments don’t phase conservatives.
Cost of the business? That gets through.
All fracking brings up a LOT of salt water (as well as benzene, arsenic, methane... the list goes on and on...)
But environmental arguments don’t phase conservatives.
Cost of the business? That gets through.
The 20th century was dozens of boom & bust cycles in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado & up on the Bakken. Don’t bet on O&G.
The ones with capital (Standard Oil’s heir, Exxon) survive mostly by raising the little companies til they’re big enough & indebted enough to cheaply eat.
The ones with capital (Standard Oil’s heir, Exxon) survive mostly by raising the little companies til they’re big enough & indebted enough to cheaply eat.
Mid-term? Exxon (& Royal Dutch Shell & Chevron) live on their capital.
The regionals (Chesapeake, Wetherford Intl, Alta Mesa, Halcon, amongst about 40 in the last 2 years) get chopped for parts when they over-extend.
But long-term? It’s like blackjack. The house always wins.
~
The regionals (Chesapeake, Wetherford Intl, Alta Mesa, Halcon, amongst about 40 in the last 2 years) get chopped for parts when they over-extend.
But long-term? It’s like blackjack. The house always wins.
~
PS: in case it wasn’t clear — nobody has a right to permanently alter anything on public land, because we ALL own it.
We don’t have a national referendum process, but we have legislative bodies.
That public land oil & gas? That’s our future’s plastic. Think syringes. IV tubing.
We don’t have a national referendum process, but we have legislative bodies.
That public land oil & gas? That’s our future’s plastic. Think syringes. IV tubing.
Think of it as a strategic reserve.
Banning fracking on public lands isn’t going to prevent your shiftless uncle from walking his 40 acres into a scam.
(It would be nice if it did, because ostrich farming doesn’t destroy the sky, but shiftless Uncle Loser is gonna do his thing.)
Banning fracking on public lands isn’t going to prevent your shiftless uncle from walking his 40 acres into a scam.
(It would be nice if it did, because ostrich farming doesn’t destroy the sky, but shiftless Uncle Loser is gonna do his thing.)
And shiftless Uncle Loser will fight to his death for his right to be scammed good and proper. He likes it that way.
But we can protect what belongs to all of us, and what belongs to our future.
But we can protect what belongs to all of us, and what belongs to our future.
(And no, you can’t just turn off the wellheads when oil & gas aren’t profitable. Wellheads are pumps; they’re more complex than the hand pump in this video, but they do have to be primed for the same reasons — to make the suction work.)
