WATER,
PROPERTY RIGHTS,
AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN IDAHO
Development’s Risks vs. Rewards
C.A.I.A. IS A NON-PARTISAN IDAHO NON-PROFIT DEDICATED TO REPRESENTING AND EDUCATING THE PUBLIC AND PARTICIPATING IN PUBLIC PROCESSES TO PROMOTE THE PRESERVATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS, PUBLIC HEALTH, SAFETY AND CRITICAL RESOURCES
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3 weeks 2 days ago
"Parsley Energy CEO: ‘I don’t think I’ll see 13m barrels a day again in my lifetime’" - he's only 37. "'Our industry is the industry of mobility & comfort,' he said - referring to fuel for car & air travel & for heating & air conditioning - '& mobility is being drastically rethought & there will be new innovations on comfort.' ...Capital markets have largely closed to shale producers in the past year as investors fled a sector that became famous for...an inability to repay debt. ...The shale sector...has often been led by mgt. teams who 'put up very little personal risk & had very lopsided upside reward based on growth'. businessday.ng/financial-times/article/shale-boss-says-us-has-passed-peak-oil/
Shale boss says US has passed peak oil - Businessday NG
US crude production has already peaked, according to one of the country’s leading shale executives, as producers battered by the price crash shun new...
4 weeks 1 day ago
"Flares, which can burn for weeks at a time, have been shown to release chemicals such as benzene as well as fine particle pollution, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals & black carbon. Several of these combustion-related pollutants have been associated with a higher risk of preterm birth & reduced birthweight in other contexts. ...10.6% were preterm, occurring before the 37th completed week of pregnancy. Preterm birth is associated w/complications such as immature lungs, difficulty regulating body temperature, poor feeding & slow weight gain." - 50% higher odds of this w/flaring www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200715142331.htm
Researchers have found that exposure to flaring -- the burning off of excess natural gas -- at oil and gas production sites is associated with 50% higher odds of preterm birth, compared with no exposure.
1 month 2 weeks ago
"The grand jury concluded the DEP’s responses to such problems amounted to sending the message: 'Leave fracking alone.' “Sadly, too many DEP employees listened,” [A.G.] Shapiro said. And the agency’s leadership, he said, is 'too cozy' with the industry. ...The grand jury report also criticized the Department of Health as being 'unable to meet the challenge' of understanding how the chemical-intensive process of fracking could affect human health [and] ...outlines political pressure at the agency to allow gas drilling to proceed." stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2020/06/25/pa-grand-jury-report-on-fracking-dep-failed-to-protect-peoples-health/
Pa. grand jury report on fracking: DEP failed to protect public health | StateImpact Pennsylvania
“Regulators were supposed to prevent abuse by big corporations, and level the playing field,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “But they didn’t.”
2 months 3 days ago
"...From 1998 to 2011, the results show that women who lived near wells in the first and second trimesters were 8-14% more likely to experience a spontaneous preterm birth - one that would otherwise be unexplained - at 20-31 weeks. Spontaneous preterm birth, in which a pregnancy ends before 37 weeks of gestation, is the leading cause of infant death in the U.S." -- NOTE no differentiation between fracked or conventional wells, just in active stages ("most wells in California are drilled using conventional methods"). www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200609161940.htm
Living near oil and gas wells may increase preterm birth risk
New research shows living near oil and gas development in California is a risk factor for preterm birth, the leading cause of infant death in the United States. About 2.1 million Californians live within one mile of an active oil or gas well.
2 months 3 weeks ago
"As it headed toward bankruptcy, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. took advantage of a little-noticed provision in the stimulus bill Congress passed in March to get a $9.7 million tax refund. Then, it asked a bankruptcy judge to authorize the same amount as BONUSES TO 9 EXECUTIVES. ...Dozens of oil companies & contractors [are] now claiming hundreds of millions of $$ in tax rebates... employing a provision of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law, called the CARES act, that gives them more latitude to deduct recent losses." www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-15/-stealth-bailout-shovels-millions-of-dollars-to-oil-companies?sref=mrm8kJge
‘Stealth Bailout’ Shovels Millions of Dollars to Oil Companies
As it headed toward bankruptcy, Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. took advantage of a little-noticed provision in the stimulus bill Congress passed in March to get a $9.7 million tax refund. Then, it asked a bankruptcy judge to authorize the same amount as bonuses to nine executives.
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“This is a stealth bailout for the oil and gas industry,” said Jesse Coleman, a senior researcher with Documented, a watchdog group tracking the tax claims. It’s geared to companies 'that have been losing money over the last few years -- and now they get that money back as a check from the taxpayers. That’s exactly what the oil industry has been doing.'”
2 months 3 weeks ago
3 months 1 week ago
Getting real in the courts, at least in this case: "BLM had issued a 'finding of no significant impact' prior to issuing the leases, but judge Morris said the BLM ignored WildEarth’s claims that the hydraulic fracking would affect groundwater. "Judge Morris said the BLM did a poor job of explaining how cumulative effects of all of the oil and gas leases in the package would affect the environment – something that the Ninth Circuit consistently requires." www.courthousenews.com/judge-reverses-sale-of-montana-oil-and-gas-leases-on-public-lands/
Judge Reverses Sale of Montana Oil and Gas Leases on Public Lands
A federal judge in Montana ruled Friday that the Bureau of Land Management failed to fulfill its National Environmental Policy Act requirements when it issued 287 oil and gas leases in eastern Montana.
3 months 2 weeks ago
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4 months 2 weeks ago
From Farmers Union Canal Stakeholders: Antibiotic resistance spread through treated sewage effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants: it can be a real problem: "Antibiotics are released into sewage systems via human excretions. Since most of them are recalcitrant to conventional biological treatment in urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), there is an increased possibility of transmission to the receiving environment and crops irrigated with treated wastewater, either in the form of the parent compounds or transformation products. WWTPs are hubs for the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and other mobile genetic elements. However, their potential uptake by treated wastewater-irrigated crops is still largely unexplored. ... "Our work led to various interesting findings including the fact that exogenous bacteria thriving in wastewater can reside in soil for a long time,” emphasises project coordinator Despo Fatta-Kassinos of the University of Cyprus. “Specific mobile ARGs are strongly…
2 - 1 month 2 weeks ago