Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Let there be snark.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Let’s finish the job.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I was promised a recession.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Infrastructure week. at last.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Energy Policy / A Real Predicament

A Real Predicament

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In local news:

West Virginia is at least $1 million short of the funds its regulators need to oversee drilling in the booming Marcellus shale natural gas field, the state’s environmental chief told lawmakers Tuesday.

Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman asked the House Finance Committee to consider the hefty permit fee hikes his department seeks this session.

Outlining the budget his office has requested for the upcoming fiscal year, Huffman explained that Marcellus drillers now pay the same $650 as their shallow-well counterparts. But the cost of regulating each type of well differ considerably, Huffman said.

Tapping the vast, mile-deep shale field requires an unconventional horizontal drilling method. To extract gas, operators must fracture the rock with a high-pressure, high-volume mix of water, chemicals and sand.

Huffman said DEP’s Oil and Gas office issued permits for 1,500 wells last year. While down from the 3,200 permits granted in 2007 and 2008, the number of horizontal wells increased during that time, he said.

“Our revenues dropped by over $1 million. We’re actually in an underfunded, understaffed situation as it exists today,” he told the committee. “We’re in a predicament, to say the least, in the Office of Oil and Gas.”

DEP has proposed increasing the fee to $10,000, in legislation introduced Monday. Huffman said the resulting revenues would fund the additional inspectors needed, while also covering costs of other regulatory provisions in that bill.

But industry groups have objected to the fee hike, and to other rules sought in the pending bill. Delegate Larry Border, R-Wood, asked why Huffman did not propose the fee increase in a separate bill.

These guys are going to make billions of dollars, and no doubt leave an environmental disaster in their wake, but god forbid they pony up a pittance in tax dollars to make sure they aren’t poisoning the watershed or blowing up neighborhoods. The invisible hand wouldn’t have it any other way- they like the regulators underfunded and understaffed. It’s much better that way, because then when shit blows up they can say “HOOCOODANODE!” and blame the regulators.

The move the Corporation is correct- the corporate citizen is a sociopath. If you keep reading the piece beyond what I linked, you will note that there is also work in progress to force homeowners who do not want drilling on their property to give up the rights to the gas underneath them, so the drillers can drink their milkshake from a neighbor’s yard. Ain’t the free market grand?

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  1. 1.

    DougJ®

    Meh, there have been so few mining accidents in West Virginia I don’t see why you need regulators at all. Big gubmint doing nothing on my dime, and slowing down innovation while they do it.

  2. 2.

    Pooh

    It’s not the money, because I’m guessing these companies wipe their ass with $10,000. This is a real life example of “starving the beast”.

    ETA: I so heart the “show me on the doll where the invisible hand touched you” tag.

  3. 3.

    liberal

    These guys are going to make billions of dollars…

    If the government doesn’t recover the scarcity rent, then it’s theft. It’s as simple as that.

  7. 7.

    beltane

    Well, since there is no money to oversee the drilling the obvious answer is to eliminate the drilling regulations. If an environmental disaster happens while everyone is looking the other way, it’s the same thing as it not happening at all.

    This country is committing suicide by free market fetishism.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    @srv: That’s the only thing that will wake them up. Koch won’t let it happen though..just provide jobs for those poor folk and every one will be happy.

  9. 9.

    WyldPirate

    These guys are going to make billions of dollars, and no doubt leave an environmental disaster in their wake, but god forbid they pony up a pittance in tax dollars to make sure they aren’t poisoning the watershed or blowing up neighborhoods. The invisible hand wouldn’t have it any other way- they like the regulators underfunded and understaffed. It’s much better that way, because then when shit blows up they can say “HOOCOODANODE!” and blame the regulators.

    Shit, JC, these are just the type pf regulations that get in the way of small businesses creating jobs for Americans. They are the regs that Obama was talking about getting rid of in his fluff job speech to the US COC the other day.

    And think of all the jobs that will be created in the clean-up required in the aftermath from this gift from Cheney/Halliburton/the Bush Energy policy! Environmental remediation, tons of lawsuits and litigation for environmental and health damage to people living in the aftermath, environmental remediation, health care costs for crazy cancers caused by the unknown chemicalsused in the fraking process that Cheney got exempted from both disclosure and the Clean Water act.

    Hell, this environmental nightmare in the making will be giving jobs to WV for a couple of generations. Y’all will even have another excuse for the high rate of birth defects in WV other than inbreeding. ;)

  10. 10.

    Cris

    I don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the woods, but up in these parts the corporations say “if you raise our taxes or impact fees, we’ll just take our business elsewhere” and the local governments fall for their petulant bluff every time.

  11. 11.

    geg6

    If it makes you feel any better, John, it’s not much different here in PA. The drillers are gonna own the whole state pretty soon. Are they running the driller commercials down there where they are competing to get their hands on your lands, saying how happy and rich your old age will be if you lease your land to them for drilling and how environmentally sound X Drilling Company is compared to the competition and how you should choose X Drilling Company as your driller?

  12. 12.

    cmorenc

    Is the current $650 fee (proposed to be raised to 10K):
    1) a one-time fee per well prior to or as it is initially drilled?
    2) an annual fee per well?
    3) a fee only on wells that are actually producing?

    I could see splitting an increased fee (whatever the amount) out into three places:
    1) pre-drilling;
    2) post-drilling, but only on wells that are actually in production, based on amount of production.
    3) per nonproductive well, to make sure it is shut down properly and safely.

    …shifting more of the fees onto actually producing wells, per amount of production would substantially undermine the objection that the fees inhibit new production.

    Of course, I’m not considering here at all directly other important issues such as environmental impact and regulation, forced pooling, etc…but only the issue of equitable well fees to finance sufficient inspectors

  13. 13.

    Violet

    Those nice corporations should be allowed to pay their workers in scrip. Why did that practice ever go away? Think of the savings!

  14. 14.

    Maude

    This plus the House Repubs wanting to gut the EPA is like a replay of when the environmental issues first surfaced as a concern.
    Corporate is another word for psychopathic.

  15. 15.

    Pooh

    @cmorenc: I STRONGLY doubt that an extra $9,350 is what’s keeping wells from being drilled, given the overall costs associated with one of these projects.

  16. 16.

    Dennis SGMM

    As long as the practical definition of “Mineral Rights” remains “You can fuck up whatever is on top of the ground to get at whatever is underneath,” we in general, and WVA in particular, will be fucked. No administration, Democratic or Republican, has seen fit to even touch this issue.

  17. 17.

    beltane

    @Cris: What good is it having a business that doesn’t pay taxes or fees? It’s like owning a restaurant that serves free food and then wondering why it’s operating at a loss.

  19. 19.

    daveNYC

    I don’t know what it’s like in your neck of the woods, but up in these parts the corporations say “if you raise our taxes or impact fees, we’ll just take our business elsewhere” and the local governments fall for their petulant bluff every time.

    I’m sure that happens, but that’s the neato part about resource extraction. The companies are there because that’s where the resources are. It’s not like they’re going to be able to head off to Wisconson or something and find the same reserves.

    Of course that won’t stop them from screaming, and it probably won’t stop the local government from rolling over.

  20. 20.

    Rick Massimo

    … the corporate citizen is a sociopath.

    It seems to me that what’s driving that, or at least the excuse that seems to be always given, is “We are bound by contract to make as much money as possible. That’s what corporations are – our shareholders would sue us if we did any less.”

    But how true is that? There’s gotta be a line. And suing the directors because they didn’t try to make homeowners give up their gas rights would cross it, no?

  22. 22.

    Kiril

    I think the answer might be not to allow progression on extraction until certain regulatory functions are met. So if the money for regulation runs out, certification is revoked, and everything grinds to a halt until regulators can reinstate certification for the project in question. I bet the money would appear overnight.

    IOW, change the default settings. It is NO until someone says YES, on an ongoing basis.

  23. 23.

    Keith

    Just to put this into perspective, a horizontally drilled fracked well is going to cost a minimum of $2-3M to drill (and can be multiples of that depending on the circumstances). Compared to that, $10k is nothing

  24. 24.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Rick Massimo:

    The concept of the corporation, at least in the United States, is exactly that. A mindless machine for making money at the expense of every other conceivable value.

    This must change. The Founders did not want this. They were very wary of the potential monster that could arise from joint-stock companies…the tossed the property of one into Boston Harbor, for example…

  26. 26.

    agrippa

    The biggest fear of a scofflaw is that the law is enforced. A good way to see to it that the law is not enforced: do not provide funding for enforcement.

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    god forbid they pony up a pittance in tax dollars to make sure they aren’t poisoning the watershed or blowing up neighborhoods.

    It’s not the inability to fuck stuff up that they dislike. It’s that the regulators might interfere with their God given right to do WTFTW. They’re certainly going to fight tooth and nail against giving the government any money that might result in regulators telling them they can’t drill.

  30. 30.

    burnspbesq

    Talk to somebody who lives in Pennsylvania about what you’re in for if you allow this drilling to take place. You don’t want this. It’s not Alberta, but it’s not far off.

    In a rational world, the states would require, as a condition of granting drilling permits, that the recipients escrow a couple of billion dollars to cover future remediation costs. They can have any part of the money that isn’t spent on the cleanup back when the cleanup is complete. That would create some bodacious incentives to work out ways to be clean in the first place. Or it would make it impossible to exploit the resource profitably. Either of those would be good outcomes AFAIC.

  32. 32.

    Mako

    These guys are going to make billions of dollars, and no doubt leave an environmental disaster in their wake, but god forbid they pony up a pittance in tax dollars to make sure they aren’t poisoning the watershed or blowing up neighborhoods.

    It has always been thus, there, eh? Until you people rise up and overcome your scottish-failure roots you will always be drinking the orange water.

  33. 33.

    Mako

    I looked at buying land in WV and PA a couple of years ago. It gets weird when you go underground. As much as i enjoyed those hills in my youth, it’s probably best to just write them off now. We need the fuel. Sorry.

  34. 34.

    El Cid

    Our own Georgia Republicans take a tough stand on all them damn multicultural liberals who want to let illegal immigrants take all our jobs.

    …[T]he marriage between business and Republicans — the driving force of politics in the state Capitol — is…edging toward some very perilous rocks…
    __
    There is agreement [among Georgia Republican state legislators] that no attempt will be made to make the employment of an illegal immigrant a new part of the state criminal code.
    __
    Instead, two measures — one in the House, one in the Senate — aim to require Georgia businesses to screen their hires through a free federal computer registry called E-Verify. Which officially remains a temporary program.
    __
    State law currently requires the use of E-Verify for private firms that contract with state and local governments. But many are balking at the thought of expanding the requirement to all businesses — farmers most of all.
    __
    This week, hearings provoked some carefully worded confrontations.
    __
    “If we require E-Verify, we are putting another layer of government on an already challenged workforce. I’m talking getting-your-hands-dirty workforce. It’s very difficult to find those workers, no matter where you are,” said Bryan Tolar, president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, to members of a House committee looking at HB 87.
    __
    “I understand we have a 10.2 [percent] unemployment rate in the state of Georgia. But if you go to South Georgia, they’re welcoming people every day,” said Tolar, who represents a large slice of Georgia’s businesses related to farming. “It’s not a matter of people being unemployed. It’s a matter of whether they’re willing to be employed in this particular arena.”

    I guess the only real answer is to have tough guy sheriffs ride into areas with Mexican looking types and round up a bunch and make them wear pink panties over their prison jumpsuits.

    Because, by god, you don’t want to trample on businesses’ tender toes with your oppressive gubmit bureaucracy.

    Thus we have a win/ win/ win/ win situation — businesses get to hire cheap and hardworking labor from people likely to be here illegally, we can send in law enforcement raids and harassment and scare the shit out of these necessary (as per Ga. businesses) workers and making a few examples of the new sport of EXXXTREEEM deportation, helping Republicans run on anti-‘Mexican’ / Reconquista race war platforms, and of course ratcheting up campaigns to block public school and citizenship rights to children of non-legal immigrants.

    And you don’t even have to be clear to Georgia constituents that many illegal immigrants have jobs because businesses here keep saying they want and need to employ them.

    You just have to make sure and do that deal for businesses, but for public consumption you go out and scream about how Mexicans want to take back a third of the nation and force us all to pray to their Aztec gods.

  36. 36.

    Elia

    I’m currently in KY doing research for my senior project on mountaintop removal and, more broadly, organized resistance and social justice activism in the region. I’m really flabbergasted by the people I meet and the stories they tell — the degree to which the coal companies run this place, and do so poorly and unnecessarily cruelly, is unbelievable, and I don’t use that word lightly.

    At least as far as it concerns the rural poor in the coal fields, I’m honestly not sure it’s accurate to describe these people as “free”.

    One silver lining, however, has been what I’ve been told about the EPA’s actions since President Obama took over. It’s far from ideal — there are a lot of bureaucrats, appointed by Reagan and the Bushes, who seemingly spend their time sabotaging the very department and government that pays their salaries — but it’s undoubtedly better.

    But then I remember that Obama is just as bad, if not worse than, Bush.

  37. 37.

    flounder

    @Keith: I used to work geologic operations in directional drilling. $2-3 million would be pretty standard. If I had a dollar for every time I experienced something that pissed away $10 grand drilling a well, I’d probably have about $10 grand. Actually, to make the point, I needed to come out to a well when we hit a certain interval, as on the wells I drilled, the first 3000 feet or so were pretty straightforward, and you didn’t need a geologist or directional drillers. You cemented casing, milled a window in the casing, and then started drilling and curving towards horizontal.
    Well we’d often get some jackass “company man” (the rig manager) who didn’t read his progs correctly and would call out the geos and directional drillers way before we needed to be onsite. You’d then have 6 or 8 people who make $250-$700/day sitting around literally waiting for cement to dry. I once sat around for 8 days waiting to start drilling. I guess I made my money, but there was a lot of times when I had just worked 70 days straight and just wanted to be home.
    I was in a position once where I was the guy who called out the cement crews and e-logging crews (typically these were both HAliburton or Schlumberger). The Co. Man refused to let me do my job, and he would call these crews out 1-2 days early. I think the stand-by rate for a cement crew was $13,000/day.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @Elia:

    A good friend is an EPA Region 10 toxicologist and has lots of anecdotes indicating elections do, indeed matter in how they do their jobs. I fear the current Republican pushback in the House, coupled with some key Democratic capitulation, can erase a lot of that in a big hurry.

  39. 39.

    Mako

    @Elia:
    heh, You sound young.
    Your project is failed. The Appalachians will be leveled for fuel. Best we can do now is hunker down and make the best of it.

  40. 40.

    Elia

    Hopefully the board that reviews my work when I’ve finished it will not grade me on the curve of whether or not there’s still gold in them tharr hills by 2050.

  41. 41.

    New Yorker

    I’m confused. Why does the Galtian paradise of West Virginia continue to be so poverty-riddled and rank so low on human development scales while the socialist hell that is Massachusetts continues to rank near the top in these categories?

  43. 43.

    petorado

    This nation is drilling the hell out of itself. Check the Baker Hughes rig count. We have more drilling rigs operating in this nation than the entire rest of the planet – combined. Been that way for a very long time, too. It’s pitiful to see how disposable, people, land, and the environment are just so we can waste energy with a deliberate hostility toward common sense. The appropriate metaphor is burning your furniture to heat your home. So what we we burn tomorrow?

    If you look around, there are some serious advances in energy technology that portend a far better future than we have. Chips that turn heat into electricity, microbial fuels, and whole lot more. Notice how belligerent the GOP has been to funding this research? They’ve been bought and paid for. We can make a profit at turning cow sh*t into clean energy, but for some reason we think the only energy worth using is the kind where some other humans and a whole lot of critters have to suffer for our use of it.

  44. 44.

    Chris

    What’s next, a high-tech vacuum cleaner that sucks the money out of people’s fucking houses? Oh, wait, that’s why we’re getting retroactive immunity for industry-wide conspiracies to commit mortgage fraud.

    The increasing level of exemption from the law which corporate interests are seeking seems to be actually *accelerating* towards “socially suicidal.”

  45. 45.

    wagon

    There’s no doubt in my mind that drilling in PA and WV is going to be a disaster for the people who live there. The companies will come in and make insane money, then take off and leave the states to deal with their mess. Its infuriating to see the state of PA dilly dally over instituting a tax to help the state benefit and pay for the mess that will certainly be left behind.

  46. 46.

    bs23

    On a recent flight I saw an excellent documentary on this very issue: GasLand. $14 on Amazon. Check out the guy’s website: http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/ Can’t recommend it enough, especially if you liked Food, Inc. How in the holy hell can fraking fluid be exempt from the Clean Water Act?

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