Spooked by Quakes, Oklahoma Toughens Fracking Rules, Canadian regulators stick with less stringent regulations despite growing risks from mega-fracking

Spooked by Quakes, Oklahoma Toughens Fracking Rules, Canadian regulators stick with less stringent regulations despite growing risks from mega-fracking by Andrew Nikiforuk, 9 Mar 2018, TheTyee.ca

After recording swarms of earthquakes caused by hydraulic fracturing, Oklahoma has introduced tougher regulations than those used by any Canadian energy regulator.

Last month the Oklahoma Corporation Commission ordered all drillers to deploy seismic arrays to detect ground motion within five kilometres of hydraulic fracturing operations over a 39,000-square-kilometre area in the centre of the state.

The commission, which regulates the industry, also lowered the minimum level of earthquakes at which operators must change practices from the current 2.5 magnitude to 2.

In addition, frackers must suspend their operations immediately for up to six hours after causing a 2.5 magnitude earthquake which can be felt at the surface.

The commission created the new earthquake protocol after hydraulic fracturing operations set off more than 70 earthquakes of at least 2.5 magnitude since 2016.

The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), for example, doesn’t shut down an operation until it causes a magnitude 4 event. Even then the halt is temporary.

British Columbia’s Oil and Gas Commission requires operators “to immediately report” seismic events greater than magnitude 4 or unusual ground motion experienced by people within three kilometres of their operations.

In an attempt to reduce seismic activity, once thought to be solely caused by waste water injection, Oklahoma shut down wells and ordered the reduction of fluid volumes in 700 waste water disposal wells by 800,000 barrels per day between 2014 and 2015.

They also stipulated that if a waste water injection site triggered a 3.5 magnitude quake, it had to shut down operations.

In contrast neither B.C. nor Alberta, where the industry holds the record for causing magnitude 4-plus earthquakes by high volume fracking, have limited injection fluid volumes or permanently shut down a well.

Hydraulic fracturing, a chaotic brute force technology that blasts open deep shale rock with pressurized injections of sand, water and chemicals, has dramatically increased the production of oil and gas in North American in recent years.

It has also industrialized rural areas, contaminated groundwater, increased methane leaks and introduced seismic hazards to regions that were once seismically quiet.

Phil Rygg, director of public and corporate relations for B.C’s Oil and Gas Commission, said it will examine Oklahoma’s regulations.

“Each jurisdiction has its own unique geology and ensures the regulatory framework meets those specific needs — the commission will look to see if any of the recent changes apply in British Columbia,” said Rygg.

In 2016 the B.C. regulator mandated the use of seismic arrays to detect fracking-related tremors in two drilling zones, and in 2017 it required industry to file ground motion reports within certain drilling zones.

With the advent of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, the oil and gas industry has changed seismic patterns throughout northeastern B.C. and set off more than 1,000 earthquakes since 2009. 

Between January 2016 and October 2017, the B.C. oil and gas industry triggered 355 events ranging in magnitude from 0.5 to 3.9.

Most of the tremors — 249 events — were clustered in the Montney formation where industry is fracking a giant shale formation for high-value condensate or natural gas liquids for use in the oilsands.

Since 2012, the oil and gas industry’s connection to earthquake activity in the region has been monitored by the BC Seismic Research Consortium.

In its 2017 annual report, seismologist Alireza Babaie Mahani noted concerns about potential damaging quakes.

“Although, most induced events in northeast British Columbia have small magnitudes (< 3), shallow depth of these events can be a controlling factor in the observation of large ground motion amplitudes that can be concerning to the public and infrastructures such as the BC Hydro Site C project,” he wrote.

Insurance brokers, dam builders, seismic scientists, groundwater experts and local citizens have raised concerns about the growing seismic hazards posed by fracking operations throughout North America.

In Alberta, fracking has induced earthquakes in both southern and central parts of the province.

In the last three years, frackers have set off hundreds of tremors near the town of Fox Creek, where residents are concerned about public safety, property values, water shortages and groundwater contamination.

According to the Alberta Energy Regulator, which rarely reports earthquakes on a timely basis, the fracking industry induced 264 earthquakes near Fox Creek in 2017 alone. It is the only area in Alberta where the province’s regulations on fracking and seismic hazards currently apply.

“Seismology experts at the Alberta Geological Survey (AGS) have reviewed the Oklahoma requirements and concluded that they mimic Alberta’s seismic monitoring and response rules,” said Ryan Bartlett, a spokesman for the AER.

In recent years fracking operations have tended to use higher power and inject more fluids and sand into longer horizontal wells to exploit low quality shale formations.

That trend has raised concerns among seismic experts because research now shows that even small volumes of fluid injected into the earth can cause significant earthquakes, and increasing volumes of fluid injected brings more earthquake activity.

One 2018 Alberta study concluded that “We show that induced earthquakes are associated with completions that used larger injection volumes (104 to 105 cubic meters) and that seismic productivity scales linearly with injection volume.”

And scientists at Stanford University have warned that small earthquakes triggered by industry could be indicators of bigger quakes to come and “may act like canaries in a coal mine.”

Nor is it easy to stop earthquakes once industry has triggered them. Several magnitude 4 earthquakes rocked Oklahoma this week.

In B.C. and Alberta, fracking operators are now putting together supersized or “cube development” projects with a dozen or more well bores that reach multiple underground layers simultaneously.

“The total fluid volume is probably going to be very high with these cube developments and that means the potential for triggering a number of earthquakes could be large if faults are active in the area,” Gail Atkinson, a seismic hazard expert at the University of Western Ontario, warned recently.

But when asked about cube development or the growing trend toward mega- fracking, Canadian regulators said they were not worried about more earthquakes.

“Cube development refers to all parts of a reservoir being stimulated — and is not new,” said Rygg.

The Alberta Energy Regulator’s Ryan Bartlett initially replied that studies show “that there is no cumulative effect associated with hydraulic fracturing and induced seismicity.”

But when questioned by The Tyee, he double checked and replied “In an area that has been found to be geologically susceptible, increased volumes from hydraulic fracturing may cause increased seismic activity.”

Oklahoma, the fifth-largest oil producer in the U.S., is so pro energy development that it initially denied the industry could be causing earthquakes and even forbid cities and counties from banning fracking activities.

In 2011, when waste water injection triggered a 5.7 earthquake, the communications director for then-governor Mary Fallin described why earthquakes weren’t even raised at an energy conference.

“The problem is, some people are trying to blame hydraulic fracturing (a necessary process for extracting natural gas) for causing earthquakes,” wrote Alex Weintz in an email. “So you see the awkward position that puts us in. I would rather not have to have that debate.”

But there is no debate any longer.

Waste water disposal and hydraulic fracturing has so rattled the state and upended the seismic patterns that the government even set up an entire website devoted to earthquakes.

The site says that Oklahoma experienced 623 earthquakes in 2016 of magnitude 3 or greater compared with 109 in 2013.

“This rise in seismic events has the attention of independent scientists, citizens, policymakers, media and industry,” says the site.

In Canada, it is harder to track earthquake activity caused by industry because regulators are reporting less regularly and many scientific papers can not be accessed by the public.

In addition, energy regulators have not dedicated a public website to tracking seismic hazards caused by the oil and gas industry in western Canada.

ESG Solutions, a company that helps the energy industry record its seismic activity, recently noted that it had acquired or processed a record 1.2 million passive microseismic events last year — largely due to the increase in hydraulic fracturing across North America.

Some excellent comments to the shills, notably by annie57:

STOP FRACKING BC!!
Fresh water poisoning doesn’t work for us or Earthquakes!

AnOilMan

Fracking causes earthquakes;
http://www.cbc.ca/news/cana…

So why is BC government building a $12 billion dam on an unstable river bank in an active earthquake zone ? What are the odds in Las Vegas of it surviving?

Living off cheap hydrocarbons makes you stupid? And the IQ doesn’t go up as the stuff gets more dangerous and expensive to extract.

Sorry bout that.

It is clear the insanity will not stop until those aiding (actively or passively) the fracking process are held PERSONALLY responsible. The way things are going oil corporations want to cash in but are in full denial when we bring up the consequences of their deeds. In the end the process is considered “cost effective” since oil corporations have large amounts of money to defend against any legal attack or gov’t legislation. And politicians are only happy to oblige since there is little political consequence and if there is, a cushy job awaits for them in the oil industry. In Quebec we have Lucien Bouchard who went from prime minister to lawyer for hire for Petrolia. After breaking his neck in politics he gladly accepted the invitation to switch from defender of the people to defender of the wealthy and corporations.
All of this is possible because no corporation or politician are ever considered personally responsible even though they know their decisions are catastrophic down the road.

“…B.C. nor Alberta, where the industry holds the record for causing magnitude 4-plus earthquakes by high volume fracking,…”

I’d like to see a reference for this

You asked for it Jimmy. Now be a good student and read all of annie’s stuff. She does her research.

  •  

    Here’s some background:

    “Did Alberta Just Break a Fracking Earthquake World Record?

    Hydraulic fracturing, a technology used to crack open difficult oil and gas formations, appears to have set off a swarm of earthquakes near Fox Creek, Alberta, including a record-breaking tremor with a felt magnitude of 4.4 last week.

    That would likely make it the largest felt earthquake ever caused by fracking, a development that experts swore couldn’t happen a few years ago.”

    https://thetyee.ca/News/201…

    Hang On, Industry Just Upped the Ante with a 4.6M Frac Quake in BC – Felt 180 Kms Away

    “The largest earthquake ever triggered by hydraulic fracturing in British Columbia followed industry’s use of large volumes of water and occurred during a fracking-triggered swarm of 676 earthquakes between 2014 and 2015, a new study has found.

    The earthquake, triggered by the fracking activities of Malaysian-owned Progress Energy, registered 4.6 magnitude. It was about four kilometres underground and about 100 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John in the northern Montney formation. The earthquake could be felt nearly 180 kilometres away from the epicentre.”

    https://thetyee.ca/News/201…

    Oh Wait, Not To Be Outdone, Industry Slaps Alberta with a 4.8M Frac Quake – Felt 280 Kms Away

    “Since 2013 hydraulic fracturing has triggered hundreds of earthquakes in one part of the Duvernay formation near Fox Creek.

    A series of micro-earthquakes in 2013 evolved into higher magnitude earthquakes three years later, peaking with a 4.8 magnitude event in 2016 that alarmed the citizens of Fox Creek and made scientific headlines.”

    https://thetyee.ca/News/201…

    http://www.ernstversusencan…

    http://www.ernstversusencan…

  • Umm…ya. so what?

  • I was thinking of taking a few weeks and driving out to the Island and touring around in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
    Can’t afford to now..better stay close to home and just park the car.
    Thanks whiners and sensationalists and folks that know sweet tweet about anything beyond the word ‘Gimmie”.

    • We paddled with the Peace last year and were very disappointed by the devestation we saw in the country we passed through…country whose lakes I swam in as a young woman…nothing but green algae sloughs now.

      It’s not just fracking…its every act that treats the ecosphere as a dumping ground…or personal recreational facility. There’s too many of us…and our toys are too big and dirty. Though in the end, its likely oil and gas that allowed so many country folk to buy boats and motor homes too big for the lakes they retire to, most weekends.

  • The article is written as an advocacy piece, hoping that people will fall for the idea that hydraulic fracturing causes earthquakes, rather than what HAS been determined to induce seismicity, wastewater disposal. Haven’t determined if it is faux information on purpose, or perhaps the author just isn’t willing to research the evidence provided by the countries best geoscientists before reinforcing a false message?

    • “The article is written as an advocacy piece, hoping that people will fall for the idea that hydraulic fracturing causes earthquakes, rather than what HAS been determined to induce seismicity, wastewater disposal.”

      Both have been determined to induce seismicity. Read the article and follow the links. Also, see my reply to zalm.

      • When you find an organization of the quality of the USGS saying it, can you please reference it. Here is the USGS saying wastewater injection, not hydraulic fracturing. They specifically exclude hydraulic fracturing. https://earthquake.usgs.gov…

        • No., fracking causes earth quakes.

          Generally they are small, like 2 on the richter scale… but 4 on waste water dump sites.

          Micro seismic isn’t generally required to as an earthquake is it? They are both seismic events, but they are not the same thing. This work by the scientists involved seems to cover the topic very well, but it doesn’t directly address the definitional issues of micro seismic being an “earthquake”. https://profile.usgs.gov/my…

           

          4.8 caused by fracking doesn’t need micro seismic equipment. Case closed.
          http://www.cbc.ca/news/cana…

          Did you actually read the article you referenced? It says fracking causes earth quakes, and it backs me up;
          “Hydraulic fracturing is directly causing a small percentage of the felt-induced earthquakes observed in the United States.”

        • “Here is the USGS saying wastewater injection, not hydraulic fracturing. They specifically exclude hydraulic fracturing.”

          Oh fer crine out loud, read it properly. Hydraulic fracturing is hardly excluded.

          This is what they state, from your link:

          “Fact 1: Fracking is NOT causing most of the induced earthquakes. Wastewater disposal is the primary cause of the recent increase in earthquakes in the central United States.”

          Notice how the USGS states “most.” If fracking wasn’t causing quakes, they should have stated “any,” or more simply: “Fracking is NOT causing induced earthquakes.” But that would be a lie.

          They also state wastewater disposal is the “primary” cause, so obviously not the only cause, or they would have stated “only” or just “cause.”

          Then they state: “Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than hydraulic fracturing, making them more likely to induce earthquakes.

          In Oklahoma, which has the most induced earthquakes in US, only 1-2% of the earthquakes can be linked to hydraulic fracturing operations. The remaining earthquakes are induced by wastewater disposal.”

          “Only 1-2%” of these quakes are from frac operations. Families being hit by these frac quakes must feel like they’ve won the “violent” lottery.

          http://www.koco.com/article…

          So clearly, the USGS, and the regulator, and the companies, and the families being hit by the frac quakes, and anyone reading or writing about frac’ing causing earthquakes – know frac’ing causes earthquakes. And now you do too.

          • I found a more thorough reference from the scientists, that appears to delineate the differences quite well. With, as previously mentioned, the waste water injection not only causing the majority of induced seismic events, but the large ones. https://profile.usgs.gov/my…

            • So what exactly is your conundrum here Tony?

              You started out by wrongly, and unfairly, slamming and insulting the author of the article (Nikiforuk) because you clearly had no idea, for whatever reason, that frac’ing causes earthquakes.

              Now, you’ve “discovered” that frac’ing causes earthquakes, and what, you’re trying to downplay, “delineate,” and “prioritize” the severity and risks?

              Go ahead. Stick a note on your fridge: “Industry quakes that could destroy my life, and the lives of the people I’m partial to, in this order:

              1. Waste water disposal quakes

              2. Frac quakes

              *common denominator – both a result of industry’s shit-show.”

              ps. 4.4M 4.6M and 4.8M frac quakes are NOT, by definition, “MICRO seismic activity” – so if you’re living in Canada, you’d better flip your list around.

              • Have to agree with you on one point Annie…and underline it. Anyone insulting Andrew Nikiforuk, or putting down the credibility of his research is a bit of an ignoramus. Andrew’s been reporting on Big Oil and Gas and their goings on….for many years.

                I personally use him as a reference to see if the people I’m talking to are actually up on these topics. I say, ‘do you know Andrew Nikiforuk’s work…and if they say no…I tell them where to find his writings….and I keep my assessment of their prior knowledge to myself.

                But not knowing his body of work says volumes…almost as many as he’s written.

                Keep up the good work.

          •  

            I am well aware of MICRO seismic activity, as is the USGS. I believe I will stand by the scientists work on this topic, as to how to prioritize those events, compared to those generated by waste water injection.

            • “I am well aware of MICRO seismic activity, as is the USGS.”

              Excellent, you’re welcome.

              I forgot to mention that the former head seismologist, Dr. Austin Holland, of the Oklahoma Geological Survey also knows fracking causes earthquakes. So just in case you missed it from one of my previous comments, I’ll include it here. Really interesting the lengths some industries and academic institutions will go to, to prevent scientists from sharing their knowledge, and data, on quake-causing fracs. What’s the big deal, right?

              November 6, 2017 – “New Details Revealed In State Earthquake Hearings

              OKLAHOMA CITY – More evidence is coming to light showing that scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey were pressured not to publicly connect the state’s dramatic increase in earthquakes with oil and gas activity.

              The latest evidence comes in the form of sworn testimony from the state’s former seismologist, Dr. Austin Holland.

              Dr. Holland was deposed October 11 in New Mexico, where he now works for the U.S. Geological Survey. He is a potential witness in a lawsuit filed over damages caused by the 2011 Prague earthquake (Jennifer Lin Cooper v. New Dominion LLC et al).

              A blog post published last month by the plaintiff’s law firm provided highlights of Dr. Holland’s eight-hour deposition, but Monday News 9 gained access to the entire transcript.”

              A few highlights from the transcript:

              “A.··I actually had — I was called in to meet with

              24· ·Mr. Hamm and President Boren after my paper discussing

              25· ·hydraulic fracturing triggering earthquakes within Oklahoma.

              ·2· · · ·Q.··And where did that meeting take place?

              ·3· · · ·A.··That meeting took place at the president’s

              ·4· ·office.

              ·5· · · ·Q.··At the University of Oklahoma?

              ·6· · · ·A.··At the University of Oklahoma.

              ·7· · · ·Q.··What was said to you in that meeting?

              ·8· · · ·A.··Well, the president of the university expressed

              ·9· ·to me that it had complete academic freedom, but that as

              10· ·part of being an employee of the state survey, I also

              11· ·have a need to listen to, you know, the people within

              12· ·the oil and gas industry.

              13· · · · · ·And so Harold Hamm expressed to me that I had to

              14· ·be careful of the way in which I say things, that

              15· ·hydraulic fracturing is critical to the state’s economy

              16· ·in Oklahoma, and that me publicly stating that

              17· ·earthquakes can be caused by hydraulic fracturing was —

              18· ·you know, could be misleading, and that he was nervous

              19· ·about the war on fossil fuels at the time.

              20· · · ·Q.··How did you feel when you had those

              21· ·communications to you?

              22· · · ·A.··Honestly, it was nothing different than what I’d

              23· ·heard from those in the oil and gas industry since I

              24· ·basically showed up in Oklahoma.··So it wasn’t anything

              25· ·new.··And I’ve been yelled at before; at least I wasn’t

              1· ·getting yelled at.

              ·2· · · ·Q.··Not at that moment.

              ·3· · · · · ·When did you have any conversations with Amberlee

              ·4· ·Darold about what was in that meeting with Boren and

              ·5· ·Hamm?

              ·6· · · · · · · ·MR. PRITCHETT:··Object to the form.

              ·7· · · ·A.··So Amberlee and I discussed a lot of stuff.··We

              ·8· ·spent a lot of time working in the field together and in

              ·9· ·the office, and I couldn’t tell you when or what

              10· ·Amberlee and I discussed.

              11· · · ·Q.··Did you feel like that there were politics

              12· ·involved in what was said to you?

              13· · · · · · · ·MR. GUM:··Objection, calls for speculation.

              14· · · · · · · ·MR. PRITCHETT:··Object to form.··Go ahead.

              15· · · ·A.··There were certainly times where — and I was

              16· ·well aware that politics were playing a role in what I

              17· ·was allowed to say, the words I was allowed to use in

              18· ·the public sphere.··So —

              19· · · ·Q.··Could you give us — give the jury insight into

              20· ·what triggered that?

              21· · · ·A.··Yeah.··So, you know, I was told I have academic

              22· ·freedoms but that, you know, we had to control the

              23· ·message coming out of the OGS.··And so we had press

              24· ·statements that were written by the director of the OGS

              25· ·and the dean of the college.

              1· · · ·Q.··Who was the director of OGS?

              ·2· · · ·A.··It was Dr. Randy Keller.

              ·3· · · ·Q.··And who was the dean of the college?

              ·4· · · ·A.··That was Dr. Grillot, Larry Grillot.··So we had

              ·5· ·statements that were written that way.··They helped me

              ·6· ·with presentations, they’d take a look and change — for

              ·7· ·the public, change wording and that sort of thing.··They

              ·8· ·would tell me that they had gotten a bunch of calls,

              ·9· ·complaints, after I’d give a news conference about some

              10· ·earthquake or something, and they’d say they had gotten

              11· ·a lot of complaints and that we need to really watch how

              12· ·we say things and that, you know, we have to make sure

              13· ·that we’re accurate.

              14· · · · · ·And, of course, that’s the one thing I always

              15· ·made sure I was when I was speaking to the press.··But I

              16· ·also had points where the dean of the college asked to

              17· ·see my presentations to scientific meetings and would

              18· ·then wordsmith my presentations for scientific meetings,

              19· ·as well as at one point was asked to withdraw an

              20· ·abstract from a scientific meeting in Arkansas because

              21· ·the topic was earthquakes triggered by hydraulic

              22· ·fracture.

              23· · · ·Q.··Did you withdraw that —

              24· · · ·A.··I did.

              http://www.news9.com/story/…

              “I believe I will stand by the scientists work on this topic, as to how to prioritize those events, compared to those generated by waste water injection.”

              For sure. But don’t forget Dr. Holland. I think the front-line scientists being “kicked in the teeth” for doing their jobs, definitely deserve your support.

  • Oklahoma drilling has occurred 50 years longer than in Alberta, and drilling at greater depths than in Alberta has occurred far more often as well, for exactly the same reason – all the shallow oil and gas is gone. Last, the geology for Oklahoma is well understood to have a formation that accepts producer water readily, unlike nearly any other formation in North America, including Alberta. this Arbuckle formation requires more caution due to what appears to be its sensitivity to water injection, and to the presence of large underground reservoirs of prehistoric water that also flood wells with up to 15 times as much water as was injected during fracking. this alone deserves the cautions that the Oklahoma regulator has finally put in place.

    The business is a dirty one full of untruths told by greedy scoundrels, but there is no reason to draw parallels between Oklahoma and Alberta, nor any reason to decry the Alberta regulator as more ignorant or risk-rewarding than the Oklahoma one.

    https://stateimpact.npr.org…
    https://earthquakes.ok.gov/…

    In a field of valuable information, this is not Nikiforuk’s best work.

    •  

      “this Arbuckle formation requires more caution due to what appears to be its sensitivity to water injection, and to the presence of large underground reservoirs of prehistoric water that also flood wells with up to 15 times as much water as was injected during fracking. this alone deserves the cautions that the Oklahoma regulator has finally put in place.”

      Companies aren’t frac’ing the Arbuckle formation. And the recent “cautions” put in place by the regulator in Oklahoma have to do with frac’ing causing quakes.

      February 28, 2018 – “Regulators also cut the threshold for pausing fracking for at least six hours to a 2.5 magnitude, down from the previous threshold of a 3.0 magnitude. Additionally, News OK reports that regulators have lowered the magnitude for pausing work at all from 2.5 to 2.0 for quakes picked up in the area of an operation.

      Oklahoma regulators tightened fracking restrictions because of the growing problem of shale earthquakes.”

      http://www.valuewalk.com/20…

      November 24, 2017 – YUKON, Oklahoma. — “The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has shut down some fracking operations in Yukon after a series of earthquakes rocked the area this week.

      ‘It’s a violent shake of the property,’ one resident said.

      Residents say they’re shaken up after at least three 2.5-magnitude quakes hit the area.

      But residents say these aren’t your typical tremors.

      ‘Normally earthquakes are kind of rolling,’ Debbi Cunningham told KOCO. Instead, he says these are large jolts they don’t see coming.

      ‘We hear a loud boom that sounds like 10 or 12 trash cans full dumped on your roof, and then the house will start shaking,’ Cunningham said.

      Friday the Oklahoma Corporation Commission confirmed that in response to this shaking, a fracking operation in Yukon was shut down.

      An OCC spokesperson says if there is no further seismicity, operations will resume with a 50 percent cut in volume and pressure.

      Residents just hope it’s enough.

      ‘I mean, consistent violent shakes every day to your property has to cause some damage eventually,’ Cunningham said. ‘The more they can do to subdue it, I think the better it would be.'”

      http://www.koco.com/article…

      “but there is no reason to draw parallels between Oklahoma and Alberta.”

      Sure there is. And those parallels extend to BC and Texas as well. Industry is waking the “dead” and “reactivating” ancient inactive faults, that would have likely remained so, if it wasn’t for industry’s out of control brute force and ignorance.

      “Source characteristics and geological implications of the January 2016 induced earthquake swarm near Crooked Lake, Alberta

      … The majority of the swarm took place during HF stimulation and the largest event occurred during the last stage of injection. The depth of the detected and located earthquake swarm is near the top of the crystalline basement and suggests the reactivation of an N-S-trending fault analogous to the Pine Creek fault zone.”

      https://sites.ualberta.ca/~…

      “Investigation of Observed Seismicity in the Montney Trend

      December 2014

      … The mechanism for inducing seismic events is the reactivation of faults via the injection of fluids either from short term, high-pressure hydraulic fracturing or longer term, higher cumulative volume wastewater disposal.”

      https://www.bcogc.ca/node/1…

      November 29, 2017 – “North Texas earthquakes occurring on ‘dead’ faults, seismology research shows

      Recent seismicity in Fort Worth Basin occurred on faults not active for 300 million years, study shows

      … In the Fort Worth Basin, along faults that are currently seismically active, there is no evidence of prior motion over the past (approximately) 300 million years. ‘The study’s findings suggest that that the recent Fort Worth Basin earthquakes, which involve swarms of activity on several faults in the region, have been induced by human activity,’ said USGS scientist Blanpied.

      The findings further suggest that these North Texas earthquakes are not simply happening somewhat sooner than they would have otherwise on faults continually active over long time periods. Instead, Blanpied said, the study indicates reactivation of long-dormant faults as a consequence of waste fluid injection.”

      https://www.sciencedaily.co…

      March 17, 2015 – “Reactivated fault lines in Oklahoma could cause major quake – study

      (Reuters) – Fault lines dating back hundreds of millions of years in Oklahoma that have been recently reactivated could lead to a devastating quake in the state where many structures were not built to withstand major seismic activity, a report said.

      The state, which has seen several hundred seismic events over the past five years, has ‘a high degree of potential earthquake hazards,’ according to the study accepted for publication this month whose authors include researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

      ‘The majority of the recent earthquakes in central Oklahoma define reactivated ancient faults at shallow depths in the crust’ of less than 3.7 miles (6 km), said the report for the American Geophysical Union.

      The report did not look at whether the reactivation of the faults was linked to the energy extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

      Daniel McNamara, one of the paper’s authors and a research geophysicist at USGS, said on Tuesday the 300 million-year-old subsurface faults that had not been active are suspected to be associated with the recent seismic activity.

      ‘Any one of these fault zones that are producing magnitude 3 or 4 earthquakes could rupture into a larger earthquake. There are as many as 12 different fault zones that are capable of producing a large, 5 to 6 magnitude earthquake,’ he said.

      In November 2011, Oklahoma suffered a 5.6 magnitude quake that damaged more than a dozen homes and several businesses.

      Building codes in Oklahoma for seismic events are not as stringent as in quake-prone states such as California.

      Wastewater disposal related to the fracking is suspected by many scientists to contribute to the earthquake activity. Millions of gallons of wastewater are typically trucked from a fracking site to wells where the water is injected thousands of feet underground into porous rock layers.

      Energy companies deny there is a link between fracking and major seismic activity.” (This article is from 2015. Industry, and their enablers, pulled out all the stops to deny that link, but the science seems to have prevailed – although not without some dirty duress and undue stress on the scientists).

      https://www.reuters.com/art…

      December 2014 – “Oklahoma Induced Seismicity Caused by Hydraulic Fracturing

      The Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) has now documented a temporal connection between hydraulic fracturing injection stages and nearby felt earthquakes, although more research is needed to explain the location of the quakes, some more than 5 km from the well. What’s more, OGS seismologist, Austin Holland recently reported there is growing data suggesting that as many as 2 percent of hydraulically fractured wells in Oklahoma may induce felt seismic events.”

      http://www.aapg.org/publica…

      May 2015 – “Oil tycoon Harold Hamm told a University of Oklahoma dean last year that he wanted certain scientists there dismissed who were studying links between oil and gas activity and the state’s nearly 400-fold increase in earthquakes, according to the dean’s e-mail recounting the conversation.”

      https://www.bloomberg.com/n…

      December 2015

      Matt Skinner, Oklahoma Corporation Commission: “When we call up OGS (Oklahoma Geological Survey), and they can’t get their computers to come up, that’s a problem.”

      Austin Holland, Oklahoma Geological Survey: “Last year we recorded, or were actually able to locate more than 5000 earthquakes and we probably had another 10,000 that our systems have identified, that we didn’t have a chance to look at.”

      Reporter: “In August, Austin Holland resigned as head seismologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, we were with him on his last day. … Holland leaves behind a state in which the earthquake rate continues to rise. Not long after he announced his departure, his colleague, Amber Lee Darold, did the same. Now Oklahoma, the most seismically active state in the continental US, is left without a state seismologist.”

      http://www.aljazeera.com/pr…

      July 2016 – “Fracking Eyed as Culprit in Latest Oklahoma Quakes

      As regulators in Oklahoma scramble to figure out what caused a swarm of earthquakes outside an ‘area of interest’ targeting wastewater injection wells, one researcher said there is a possibility the temblors were caused by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.

      … Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS) Director Jeremy Boak told NGI’s Shale Daily that the only wastewater disposal well in the area of the recent earthquakes is about 20 miles away, and hasn’t been operational for at least 10 years.

      … But Boak added, ‘at this point we have to consider the possibility that this is something we haven’t seen before, which is a set of earthquakes that could conceivably be tied to a frack job. There are faults in the area. There’s the reasonable possibility that if the frack job spread out far enough it could conceivably initiate some [seismic] action.’

      … ‘We’re seeing something that’s a new phenomenon — either a broader expansion of the influence of injection, or potentially this other mechanism,’ Boak said. ‘In the background there’s still always the possibility of a natural earthquake, but our inclination is to say if we can find an operator who’s in the middle of an operation right now, where we happen to say, “gee, this looks like it’s actually an example of a frack-related earthquake.””

      http://www.naturalgasintel….

      November 6, 2017 – “New Details Revealed In State Earthquake Hearings

      OKLAHOMA CITY – More evidence is coming to light showing that scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey were pressured not to publicly connect the state’s dramatic increase in earthquakes with oil and gas activity.

      The latest evidence comes in the form of sworn testimony from the state’s former seismologist, Dr. Austin Holland.

      Dr. Holland was deposed October 11 in New Mexico, where he now works for the U.S. Geological Survey. He is a potential witness in a lawsuit filed over damages caused by the 2011 Prague earthquake (Jennifer Lin Cooper v. New Dominion LLC et al).

      A blog post published last month by the plaintiff’s law firm provided highlights of Dr. Holland’s eight-hour deposition, but Monday News 9 gained access to the entire transcript.”

      A few highlights from the transcript:

      “A.··I actually had — I was called in to meet with

      24· ·Mr. Hamm and President Boren after my paper discussing

      25· ·hydraulic fracturing triggering earthquakes within Oklahoma.

      ·2· · · ·Q.··And where did that meeting take place?

      ·3· · · ·A.··That meeting took place at the president’s

      ·4· ·office.

      ·5· · · ·Q.··At the University of Oklahoma?

      ·6· · · ·A.··At the University of Oklahoma.

      ·7· · · ·Q.··What was said to you in that meeting?

      ·8· · · ·A.··Well, the president of the university expressed

      ·9· ·to me that it had complete academic freedom, but that as

      10· ·part of being an employee of the state survey, I also

      11· ·have a need to listen to, you know, the people within

      12· ·the oil and gas industry.

      13· · · · · ·And so Harold Hamm expressed to me that I had to

      14· ·be careful of the way in which I say things, that

      15· ·hydraulic fracturing is critical to the state’s economy

      16· ·in Oklahoma, and that me publicly stating that

      17· ·earthquakes can be caused by hydraulic fracturing was —

      18· ·you know, could be misleading, and that he was nervous

      19· ·about the war on fossil fuels at the time.

      20· · · ·Q.··How did you feel when you had those

      21· ·communications to you?

      22· · · ·A.··Honestly, it was nothing different than what I’d

      23· ·heard from those in the oil and gas industry since I

      24· ·basically showed up in Oklahoma.··So it wasn’t anything

      25· ·new.··And I’ve been yelled at before; at least I wasn’t

      1· ·getting yelled at.

      ·2· · · ·Q.··Not at that moment.

      ·3· · · · · ·When did you have any conversations with Amberlee

      ·4· ·Darold about what was in that meeting with Boren and

      ·5· ·Hamm?

      ·6· · · · · · · ·MR. PRITCHETT:··Object to the form.

      ·7· · · ·A.··So Amberlee and I discussed a lot of stuff.··We

      ·8· ·spent a lot of time working in the field together and in

      ·9· ·the office, and I couldn’t tell you when or what

      10· ·Amberlee and I discussed.

      11· · · ·Q.··Did you feel like that there were politics

      12· ·involved in what was said to you?

      13· · · · · · · ·MR. GUM:··Objection, calls for speculation.

      14· · · · · · · ·MR. PRITCHETT:··Object to form.··Go ahead.

      15· · · ·A.··There were certainly times where — and I was

      16· ·well aware that politics were playing a role in what I

      17· ·was allowed to say, the words I was allowed to use in

      18· ·the public sphere.··So —

      19· · · ·Q.··Could you give us — give the jury insight into

      20· ·what triggered that?

      21· · · ·A.··Yeah.··So, you know, I was told I have academic

      22· ·freedoms but that, you know, we had to control the

      23· ·message coming out of the OGS.··And so we had press

      24· ·statements that were written by the director of the OGS

      25· ·and the dean of the college.

      1· · · ·Q.··Who was the director of OGS?

      ·2· · · ·A.··It was Dr. Randy Keller.

      ·3· · · ·Q.··And who was the dean of the college?

      ·4· · · ·A.··That was Dr. Grillot, Larry Grillot.··So we had

      ·5· ·statements that were written that way.··They helped me

      ·6· ·with presentations, they’d take a look and change — for

      ·7· ·the public, change wording and that sort of thing.··They

      ·8· ·would tell me that they had gotten a bunch of calls,

      ·9· ·complaints, after I’d give a news conference about some

      10· ·earthquake or something, and they’d say they had gotten

      11· ·a lot of complaints and that we need to really watch how

      12· ·we say things and that, you know, we have to make sure

      13· ·that we’re accurate.

      14· · · · · ·And, of course, that’s the one thing I always

      15· ·made sure I was when I was speaking to the press.··But I

      16· ·also had points where the dean of the college asked to

      17· ·see my presentations to scientific meetings and would

      18· ·then wordsmith my presentations for scientific meetings,

      19· ·as well as at one point was asked to withdraw an

      20· ·abstract from a scientific meeting in Arkansas because

      21· ·the topic was earthquakes triggered by hydraulic

      22· ·fracture.

      23· · · ·Q.··Did you withdraw that —

      24· · · ·A.··I did.

      http://www.news9.com/story/…

      At the end of the day, I think regulators are irrelevant, and this kind of corruption and heavy handedness is to be expected. How else would you cover for an industry, where the majority admits they really don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground?

      “A recent talk by Usman Ahmed, the vice president of Baker Hughes, a major fracking company, highlighted the chaotic and non-linear nature of cracking shale rocks which are already under high stress.

      Ahmed said that 70 per cent of unconventional wells in the U.S., even with fracking, do not meet their production targets; that 60 per cent of all fracture stages are ineffective; and that 73 per cent of operators say they do not know enough about the subsurface, let alone where the faults are.

      He ended his talk by asking that the industry ‘avoid faults and geohazards.'”

      https://thetyee.ca/News/201…

       

      You need to be more succinct. I’ll take the few bon mots I picked out from what I was able to read:

      “Companies aren’t frac’ing the Arbuckle formation.”

      No they’re going through the Arbuckle to get to deep deposits, just as the article said; that’s what seems to be causing the problems.

      “Industry is waking the “dead” and “reactivating” ancient inactive faults, that would have likely remained so…”

      Thank you – and your degree in geology that allows you to make such sweeping statements is from which university, and based on what decades of experience? You clearly know nothing about either folding or faulting of sedimentary layers, which is surprising, given how informed you are on many other aspects of the O&G industry, and I mean that sincerely. You are well informed. But you can’t say the industry is “reactivating ancient inactive faults” – nobody can. The earth is always in motion under pressure. The sooner we all start to see it as a fluid system, the better our decisions will be.

      Please don’t quote newspapers as part of your argument – they make the same mistakes you have in calling every discontinuity a “fault”. Geologists do not speak of faults; they speak of discontinuities, lenses, bedding and layers, among other terms more accurately used to describe the variation found in geology that allows stuff to move between layers. Stuff moves between layers whether we disturb it or not.

      I can’t pick out any other parts of your screed where you take issue with my comment, but perhaps you can point out something else, just more briefly next time.

      Re: regulators; I agree regulators are subject to industry capture from time to time, but calling it corruption betrays your sincere ignorance of how social goals are mediated in this country. You will win no arguments with me on that score, and I suspect most ordinary people will ignore you as well if that is your keystone.

      • “No they’re going through the Arbuckle to get to deep deposits,”

        The Arbuckle is their “deepest formation” and waste dump. What other “deep deposits” would they be trying to get to?

        “The Arbuckle is the state’s deepest formation and encompasses most of the state. Under the latest directive, the operators of the wells will have until August 14 to prove they are not injecting below the Arbuckle. There is broad agreement among seismologists that disposal below the Arbuckle poses a potential risk of causing earthquakes, as it puts the well in communication with the ‘basement’ rock.”

        http://earthquakes.ok.gov/w…

        They’re also causing quakes with their fracs, hence the new regs. Seems you missed that part, so read Nikiforuk’s article and my previous reply to you.

        “But you can’t say the industry is ‘reactivating ancient inactive faults’ – nobody can.”

        Scientists can. So I will too.

        http://advances.sciencemag….

        “Please don’t quote newspapers as part of your argument – they make the same mistakes you have in calling every discontinuity a ‘fault’. Geologists do not speak of faults”

        Sure they do. They “spoke” of them 209 times in this recent paper. In the newspaper article that I linked to about this paper, “fault” was “spoken” of only 19 times, and some of those were quotes from one of the scientists who was speaking.

        http://advances.sciencemag….

        “Re: regulators; I agree regulators are subject to industry capture from time to time”

        Hahahahaha! Thanks for the laugh, and which “times” would those be? Please elaborate, it’s always interesting to dig in, and see what kind of corruption was involved.

        They’re also causing quakes with their fracs, hence the new regs. Seems you missed that part, so read Nikiforuk’s article and my previous reply to you.

        “But you can’t say the industry is ‘reactivating ancient inactive faults’ – nobody can.”

        Scientists can. So I will too.

        http://advances.sciencemag….

        “Please don’t quote newspapers as part of your argument – they make the same mistakes you have in calling every discontinuity a ‘fault’. Geologists do not speak of faults”

        Sure they do. They “spoke” of them 209 times in this recent paper. In the newspaper article that I linked to about this paper, “fault” was “spoken” of only 19 times, and some of those were quotes from one of the scientists who was speaking.

        http://advances.sciencemag….

        “Re: regulators; I agree regulators are subject to industry capture from time to time”

        Hahahahaha! Thanks for the laugh, and which “times” would those be? Please elaborate, it’s always interesting to dig in, and see what kind of corruption was involved.

        •  

          There is a coincidence in that the Arbuckle is shallower at those few sites which seem particularly sensitive to volume of injected waste, as shown by earth tremors.

  • “It has also industrialized rural areas, contaminated groundwater, increased methane leaks and introduced seismic hazards to regions that were once seismically quiet.”

    And likely hugely elevated the risks and damages in areas that are already seismically active.

    March 7, 2018 – “A deadly earthquake that struck ExxonMobil’s $19 billion gas project in the mountains of Papua New Guinea is sparking a backlash against the U.S. energy giant that could prove harder to fix than buried roads and broken pipes.

    Some spooked locals blame Exxon (XOM.N) and its project partners of causing, or at least magnifying, the 7.5 magnitude quake on Feb. 26 and a series of intense aftershocks that continue to pound the impoverished and isolated region.

    While firmly denied by Exxon and debunked by geologists, the accusations suggest that the project known as PNG LNG, one of the most successful liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments in the world, is sorely lacking goodwill from at least parts of the local population.

    The concerns about the project – the country’s biggest revenue earner – are even being expressed at senior levels in the Papua New Guinea government.

    PNG’s Vice Minister for Petroleum and Energy, Manasseh Makiba, told Reuters in a phone interview there should be an inquiry to respond to local concerns that mother nature had reacted after the ground was disturbed by drilling.

    ‘It could be man-made but that cannot be confirmed until a proper scientific inquiry can be done,’ said Makiba, who represents parts of the quake-hit area. ‘We need to resolve that.’

    PNG’s Minister for Finance James Marape has also demanded answers from the company.

    ‘In a world of science and knowledge, I now demand answer(s) from Exxon and my own government as to the cause of this unusual trend in my Hela,’ wrote Marape on his private feed on Facebook, referring to the quake-struck province.

    He is among many who have lit up social media in PNG, with blogs and Facebook posts pointing the finger at the oil and gas sector’s alleged contribution to the disaster.

    Around Exxon’s operation, communities remain fearful as the death toll climbs, with 18 more killed by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock on Wednesday.

    Papua New Guinea straddles the geologically active Pacific Ring of Fire.

    Chris McKee, acting director of the Geohazards Management Division in Port Moresby, said there was no link between the project and seismic activity, which has included more than 120 quakes of magnitude 4.5 and greater in the week after the initial hit.

    ‘Earthquake activity has been going on much longer than the oil and gas industry presence in the region – there is no connection at all,’ McKee said.

    Scientific evidence strongly suggests the earthquake was ‘naturally occurring and consistent with prior events’, an Exxon spokeswoman said in a statement.

    … Exxon has previously faced resentment in PNG, which contains vast natural resources but remains desperately poor.

    Martyn Namorong, national coordinator for landowner rights and governance lobby group PNG Resource Governance Coalition, said the quake had reawakened concerns raised in 2012 when a landslide tore through a quarry used by Exxon, killing at least 25 people.

    ‘It’s not just a localized thing or an ignorant thing. People are wondering what might be the contributing factor of oil and gas extraction,’ said Namorong, referring to the quake.

    Exxon said at the time it had closed the Tumbi quarry five months before the landslide.

    ‘Tumbi was a tragic event that had its own unique set of circumstances,’ Exxon told Reuters in an email, without elaborating.”

    http://pdf.reuters.com/pdfn…

    https://www.reuters.com/art…

    March 9, 2018 – “The death toll from an earthquake that hit Papua New Guinea last month has topped 100 with thousands injured, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said Friday (Mar 9), warning it will take years for the region to recover.

    The Pacific nation’s mountainous interior was struck by a 7.5-magnitude tremor on Feb 26, triggering landslides that blocked roads, caused power outages and cut off villages.

    Communities have also been rattled by strong aftershocks, sparking fears among disenchanted and suspicious residents that the shaking was somehow caused by oil and gas operations in the area.

    … The remote Southern Highlands region is home to the impoverished country’s biggest-ever development – the US$19 billion PNG LNG project operated by US energy giant ExxonMobil.

    Traumatised villagers are suspicious of the plant’s operators and fearful they might have been using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and destabilised the rock structure underneath, the Post-Courier reported this week.

    … ‘I don’t want the project to resume its operation until the company is cleared of suspicion of any responsibility,’ Hela province’s governor Philip Undialu told the newspaper.

    O’Neill said while there was no evidence that energy developments in the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces had anything to do with the quake, he had asked the Australian government to conduct an independent review.

    He told the Post-Courier that he went to the Hela capital of Tari on Wednesday and ‘they wanted an independent review and report on what is happening’.

    Canberra had no immediate comment.

    ExxonMobil said Monday it expected its project to be offline for up to eight weeks to repair the quake-hit facilities.

    PNG’s growth is heavily dependent on its natural resources, and O’Neill has said the shutdown of the plant would have a ‘huge impact on the economy’.”

    https://www.channelnewsasia…

    Oct. 30, 2016 – “Geologists think there is a chain reaction of quakes occurring up and down the Apennine mountains.

    The earthquakes that have buffeted central Italy over the last two months could continue in a devastating domino effect with one large quake leading to another along the central Apennine fault system, a leading seismologist warned on Sunday.

    An earthquake measuring 6.6 according to the U.S. Geological Survey struck on Sunday in the same region where a 6.2 quake on Aug. 24 killed 297 people. In between there have been thousands of smaller tremors, including a 6.1 quake on Wednesday.

    The latest earthquake caused no known casualties but was the strongest to hit Italy, one of the world’s most seismically active countries, since 1980.

    Gianluca Valensise, a seismologist at Italy’s National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology, told Reuters there was a ‘geodynamic link’ between the deadly August earthquake and all those that have followed.

    Italy’s Apennine mountains that run from the Liguria region in the northwest to the southern island of Sicily are dominated by a chain of faults in the earth’s crust, each one averaging about 10-20 kilometers in length.

    ‘An earthquake measuring 6 or larger creates stresses that are redistributed across adjacent faults and can cause them to rupture, and this is probably what we have seen since August,’ Valensise said.

    ‘This process can continue indefinitely, with one big quake weakening a sister fault in a domino process that can cover hundreds of kilometers, in principle.'”

    http://www.ernstversusencan…

    April 15, 2014 – “Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region on Tuesday suspended new drilling as it published a report that warned that hydrocarbon exploitation may have acted as a ‘trigger’ in twin earthquakes that killed 26 people in 2012.”

    http://phys.org/news/2014-0…

    “USGS Study: Oil drilling may have caused 1933 California 6.4M Long Beach earthquake that killed about 120 people and caused massive damages. ‘There may be no upper limit’ to the size of earthquakes caused by the oil industry.”

    http://www.ernstversusencan…

  • What going on with gas fracking, tar sands exploitation, fish farms, etc… reminds me of the story of the WW I British commanding general who for years ordered mass infantry attacks into heavily fortified German lines that killed hundreds of thousands of his countrymen.

    He spent most of the war isolated far behind the lines and treated it mostly as an intellectual conflict trying to outstrategize the German command. When he finally did visit the front lines he broke down emotionally because he simply could not believe the conditions he had been ordering other people to not just survive but fight to the death in for years.

    We are in the same situation here, we have economic and political “experts” who are busy in intense competition with their rivals always coming up with new strategies to “defeat” them at any cost. It’s not even along national lines anymore, Canada has turned over much of its economic and political control to bodies like the Communist Party of China and corporations like Kinder Morgan.

    People living a world away are now in charge of making decisions that literally mean the difference between eventual life and death for all of us here. They are remote from the reality of their actions and treat everything as an outgrowth of the zero sum game they are entirely focused on to the exclusion of all else. That especially applies to the CPC.

    Until we get these “generals” to the front lines and have them experience first hand the consequences of their orders we are all left trying to survive in the growing no-mans-land their strategies create.

  • From the article:”Most of the tremors — 249 events — were clustered in the Montney formation where industry is fracking a giant shale formation for high-value condensate or natural gas liquids for use in the oilsands.”

    So, if Alberta shuts off oil and gas to BC you know what BC can do in retaliation. I’d like this entire industry shut down considering the damaging environmental effects it is having on huge areas of land. Even if residents are not being directly injured by this activity, (and I would suggest they are), the wildlife has to be. I really loath our violence against nature so we can just keep consuming endlessly. And the other thing is the return is not worth it. We have been giving away our resources for far too long to be left with the consequences we are.

  • Are the people downstream from the dam able to buy flood insurance? The failure of a dam with documented geotechnical issues could not be called an ‘Act of God’ can it?

    • Wow, great point, will not be holding my breath for any insurance type to explain this, the insurance industry will more than likely not have sufficient monies squirreled away and if an incident occurs, they’ll just go cap in hand to government as they do whenever any large occurrence takes place.

  • Public “regulators” are simply a Public Relations Scam,
    appointed by politicians to take the heat (responsibility)
    away from them because “they are experts”, who in reality
    have already declared their personal beliefs making them a
    safe choice for their well-paid so-called, independent role.

  • You’d think an advanced society in the 21st century would not be intent of destroying its’ own home. Wrong. Money can be used to help the world…in the absence of greed.

  • Oklahoma? Tornando’s maybe, but earthquakes? That’s gotta be man made and if so the people who caused it should be held liable for any damages.

    If you have two objects subject to forces, held in place by friction, and then inject a lubricant….

  • As the unintended… Oh excuse me… Untold destruction and expansion of fracking continues unabated.
    The astounding amount of hiperbolic lies and unreal blaber could not possibly be processed in a BC or Alberta refinery.
    And why not? Almost all of them are shut down and will never reopen.

  • The latest example of the obscene foundations of our economy. If we’re not busy making our livings through production and sales of weapons of war, or the torture of animals for our burgers, then we’re out there high-power chemical blasting Mother Earth for fuels that choke our atmosphere… Is there any hope for such a benighted species?

     

    No. We’ve earned the title, “Most invasive species on the planet.

    Yet in BC, we are approving an earthen dam in the same region we are fracking in? Can’t add much to that fact to mitigate the lack of reason used to justify this scenario from either JoHo or the previous bunch. Imagine a world where a Trump governed nation has some pause on the fracking dilemma, while our nation with a centrist federal government and a left wing Provincial one proceeds full steam ahead, you cannot script such utter nonsense if you tried!

    • “Captured regulators”? Oh, we used to call those “crooks”.

    • Doesn’t take too much intelligence to figure out fracking does damage however the oil industry has proven it is short on intelligence and long on greed. Why is it the most irresponsible have the most money and power.

      •  

        Because psychopathic traits give individuals an advantage in the way the business world is now structured.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

        An Australian study has found that about one in five corporate executives are psychopaths – roughly the same rate as among prisoners.

        The study of 261 senior professionals in the United States found that 21 per cent had clinically significant levels of psychopathic traits. The rate of psychopathy in the general population is about one in a hundred.

        And it’s a very cruel cycle, their lack of inhibitions and remorse allows them to take actions that benefits mainly them giving them access to more wealth and power. And this is then used to acquire even more wealth and power in a feedback loop that if not interrupted will eventually end with the most psychopathic among us in control of almost everything.

        We’re not far from that now when you consider how utterly destructive political, social, economic and environmental policy is that is largely driven by those paying for the right.

        You just have to look at how the liberals here operated for 16 years to understand this.

        •  

          The ability of psychopaths to prosper where there is little accountability is a good reason for members of political parties to be insistent on membership control, and congruence between leader statements and party policy.

      • See captured regulators.

    • Now that fracking has made the U.S. a net exporter of petroleum products, we should cancel the proportionality clause in NAFTA, and only produce enough petroleum for Canada’s own needs.

      •  

        Canada is rapidly becoming a black smudge on the earth. Chile is way ahead of us when it comes to protecting it’s environment and its people.
        http://www.bbc.com/news/wor…

        Even the Congo is taking a page out of Norway’s book and forcing mining companies to buck up or get out.
        http://www.bbc.com/news/wor…

        We are Captured, we need change. It didn’t come with Trudeau, that just changed the color of the wrapping. The world is waking up and Canada is falling behind.

        We need a Government that gets it. Wake up Canada and do something about the environmental rape that is hydraulic fracturing. If they have to do that to the earth to get the gas out, leave it there.
        Water is a most precious resource, lets start treating it as such.

      •  

        Tricky Rick That was Pierre Elliot Trudeau call in the early years of his reign and he began to buy up Gas distribution Companies like Petro Canada …The Alberta Government spurred on by multinational producers in that province fought mightenly against Trudeau But it was the Mulroney gang who began the Privatization by selling off the assets. Trudeau’s Agenda was popular among Canadian and it was Joe Clark’s Down fall when he attempted to finish off Mulroney’s sell off.

    • Thanks Andrew! Captured regulators, absolutely criminal!

[Refer also to:

2018 03 01 EXCELLENT REFERENCES REPORTED ON BY NIKIFORUK IN THIS ARTICLE: Warning Bells about Fracking and Earthquakes Growing Louder, Quakes easy to trigger and hard to halt, researchers find ]

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