Fracking Ridiculous

There are some in Congress who think that it might be a good idea if you were to know how much and what kinds of toxic chemicals the oil and gas industry are pumping into your drinking water. Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO) has proposed a bill that would repeal a regulatory exemption for hydraulic fracturing, used in the production of natural gas wells. The story goes like this: Hydraulic Fracturing, or “Fracking” in the oilfield vernacular, is a process whereby tens of thousands of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are injected into a well under high pressure to release natural gas or CBM gases. Fracturing is used in nine out of every ten natural gas wells drilled in the United States. As much as a third of the fluids remain in the ground after the gas is produced and sometimes migrates to drinking water aquifers. Some of the chemicals used are known to cause cancer as well as kidney, liver, heart, blood and brain damage.

It’s a bit tough to determine just what damage the chemicals can do because the oil and gas companies consider the exact formula to be “proprietary” and they are not required to reveal what chemicals they use, how much or where. Your friends in Congress passed the 2005 Energy Policy Act which exempted hydraulic fracturing from regulation under the Safe Water Drinking Act using a highly dubious study by the EPA which concluded in 2004 that the process “posed no risk to drinking water“. No other industry has such and exemption. EPA admits that four out of 10 streams and rivers in the west have been contaminated by mining. EPA is not allowed to regulate or set conditions for hydraulic fracturing or even to require states to set their own regulations. The new legislation would end this exemption. Rep. DeGette hopes to attach the bill to a larger piece of legislation such as the climate change bill or possibly a new energy policy bill.

In 2008, 1.6 million gallons of fracturing fluid leaked from a waste pit near Parachute, CO. The waste seeped into groundwater where it was transported to a nearby cliff face resulting in a 200-foot frozen toxic waterfall that eventually melted and made it’s way into the Colorado River. In another case, a house in Colorado exploded after fracturing caused methane to seep into the water supply. In Sublette County, Wyoming, benzene was discovered in a rural water well near one of the nations largest natural-gas fields. The EPA says that “it is hard to pinpoint the exact cause of each contamination or measure its spread accurately because the precise nature and concentrations of the chemicals used by industry are considered trade secrets”. Colorado has found “some 1,500 spills in drilling areas since 2003, more than 300 have seeped into water“. If you don’t know what to test for, it’s kind of hard to find what has leaked and if you find bad stuff in a water supply, it’s almost impossible to prove where it came from.

Reaction to the proposed bill by the oil and gas industry follows a sadly predictable theme. Consumers will pay hundreds of dollars a gallon for fuel. Tax receipts will plummet. Every oil company will go bankrupt and the country will lay in ruins should they be forced to comply with such oppressive regulation. They say that the states provide sufficient regulation and there is no need for federal oversight. I assume that it is easier to deal with 50 different sets of regulations than to reveal dirty secrets to the public. One thing you can bet on is that industry will fight this and similar bills with millions of dollars of their recent record profits.

Fear And Loathing

I don’t know why I’m always surprised when Montanans insist on airing their xenophobia and fear of change in a public forum, but it continues to amaze me. The Kalispell Daily Inter Lake reports on a petition drive to persuade the City Council to forbid the upcoming Montana Pride Celebration parade scheduled for June 20. The petition states in part that, “The children and fellow citizens of our community should not be subject to see such displays that are in such direct defiance to God’s laws, His work and that are so openly immoral in nature”. Ignoring the poor grammar, I still find it particularly annoying that in a state such as Montana, settled by such a diverse group of people, there are elements that fail to grasp the influence that various cultures, races and lifestyles have had on our state. Early on, Montanans were forced to depend on their neighbors for survival. When they needed help they didn’t ask if the occupants of the next farm or ranch were Jews, Germans, Chinese or Baptists. They all struggled together to conquer a harsh environment. Somewhere along the line, we concocted a homogeneous “Ozzie and Harriet” fantasy world in which we all looked, thought and acted alike. We have convinced ourselves that this world actually existed somewhere in our recent past and if we can only return to that parallel universe, all conflict and complication will dissolve.

The Kalispell anti-gay pride petition had been signed by some 200 righteous citizens, which according to my math is somewhere around 1% of the metropolitan population. A poll conducted last year by the Montana Human Rights Network found that, 87% of Montana respondents agree with the statement “I may not agree with homosexuality, but I think we should stay out of what other people do in their personal lives.” If you disagree, don’t attend the parade. Don’t let your family attend. Wear ear plugs and blinders. We have parades that celebrate Easter, Christmas and the county fair. Also in June we will have a “March For Babies” and a “Solstice Triathalon“. In fact, in Montana, if you can get a dozen old cars and a couple of fire trucks together, we will have a parade at the drop of a hat.

Applaud the fact that not everyone in Montana is like you. I’m sorry, but if everybody in the state were white, straight, christian, republicans, this would be the most boring and backward place on the planet. As it is, we are sometimes backwards, but no one can ever say that Montana is boring. Come to the parade. Join your friends and neighbors and celebrate the diversity and tolerance that makes the Treasure State a great place to live.

Follow The Money

Hobson, Montana, population 265. So, you want to know what happened to all those billions of dollars in stimulus money? Well for starters, downtown Hobson, over in Judith Basin County, is going to look a lot nicer. According to the article in the Great Falls Tribune Hobson will pick up $11,303 of the $900 billion from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The money will go to provide sod and a sprinkler system for the scenic median in downtown Hobson. The present mayor, Dale Longfellow recalls watching long-time resident Katie Williams haul jugs of water up and down the thorofare for many years to care for the flowers planted by the local 4-H club.

Photo provided by the town of Hobson

“She would pull it from her house, take that big cart and haul it out there, and water those flowers by hand. So I said to her, “Someday I will get us water to that boulevard Katie,” Longfellow said. That was thirteen years ago and they may finally get their watering system thanks to you and me.

I don’t know about you, but I figure that if we are going to bestow $900 billion to provide jobs and work projects across the country, I can’t think of a better place to start. Hobson, Montana celebrated it’s 100th birthday last year and most folks didn’t even notice. This is small-town Montana and, as hackneyed as it sounds, this is what helping your neighbors is supposed to be about. If a rejuvinated downtown metropolitan Hobson gets to see some of the benefit along with all the proposed multi-million dollar projects for Chicago, Tampa and L.A. or for an $80 million courthouse in Billings, then, just maybe, some of the money is well spent and Katie can, at last, recycle all those plastic jugs.

Railroad To Nowhere

You know what would really help the endangered sturgeon in the Miles City hatchery? Maybe if we ran a railroad throught the hatchery!  How dumb can you get? The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks commission will vote on July 9 whether or not to allow an easement for the railroad across hatchery property.  The federal Surface Transportation Board has already voted to authorize the railroad to cross the property so the commission vote may be a formality. The commissioners are already waffling. If you don’t think that a railroad through hatchery property is a bad thing, I suggest you take a short walk along any RR right of way near you. You will see coal, oil and other garbage scattered all along the tracks. The easement is even admitting that it will cause problems. “Commitments from Tongue River include not storing railroad cars on hatchery grounds; providing FWP with final engineering plans and with construction timelines for advance review; and a pledge to clean up without delay any railroad spills affecting the hatchery.”

The Tongue River Railroad is a road without a purpose. Building the railroad is predicated on the opening of the Otter Creek coal tracts. That hasn’t happened yet and while it is probably likely to come to fruition, there is no guarantee. So, why build a railroad that has nothing to haul? Because they can, that’s why. Drop a polite line to the Fish and Wildlife Commission and let them know that our fish have enough problems without having to deal with coal dust in the raceways and mile-long trains rattling by several times a day. Nobody but the coal companies want this thing to happen and as of now, there is no need for this railroad.

God Did It

The was a small celebration in Great Falls yesterday to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Montana Dinosaur Trail. The Dinosaur Trail consists of fifteen museums, state parks and other attractions across the eastern part of the state all about dinos and their millions of years of history in Montana. The museums and the state got together and created the tour to promote tourism in a lot of places that don’t normally see that many tourists. The trail opened in 2005 and draws thousands of tourists every year. According to promoters, the trail has been quite a boon to tourism and to many businesses along the route.

Following the Dinosaur Trail, you will get to visit many very neat places like the Phillips County Museum in Malta, where you can see the 33-foot long skeleton of “Elvis” the Brachylophosaurus from the Judith River Formation about 77 million years old. You will also visit the relatively new Fort Peck museum and see a full-scale T-Rex. You’ll go to Makoshika State Park near Glendive and be smack dab in the middle of the famous Hell Creek Formation which has produced many famous fossils over the years. So, if you have some time this summer and want to take the kids on a fun-filled mini-vacation visit the Montana Dinosaur Trail website and pick up your “Prehistoric Passport” to guide you along your way to hunting dinosaurs in the Treasure State.

One notable exception that was overlooked on the Dinosaur Trail is the new (Opening this month?) “Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum”. Yes, now Montana has it’s own creationist cuckoo museum! The museum was build by the “Foundation Advancing Creation Truth” (FACT). The mission of FACT is “to glorify God as Creator and Sustainer, emphasize man’s accountability to Him, and challenge the hearer/visitor to think through the humanistic concept of evolution” and evidently to ignore FACTs, science, history, geology, biology and anybody with a brain. The new 20,000 square-foot monument to ignorance is scheduled to be open this summer. At the museum you will learn that

The Biblical record of the beginning of the world is authentic history. This includes the recent creation of all things, the fall, the curse, the global flood, and the dispersion of nations at Babel. Evidences in the earth’s crust and in human legends are to be interpreted in light of this true history.

and that after millions of years of evolution, stupid people still roam the plains of Montana. Given all this and the fact that the “FACT” is not part of the “Official” Montana Dinosaur Trail. This has got to be one of the stops on your summer tour. I hope they have a Garden Of Eden exhibit with Adam and Eve cavorting with happy dinos. For just a “modest admission” the museum is sure to provide a few chuckles and a boost to the Glendive economy. Stop in and send me your reviews of the museum.

Kooky Canucks

Okay, Montana isn’t the only place that has crazy legislators. Politicians in Alberta decided to stick a provision into a human rights bill to allow parents to remove their children from classes whenever subjects they don’t agree with may be discussed. Bill 44 says that schools,

“shall provide notice to a parent or guardian of a student where courses of study, educational programs or instructional materials, or instruction or exercises, prescribed under that Act include subject-matter that deals explicitly with religion, sexuality or sexual orientation.”

Then the student would be excused from the offending class. This has a lot of Albertans worried about just what should be considered subject-matter that deals with religion? Can a student be removed from a class that will discuss geology because it may claim that the earth is older than 10,000 years? Can a student be excused from biology class where evolution might be discussed? Scary thought that doctors could get a degree in Alberta without ever being exposed to the main tenet of biology. Could an English teacher be brought before the Human Rights Commission for reading from Oscar Wilde or Walt Whitman?

Several education groups are uniting to oppose the bill. Let’s hope they make a difference. Otherwise, kids would be able to get an education in Alberta and still believe that dinosaurs and humans walked the earth together and rode around on a 450-foot long boat with Noah and his happy family. Especially grievous  in Alberta, which has some of the finest fossil beds in the world.

So, you don’t need to feel so alone when you read articles about how stupid the Montana legislature was this year. We’re not alone.

Governor Finds Lost Veto Pen

Congratulations to Governor Schweitzer for finally finding his cojones and vetoing two bills that would have made a sham of renewable energy in Montana. Better late than never? SB257 by Jim Keane D-Butte would have allowed already existing upgrades to hydro power projects to be counted as new renewable power toward meeting the Renewable Energy Standard (RES).  Schweitzer said that “SB257 would subvert Montana’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, actually discouraging the development of new renewable energy projects…”. The Governor also vetoed SB403 by Kelly Gebhardt, R-Roundup. This bill would have allowed energy companies to buy renewable energy and not buy the energy credits, but still count the credits. Both of these bills would have had the effect of discouraging the development of actual renewable energy sources in the state.

Too bad the Governor didn’t figure out that he had the power to veto bad bills sooner, before he signed HB207, HB208, HB343 or let HB529 became law or other bills that try to make a farce of renewable energy in Montana.

After writing yesterday’s article about the Governor signing the carbon sequestration bill,  SB498, and possible effects of renewable development in Montana, I got to wondering about the real commitment of Montana to renewable power. Schweitzer wants to spend millions, maybe billions to study the feasibility of carbon sequestration. He wants to spend further millions to develop the Otter Creek coal fields and build coal-fired power plants, railroads and pipelines. Several bills passed through the legislature this year aimed a watering down environmental protections and the permitting process for coal and gas energy.

If we are this worried about permitting coal and gas energy, surely we have a good process in place for permitting renewable sources of energy? I’m sure we are spending at least an equal amount of time and money finding and developing clean energy sources for Montana. I went to the DEQ website to find just what the permitting process for a wind-power facility might look like. I found this,

“DEQ administers no permits specifically for wind plants as energy facilities.  Certain other permits will be necessary, depending on the locations of the roads, turbines and power lines.” If you want to permit a wind farm, you have to seek out any and all agencies that might have rules affected by your plan. You may violate storm-water runoff rules, open-cut rules if you mine gravel, water quality rules, you find out and make sure you get the right permits from the right agencies. There is no overall guidance for wind energy.

Okay, Montana must have some group that is studying wind power right? Ah good, I found the website for the Montana Wind Working Group. They last met in January of 2008 and before that in November of 2006. Yep, they are right on the job. But, they made some cool slides. Come on guys!  Senate Bill 415 back in 2005 mandates that we get to 15% renewable energy by 2015. That ain’t far off. We need to be thinking about this stuff! At least the legislature is thinking. They did what politicians always do when confronted by tough choices, change the rules. Expand the definition of renewable power, water down the standard, make “clean coal”, ease up on regulation, etc. etc.

We need to be making up rules specific to wind power. We need to consider stuff like: Roads, how many? how wide? erosion?  Towers, spacing? height?, lighting?  Buildings? Fences? Buried power lines? Ground water?  We need specific and common sense rules. Ain’t that what permitting is supposed to do?

Clean, But Not Free

Yesterday, over at 4 & 20 Blackbirds, jhwygirl outlined much of the silliness engendered by the Governor signing SB498 and the proposed carbon capture project deal currently in the works between Montana and Saskatchewan. The project would pipe CO2 from a retrofitted Canadian coal-fired power plant, south to be injected 6,000 feet below the Bowdoin Dome formation in north central Montana. There is no reason to believe that the blueprint would not work, other than the minuscule amount of funding provided, as pointed out in the article. The proposition would store a minimal amount of gas for a minimal amount of time and be hailed as a resounding success for carbon sequestration by both governments.

The Blackbirds article also makes a pitch for wind and other renewable energy sources. I would just point out that we need to temper our support of “clean” energy sources just a bit with reality. Wind, Solar and Geothermal power present their own environmental problems that are rarely mentioned. Some solar panels contain toxic chemicals that have to be mined, refined and disposed of. Wind power can cause habitat fragmentation, noise pollution, and it kills birds and bats. The base of a single wind turbine uses over 12 tons of steel not to mention the steel and other metals in the structure itself and the tons of concrete, which is in itself a pollution leader. The iron and carbon still have to be mined and smelted. A large network of roads is required for a wind farm that can lead to erosion, water pollution and wildlife problems. Power lines don’t likely go to wind sites and will have to be built across our private and public lands. Fences, buildings and infrastructure have to be built on the sites. Towers require aviation warning lights introducing light pollution. Make no mistake, a large wind farm or solar array is a major industrial site.

Don’t get me wrong, the Bugle is a big supporter of renewable energy supplies. They are hundreds of times less polluting than coal and oil. Mining and burning hydrocarbons kills far more wildlife per year than could ever be accrued by wind or solar energy, not to mention the millions of human deaths directly attributable to air and particulate pollution from burning coal alone. And they are not supplied to us by foreign dictators who hate our guts. We could well destroy the biodiversity of our planet if we continue on the present reckless course of carbon-fueled power. All I’m saying is that we need to be realistic about developing new sources of power. No matter how we produce our electricity and power our cars, it is still going to be an extensive industrial undertaking. It is not free and it will cause harm to the planet and to Montana. There will be objections, lawsuits and deadly mistakes made. Environmental and citizens groups will stop some wind farms and solar arrays just as they do some coal-fired power plants today. We have no choice but to move away from carbon-based fuels, but in so doing we need to engage in some realistic discussion and planning. Not doing so in the past is just the strategy that got us where we are today.

Poor George

It’s sad to see one of our most erudite right-wing pundits fall so low. In an unfortunate attempt to remain relevant in a world that seems to have outgrown him, George Will has determined that his most germane argument will be an attack on the wearing apparel of Montanans. George has tried Support of the Iraq War, Anti-feminism, Global Warming Denial and all the other tried and true conservative gambits to no avail. Americans have concluded that he is irrelevant. So, he decided to start a down-with-denim campaign. The idea wasn’t even original to George, Daniel Akst kicked off the crusade in a Wall Street Journal piece in March. George believes that “the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves”.

A recent Button Valley Bugle poll found that 98.27% of Montanans wear denim an average of five times per week or more, therefore making Mr. Will’s volley a direct attack on people who prefer no-ties to bowties and everyone west of Chevy Chase who didn’t attend Princeton. To settle the monumental denim controversy once and for all, I would like to invite George to join me for a day of flyfishing on the Big Hole this summer. After a fun day of busting through sagebrush in his $300 Brooks Brothers Irish Linen Trousers I think his opinion of jeans might take a turn for the better. Afterwards, I will even volunteer to replace his shredded slacks with an appropriate pair of Carhartt Dungarees from the Quality Supply in Butte.

In reality, I have to agree with an earlier Will quote, “Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose.” I’m afraid that this latest salvo will once again fail to further his conservative purpose. After all, as he also once sagely asked, “Is conservatism politically realistic, meaning persuasive? That is the kind of question presidential campaigns answer.” and I think you have your answer George.

It’s A Dam Mess

Before we got here, the Columbia River basin was home to as many as 30 million wild salmon and steelhead. Today, there are about 2.5 million. Two million of those fish are inferior fish raised in hatcheries. In 1961, 200,000 wild salmon and steelhead returned to the Snake River from the ocean to spawn. Between 1965 and 1975, four dams were built on the lower Snake River to allow farmers to move their crops to Pacific ports by barge. The dams provide no flood control, little irrigation and a minimal amount of electricity generation. In 1977, approximately 52,000 salmon and steelhead returned to the Snake River to spawn. 1992, Snake River spring and summer chinook salmon are listed under the Endangered Species Act and federal agencies are charged with instituting measures to save the wild fish of the Snake River.  2009, nothing has changed wild salmon and steelhead runs in the Snake River have declined by nearly 75% since 1962. The lower Snake was named the third most endangered river in the nation this year by American Rivers. They are advocates of dam removal on the Snake River.

This spring, U.S. District Judge James Redden in Portland will release his ruling on legal challenges to the latest 10-year plan submitted by the federal agencies under the Bush administration to save the wild salmon and steelhead. Two previous plans in 2000 and 2003 were rejected by the same judge. The latest plan is more of the same and Judge Redden has said so. In March, 72 members of the U.S. House of Representatives from 27 states sent a letter to President Obama asking for “serious engagement” by his administration in the salmon recovery process. Denny Rehberg was not among the singnatories, if you can believe that. On Friday, the Obama administration asked Judge Redden for a delay of two months for the government to respond to the plan.

The science is clear. The most viable option to save the endangered fish involves removing the four dams on the lower Snake River. That option has, thus far, not been a politically viable alternative, but that may be changing. Salmon Salvation, in the May 4 issue of High Country News outlines some of the recent history and controversy of the fight to save the endangrered fish. The article is decidely pro-dam-removal, but makes some very relevant points about the manipulation of the process so far by federal agencies charged with implementing the salmon recovery plan. $8 billion dollars have been spent so far on everything from habitat improvement, fish ladders, hatchery improvements to sqawfish bounties. Changes in dam operations that might affect power production have always been conspicuously absent from the planning process. 50 to 80 percent of juvenile fish die each year on their way to the ocean. Millions of dollars have been spent to move smolts down river by subsidized barges and release them below Bonneville dam, this solution however, may kill more smolts than natural migration through the dams. Last year, BPA and other agencies paid four native tribes $900 million for habitat and hatchery projects, the kicker being that the tribes had to give up all opposition to the government salmon plans. The only answer so far that has managed to improve fish returns has been an increase in spring spill over the dams. BPA and the Corps of Engineers opposed the spill due to the loss of power production potential. That solution had to come as a court order from Judge Redden.

The next kicker in the mix is climate change. According to High Country News, “Scientists estimate that global warming will cause the region to loose 40 percent of its wild salmon and steelhead populations over the next 60 years…”  The best answer to this latest problem is again, removal of the Snake River dams. Dam removal would give the fish access to higher elevation, cooler spawning areas less suceptible to warming.

Why should Montana care? We are the spigot that drives the Snake and Columbia rivers. It is our water from federal projects like Hungry Horse and Libby dams that is used to augment flows for salmon recovery, sometimes to the detriment of our own fish populations. We don’t have a lot of time left, after spending $8 billion over the last 30 years, there has been no significant improvement. Judge Redden has warned the feds that there will be serious consequences if wild fish populations do not show some recovery in the next few years. If the current plan fails, he has threatened a “permanent injunction directing Federal Defendants to implement additional spill and flow augmentation measures, to obtain additional water from the upper Snake and Columbia Rivers, or to implement reservoir drawdowns to enhance in-river flows.” That’s Montana water he’s talking about.