No Merit Badge for This Scout

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/walter-brasch/54535/no-merit-badge-for-this-scout

No Merit Badge for This Scout
Energy Policy | Environmental Policy
by Walter Brasch | March 1, 2014 - 10:31am

Rex W. Tillerson, a resident of Bartonville, Texas, like many of his neighbors was upset with his city council. That’s not unusual. Many residents get upset at their local governing boards. And so they went to a city council meeting to express their concerns that the council was about to award a construction permit.

The residents were upset that the Cross Timbers Water Supply Corp. planned to build a 160-foot tall water tower. That tower would be adjacent to an 83-acre horse farm Tillerson and his wife owned, and not far from their residence. The residents protested, and then filed suit to stop construction. The tower would store water to be sold to companies that needed it for high-volume horizontal fracturing of oil and gas wells, the process known as fracking. Each well requires three to nine million gallons of water, up to 10,000 tons of silica sand, and 100,000 gallons of toxic, often carcinogen, chemicals. The process of horizontal fracking, about a decade old, to extract oil and gas from the earth presents severe health and environmental problems; although it is touted as “clean energy,” it still contributes to global warming.

But, the residents of Bartonville weren’t concerned about the health or environmental impact, or that the protective casings that surround the pipes that go more than a mile underground have a documented failure rate of more than six percent. They weren’t concerned that the pressure of the toxic water that fractures the underground shale can cause earthquakes. They didn’t seem to be concerned that the fluids then brought up from deep in the earth contain radioactive elements, that the storage of these fluids in open-air pits can itself lead to ground and air pollution. They didn’t care that trucks that carry the toxic waste fluids can leak, or that there have been increased derailments, with explosions and fires, in the past year of trains that carry crude oil and natural gas from the fields to processing plants.

The residents, all of whom are in the visual distance to the water tower, said that construction of the water tower would impact their views. They argued that during construction and after the tower was built, there would be excessive traffic and noise.

[newfie11]

1. This seems to be they way it is across America

Stupidity everywhere and proud of it.