Responding To Fracking Concerns, Oil & Gas Industry Rolls Out . . . New PR Approach

[hatrack]

EDIT

Industry officials are giving more attention to courting communities new to drilling. They are sometimes taking a less combative approach to new regulations. Some have also come to recognize that their "jobs, jobs, jobs" message isn't resonating with some who aren't benefiting from the nationwide surge in drilling. "It has generated some concerns and raised some questions, particularly, can it be done safely and how will it affect my community," Jack Gerard, president of the industry's top trade association, the American Petroleum Institute, said at a conference here this week. "These are legitimate questions."

That is a change in tone for an industry that has vehemently resisted new regulations and knocked the Obama administration back on its heels even in the wake of the worst oil spill in U.S. history in the Gulf of Mexico last spring. The new, softer side of Big Oil was on display this week at the API conference, held in the former steel town that has become the business capital of the Marcellus Shale. API joined with a bevy of other industry groups to hold a workshop called "Commitment to Excellence in Hydraulic Fracturing." "This conference," Gerard explained, "is just one way to show we're committed to doing this right."

But the new change is sure to raise questions about whether the industry is changing its actions or just its words.

One of the few representatives of an environmental group to attend the conference welcomed the change in emphasis but questioned whether speeches at a fancy hotel in Pittsburgh will resonate with roughnecks and roustabouts on the well pads. "In many respects, industry best practices are very impressive," said Scott Anderson of the Environmental Defense Fund. "But it remains to be seen whether all companies have the willingness or the ability to implement in the field what their operating manuals say they should do." Under an ornate ceiling in a famously restored hotel here, engineers and geologists discussed ways to prevent their trucks from creating rural gridlock, the importance of recycling wastewater and how to explain to people unfamiliar with fracturing that it occurs a mile or more beneath drinkable groundwater. And there was a reminder to do "basic housekeeping" to keep well pads looking neat and clean.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/10/06/06greenwire-oil-and-gas-industry-tries-to-show-soft-side-in-1983.html

[freedomrunner]

1. Dependence

You bring up a very interesting topic. We are so oil dependent and I feel conferences over environmental concerns in the oil industry is a waste of our time. The focus needs to shift away from oil and natural gas. What is being discussed now is short term solutions to a larger problem.

I watched a TED talk the other day about plastics. Only 10% of plastics are recycled. This individual found away to use the other 90% by creating a plastic that is non petrolium based.

The issues being discussed are in need of addressing; however, the conversations should explore what individuals are doing to help ease the environmental stress that the oil and gas industry place on the world.

[DCKit]

2. Watched "Gasland" one time, and there's not enough PR in the world to convince me.

It's a filthy, filthy business and once those toxins are in the groundwater, they're there forever. Bottled water already costs more than gasoline, and that cost will double again if we have to remove the contamination from fracking fluids to make it potable.

Clean water - not NG or Oil - is the #1 priority for all living creatures. Like nuclear energy, it's just not worth it.

[louis-t]

3. Watch the battle when Tejas runs out of water

while fracking continues.

[Kolesar]

4. One questioner asked if they would approve a proposal that would increase costs, ...

... perhaps waiting on production until pipelines can be laid for wastewater recycling. The answer was less absolute.

"It comes down to what's feasible," she said. "To what makes sense."
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In other words, F-off, enviros.

[Fledermaus]

5. Unfortunately, they need water to Frack. They steal it out of aquifers.

They use a loop hole in texas law. Texas law allows oil & gas companies to steal groundwater from other land owners without penalties or fines.