Comments for wyofile.com

Comment on House panel bars filmmaker from Wyo. pollution hearing by Inky

Inky — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:08:43 +0000

The energy industry and their “pet” legislators are terrified of public opinion, and thus votes, turning against fracking. Performed perfectly, fracking delivers new supplies of oil and gas safely. Performed imperfectly, fracking can poison groundwater for generations to come. Clearly, this is not a time for less regulation of the industry. Jobs tend to lose their luster when you can’t drink the water anymore.
Wonder what would happen if industry started drilling and fracking under Aspen or Jackson Hole?

Comment on Mead to meet with Pavillion residents to talk water supply by Inky

Inky — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:02:10 +0000

We’ll see to what degree Matt Mead is governor for ALL the citizens of Wyoming, or whether he’s owned by the energy industry. So far, Matt is looking and sounding like an energy industry pawn, and not his own man. Stay tuned!

Comment on Winter in the Tropics by Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:28:53 +0000

Great article. I especially enjoyed the photos.

Comment on Congressional research group issues report on EPA’s Pavillion investigation by MT Splitski

MT Splitski — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:35:37 +0000

Alice- can you (or anyone else reading) state exactly what the State of Wyoming and EnCana officials dispute about the EPA’s report, or perhaps provide a link to an article that provides insight into this?

Comment on Winter in the Tropics by Woody Wheeler

Woody Wheeler — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:20:25 +0000

Great Galapagos write up and photos! Sounds like paradise.

Comment on Congressional research group issues report on EPA’s Pavillion investigation by Alice

Alice — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:19:06 +0000

It seems pretty obvious the affected landowner would be unhappy–he wants to know what happened to his well and was hoping a preliminary report would do the trick and force fracking companies to pay for a new well. Sadly, few people understand or care about scientific method, whether results are preliminary, what the actual study entailed, etc. The landowner figures he’s entitled to something and oil and gas have very deep pockets. If it turns out the chemicals are there naturally, he’s out a well. Just because oil and gas have deep pockets does not mean they should pay for whatever someone care to blame on them. Much more research is needed and the results need to show “probable” contamination. In a state with all kinds of possible water contaminents. blaming oil and gas does not cut it without a definitive study and well-researched pathway of contamination. People are not “owed” a new well if the old one goes bad unless they have concrete evidence of what happened, not preliminary speculation.

Comment on Winter in the Tropics by julie

julie — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:11:39 +0000

Love THIS! THanks R.T.

Comment on Wyoming Billionaire Backs Santorum by Inky

Inky — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:21:45 +0000

Actually, Mary, Bernie has always been quite candid that money corrupts EVERYONE, of both parties, to one degree or another. He supports public financing of political campaigns, so that candidates can get their message out and not be beholden to special interests.
Campaigns run on ideas, arguments and marshalling facts, rather than fear and propaganda. What a concept?
Obama’s hands are not clean, but probably not as deeply stained as his wanna-be opponents on the right.

Comment on What EPA really said about Wyo. fracking pollution by Inky

Inky — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:14:35 +0000

Engineers take pride in designing systems that do exactly what they want — thus there are hydraulic engineers who justifiably claim that when fracking is done properly, it won’t leak into groundwater/drinking aquifers.
“Done properly” is the operative phrase. Too often, drillers lack a thorough understanding of underground geology, and too often people get hurried or sloppy. And the wonderful engineering becomes meaningless.
“Trust me” from the wonderful people who brought us the BP blowout in the Gulf or any number of spills and accidents, just doesn’t give me much confidence. And the corporate CEOs are rarely down stream of where things go terribly wrong. With a glut of natural gas on the market, why the rush? We should make sure it is done right, not sloppy fast.

Comment on What EPA really said about Wyo. fracking pollution by DeweyV

DeweyV — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:52:55 +0000

Pavilion is just one data point, however bullseye or wide of the truth ( whatever THAT is ). More instances will come along soon enough.

Hint: look north to Alberta , where fracking regulations are much less stringent than here in the States or Wyoming. Reports of dozens of contaminated water wells are appearing. A woman named Jessica Ernst has become the Erin Brockovich of Canada after her own well went ga-gas in 2006, and she is no unemployed single mom. Ernst is a biologist and is/was a consultant to the oil & gas industry aforehand, and reluctantly became an activist against rampant fracking failures and contamination that she claims are being covered up. The main target of her ongoing investigation is none other than EnCana, which is after all HQ’d in Calgary. No matter…serious instances of groundwater contamination from roughshod fracking here in the USA are now on record in seven states. The whole fracking-affects-groundwater debacle is just getting going.

When the handpuppets of the energy industry in the US Congress, the Wyoming statehouse, and especially Governor Matt Mead go wailing against the Pavilion report and demand better science and more proof blah blah blah in defense of fracking , they had better be careful what they ask for…