EXCLUSIVE: Regulator Says Murdoch Oil Shale Company Must Fix Faulty Wells

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109020018

September 02, 2011 4:43 pm ET by Sarah Pavlus

The state of Colorado says it will require American Shale Oil, LLC, -- a company backed by Rupert Murdoch and Dick Cheney -- to fix several poorly cemented wells that, according to the state, appear to be endangering ground water in western Colorado.

Halliburton -- the oil and gas giant once headed by Cheney -- conducted the cementing and cement evaluation of the wells and rated several as having "poor" cement bonds in certain segments, according to a memo that American Shale Oil (AMSO) submitted to state and federal regulators in late July.

In the July 26 memo, AMSO claimed the poor cementing in its wells "poses little threat" to groundwater resources in the Piceance Basin on Colorado's Western Slope, where the company is leasing federal land to pursue oil shale research and development.

But the state disagrees. When contacted about the AMSO memo, Steve Shuey, a Senior Environmental Protection Specialist for the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS), told Media Matters in a statement that the cementing fell short of the plans filed by the company and it "appears to be inadequate to protect" the region's aquifers. Shuey said the state would require AMSO to fix the cementing:

[joshcryer]

1. Nice find, thanks. Glad Colorado stayed blue.

My vote actually mattered, too (only won by a few thousand votes in 2010, against a far right wing psychopath who was drooling over the prospects of oil shale exploitation), love it when that happens.

You can bet if that psychopath won we'd have thousands of oil shale exploration projects popping up everywhere, groundwater be damned.

[deminks]

2. Murdoch and Cheney, partners in pollution.

(snip)

Oil shale development has long enticed investors and those seeking a route to energy independence, but no company has yet proven a way to make the process both commercially viable and environmentally sound.

(end snip)

I am overwhelmed by the memory here of Karl Rove shortly after the 2010 elections about fracking:

"Climate is gone," said Rove, the keynote speaker on the opening day of a two-day shale-gas conference sponsored by Hart Energy Publishing L.L.P. And Rove told the trade show, "I don't think you need to worry" the new Congress will consider proposed legislation to put the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing under federal rather than state regulation. The procedure, known as "fracking," is responsible for the dramatic growth of shale-gas drilling in formations such as Pennsylvania's vast Marcellus Shale.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/Fracking_Karl_Rove_to_Pa_Climate_is_gone.html

emphasis is mine

Well, KKKarl, climate may not gone in Colorado. Too bad you can't appeal to O to call of those 'job killing' regulators, heh?

[randr]

3. Only the oil industry would consider "poorly cemented wells" acceptable