Gas Drillers Tap Coal Beds

USA TODAY ^ | Friday, July 5, 2002 | George Hager

[BOBTHENAILER]

POWDER RIVER BASIN, Wyoming - Eight years ago, Duane Zavadil was driving through this vast prehistoric basin in northeastern Wyoming hunting for natural gas prospects, when his boss looked out the car window and wondered out loud, "What are those little boxes?"

[BOBTHENAILER]

Soon a tribe will come up and say that their fore fathers used to have religious ceremonies with the Coho before Custer showed up.

Interesting story in re tribes.

Currently there are only about 200 CBM wells in Montana, largely due to Greenie pressure and EPA/BLM footdragging. Williams Energy bought Barrett Resources about six months ago for about 5 billion. Prior to the sale, Barrett, in partnership with Western Gas Resources, had approximately 1 million acres under lease.

On tuesday, I emailed Taylor's campaign in Montana an article in Denver' Rocky Mountain News. The title was "Bill Barrett makes MAJOR deal with the CROW Indian tribe, providing for Barrett's development of some 250,000 acres of Crow land in Montana.

What a coup. Barrett, in one fell swoop, gets to skirt ALL EPA/BLM and Greenie protests, because Tribal Lands are treated as a sovereign nation. Kind of a huge middle finger to all those obstructionist organizations. What a hoot.

[hinckley buzzard]

Good to hear from someone who knows the deal. Thanks. Been reading about this in the energy news, esp. the Powder River Basin--new areas being proven every day. Looks like open range to me--hardly the Imperial Valley re: agricultural impact.

Those out on the coastal margins think the world is a truck farm. They need to see more of the real world.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Greenies in Sheridan? Used to be just hunters, miners, and pollacks.

I know, it was a lot more fun back then. Don't let the article fool you though, there really aren't that many local Greenie's, as usual the presuure comes mainly from out of the area.

[Carry_Okie]

Soon a tribe will come up and say that their fore fathers used to have religious ceremonies with the Coho before Custer showed up.

Yes, but were those Coho consenting adults?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Looks like open range to me--hardly the Imperial Valley re: agricultural impact.

You are right on the money, open range land it is. Californians better be careful in joining any criticism on this activity. The massive quantities of gas from the Powder to CA can just as easily go east.

[BOBTHENAILER]

And of course, they use the worst case as the example to characterize the entire basin. If it's drinking water quality (per EPA secondary standards), it's lower than 500 ppm TDS. Heck, my morning coffee water is at least 1000 TDS. We in the southwest would kill for that quality water.

Very well said and right on the money.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Thanks for the info.

[RonF]

"Read my other posts about the water and you'll see that the technical facts don't support their position."

You made those points after I asked my initial question, though. Would there be an on-line reference for the points you raised?

"Why would you even begin to listen to an argument that is based on lies and distortion?"

I have no way of knowing that before I hear the argument. Hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day (unless you're in the military).

[CedarDave]

What is really amazing to me is the obvious difference on the impact to the land with this type of resource extraction vs. the open strip mines that extract coal in the Powder River Basin and the infrastructure needed to support that development (loading areas, railroads, roads, etc). With just a well head at the surface vs. tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of acres of surface area uncovered to get at the coal, it boggles my mind how they could oppose this really benign method of resource extraction. Of course, the answer was given above -- be against any type of fossil fuel extraction within US territory. And, of course, they wish they could have stopped the coal development 20-30 years ago when those projects were just starting. And they could have if they had the legal tools back then (ESA especially) and the political/monetary/PR strength they have now. We should really be thankful that we still have some mineral resource mining -- if they had their way, it would all be shut down everywhere to satisfy their anti-human, pro-animal, pro- one-world agenda.

(BTW -- I do wonder whether outside economic/polictical interests are contributing to these groups in an attempt to economically castrate us with respect to resource extraction within the US.)

[EternalVigilance]

This one deserves a BUMP back to the top!

[okie01]

"On the face of it, this kind of action very likely may drop the water tables, and thus harm agriculture in the region. And it's a documented fact that using water with too many salts in them (whether the salts be naturally occuring, or from fertilizer runoff) can reduce or destroy the productivity of agricultural land."

Legitimate concerns. But, evidently, you're not familiar with the terrain. The Powder River Basin is, basically, a wasteland. Growing crops is out of the question. What agricultural activity there is, is ranching -- cattle, sheep and goats. I don't know exactly what the "cow unit" is (that is: the number of acres it takes to support one animal), but I can assure you it's bigger than most estates.

So far as the water table is concerned, understand that surface water is virtually non-existent. The wells and runoff improve the ability of the ranchers to water their herds, even though they don't help feed them.

Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. Plus, a little sagebrush and greasewood...

Here's an example. Fats Draw quad, northwest of Savageton, WY

[wcbtinman]

"When rights don't come from God as unalienable, all rights become negotiable."

Fabulous statement. Quote of the day!

[okie01]

"I am wondering if there is financial backing to the environmentalist wackos from out peaceful friends in the middle east."

Yes.

And, counter-intuitively, many corporations. Enron, for example, was a major supporter of the Sierra Club. And not out of any sense of corporate responsibility and good green feelings, either.

Enron was pushing Kyoto and consequently favored the environmental non-profits with their contributions, because they intended to make a lot of money trading in emission credits...

Wherever the enviro-whackos create an opportunity for an evil capitalist corporation, they create income. And don't think they don't know it -- extortion and squeeze is part of their game.

[wcbtinman]

RE: Barretts CROW Indian deal. Did Barrett manage to get a waiver of soveriegn immunity? If not, the Indian tribe may "nationalize" his development as soon as it produces.

[aruanan]

I am wondering if there is financial backing to the environmentalist wackos from out peaceful friends in the middle east.

According to my uncle who was the CEO for 27 years of a large midwestern utility (which basically told the EPA to take their "science" and shove it, hiring their own people, paying for everything with no use of EPA-facilitated government loans, and coming in with results that surpassed anything required by the EPA), Middle Eastern oil interests have been the forces behind anti-nuke, anti-anything that would lessen a dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

[CedarDave]

More likely to listen to enviro-Nazis who claim they are "friends" of the Native-Americans and who want to join the tribe in protecting their heritage against the evil American corporations. Of course, unless the Tribe has a profitable casino, they well may prefer unobtrusive resource extraction over dismal, abject poverty.

[Grampa Dave]

What I have seen of spawning Coho's, they are more than willing adult fish.

It is a little scary to be out wading in a river like the Rogue and have a school of Coho swim upstream past you, in between your legs and a few hitting your legs. I saw a guy get knocked down by a big Upper Rogue King (one of those about 3.5 feet long and about 60 pounds). The guy was apparently too close to the reds and a hen laying her roe. The buck King salmon just rammed into one his legs and knocked the guy off balance into the river.

[Carry_Okie]

And there I was, wondering if they had been using smolts as a cheap substitute for gerbils. ;-P

So much for that theroy.

[rdf]

a bump for a fine article

Richard F.

[RaceBannon]

I think that spent fuel rods should be used to create desalination plants for these wells and the water sources. Hey, you get free heat, and you boil out the salt, you get free distilled water for irrigation, what's the problem?