Transparency is Required in the Fracking Debate
Steve LeVine always has insightful thoughts (agree with them or not).
In his excellent blog, The Oil and The Glory, LeVine writes of the outlook of Christophe de Margerie, CEO of Total SA, whom he calls "by far Big Oil's most plain-spoken representative.
Speaking in Houston for the opening session of CERAWeek, the "Davos of the oil industry," de Margerie said corporations will have to produce oil and gas in a way that non-oil industry folks can live with; safely and cleanly, or the world will bar them from drilling, and then still foist "the chain of responsibility on us" for failing.
LeVine examines the position taken by industry on shale gas, which has revolutionized global energy and geopolitics by creating a natural gas glut (and "greatly reducing Russia's gas-driven bullying influence in Europe").
In particular, he takes issue with the industry response to Gasland, "a takedown of shale gas drilling, known as fracking, that was nominated for an Oscar this year, has single-handedly tarnished the industry's reputation. The film accuses the drillers, among other things, of tainting water aquifers with chemical poisons."
LeVine says that shale gas drillers have responded with "barely veiled contempt."
As though scripted, John Hess, chairman of Hess Corp., mounted the same stage as de Margerie a couple of hours later and saluted the industry's performance:
We need to let states continue their successful oversight of hydraulic fracturing, a practice that has been going on safely for more than a half-century. Sixty percent of U.S. wells are hydraulically fractured. ... Hydraulic fracturing is proven, safe and environmentally secure when it is properly applied with the appropriate regulatory oversight. Most states do a very good job of regulating this activity. Adding duplicative regulation at the federal level would be counterproductive and economically wasteful.
When I myself have spoken to such drillers and their lobbyists, and asked why they don't get in front of this moving anti-fracking locomotive and, for instance, fully disclose the chemicals they are using and get on TV boasting about it, I have been basically told to mind my own business. Christopher Swann wrote a great piece on the subject for Reuters Breakingviews (read HERE)
Yet de Margerie takes these drillers to task, and says that this is precisely what they should do. "If it is totally crazy, we cannot let there be a film like this without an answer," he said. " ... If we want [shale gas], we have to be transparent."
Source: The Oil and the Glory with thanks to Steve LeVine